What did you take away from the Nationals?

[G-ManBart]

I'm thinking about things you learned, re-learned etc. A couple of things that came to mind on my drive home:

I knew this, but the match really reminded me that static draws to static targets are probably the least common kind of start. From now on I'm going to practice something like 75% moving draws, table starts etc and the rest standard surrender and hands at sides just to keep from getting rusty.

I think I'm going to order some classic targets and use them for practice. The scoring areas are smaller and if you can hit them, a metric target will be easy. I'm also going to add a lot more drills with partial hardcover and partial no-shoots as they were all over the place!

What did you learn or what are you going to change/add to your normal routine?

[shred]

practice on bagged targets every so often. Very different focus for me.

[Catfish]

Setting up on difficult targets for sure....

[G-ManBart]

practice on bagged targets every so often. Very different focus for me.

That's a good one. I know I threw two D's on bagged targets that I don't think I would normally do...very different look to it with the dot. R,

[BritinUSA]

Nice idea for a thread.

1. Increase my load. At CO state my ammo chrono'ed at 168PF. At Tulsa (same load, same chrono dude) my first three rounds came in at 162.4, my second set of three came in at, 162.4. The highest three of the set came in at 165.4 PF. Note to self; Increase load when shooting at lower altitudes.

2. Fix my holster: It kept sliding towards the front of my belt so that my presentation of dot-to-target was way off base. Cost me big time on the Standards stage. I didn't notice it too much on the stages before because of the angled starts etc.. So I need to secure it to my belt so it does not move.

3. Install 9mm or SuperComp extractor in my Tanfoglio so my gun does not jam up on me costing me a 52 second run on my first stage, which I then had to reshoot (17.5 seconds) because of a range equipment failure (thank you Chris ).

4. Bring snorkel and/or flotation device plus emergency flares so the rescue helicopter can pick me up if I start drowning.

5. Buy a pair of cleats for each day at the range.

6. Put the towels that I bring from home in my range bag and not leave them in the hotel instead.

7. Wear sun-block (even on cloudy days I seem to get sun burnt if I don't use it).

8. Shoot more tight partial targets - I like the idea of using the classic targets more as well, as I think that they encourage accuracy. Nationals seems to be moving away from the hosing type stages that I saw when I first arrived on these blessed shores.

[Sharyn]

I learned a lot from this match... my mental game is very weak. I'm currently seeking a Sports Psychologist because I just absolutely broke down at this match. Nearly quit before it started and I'm not a quitter. I feel like a complete failure and I've never failed in my life.

I have a lot of work to do.

[BritinUSA]

...my mental game is very weak..

Mine too. I have no self-confidence in my shooting anymore so I slow right down to make sure of my hits. The lack of range time is a big problem for me, but I am learning to cope with the external things (like weather, range conditions). At Nationals I just kept saying to myself "It is, what it is" over and over again.

It reminds me of the variation of the Serenity prayer:

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.

I just tried to accept what we were shooting in and move beyond... But I did complain a lot about it

[markm]

Never Ever under any circumstances shoot 14 stages at a major match in one day and think that your mental and physical game will stay together. I got tired and sloppy at the end just trying to finish and the results speak for themselves.

Edited September 15, 2008 by markm

[boz1911]

I gained valuable experience from this match....

I learned to request the RO hold the timer close on the start since I double plug.

I learned to make sure which targets are disappearing and which targets are not.

I had a blast though, mud or no mud !!!

[Chris Keen]

Why so many NEGATIVE things to take away?

I learned that my stage planning is strong, but I need to be more agressive in my movement. So I'm taking some kick-boxing classes this Fall, and may need to do some leg-work with weights to build up my muscles.

I learned that the rain will never get me down, hold me back, or dampen my spirits. But as Shred stated above, practice on bagged targets from time to time would be good. Especially partial, classic targets, protected by no-shoots ...... and bagged, would be good.

I learned that when you shoot L-10 bring AS MANY MAGS AS YOU OWN. I actually own 12 mags for L-10 but only brought 9. Not that 12 would have gotten me through the match but it would have let me help paste and reset the stage instead of cleaning mags. Then I could clean the mags later at the hotel.

