Mike Joy

[mjoy64]

Today is the day that I commit to formalizing some goals for my shooting.

Some of my shooting background - In May of 2007 I purchased my first handgun ever. I had never even fired a handgun. 1 week later I was enticed by a good friend to shoot a local IDPA match and I was hooked. It's 2 1/2 years later and I still just love to shoot. If it is a game that has something that goes bang... I'm in. I started with IDPA and have added Action Pistol, USPSA, all steel (with par times), and even my first 3 gun match 3 weeks ago. I have shot more IDPA matches than the others, but due to scheduling changes for some of the local matches I will now have a pretty even distribution between IDPA and USPSA matches. I am hoping to blend the skills from both games into an all-around set of solid shooting skills. I have much work to do.

The Current State of Affairs

I recently shot the IDPA classifier and moved up to SSP Expert. I only have about a half a dozen USPSA classifiers (most of them shot over a year ago) and have Production C card. I fully expect to move to B in the very near future. I am carrying around way to many pounds and need to improve immensely in this area. I am also feeling that, without a higher level of dedication, that I will hit the ceiling with my current progress. I have improved my shooting a lot over the last 4-5 months by actually GASP practicing! In comparing my last two IDPA classifiers I went from 62 points down to 27. I am pleased with my improvement... yet not content. I have a great group of compadres that I shoot with that have been pushing me to keep up. I plan to push them too!

My Goals for the Next 6 Months

IDPA - SSP Master

USPSA - Production A Card

Physical - Lose 30 lbs of bad weight

My Plan

Dry fire practice - Minimum 15 minutes a day for at least 5 days out of the week. I am setting up a wall in my office dedicated for dry fire!

Live fire practice - Twice a week. I will be using the DR Performance Practice Deck 1.0 to provide a lot of the drills.

Matches - 5 to 6 local matches a month with at least 2 of them IDPA (Temple and Copperas Cove) and 2 of them USPSA (Austin and Waco) matches.

Video - I just purchased a Flip Ultra HD. Wow... video doesn't lie and is unforgiving in showing your shortcomings. I plan to learn everything I can from it and allow others to critique me and offer suggestions. This will be tough because this is such a skilled and knowledgeable crowd!

Training - I am going to take a class with Dave Re before the year is out. My friend Paul had a good (if tiring) experience. Paul has already shared a lot of little things he learned. Very cool.

Physical - 3 days weights. 3 days cardio. Start slow.... build up. Write out weekly plan for meals and stick to it. 1 free day. Must... cut... down... on... beer!

What We're Working With Here

Here's a couple of vids of some drills we ran a few days ago. I know there is much to improve.

TIA for all of the Other Shooting Diaries

I just wanted to thank all of the shooters who actively post in this forum. It is inspiring to see each and every one of you lay it out there for all to see and critique. I look forward to using this forum to account for my own journey.

Mike Joy

Edited September 2, 2009 by mjoy64

[HighVelocity]

Mike, your plan looks great. You WILL exceed your goals.

[Paul Burtchell]

Mike, you WILL do it !

It's great to have several of us in this area deciding to become dedicated to improvement and not only having the will to win but also, the will to prepare.

You will go far, my friend.

Edited September 2, 2009 by baerburtchell

[XRe]

That's a lot of shooting, Mike! Make sure you build in some down time - keeping everything in balance is important

Yeah, we can clean some stuff up nicely, judging by those vids

[mjoy64]

09/02/09 Practice Session

Short and sweet. I forgot my video camera.

6 of Spades – “Half Pres” (5 reps – 30 rounds)

4.66 – 4A 1C 1D

4.59 – 3A 3C

4.81 – 3A 2C 1D

5.48 – 5A 1C

4.01 – 2A 3C 1D

4 of Hearts – “Draw Test Uprange” (10 reps – 10 rounds)

1.80

1.69

1.78

1.55

1.58

1.59

1.40

1.28 (the Mike)

1.61

1.34 (best A)

Jack of Hearts – “Mozambique” (10 reps – 30 rounds)

2.13

2.21

2.03

2.16

2.36

09/04/09 Practice Session

Jack of Spades – “Triple Moz” (1 rep – 36 rounds)

6 of Clubs – “Moving Bills” (2 reps – 36 rounds)

25 Yard Standards (2 reps – 24 rounds)

We also ran a half a dozen 10 yard plate racks.

Things I noticed:

- I need to move my support hand earlier and more aggressively to my mid-section on the draw.

