Wednesday, November 19, 2014

End of Season Evaluation & Practice Plans (Part 1)

End of Season Evaluation & Practice Plans


It's been 12 months since Les took me under his wing and told me that I could learn enough to earn my USPSA "B" card, and I actually managed to accomplish it in 5 months, from "D" to "B". There was an awful lot that happened this summer with the job change, and the move to Texas that interrupted my further plans, but the past few months I had the chance to get back on the range and shoot a few matches, and really assess where I am at, where I want to be, and what I'm going to need to start working on to get there.

What Went Well:

A year ago I had a hard time with draw and reload, and since January I have worked pretty hard on both those skills. Being honest, you'll draw in a match 5-6 times, so it's not the biggest or most important investment of my time, but I wanted to be consistent, and I'm definitely getting it there. I had in issue where on my draw I would lock my elbows, and my arms were straight out, this meant not much flexibility, and it was enough to earn me my "B" card, but it had to get addressed. I made a conscious effort to change that, and I'm starting to see progress, but it's not consistent, or natural. I still have to think about it, and if I don't think about it, I don't do it.

My reloads are fairly consistent, in the spring I had a very robotic motion that was not comfortable, I pulled in my strong hand elbow to my chest, and used that to cant the gun the way I wanted, and force myself to put the gun into my "work area" so I could watch the reload go in cleanly. I was able to get rid of that, and start to be natural in late spring, but the enforced absence really hurt, and I noticed this fall that my reloads were sloppy and inconsistent. Apparently this skill was a casualty of the idea that shooting skills are perishable. I had to return to my robotic motion in order to get my reloads under control, and I'm only now starting to return to a comfortable and consistent reload.

Perhaps the best part of the year is that I'm really focusing on my sights, not as consistently as I'd like, but better than I have in the past. With everything else going on, and everything I was trying to think about, I often forgot to see my sights. Finishes at the Buckeye Classic and Battle of the Bluegrass showed me that on some stages when I focused I was fine, but when I let something else bother me, I could be epic level bad. Highlights included a Top 10 Production finish on one stage, and a low light of 7 misses on one stage.



With less on my mind when I shoot, my mind is fairly clear, and now I just focus on the sights, and trust that the rest of what I want to do is taking care of itself, Practice and training are paying off. This is leading to better transitions, and more focus on stage plan. These days a miss does not "surprise" me, I know what I'm seeing, so I feel like I should know if I missed a target. This is progress. In the video, you'll see that my splits and transitions are solid, this is where I need to be, and I'm seeing more and more of this as the year has progressed.



My strength all year was stages that I could use what I practiced most. My draw, reload, and fundamental, speed shoot skills all worked fairly well for me, and if you look at my classifiers, you'll see strong finishes where I could use those skills.



What Just Did Not Work:

This could be a long list, but I'm a "B" class shooter, and I'm trying to take steps, not race to Grandmaster. I see a lot of things that I can work to improve, but there are definitely a few things that really stood out for me in 2014.

As strong as I was on classifier, and speed shoot stages, I struggled on field courses. I attribute my struggle to a variety of things. I need work entering and leaving ports and shooting positions. I need to improve my reloads on the move, and I have absolutely terrible footwork, which goes into entering and leaving positions. As Terry has so aptly pointed out, I lack the sense of urgency on field courses, and I slow the heck down. I'll take a slow reload, or slowly get into a position, I'll fail to consistently hit a position with the gun up, and ready to break a shot as soon as I hit the position. These are all skills that are critical to my being consistent, and delivering a match long performance. The last addition to this amalgam of misfortune, is shooting on the move. I'm awful. I'm a position to position shooter, and I'm uncomfortable shooting on the move, and I realize how beneficial it would be if I could improve at this.


I ran Quad Standards (CM09-06) at a recent match, and I had never shot my gun at 40 yards. I looked pretty good, but I did not hit much. That leads me into a few other things that I struggled with, it was not just extreme distance, but little things like strong hand only or week hand only shooting that presented challenges for me. These were all things that Les touched on, and we worked briefly on, but they did not become staples of my practice routine. In the case of distance, Alpha range was really only about 23 yards from target to the back of the bay, but I never went to OnTarget, and took some time shooting my pistol at range, seeing what my hold should have been at a distance.

My mental focus has always been something Les and Kozy had me focus on. Never get too hard on yourself, don't let a miss or a bad stage cost you. This fall I noticed that with nobody to help prop me up, I had to do it for myself, and with Linda shooting every match, it was my job to keep her on the even keel. Maybe it was the responsibility of doing that, but it helped me with my own game. I can have a problem, have something not go my way, and I need to keep my focus. It's not where it should be, but I feel like in the fall there was measurable progress. In the spring I had bad stretches at major matches where I let one bad thing cascade into several bad stage. I think I'm further along, but I want to see it on a bigger stage before I can say that I'm where I want to be. This will be an ongoing challenge.

Wheels Fell Off When I had to re-shoot because targets not pasted
This led to 5 stages of meltdown


Finally, conditioning. Bluegrass and Ohio both tired me out, and I was spent by the end of the day. 10 plus stages, heat, and an all day event, and my ass was seriously dragging. Texas is a whole 'nother ball game, and with potentially 6 major's here next  year, I can't afford to start to fade, and ultimately burn out before a major match, hell a club match for that matter, is over. This is not just a shooting thing, and we're going the right way, but shooting is a mental, and physically exhaustive experience, and I feel I can't focus on one and ignore the other.

Long day of RO'ing, the heat got to me.
Bad turn, bad reload, wrong attitude.


2014 was a successful year. I moved from a 30% shooter, to a 71.28% shooter, that's progress. I developed a lot skills that I need to be successful, but it's obvious that I do still have a ways to go if I want to progress. I believe the key for 2015 is going to be a comprehensive practice plan that has me focusing on skills that need practice, rather than on "fun" drills, and includes a better diet, weight loss, and physical fitness regimen that allows me to achieve my goals. This really was my first full season shooting after some coaching, and trying to measure and improve my progress. Heck, October was the 2 year anniversary of my shooting a gun for the first time. The more I shoot, the less thinking I have to do, it become natural, and I become a product of my practice, that's why it's important for me to practice the right way, and hit the right things.

I'm working on putting my goals down on paper, and that will be the subject of my next blog. Knowing what I want to accomplish should help me come up with a better practice plan. I'm actually glad I decided to review the year, because it helped me see some current things I'd like to address.

No comments:

Post a Comment