All in all I had a good match, but I could have had a much better one if I had practiced my accuracy a little more. Next year will be better, but I doubt I'll be back to Tulsa. Maybe I'll just shoot all 8 Areas instead.

[XRe]

I learned that when you shoot L-10 bring AS MANY MAGS AS YOU OWN. I actually own 12 mags for L-10 but only brought 9. Not that 12 would have gotten me through the match but it would have let me help paste and reset the stage instead of cleaning mags. Then I could clean the mags later at the hotel.

Just a suggestion - clean the mags after every stage, regardless Everyone understands in those conditions that it might take a little longer... You don't want that mud propagating to anything else in the bag, or having to worry about which mags are which or whatever. Just take the extra moment and do it...

Might help to bring a dump bucket with you (small bucket, put some water in it...)...

Practicing bagged targets is definitely a good idea, it seems. Hell, practice in the rain on bagged targets, if you can. Things get a little odd in those conditions. I'll be working tight shots more (well, I work them a lot anyway, but...). Something was off in my trigger control and shot calling on some of the tight shots for this match - the combo of rain, bags, mud made for a strange environment to shoot in, and obviously taxed my abilities in this regard.

I lost plan mid-stage a couple of times. Just not mentally prepared for those. I want to practice that more fully in a few locals coming up. I know better, just didn't do it

Stage breakdown and planning - I'm pretty solid there. Execution speed needs to come up a tad, but primarily in movement and not in shooting elements. I'm shooting fast enough already, for the most part.

Mind game other than stage prep stuff - plenty solid

[G-ManBart]

I learned that when you shoot L-10 bring AS MANY MAGS AS YOU OWN. I actually own 12 mags for L-10 but only brought 9. Not that 12 would have gotten me through the match but it would have let me help paste and reset the stage instead of cleaning mags. Then I could clean the mags later at the hotel.

Just a suggestion - clean the mags after every stage, regardless Everyone understands in those conditions that it might take a little longer... You don't want that mud propagating to anything else in the bag, or having to worry about which mags are which or whatever. Just take the extra moment and do it...

Might help to bring a dump bucket with you (small bucket, put some water in it...)...

One smart idea I'm stealing came from Ron Avery. He had a can of Gun Scrubber type stuff to clean his mags....seemed to work well on getting the mud out of the tubes and clean off the springs. I had a couple of mags that I dunked in the small water bucket, but by the time I got back to the hotel they already had slight rust spots on the springs. I'd guess the gun scrubber would help prevent that. I'll definitely have a can in my bag for big matches in the future....doesn't rain here much so I won't need it for locals normally

[Chris Keen]

I learned that when you shoot L-10 bring AS MANY MAGS AS YOU OWN. I actually own 12 mags for L-10 but only brought 9. Not that 12 would have gotten me through the match but it would have let me help paste and reset the stage instead of cleaning mags. Then I could clean the mags later at the hotel.

Just a suggestion - clean the mags after every stage, regardless Everyone understands in those conditions that it might take a little longer... You don't want that mud propagating to anything else in the bag, or having to worry about which mags are which or whatever. Just take the extra moment and do it...

I did Dave, that's what I mean. In fact I had a large plastic Ziploc bag as a 'dump bag' for dirty mags. Only really used it on the last day. I cleaned every dropped mag, after every stage ... regardless. You never know what you may need on the next stage.

But in the end ......... I'll never shoot another L-10 NATS. Heck I almost thought about loading up to capacity (21) and just letting myself get bumped into open in order to clean less mags.

[lynn jones]

other than the weather, was this nationals more of an accuracy match or memory type..etc?

lynn

[reneet]

other than the weather, was this nationals more of an accuracy match or memory type..etc?

Definitely Accuracy oriented.

[Fireant]

Accuracy match. I don't really don't recall any memory stages. I realize that I need to work on driving the gun harder in arrays and between arrays. I don't need to call my shot and then look for a hole to make sure it's there either.

[carinab]

What did I learn?

