little_kahuna Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 (edited) Hello, Just thought I'd make use of this awesome tool: The Range Diary. Sounds like a good way to reflect and improve on the different aspects of my performance. Well here we go... I started this diary a little bit late, but I have some video to kinda offer an example of what I started like. I began when I was about 14 ½ years old, and I'm now 16, shooting Lim. w/ a Glock35 right now, but upgrading someday to a Benny Hill 6" FatFree (I'm a big fan of Mr. Hill!). 2007 summary: Goal was to dry practice 4-5 times per week, 1-2 hours per night. Completed the weekly mission for 41 weeks, the other weeks I got distracted with holidays, new Xbox 360, friends, girls, finding part time work for cash. Worked on drills out of Steve Anderson's book. During school I had to limit livefire to weekend matches or practice sessions. During summer I got to shoot more. Video: February 2007 - Bakersfield USPSA match This was my first match out of town. I was nervous and it showed. Video: November 2007 - Lake Havasu USPSA match Had some malfunctions, mostly failure to feed. Figured out later that oversized bullets + tight chamber KKM barrel + .420 crimp were the problem. Changed bullets and crimp, new ammo checks good at next matches and practices. 2008 summary so far: Contined with goal of 4-5 dry practice sessions per week. I'm more serious this year, Jake Divita said to practice till my hands bled so I did. We put grip tape on the upper left panel of my G35 and it has worn a hole in my skin on my left thumb "drumstick". Had new distraction: Driver's ed class, took two days a week for 6 weeks and I just finished it. Made friends with a cool guy named AAron, who shoots matches and livefire practice with me and Dad. He has lots of great tips and has been really awesome to practice with. Video: February 2008 - steel challenge practice match Steel challenge is harder than it looks but lots of fun. I don't think my equipment or ammo is the best for this game, but it will do for now. Video: February 2008 - Bakersfield USPSA Worked on speed this match. Video: April 2008 - Norco USPSA match This is a more recent vid. of me, really tried to be consistent and deliberate this match. I came in 4th Lim, and 26th of 90 overall (Jo Jo Vidanes was there lol) but i dont think i even got 4th lim on any single stage, i just shot them consistently average, while other people's performance fluctuated. 13 April 2008 Yesterday my dad and I headed out to the local range with my friends AAron and Frank plus some new shooters (my Dad's friend and his 13 year old son). Been gettin a whole bunch of great trainging/mentoring/coaching from AAron, and yesterday wasnt any different. We set up some mid-distance steel, some up-close targets, and some 50-yd. paper, to work on accuracy. We worked the close paper to practice the Time Guessing Game, work on splits (you know Glocks lol ) draws, and consistency. Eventually, we moved to the steel, just 6 of 'em bout 15 yds, did that for a bit, then finished up w/ some 50yd paper. Worked on getting into/out of prone, and other such positions, mostly prone though, for those really really long shots. Shot somehwere in the neighborhood of 200 rounds, not as many as i'd have liked, but it was better than nothing =D Thanks for readin', leme know what you think -Nick Edited April 14, 2008 by little_kahuna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoMiE Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 That's awesome! Nice shooting. Keep at it, you are on the right track, I see a future GM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JThompson Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 (edited) Nice stuff young Jedi... some of those reloads were perfect. Tha draw is looking pretty fast to first shot too. Also, liked the control rather than the speed...... Edited April 14, 2008 by JThompson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big_kahuna Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 awesome son! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little_kahuna Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 Today just got back from school and ran some static dry-fire drills in our bonus/reloading room. In Steve's book, its drills 8-12, 6 reload 6, el prez, vice prez, 6 reload strong/weak, etc. The dryfire really helps me get the fundamentals down to reflexes. I can really feel it when i miss some days of drypractice. Dad and I took turns practicing for about 1½ hours. I plan to get some movement practice in tomorrow, especially box entrys/exits, and reloads on the move. I'll post a vid of my drypractice in the next few days. -Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little_kahuna Posted April 16, 2008 Author Share Posted April 16, 2008 Back after a long annoying day of school, and lookin forward to practice tonight =D I ran drills #21-25 out of Steve's book. They were feelin really good, but i was gettin some really good vibes from drill 25: 6rounds on 3 targets while moving up, reload, then 1 headshot on each, while still moving. I felt like i solidified my moving 'n shooting fundamentals quite a bit today. hopefully some livefire practice sometime during the week but we'll just have to see. