notasccrmom

[notasccrmom]

Hey Everyone,

Some of you know me, most of you don't. I'm probably your average shooter. I'm currently D Classified in Production shooting my Glock 34. This will be the end of my second season shooting USPSA. I'm starting this thread so I can get some feedback from those that I shoot with and from anyone else that is willing. I don't have a regular practice schedule due to time constraints with being a full-time student, but I definitely want to get better. My goal for this year was to get out of D Class, but I can't seem to shoot a classifier over 40-50% to save my life. It's frustrating, but I can still see some improvement in myself here and there. I'll try to post some videos from time to time so you can see how I'm doing and offer advice.

I have some videos from last weekends match that I'll try to get posted soon.

-Nathan

[Calamity Jane]

Yeah baby!! Another one begins the journey.

[notasccrmom]

9/21/08: WVPPS Match

Only five of the stages got caught on film. Input is appreciated.

It was a fun match overall. 7 stages, 156 rounds. Still no scores at this time, but here's how it felt. The first stage felt like my first stage in a two weeks, which it just so happened to be. Even so, I had some decent hits. Alphas, Charlies, and one Delta. It was a stand and shoot through a barrel. My stand and shoot skills just aren't where I want them to be. I enjoy, and therefore shoot field courses better... or at least I perceive myself as shooting them better.

On the second stage I was feeling good, and my confidence was coming back. On my fifth shot of that stage, I have a double-feed. I had to forcefully strip the mag, clear the jam, and reload. This killed a lot of time on such a short stage. This was the first stage in the video.

The third stage was the classifier CM99-46. Not much to say other than I need to work on my SHO/WHO shooting.

The fourth stage was a bill drill type stage at 7 or 10 yards, I forget. 6 shots, reload, 6 shots, with a par time of 6 seconds. I think I got 4 shots of the second string in before the buzzer. This one didn't get video taped.

The fifth stage was a 20 round stage with 12 of those being steel. I think I rushed too many of my shots and that stage ate my lunch because of it. I also didn't stick to my original plan. After this stage I told myself to stop thinking and stick to a plan.

On the sixth stage, I stuck to my plan and things worked out. I enjoyed the freestyle choices it offered and it was a lot of fun for such a simple stage. It felt like a solid run. This is the second to last stage in the video.

The seventh stage was a long field course with even more freestyle options. This was another fun stage. Coming into the last position before the door, I was running fast enough that I didn't slow down enough and overstepped the line. You can see in the video that I had to correct my footing before squeezing off my first shot from that position. That killed some time for sure. I had one mike on that stage, but other than that, I think it was pretty good.

This weekend I'll be on the range shooting some drills.

[JThompson]

You just need to put some time in practice... You will get there. I give you one piece I see.. When you draw move you weak hand just as fast as your strong hand. You want both hands on the gun asap. Also, with hands above head starts a lot of people choose to touch thumbs to their muffs, or the like so they do it the same way every time. I don't do it that way, but a lot do. It's hands about shoulders too... I try and keep them low as to have less distance to go.

[notasccrmom]

After seeing the results for last weeks match, I finished second in Production on that second to last stage and sixth on the last stage. I knew they felt like pretty solid runs, but now I can say that they were in fact pretty decent. I feel that the rest of the match wasn't too good at all. I need to approach every stage with the right combination of aggressiveness and inner calm that I felt while shooting those last two. I need to practice more.

9/26/08 - .22 Zeroing/Practice

I bought a new red dot this week to put on my .22, so naturally I couldn't wait to get out of class today to go and zero it. I got it zeroed and ended up shooting about 300 rounds at steel. I mainly just spent the time getting used to the dot and watched how it moved. I can't believe I didn't discover shooting a .22 "Open Gun" sooner. It was so much fun and I only spent about $6 on ammo for the night.

After shooting the .22, I went in and loaded up some 9mm while I had the time. I didn't shoot my Glock any tonight, but I'll be back out on the range Sunday for some live fire practice.

[notasccrmom]

9/28/08 - Live Fire Practice

Went out to the range Sunday and worked on some one shot draws and shot some groups as well. It's been a while since I've just stood and shot groups. My accuracy is improving! I also put some time into my surrender draws and worked on what JTHompson suggested. Definitely a bit faster.

9/29/08 - Dry Fire

Tonight I was able to steal about an hour to do some dryfiring. I continued to work on draws and worked some transitions in too. I need to keep working on snapping my eyes to the next target.

I told myself today that I need to dryfire at least two nights a week and to stay on it. Even if it is only for 45 minutes at a time... I need to do it. I want my B card... Yeah I know, C has to come first, but I don't want to stall this any longer. I'm aiming high.

[Coach]

This may cause a rebellion or a small riot. I do not think you have to do an hour per dry fire session. I think if you hit it hard for 20-30 minutes and did it Monday, Wednessay, Friday that you would see dramatic improvement. If you did that religiously December, January, February you would be an entirely different shooter by the spring matches.

