How Bold Are You In Competition?

[CSEMARTIN]

I'm just curious, how conservative do you guys shoot on the clock?

At a major match, I tend to shoot conservatively, but at the local level, I've tried some crazy things.

I'm just wondering what you guys do/have done, and if I need to start taking more risk at major matches.

[RePete]

I tend to take longer shots than get up close, when I shooting a revolver. This helps save a bit of time.

[LPatterson]

I never try anything in a match that I haven't tried a 100 times in practice, even local matches. Actually nothing is local so why drive 300 miles to try some bone head stunt.

[Flexmoney]

LeRoy makes a good point...and makes it well.

When it counts, make shots you are comfortable with. (I am a little leary of the word "conservative" in this regard.)

[Jake Di Vita]

It depends. If I'm down going into the last stage, I'll usually go for it - mainly because the alternative sucks.

[sfinney]

To kinda paraphrase all of the above, the guys you see taking those "Bold" shots at match, hopefully are still shooting within their comfort level... doing something they have done before, in practice, and have a degree of confidence that this a shot that they can make.

Rather than planning on taking "bold" shots at the match, step up your training regimen to include more things that push your comfort level..... and you'll end up seeing less "risky" shots at matches, and more and more opportunities to make shots that you know that you can make, that will seperate you from the masses.

Then it becomes less a proposition of trying to be bold in a match (recipe for disaster), as it is just shooting the match at the level that you know you are capable of.

[sfinney]

It depends. If I'm down going into the last stage, I'll usually go for it - mainly because the alternative sucks.

If your goal is the match win, you are down in points, and if you don't win outright, you don't care if you come in 2nd or 12th, taking risks can get you some needed points if you can pull it off, no doubt.

And some times its just fun to "turn the Badger loose" every once in a while..... pushing yourself is how you grow. Just try to do most of it in practice. For me, it turned out that local matches were mostly my practice, anyway......

Edited July 30, 2008 by sfinney

[AlamoShooter]

I hold the disappointment of protecting a lead in the last stages of several matches.

The brightest memory is of going (ALL IN ) on the last stage.

But, I don't try anything I have not accomplished 100+ times in training

[RePete]

When I make those long shots, I am comfortable. Shooting 50 meters in a PPC match, for 20 years, brings this comfort and confidence. Now the shots I make in IPSC and IDPA are 30 - 35 yds/meters the longest.

[BayouSlide]

I always try to resist the bold impulse...instead in any match I try to shoot right up to the edge of my proven abilities on every stage...and thereby possibly edge out somebody by .05 points the end of the match who went for the bold and crashed and burned on that one stage where they dialed it up to 11.

[ChrisStock]

In short... very conservative, much more so than in practice.

Slightly longer reason...

When I started out a year ago, I was slinging lead downrange like Brett Favre slings the deep ball. Sometimes I'd drill it at unbelievable speed, and my initial classification should've been a high C. OTOH, sometimes I'd get my butt handed to me. After a nasty range injury last year, I got a lot more conservative and my scores have plummeted. I'm trying to find whatever it is that's causing me to tighten up so much and just let the stage unfold before me.

I'll never advance in class if I don't get out of the conservative/timid attack mode. If I just let my subconscious get back upfront after the beep, I'll move up. If not, I'll still get to hang out with the guys on Sundays and jaw for a few hours between stages.

[want2race]

At the 08 IN state match, shooting Single Stack. 4 Poppers, first one (closest in array) activated a bowling ball that rolled down a track to activate to drop turners. It was pretty quick. The first drop turner was located to the right of two other papper targets. There is video in the gallery section of this stage.

I shot the 4 steel, hitting the activator first. Moved to my right shooting the two static papers. Reloaded to the drop turner, just barely beating the bowling ball. Continued moving right for two more static papers then finally the last drop turner.

I could have hit the activation steel last but that would have meant a longer time, possibly waiting on the drop turner. Some just skipped both. It was a 5ish HF stage and I felt If I could hit both without much pause it would be beneficial. I would have won the stage except for a mike on one static paper. The execution was good in that I hit the reload and the dropper, I didn't focus enough on the "easy" static target however. I was 2nd on the stage and don't feel I lost the match on it. The thrill of shooting it the way I did was worth it!

I'm not afraid to try something on the edge if it will make it fun. I don't practice much so the matches are my practice.

[Hoofy]

I watched a friend this weekend take a Texas Star at 15 yards moving laterally the whole time.

I think 7 rounds and 1/10 the time it took me to clear the star, flatfooted.

In my defense.... ah screw it, no excuse.

[racerba]

Bold moves for me usually involves speed more than harder shots.

The one I remember was shooting an activator and reloaded to kneeling and shoot the disappearing target through a barrel - 2As (stage 2, 2005 NC Sectional).

[38superman]

I don't typically take a lot of risks in majors.