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Keep it up!! You are on the right track, now all you've got to do is stay on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HI5-O Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Hey Nick, Your plan sounds like a good one and just stay on track. With more match experience you'll be better able to keep the anxiety and nervousness under control. Concentrate on school too, shooting does not pay the bills. You have an awesome support unit (mom & dad) which will help in achieving your goals. Aloha, Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little_kahuna Posted April 17, 2008 Author Share Posted April 17, 2008 I had a pretty good practice today. Setting up practice was less fun. The training room was too small, so we decided to migrate to the kitchen/dining room.The drills i ran were pretty nice though. =) Intent: Work on table draws, and table reloads. I practiced some different table starts such as: loaded flat, unloaded flat, loaded flat while away from table, stuff like that. Outcome: found some small preferential problems but worked my way through them, the best that i could. I altered the way i aproach a table with the gun on it. I had limited space so sprinting was a no-go, and shuffling is weird, so i had to find a balanced, smooth way to aproach and retrieve the gun, without totally throwing myself into the counter/table. Reloading off of the table is also a fairly new skill for me to practice. I had to decide whether to go under or over the gun to grab the mag, when moving from left to right. Any tricks on this type of thing? What do you do when you have to reload off of a table? Dry-practice videos under construction, will be posted soon. -Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little_kahuna Posted April 17, 2008 Author Share Posted April 17, 2008 HoMiE, JThompson, Catfish, and Barry: Thanks for the support/input =D you guys rule, thanks Ill work on that stuff Probably just more match-time will help with the anxiety and nervousness. The smoothness in a match is kind of a new concept that i just decided to apply, lol, but im trying to make that more consistent. Local match this weekend, ill see if i can do it again. -Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoMiE Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 When you practice/dry-fire visualize that your at whatever match you have coming up. Then when it's match day, it's like you've already done it a bunch of times. Nothing to be nervous about, just shoot like you practiced all week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronjbush12 Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 That's awesome! Nice shooting. Keep at it, you are on the right track, I see a future GM. Naw, 6 time national champion. I've never seen anyone work so hard! Kid definatly came to get down!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grandbagger Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 keep it up Nick! you have a plan and set goals, stick to it. you guys going to norco this saturday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PINMAN44 Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 You already know what I think of your performance Nick. You are extremely smooth and you have a ton of potential. Keep at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big_kahuna Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 (edited) /Dadmode on Although he protested mightily, I have convinced Nick to go to bed. It is 11 PM and dang teenagers don't want to sleep. /dadmode off Nick has asked me to post this dryfire practice video he has been working on. He is currently working on another video of tonight's table-start practice, to be posted as soon as he finishes it. Click here for video of Nick's static dryfire practice Grandbagger, we won't be coming down to Norco this weekend (although I would love to). We are shooting our local match here in Ridgecrest this time, but will be coming down to Norco as soon as feasible. Great match down there, great people, good times. Edited April 17, 2008 by big_kahuna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParaJoe Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Nick, where did you get that headband??? Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little_kahuna Posted April 17, 2008 Author Share Posted April 17, 2008 Big-5, like $6 or something, cool wristbands there too, like $3 or something =D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronjbush12 Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 Nick, where did you get that headband???Joe Better question is where did you get that avatar?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little_kahuna Posted April 18, 2008 Author Share Posted April 18, 2008 Lol i like the way this is progressing... Well today dad set me up with some leather coasters across the room to simulate some plate drills. I did drills out of SA's book #28-31, and #34-38. I think they really helped. I enjoyed working on the irregular transitions, and some different types of targets. The plates looked pretty small, but, i felt like i got a really good feel for the gun today, and i burned in a nice draw (from hands up and facing uprange) and reload. I havnt shot many steel challenge matches, but if i were to shoot one soon, i hope that i shoot it like i just practiced. It went really well, and i plan to try some of this in livefire too. I really feel like i solidified my fundamentals. -NS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little_kahuna Posted April 21, 2008 Author Share Posted April 21, 2008 Yesterday we set up the match and practiced for draws and transitions on some 15-20 yd steel plates. I was getting used to the new practice rounds we made up, which are a bit less snappy than the jacketed match ammo we have. It kinda changed my timing to the gun. Today we woke up early and headed out to the range for the local match. It was really windy, with gusts up to 40mph, which really brought the fun level down quite a bit. It was ripping tragets off stands and wrecking props. The sissies stayed home, while the die hards shoot no matter what the weather does. My gun didnt quite run right but otherwise i did ok. During my first stage, the gun started going to slide lock every 2 or 3 rounds. I had to manually rack the slide every time it locked, so my time pretty much sucked. Between stages I ran to the safe handling area to inspect my gun and mags, didn't see anything wrong so I suspected