MISS Match 10/30/13

Miss Match 10/30/13

One bad stage can’t really spoil my night, although it definitely went a long way towards spoiling my overall score. I won’t say mission accomplished on hitting the 60% I wanted on the classifier, but I did make some progress. Tonight I shot about 82% of the points after penalty, and I’m looking to get that number to about 90%, so my accuracy took a hit tonight.

Running thru my 4 stages, with video to follow, I felt my first stage was fairly strong. I ran the steel cleanly, I was deliberate and slow but I got my hits. The swinger I took two delta on, and I know I should have done better, I wanted to get moving, and settled for less than perfect hits. Last array I had one more delta, and that was a bummer, better hits would have made the score look prettier, but overall I was pretty satisfied. What Les has been preaching about being accurate, is something I understand better after this stage. 6th in production, and my time was 5th in production, not a bad run, but I'm feeling like I am seeing things I'm leaving on the table, and that's good and bad. Bad I left it, good that I know it's there and I'm going to work at getting it.

Stage two was a longer stage, with more points and I finished 11^th in Production. I had a decent plan, but was just slow coming across, no sense of urgency, and I question my choice to work outside in. A lot of things I could have done better, but on both this stage and the next, I wanted to reload in the open, and not have to do it in a condensed area where I seem to have a harder time.

Stage three was a disaster for me. I finished 15^th in production, and this is the stage that really dragged down my score, so many points left on the table here. To begin with, I changed my plan to something I thought would be more efficient, and while I executed the first two array’s the way I wanted, I got caught deeper than I wanted going into the third array. Yes, that was me swearing as I came across to the 4^th array and hit the no-shoot. Not only did I hit the no-shoot, but I did not take the make-up, so I was left with a mike and a no shoot, not smart. I was extremely frustrated after this stage, and the idea of hitting a no shoot was now in my head, which would make me conscious of it into the next stage. I tried to get it out of my head before then, but it did not completely happen.

The last stage was the classifier, and I wanted a sub 12 second run, meaning both strings needed to be 6 seconds or less, with solid hits. My 6^th place in production run was more based on not having any penalties and not hitting the no-shoot than anything. I was not fast, I was deliberate, and I just wanted everything on paper. Mission accomplished, but I know I can do that faster. My hit factor of 4.6476 according to classifier-calc is about a 48% run, which will replace a 10% in my classification. I can’t complain too much, its progress.

My overall finish was 13^th in production, and that’s pretty hard to do with 3 of 4 stages that are higher than that. What it does prove is that one bad high point stage can impact your night. I won’t gripe, I won’t complain, I know I shot better than my overall, and I know there was a ton of room to improve. I’m one step closer to my C card, especially if Les uploaded the re-shoot from last match and I get the 59%. I'll take one step at a time especially before we get into the serious practice and training.

Plan B goes into effect on Saturday, so practice begins and I for one can’t wait. With two more matches in the next seven days, I've got a chance to get out of D, get started with working, and really focus on what is ahead.