Lessons of Bluegrass

Lessons of Bluegrass


In my final blog about the match, I wanted to cover a few of the things I learned, because I think they will help me practice and prepare to be a better competitor for my next match and beyond. It was educational to watch Ben Stoeger shoot a few stages, Matthew Mink shoot a stage, and as always watching Les and Kozy shoot. I picked up a few things that I really need to work on.


1) Shooting on the move

I'm pretty much a position to position shooter. I like to post up, get a good sight picture, and shoot. The problem is that not shooting on the move costs me a lot of time. It was one of the last lessons that Les did for Dave and I, and I honestly have not spent much time working on it, so I'm not confident. A week ago I worked it a bit at closer range, and my hits were just "okay". I only executed it one time at the match, at a relatively close range, so I need to work that into my dry fire. I need to expand my base, and keep my feet out as wide as my shoulders, and get down and move, keeping the sights as steady as possible. I have a tendency to move high, and then the sights bounce, and I lose any accuracy I might have had. Posture and walk can be practiced in dry fire, then I can go validate it in live fire.


2) Grip / Accuracy

When I shoot groups, the fast I go, the more I lose my accuracy when I don't have a gorilla grip on the gun with my weak hand. I notice that as I start to go faster, I weaken my grip with my left hand, the gun bounces, does not cycle perfectly flat, and I shoot a lot of Alpha/Charlie. My first shot is where I aim it, the second shot is not accurate. With 150 Alpha and 74 Charlie this past weekend, I can fully admit I'm not gripping the gun as tightly as I should be. The "Two Alpha" call was rare for me. I'm going to work my draw, and get the ogre grip from the start, and then I'm going to go shoot some groups solo, and validate that I'm right about my accuracy issue from this past weekend. I could be wrong, but I know this was something I did not do.

3) Stage Planning

This was actually a plus. I walked on Friday with Kozy, and we both found ways thru stages that worked for us. I listened to him, but I made calls that worked for me. On one stage he wanted to take a target from 18 yards thru a port on the move, but I did not feel confident in that, and found plan that suited what I do well. Granted, we both watched a video of Ben shooting the stage, and we adapted that slightly for each of us. I was prepared for every stage I shot on Saturday. I've never felt that confident before a big match, and it was almost relaxing to know what I was going to do before we shot.

4) Get Physical

I need to up my training. At the end of the day I was spent, and on Sunday morning my calves were killing me. Heck, it's Monday as I write this, and they are still aching. Diet is a positive step, treadmill is a positive step, but I need to up my game, and add some more stretching exercises to a morning routine so I stay loose thru a match. Those are long days, and I need to be as sharp on my last stage as I am on my first stage.

5) Get Mental

This was the biggest killer. No stage beat me, no other shooter beat me, I beat myself into the ground. Everyone is going to make mistakes, one big difference between a great shooter and a mediocre shooter is that the great shooter does not try to make it up, and does not carry it from stage to stage. Great shooters acknowledge mistakes and move on. I've been over this a lot, with Kozy and Les, and I thought I was moving past it, but this was a repeat of several matches last summer. I never want to repeat this error at a major match, heck at any match ever again. Time to get tough.

6) Strong Hand/Weak Hand

This did not bite me at the match, but it could have, and unless I practice it, it will. A couple of days a week I'm going to add some strong hand a weak hand to my practice routine. I need to up my game and bring it closer to the rest of what I do. I can't be so weak at something that it can entirely kill a stage for me.


Summary:

I have more skill than I demonstrated at the match, so that's a plus. I had some solid runs, also a major plus. I beat myself in a lot of ways, and that's all part of the sport. I'm never going to be as good a shooter as I want to be, until I learn to become a more mentally tough person. That one is correctable quickly, it's going to be some willpower, the other things, those will just take time and effort, both of which I'm going to commit.