I try to run my own game and stay within my comfort zone.

Better to shoot YOUR match well than someone else's poorly.

However there are times that the layout of a stage forces me to take risks that I'd rather not take.

Stage 2 at the Mississippi Classic was a good example.

At the end of the stage there was a paper target tucked back directly behind a barricade.

The fault lines were laid out such that the shot was practically impossible for a left hand shooter using a conventional grip.

My first thought was that I could only do it by transferring the gun and shooting it weak hand only.

Fearful that I might drop the gun, I decided not to try the weak hand shot.

Upon further review, I came up with an approach that was much riskier.

I watched as everyone else stopped, turned and wrapped themselves around the barricade.

When my turn came, I never even slowed down as I approached the shot.

I planted my right foot on the fault line and stepped off into space.

With my strong hand only I swung the gun down and backward at a target that was almost directly behind me.

Looking back over my shoulder, I snapped off two rounds just before my left foot hit the ground.

This was an underhand shot with the gun completely upside down.

It turned out to be an Alpha, Charlie.

The RO's only words were "He Pulled It Off".

It turned out to be my best stage in the match.

Sometimes, a little risk is your only good option.

Tony

Edited July 30, 2008 by 38superman

[NMBOpen]

Bold ends with show up, sign up, pay up. Beyond that, if i don't KNOW I CAN'T, and risk<= reward, I'll try. That's a subjective judgement. I've been wrong before, and will be again, but it's good to stretch your boundaries.

[Anon]

I don't try anything I have not accomplished 100+ times in training

I never try anything in a match that I haven't tried a 100 times in practice

Where do you guys get the time/money to shoot 100 times between matches?!

[kevin c]

For a little twist:

My problem is being too conservative. I learn the dynamic, "aggressive" techniques, even practice them, but don't really apply them in match conditions. Staying in my comfort zone makes me plod, mebbe not literally but at least shooting wise. My buds tell me the same, that I ought to let it hang out more. Having seen the results of being more aggressive, I'm trying to get and stay there when shooting stages.

But even so, what I actually do, aggressively or not, are still techniques that I've practiced.

[Matt Cheely]

I try to shoot at 95% capability at a Major match.

At locals, anything goes. There was this on time I hit 2 6" plates at 25 yards with about a .15 split, (2nd shot was kind of an AD)

[hopalong]

I'm Like CHEELY, I try to shoot 95% points at a MAJOR match. Local matches (Monthly, club level I type) are the places I "experiment" and no telling what I'll attempt !!!!

Hopalong

[-JQ-]

I shot two alphas once.

[Flexmoney]

Going off a little of what Matt just said...

I used to suggest that a shooter go at a pace that reflects their current classification percentage. I don't really like to define something so narrowly, but it does seem to correlate.

Attack the stage, but when it comes time to pull the trigger...an 80% shooter might benefit from pushing the envelope to around 80%. (and a 70% shooter, 70%...and so on)

Doing that seemed to help me as I came up through the ranks.

[38superman]

I thought that the whole idea was that the stages are dynamic.

You have to use a basic skill set to solve random shooting problems on-the-fly.

You can practice and develop that skill set, ... sure.

IPSC target arrays are well defined, ... true.

But, ....

The arrangement of the targets and the way props are utilized are limited only by the imagination of the stage designer.

Sometimes the shooting solution has to be equally imaginative.

It may involve some new twist or wrinkle that you never thought of, much less practiced.

I don't see how you could possibly practice every scenario you may run across in a match, 100 times or even once.

That's where the risk comes in.

Good stage designers build risk and reward into every stage.

Isn't that what keeps the game interesting?

Tls

Edited July 30, 2008 by 38superman

[Matt Cheely]

I don't see how you could possibly practice every scenario you may run across in a match, 100 times or even once.

But I can practice watching the sights, and pressing the trigger. Is that not what we do every single shot?

Every stage I've shot is the same; I might have to pull the trigger 1 or 32 times but each shot is the same. See that acceptable sight picture and press the trigger. All the same...

[38superman]

I don't see how you could possibly practice every scenario you may run across in a match, 100 times or even once.

But I can practice watching the sights, and pressing the trigger. Is that not what we do every single shot?

Every stage I've shot is the same; I might have to pull the trigger 1 or 32 times but each shot is the same. See that acceptable sight picture and press the trigger. All the same...

Matt, I would agree that watching the sights, trigger control etc, is what we do most of the time.

That you can practice.

Yet, I still maintain that sometimes we get pushed into doing something out of the ordinary.

If you read my earlier post (#15) I couldn't even see my sights when I made those shots.

The only part of the gun I could see was my magwell.

The gun wasn't aimed, it was pointed.

Fortunately the target was close enough to make it work.

It wasn't something I wanted to do, but the stage design force me to think "outside the box".

Tls