Plan B Begins

We Are Off!

Today was the day that I’ve been waiting for, the start of “Plan B”. I’ve been anxious, nervous, and anticipating this since Les brought the concept up a month or so ago. I woke up anxious, and ready to go, and unfortunately I had my “serious” game face on when I got up there, and as a result probably tensed myself up in order to just absorb everything that was going on. Interestingly enough, it was when I told myself “I got this,” and smiled, and was totally relaxed did I start to show some progress.

As we move forward, I’ll keep some of this back, but for an introduction to the process, I need to explain a little bit of what we were doing. We started out with a cold El Presidente. I had some issues, a slow draw (2.11 seconds) a passable re-load at (2.08) seconds, and I actually threw a mike on the middle target. Personally I think it was as a result of my knowing the draw was slow, and trying to rush, and pulling the shot right off the paper. Dave ran his, and we went back out to the classroom area to discuss what we need to be at, and I pulled out my notebook, and while I was writing things down, I saw where I was at the last Skills & Drills class I was at. I had a 1.66 second draw to first show, and a sub 2 second re-load. In point of fact, practicing for the first MISS match of the season, I was running El Pres right around 7.25 seconds. This should show how slow I was this morning, and why I got myself in the wrong mental state to begin with. I was focused on the wrong thing.

I don’t want to say that I did not hear what Les was saying, he was giving me the old, “You can make B Class with a 2 second draw and a 2 second re-load.” When we break the math down, sure you can, as long as you keep your follow-up at about .33, and your transitions at .55. Essentially you have 2.88 seconds to get 6 shots off. While I heard what he was saying, it kept running thru my head that “if I just shaved off .5 seconds on my draw, and on my reload, I’d have a full extra second to shoot slowly, and get my hits.” Wrong attitude, but I did not realize it just then.

We went back into the range and started working with the .22, getting a sight picture, and hitting 3 steel plates, 3 yards apart, from 12 yards away. It sounds easy, and it should be, as they are essentially simulating an “A” zone hit. Eventually we rolled past that, once we knew what sight picture we wanted to have, and started to work two shots on each plate, looking for that 2.80 split. Dave was getting some good times, and I was a little slower, but I was getting all my hits, and subconsciously, I was focusing on that more than anything, and it was hindering me from picking up speed.

Les pushed us up just 2 yards, to the 10-yard line, which is where you would shoot El Presidente at. After bouncing around earlier, I got the serious face off, I started to smile, and told myself that I could do it. Suddenly I was happy to just be shooting, doing something I enjoy, and the pressure was off, I could perform at my peak. He told us to blaze it, just go fast, and now that I knew what I needed for cadence, and sight picture, I started off with a 1.99 second run, and felt amazing. Subsequent runs were in the 2.23-2.45 seconds, so I was definitely below the par time that I was looking for. We then moved things back to 15 yards, and ran the same exercise, with a 2.80 second par time, and I was just over it.

The basic lesson that was driven home is that what we are doing is not just being accurate, but getting a good shooting cadence. When you do the math, and realize how slow you can actually be, 6 shots in 2.80 seconds is .47 seconds a shot. Your follow up is quicker, and your transition to the next target does take longer. By practicing the way we did, I learned my cadence I need to shoot at, and be comfortable with, plus I learned what I need in terms of sight picture to get my hits. Now I know exactly what I am looking for, what I should see, to get an A zone hit.

The next week of dry-fire is going to focus on low ready to 3 targets, 6 trigger pulls with a good sight picture in under 2.80 seconds. When I do that consistently, then I’ll drop the par time down to 2.25 seconds. We’ll run the same drills in live fire, when we go for practice next Saturday morning as well.

I’d seen, and had explained the cadence before, but now I understand how I can apply it to practice. Do the math, know what I need, and then practice for that to achieve my goals. This is a relatively simple concept, but it took this practice to get it thru my head. This was a wonderful first step, and I realize this is going to be a month or so of work just with my .22, getting a good cadence down, and being accurate, knowing my sight picture. Once I can achieve what I want with a cadence and accuracy, I suspect we’ll start working on getting a better draw and faster re-loads. So if I can do it with a 2 second draw, how much more effective can I be once I get the draw improved? Bottom line, this is the right focus, it’s the right fundamental to start with, and eventually we can add other stuff to the mix. One thing at a time.

As a side note, the S&W M&P 22 sights are horrible. I’m used to a different hold on my PPQ, so this is a double adjustment. My sights are still on order from Dawson Precision, and once they show up, I think I’ll show even more improvement.

Nothing like finishing up with a burger and beer at Tracks to close it out!

I’m excited, enthusiastic. I feel Les has things broken down, so I can focus on specific parts of the sport, and can improve the base, fundamental areas that I need first. Once that foundation is in place, then we can build the rest.

Match tomorrow morning at Pine Tree Pistol, what I thought was just going to be Linda and I going, is now going to have most of the crew headed up there, so I’m very excited about that as well! Lauren will participate in a Zombie shoot at Alpha Range afterwards, so she is jazzed. Video and summaries tomorrow.