- Trying to go fast on the plate rack proved ugly in the results.

- It is difficult to shoot quickly (and find the front sight) at long distances if your feet are shifting around.

Things I was trying to work on:

- Getting more bend in my knees and more forward with my shoulders in my initial stance.

- Relaxing my abdomen before the draw.

An interesting test at 7 yards:

- 5 shot group with perfect site picture at center of target.

- 1 shot with top of sight completely up out of the notch.

- 1 shot with top of sight at the bottom of the notch.

- 1 shot with sight shoved to the left of the notch (just a sliver of sight visible).

- 1 shot with sight shoved to the right of the notch (just a sliver of sight visible).

All 4 shots with barely any sight picture were Cs. You’ve got to have nada for a sight picture to throw a Mike at that distance. Same test at 15 yards yielded Ds but still on the paper.

Another interesting test was to shoot 2 five shot groups. 1st group with perfect front sight focus. 2nd group with focus on target. The shot group results were similar.

My New Office/Dry Fire Practice Room

I only dry fired once last week for about 15 minutes.

Edited September 9, 2009 by mjoy64

[mike cyrwus]

Your movement drills reveal a lot of little things that can be easily fixed; Im excited for you, some instruction and video review will leave you much improved!

As far as those extra lbs; Ive had good results with the south beach diet. and having my wife hide the chocolate in the house; seriously!

[mjoy64]

09/09/09

Worked a little dry fire working on my draw from holster. I noticed when I looked at my video that the support hand just kind of laid around until the strong hand got to the gun. I worked on getting that support hand to the centerline more immediately. I'm not sure if it makes a difference on my index but my shoulders look more in balance at that moment in the draw. It seems so basic and elemental but that's where I'm having to start.

50 draws from holster

Example of what I saw vs. what I was trying to do tonight.

[mjoy64]

09/16/09

1.5 hours live fire practice session. We kind of winged it by setting up 3 different IDPAish stages. Practiced barricade shooting and a little shooting on the move. No video for this session. The one cool thing about this practice session is it was the first session where we had range time dedicated for practice in the bays. Tue/Thur 5 - 7 are now designated by our range as practice time in the bays. I didn't get to shoot last weekend due to a death in the family so it was good to get out with my shooting buds and scrape off the rust.

09/17/09

45 minutes of dry fire. Just working on draws from holster, reloads, and some transition work. I pulled up the web page below and used the timer with par times for the draw practice. Very cool. I don't know who Paul is but I appreciate Matt Burkett putting it up on his web site. Neat tool.

Dry fire RO

List of Other Tools

09/18/09

2 hours of live fire practice. I was off, off, off. Everything felt awkward and forced. Frustrating but I suppose some days are going to be like that. I couldn't find the bottom of the magwell to save my life during this session. I do feel that getting my support hand aggressively moving to the center at the beep has helped shave some time off my draw. Note to self: How do you push for speed in practice and NOT introduce tension into your arms??

3 reps on the 7 of Diamonds "Up and Down the Ladder". All runs in the mid 8's. This drill worked my brain over a little because there is a different round count on each target. More difficult than I thought it would be.

Came home and worked another 30 minutes of dry fire working draws and reloads.

IDPA Nationals are a week away. This will be my first "National" match and my forth big match (regional or bigger).

Edited September 18, 2009 by mjoy64

[XRe]

Hey, Mike - read the start position for 2 of Diamonds again Don't have to draw.... He was scoring time on draw and reload, wasn't he? Point of the drill is to just get the reload times - so start w/ the gun on target

[bkeeler]

Keep it up Mike! But don't burn yourself out.

BK

[mountaincoulee]

Interesting project.

Suggest you benchmark your current skill levels and write this down. Then set specific results-oriented goals: i.e. for a given drill or skill set, I will reduce my times by x and/or increase my accuracy by Y. Now you have a way to plot your progress, incrementally, which is rewarding in itself and therefore helpful in maintaining your training regimen in the long run.

"2 hours of live fire practice. I was off, off, off. Everything felt awkward and forced. Frustrating but I suppose some days are going to be like that." When that happens to you -and it happens to all- consider taking a break or working on a different drill. No sense in frustrating yourself.

End your practice session with an exercise/drill/task that you know you do well at. Finish on a positive note rather than with disappointment.

Finally, remember to go to fun club matches and clear your mind of all expectations. Go there to have fun and run with whatever happens. But take a few notes after each stage and then adjust your training accordingly.