my mags were dirty so I cleaned them. Shot the second stage and the same thing happened, so I shot that stage with my weak hand off the gun to manually rack the slide. I actually didn't do as bad as I thought lol. Looking at the score sheet and time it wasn't as bad as I woulda thought. Switched guns with my Dad and it ran great with my same mags and ammo, so we ended up sharing his glock for the rest of the match. Later I figured out the my slide stop lever spring was broken. Anyone who said you cant break a glock needs to seriously come hang out with me, because this is not the only glock part ive broken, and its disappointing when your gun doesnt run. I took the slide stop lever out of my gun altogether and think it will work fine until I get a replacement part, it just won't lock the slide back on an empty mag. The good news is that nobody was in their comfort zone either, and everyone had to deal with their own problems (equipment, wind, whatever). Didnt do too bad, won high limited, fourth overall. The starts of some stages were really different, such as some of them you had to begin with your gun and all mags on a table and you could only reload from the table and stuff like that. One stage the targets were divided in half by tape and numbered. You had to roll a die, and if the number was even, you coud only shoot the even side of the target, and vice versa for odd. These weird starts were fun and challenging, and gave me some good experience for any squirrely stuff I may see at future out-of-town matches. Well i'm going to try to get in some good practice this week. Hope it is less windy. Looking forward to more match experience in the next few months especially. -Nick S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little_kahuna Posted April 24, 2008 Author Share Posted April 24, 2008 Took Monday and Tuesday off from training due to some cool new developments in my life. The short version is that I tested out of high school and graduated 2 years early. Went to the local community college to sign up, plan to have my AA by age 18 then transfer to University... BS by 20 or 21, maybe a master's after that. Education --> more money --> more shooting and better gear. I have a little free time from now till the next college session begins, so today i loaded about 700 rounds for the upcoming matches and practice sessions. Chamber checked, inspected and boxed em. After all that loading, i practiced some static drills. They went well, it just took a few runs to get acquainted with the timing. Worked mostly on smoothness, of course with perfect sight pictures on every shot. I ran 6reload6, 6reload6 hands above shoulders, el prez, and 6reload stong/weak -- all the normal static drills. Looking forward to shooting SouthWest Pistol League this weekend if mom lets me lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PINMAN44 Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 Took Monday and Tuesday off from training due to some cool new developments in my life. The short version is that I tested out of high school and graduated 2 years early. Went to the local community college to sign up, plan to have my AA by age 18 then transfer to University... BS by 20 or 21, maybe a master's after that. Education --> more money --> more shooting and better gear.I have a little free time from now till the next college session begins, so today i loaded about 700 rounds for the upcoming matches and practice sessions. Chamber checked, inspected and boxed em. After all that loading, i practiced some static drills. They went well, it just took a few runs to get acquainted with the timing. Worked mostly on smoothness, of course with perfect sight pictures on every shot. I ran 6reload6, 6reload6 hands above shoulders, el prez, and 6reload stong/weak -- all the normal static drills. Looking forward to shooting SouthWest Pistol League this weekend if mom lets me lol Hahah thatta boy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JThompson Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 Damn son... you beat me. I got out in three. Nicely done! What I did when I got out was less laudable. Florida beaches for a couple years... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little_kahuna Posted April 24, 2008 Author Share Posted April 24, 2008 (edited) Lol yea if only i were closer to a beach, i bet id spend some more time there, but sadly, all we have in town is sand and creosote bushes... Today i ran some movement drills. I shot 6 from one box, reloaded on the move, then shot 6 from the other box, either moving sideways or forward and back. I did a set from hands at sides, hand above shoulders, and from hand above facing uprange. I think that the most important thing for me to work on was not overconcentrating on any one aspect of the drill. Suchas, if i would over-concentrate on the box entry, i would ruin my reload, and if i worried about my reload, then i wouldn't get into the box smoothly. Since the box distance during these drills were fairly close together, i worked on stepping in and beginning to shoot while one foot was still in the air. For the forward and back drills, i learned more about box awarness, because going backwards, you cant see the box even in your peripheral vision, so i had to be extra aware of its location. I also tried to get the shots off while still being balance, then near the end of the array, i worked on "falling" out of the box and into the reload. Overall was a very good practice on body/stage awareness, as well as reloading on the move. -Nick Edited April 24, 2008 by little_kahuna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big_kahuna Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 Good on ya, son. Wish I could be there to practice with you. Wanna practice again tonight when I get home? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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