I learned to hang in there and keep fighting....and when to give it up and switch guns. While the gun may run with crappy range brass and moly lube bullets, it may not with new brass and copper jacketed rounds at the same OAL....especially if your slide stop is full profile. Kevin Toothman should get a medal for all the effort he put in trying to make a silk purse out of the sow's ear I gave him to work on. It took three people combined to figure out the cause of my random 3 point jam. Next time I will shoot more matches with my nationals load ahead of time to make sure it all works together. A little more practice with unloaded starts might help too!

Thank you to Alan Meek, James Broom, and Lisa Munson for giving me enough ammo to finish the L10 (almost all of mine ended up in the berm for function fire).

I learned that I'm tougher mentally now than I used to be. I actually looked at the scores Friday night to see where I was and to see what I needed to do in L10. I generally don't do that. I decided to go "hero or zero" on the last five stages. I won two stages and darn near won a third. However, it wasn't anywhere near enough to dig myself out of the giant hole I was in. Not to mention the fact that Jessie and Randi are both outstanding shooters and were racking up good match points at the same time. Those two ladies deserve every bit of praise they get.

On a personal note, I also learned a lesson about good intentions, they do pave the road to hell.

[shooterbenedetto]

SHoot big matches that is DRY!!

[gb32]

Positives:

Feel good about my mental game. Had a couple of operator induced errors but drove on past them. Didn't let others influence my stage plan (sometimes I should have). Called good shots.

Things to work on: movement on the draw, just like Bart mentioned. Learning to move better and not discounting the value of flowing through a stage even if it means a little bit more movement.

Learned a valuable lesson from one of my squadmates David Beam. After I had an equipment issue and said "that's never happened before" he replied "So, what are you going to do about it RIGHT NOW?" Lesson learned.

Great match and I will be back, regardless of location.

Gary Byerly.

[hopalong]

For me,

Don't decide not to go and start shooting a new gun. Then at the spur of the moment on Friday Night at 8:00 Pm that you'll go and now shoot the gun you were shooting 2 months ago.

On the upside of that, you can go into the nationals with no preconcieved ideas for sure.

Another thing that I had not had much problems with but showed it's head was.

At the initial walk through of the stages Saturday (R/L/P) I told myself this was a very technical and accuracy oriented match and to really call the shots. BUT,

When it came time to shoot, that kind of went to the dark side of my mind (most of it)

Had fun though, came home with no new holes.

And,

For my $$$ worth, It's better to shoot a couple of quality area type matches instead of lumping it all up at the nationals.

Hop

Edited September 15, 2008 by hopalong

[gose]

For me, move and shoot faster while still getting good hits

Also, I need to get into my head that I don't suck that bad (just somewhat). Playing it too safe will probably end up costing me more in the long run.

[Clyde]

Squad 15 -

Dave Bridgman

Jerry Brown

Mike Burrell

Steve Miguez

Blake Miguez

Shannon Smith

Kevin Toothman

Mark Waki

--------------

Great buch of guys to learn from

Thanx

[moverfive]

other than the weather, was this nationals more of an accuracy match or memory type..etc?

lynn

I actually would call this one more of a shot placement match as opposed to an accuracy match. There were several targets that really required accuracy, no doubt (30-something yard USP shots and 20-something yard almost head shots). But I think the majority of the shots were not too difficult.....just that if you are not able to place your shots with any form of speed, then it sort of became a pure accuracy/bullseye like match and thus cost you a lot of time. And I think that is where the mental break-downs occurred for me....I am currently not able to place shots at match speed in the 15+ yards range and thus I got totally roasted in this match because of that fact.

And I think that was part of the problem for so many as well. As Chris Keen and I were talking about on the last day - he had never had this many misses in one match and I was missing targets I would swear I had excellent sight picture on. Still learning this limited gun stuff - I was constantly being reminded by someone in our squad, "you aren't seeing what you need to see." While that was quite obvious - but I quickly came to the realization that I don't know what I needed to see in those circumstances because I swear I was seeing good sight pictures.....and still missing.

So what did I take away - start shooting head shots at 20 yards at match speed......and learn what it takes to make those shots.

[tgibson]

What did I learn? That I need to quit working on accuracy and start working on speed!!!! I shot a lot of points, but man was I slow!!

Adios,

TG

[shred]

This was a points match. Look at the high hit factors on the stages.. for the most part they are considerably lower than other Nationals.