P.S. tell me your name isn't really Mike.

Edited September 18, 2009 by mountaincoulee

[mjoy64]

Hey, Mike - read the start position for 2 of Diamonds again Don't have to draw.... He was scoring time on draw and reload, wasn't he? Point of the drill is to just get the reload times - so start w/ the gun on target

Doh!

[mjoy64]

Interesting project.

Suggest you benchmark your current skill levels and write this down. Then set specific results-oriented goals: i.e. for a given drill or skill set, I will reduce my times by x and/or increase my accuracy by Y. Now you have a way to plot your progress, incrementally, which is rewarding in itself and therefore helpful in maintaining your training regimen in the long run.

"2 hours of live fire practice. I was off, off, off. Everything felt awkward and forced. Frustrating but I suppose some days are going to be like that." When that happens to you -and it happens to all- consider taking a break or working on a different drill. No sense in frustrating yourself.

End your practice session with an exercise/drill/task that you know you do well at. Finish on a positive note rather than with disappointment.

Finally, remember to go to fun club matches and clear your mind of all expectations. Go there to have fun and run with whatever happens. But take a few notes after each stage and then adjust your training accordingly.

P.S. tell me your name isn't really Mike.

"remember to go to fun club matches and clear your mind of all expectations"

Amen to that. This is slowly sinking in for me. I'm heading towards losing the "try" (as in trying to go fast) when running a COF. Trying seems to jumble my mind up. Just shooting the front sight as fast as you see that "A" hit is really liberating from a mental standpoint.

fyi... I appreciate the encouragement and all of the suggestions from everyone.

[Paul Burtchell]

Give 'em hell at the Nationals, Mike. Get bumped to Master

[Steve J]

Mike, you kicked some butt this morning at Temple.

Take a breather this week and turn it on in Tulsa.

[mjoy64]

Mike, you kicked some butt this morning at Temple.

Take a breather this week and turn it on in Tulsa.

Thanks Steve. That was my most consistent match in a while. No big mistakes though several small ones. Safe travel for you!

[mjoy64]

09/19/09

USPSA Match in Waco

Kind of a meh performance. I came away with four thoughts:

a) The night before and the morning of can have an impact on your performance. I had some difficulty with a longish standards stage (25 yards) where I had 3 Mikes and just felt well... not sharp. 6 of the 25 yard shots were strong hand only and my hand was shaking so bad I had to just try to time the shot break. My take away was... cut out the beers the night before the match (even if you finish early). Start your day like you start your normal week. I normally drink a couple of cups of coffee in the morning during the work week, but not normally on the weekends. I think if you drink caffeinated beverages regularly, it is probably best to do so on match day as well. I also think it is probably a good idea to bring some type of healthy snack to the match.

We shot the CM 03-03 "Take Em Down" classifier. I shoot production and had my plan. 11 shots no reload between positions. Apparently the force of reloading between positions/arrays is so strong that my muscle memory took over and as soon as I left the first barricade I pulled that mag and on the way to the second barricade I went "oh crap, I didn't want to reload" and got my brain stuck in between. I shot the remaining three poppers strong hand and of course had one miss. Dang, now I had to reload. Mental note... when you have a plan that deviates from your norm, you really need to mentally sear it into your brain beforehand.

c) Position to position shooting is still my comfort zone. I need to work more on shooting with more flow in a USPSA COF. My confidence lacks for partials when moving. I must get more practice in this area to better understand my current capabilities and work towards enhancing them.

d) USPSA matches are helping me build more mental muscle (like a different exercise might stress a muscle differently) because I have 3 to 4 reloads to manage as I break down the COF for a plan and then during execution of that plan.

09/20/09

IDPA Match in Temple

Really, really good stages in our local match. Our club has done a fantastic job over the last year in improving the quality of the match with more props, interesting course designs, and dedicated effort by the MD and local shooters. We are attracting a lot of new shooters and our club is growing.

I followed my lessons learned the prior day and had myself better prepared. I am doing much better about taking the "try" out of my execution of a COF and just shooting what I see as fast as I see it w/o forcing it. It's a weird sensation because it feels slow (like I need to speed up) and then the results show differently. I'm determined to try and remember this lesson at the IDPA Nationals in Tulsa this weekend and forget about trying to achieve some specIfic result. I'm just going to shoot the front sight and let the results fall where they may.