I know some people on here will say dry fire until your hands bleed, or the guns bleed. Then Flex will make some comment about what is this until stuff. But if you schedule is tight then do what you can. I think shorter periods and three time per week with the match on Sunday is suitable to see the improvement you want. When you find the time you can dryfire longer or more often.

Just an opinion and I don't even play a doctor on TV.

[EatMeerkats]

I agree with Coach... I just tell myself I'm going to do it every day so even when I skip days, I still get 3-4 days in a week. An hour is quite a long time to dry-fire, and even 20-30 min. is really helpful. Just do what you can and you will get better. Hopefully you can stop sandbagging D class soon, cause I'm pretty sure you're the best D shooter I've ever seen.

[notasccrmom]

Just so you guys know, your opinions are always welcome and appreciated. I'll be keeping that stuff in mind.

Thanks for the kind words Chun-Yu... and just for the record, my sandbagging isn't intentional.

[notasccrmom]

I managed to dryfire 3 nights last week, and did a little bit of live fire practice on Friday night. I shot a steel match on Saturday and USPSA today. It's been a full weekend of shooting for sure.

10/4/08 - WVPPS Steel Match

Steel was a lot of fun. I shot my production gun and tried my hand with the .22 open gun. I didn't win any stages, but I did well on a couple of them. I'm still feeling some improvement. One thing that sticks out to me from the match is my mental game in one particular instance with my production gun. I remember before shooting a stage that I started to think to myself that the tiny little stop plate was going to be a problem. I managed to suppress those thoughts and told myself that it was an easy shot, just aim and squeeze... it'll hit. I ended up shooting that stage clean with no extra shots. All 5 runs were within 0.15 sec of each other. It was one of those moments that stuck in my mind. Now to just be able to pull that mentality back into every seemingly difficult shooting situation will be the key. In other news, .22 open was a lot of fun, I'll have to do that again.

10/5/08 - South Central USPSA

Today's USPSA match at South Central was fairly bad in my mind. I overslept and made it to the range about 5 minutes before shooting started. Combine that with not enough sleep and it makes for a challenging day of shooting. I didn't manage to get any video this time. I forgot to borrow my girlfriends camera in my haste to make it on time to the match. On the positive side, I know that I didn't zero the classifier. woohoo! Overall, I think I had 3 mikes and I don't remember hitting any no-shoots for the match (correct me if I am wrong). Not great, but could be a lot worse. Time to keep dryfiring.

[Calamity Jane]

This may cause a rebellion or a small riot. I do not think you have to do an hour per dry fire session. I think if you hit it hard for 20-30 minutes and did it Monday, Wednessay, Friday that you would see dramatic improvement. If you did that religiously December, January, February you would be an entirely different shooter by the spring matches.

I know some people on here will say dry fire until your hands bleed, or the guns bleed. Then Flex will make some comment about what is this until stuff. But if you schedule is tight then do what you can. I think shorter periods and three time per week with the match on Sunday is suitable to see the improvement you want. When you find the time you can dryfire longer or more often.

Just an opinion and I don't even play a doctor on TV.

I'm with Coach on this one. My dry fire sessions are usually around 30 minutes. The key is to "be all there" and enjoy it.

There's only so many hours in the day and a little goes a long way. Keep up the good work.

[notasccrmom]

Since it's been a while, I figured I should update. I haven't shot a match since the last one I posted and I haven't been able to dryfire nearly enough. I've been super busy with school and the job hunt. May can't come soon enough.

On the positive side, I was able to take a Level I RO class about two weeks ago and that has helped to further my understanding of some of the rules. I'll be shooting a match this Sunday and I'm going to do my best to get a little bit of dryfiring in before the weekend.

[Flexmoney]

This may cause a rebellion or a small riot. I do not think you have to do an hour per dry fire session. I think if you hit it hard for 20-30 minutes and did it Monday, Wednessay, Friday that you would see dramatic improvement. If you did that religiously December, January, February you would be an entirely different shooter by the spring matches.

I know some people on here will say dry fire until your hands bleed, or the guns bleed. Then Flex will make some comment about what is this until stuff. But if you schedule is tight then do what you can. I think shorter periods and three time per week with the match on Sunday is suitable to see the improvement you want. When you find the time you can dryfire longer or more often.

Just an opinion and I don't even play a doctor on TV.

Yikes. What dogma am I putting out there? (please send me a PM..I hope it's what I think it is...)

I'm not a big fan of the long session of anything as the main means. Most tend to lose their focus. (Like Jane said, "be all there.")

I am a fan of the daily habit. I'd much rather see a person dry-firing 10min every day...with focus.

I like visualization too. Both at the macro and the micro levels.

[Flexmoney]

I remember before shooting a stage that I started to think to myself that the tiny little stop plate was going to be a problem. I managed to suppress those thoughts and told myself that it was an easy shot, just aim and squeeze... it'll hit. I ended up shooting that stage clean with no extra shots. All 5 runs were within 0.15 sec of each other. It was one of those moments that stuck in my mind. Now to just be able to pull that mentality back into every seemingly difficult shooting situation will be the key.

That is great insight. Don't limit it by thinking it only applies in certain situations.

Expand on that success and let it carry over.

[notasccrmom]

11/2/08 South Central USPSA

Felt like a good match today. Five stages, but the camera man was late, so I didn't get the first one on tape. It was just a stand and shoot anyways. Had some ammo issues as you can see in the footage. I think I need to keep a closer eye on those high primers. On the last stage, the first three targets had to be taken from the box. The plan was to shoot the last target as I left the box, but my ammo bit me on that. I had to step back and take the two shots on that last target which cost me some time for sure.

I went into the match having not dry fired nearly as much as I need to be doing and had a pretty clear head. On Stage two, the one with the bucket, I was having a hard time with the strong hand only on the steel. That's still probably my weakest point. Because of those misses, I had to drop the bucket and reload for the last shot... not good. I still had a fun day shooting and despite some small issues, I feel some progress.

Edited November 3, 2008 by notasccrmom

[notasccrmom]

After seeing the scores for the match, I only had 2 mikes and I know why I had each one. One of them was strong hand only on stage 5 and one was due to me rushing to make the shot when I was leaving the box on stage three(it's the one where I started to leave and had the bad round). I ended up 4 out of 20 for the match. Based on the scores I'm thinking that my accuracy is getting a lot closer to where it needs to be. On two of the stages, my points were higher than the stage winner, but my time hurt me. I think I need to work on speed, movement, and SHO/WHO.

Opinions? Thoughts?

[notasccrmom]

11/9/08 Atlanta USPSA

Another fun match. Six good stages, one of them didn't make it on film by accident. It was very cold out there today, the high was somewhere around 35 and it snowed off and on with plenty of wind.

The first stage on the video went ok, except I had to make up two shots, which I ended up needing. I was a little slow on the movement (leaving and entering the boxes), but I wanted to make sure I had those hits.

Second stage was the classifier, Melody Line. I messed it up badly. Apparently I did too good of a job clearing my mind and started to put two shots on each target. I realized my mistake after the second target and just finished it out. Pretty sure I zeroed that one.

Third stage was one of three 32 round field courses for the day. Plenty of room for mistakes, but I felt pretty good about it overall. One mike though.

Fourth stage was the baseball stage. I really enjoyed this stage as it had lots of movement and freestyle choices. I don't think any two people in our squad shot it exactly the same way. My time was pretty solid, but I had two mikes on the first target that I engaged after going through the barrels on the start. I have to keep working on that movement.

Fifth stage isn't on the video. It was a turn then pick up unloaded gun from table and shoot as and when visible stage. Had one no-shoot for sure, can't remember if it was two. They were all over the place, but the targets were up close and personal.

By the sixth stage I was getting really cold. You can't see me shivering in the video, but I remember my leg shaking pretty good at the beep. Had some extra shots on the steel and maybe one mike.

Overall a cold day and not my best work, but the experience was well worth it.

Edited November 10, 2008 by notasccrmom

[Coach]

"Third stage was one of three 32 round field courses for the day. Plenty of room for mistakes, but I felt pretty good about it overall. One mike though."

The third stage: you needed to get the targets at the first port as we discussed. Also you have to plan so that you avoid the last reload. These two things squeeze the time down without shooting faster.

Not a bad day considering the classifier disaster. The last stage we shot was not a time/pace problem evene though it appears so, it was an accuracy problem. In production you have to reload twice on this stage so you might as well shoot it from three positions and program that into the plan. It looks like the moving to the last position was not planned until you were already shooting.

The baseball stage was a good run except the mikes on the move. Right idea, just need to work on the on the move part. It looked smooth from the back.

[notasccrmom]

Update:

After running some numbers, it appears that my C Card will be in the mail after USPSA receives my latest scores! If my numbers are right, I'll be at 40.1592%. Still lots of work to do, but I made my first mini goal of getting out of D class this year.

[Coach]

Good Job, C Class means you have done something right.

[notasccrmom]

I just wanted to add that my C Classification is official. 40.16%

Now to hold myself to dry firing throughout the winter... I can't wait for spring.

[Coach]

Good job! C Class must be earned. Anyone with a pulse can be D class.

[notasccrmom]

It's been a while since I posted in here, but...

As of the latest Classification update, I am now a B in Production (60.59%). Now if I can just get competitive at that level, I'll be ok. If anyone needs me, I'll be dryfiring.

[MemphisMechanic]

I pulled up one of your 2009 videos after watching one of the ones from this post. The improvement is dramatic. Keep at it!

[notasccrmom]

Thanks for the input!

I tried to watch some older videos of myself and compare them to the newer ones, but it's hard to see a difference from my perspective.

EDIT:

Your post reminded me since you mentioned it, here are some videos of me shooting this year. Input is always welcome.

The 2009 Mississippi Classic

The 2009 Indiana Section Championship

Edited June 14, 2009 by notasccrmom