Linda At Waco 2-21-15
Linda came out of Waco feeling like it was her best match since she got to Texas, and she expected to be middle of the pack, and to have beaten me. She had 3 outstanding stages, one decent stage, one bad stage, and a rough classifier that ended up her costing her. When the scores came out, she was disheartened, because it was not as good a finish as she expected, but when she saw the video of her from the end of last year, to this month, she saw a huge amount of improvement and smoothness.
This match marked three weeks of dry fire, which is not a ton in the scheme of things. She should be proud as can be, and if she stays on track, I think she'll have an excellent season. There is no doubt in my mind that when she puts it all together, she'll far exceed me.
Stage 6:
Solid start, she made some stage plan decisions that perhaps she would have changed, but on the whole, fairly solid, and it was a good stage to get the pre-match jitters gone.
Stage 1:
Reloads are low, but Linda is killing the steel, she may have buried a shot in the black, but much smoother. She did notice that her reloads need work. She is not dropping the mag until the gun is back in, and she is bringing in the gun very low.
Stage 2:
This was the rough stage. She did not want to hear suggestions on a stage plan, and was convinced that the best thing she could do was run to the middle, and lean all over to shoot. She had to hunt and peck for targets, and she ended up with a no-shoot as well. Thru the drive home, she insisted that she had a good plan, but when she saw the video, and saw the scores and realized how much time she lost, then she understood that the plan was poor. This is something I think you only learn at a match, it's something I still struggle with, and Linda is smart enough to learn from it going forward. Hard lesson, but a good one, especially now that she sees it. Even with a rough stage, you can learn a lot.
Stage 3:
Arguably Linda's best stage of the day. She ran the steel like a champ, had solid hits. Best part, is she did it after a stage that was a struggle, meaning that she left the bad stage behind, and came back on fire. Positive mental attitude is a plus, and she's got a much better one than I have. Pretty proud of her.
Stage 4:
Again, another solid run, some struggles on the last bit of steel that cost her an awful lot of time. I think I would have taken the swinger from the activator, but that's arguable. She had a lot to be happy with on this run.
Stage 5:
CM-99-13 Quicky II. Not a bad run, but a couple of weak hand mikes doomed the run, and it looks about like a 33% run. More practice on strong hand and weak hand.
Summary:
Linda just transitioned from her CZ to my old CZ, and she noticed a world of difference, all in a very good way. She showed confidence, did not let mistakes rattle her, and shot a solid match for 3 weeks of dry fire, and 2 weeks of live fire practice. Sure, there are always things that we want to do better, but the last time she felt this decent was June of '14, so she really needed this boost of confidence.
Waco 2-21-15
Last weekend we made the trip up to Waco for a match we had heard was pretty good, and gotta say was pretty impressed. The match only had 35 shooters, 10 of whom were GM's or Master class shooters, so the heat and the competition was on. The squad that Linda and I were in had 3 GM's, a Master, us, and one other shooter. Small squads, 6 stages, and were out done shooting in just over 3 hours.
This was to be my first mach with the Edge, and only having it about a week, I was not expecting to light things on fire, and I did not, by the end of the day I had some decent runs, but it's obvious that the switch to Limited from Production is going to be far greater than the switch from the Walther PPQ to the CZ and staying in Production.
Early on, I had issues with the gun shooting nearly 6"-8" low, being honest the issue was my trigger control about 95%, and adjusting the sight up about 4 clicks. This is what happens when you let someone else sight the gun, do it yourself so you know it's hitting where you want it to hit. My own fault. The trigger control issue took four bad stages, but another shooter tightened up my overtravel screw, and made the trigger better, and I realized I had too much finger in the flat trigger and was pushing the gun when pulling the trigger. Again, a switch from Production to Limited, and a new gun is a set-back.
Stage 6:
First stage I shot, I had an issue getting the mag in, it did not seat, so I dropped it and went on. I did not have a great grip, so I did not have the grip safety engaged, and then I had the first of the bad sight issues with the steel plate.
Stage 1:
Struggles on steel, hitting low, almost hitting the post instead of the plate. I put a couple shots into the hard cover as part of my struggle. We stopped after this stage to help get me sighted in correctly, and that was step 1 in the process.
Stage 2:
This was a memory stage, I had a pretty good plan, some slow execution in the middle, but no mikes at all, and in a tough group of shooters, I was 14th overall on this stage, so no complaints, I thought I was doing okay. Notice though that I was ignoring my mag on the front of my belt, and going immediately to my hip. Either I need to move the front mag, or I need to get in a lot of practice to get used to that.
Stage 3:
Had a near total meltdown on the steel plate, almost a full mag on it, and I could not understand why with the sights lined up I could not hit it. Wade looked at my trigger before the next stage to make the overtravel adjustment, but it's also where I realize that the gun was hitting but I was exhibiting poor trigger control and pushing the gun. Look at the way I ran the plate rack after not being able to hit the steel plate. The last plate shocked me, I had poor control because I was wondering WTF was happening. Poor attitude.
Stage 4:
With the sights being fixed, the trigger being in shape, and me showing much better trigger control I had my best field course stage of the day, and showed improvement. My only real error was running down the "long hall" without a reload, another shooter said that's what they were doing so they would have extra for the star. Considering how I had been running, extra on the star sounded good, so I changed my plan, I should have stuck with the original, and I'd have been better off. No mikes, and I felt good about the run.
Stage 5:
This was Classifier CM 99-13 Quick II. I had a single "mike" on the weakhand run, it was slow, my reload and transfer were not smooth, and I ended up with about a 41% "C Class run". I'm not saying this was a raging success, but neither was it a failure, and considering where I was on the first 4 stages in the match, it was an improvement.
Summary:
A lot of dry fire, and live fire are in the cards. Kozy told me it would take me at least 6 months to get used to a new gun, and with the Production switch I did not believe it, and it did not take that long, but from Production to Limited it will be every bit of 6 months before I'm 100% comfortable. I'm hoping that in 60-90 days I should be eliminating a lot of the little mistakes that I saw in this match.
I also feel like I'm going to be a better shooter in Limited than I was in Production. Right now I'm running slower splits, around .21-.22 seconds instead of .18-.20 in Production. The difference is that I've really been able to see my sights, and once the gun, and my finger was doing what it should, I felt extremely dialed in, and I did get good hits. I'm not saying I don't have to push, I do, I'm just saying that I feel an instant comfort with that aspect of the new gun.
I'm aiming to run two matches (Temple and Waco) in March, and the ALSPPC match in April, so I can be classed by the middle of April. I know it'll end up in the "C" area, but that's probably where I deserve to be, and I think I'll be able to get competitive in that class sooner. Keeping up with the dry fire, and live fire is going to be the name of the game. I saw some progress, but the new gun was a step backward as well. When it comes together though.....I'm really looking forward to this season.
Live Fire
Limited is going to take some time, and some practice, a LOT of practice. Linda and I trekked out to the range today to get some live fire work in, and for me it was the first chance to really put some rounds down range with the Edge. I put a mag and a half shooting some groups, getting used to the sights, I think I'm going to make an adjustment and try them again, the POI is lower than my POA, and I'd like to have it mimic the sights on my CZ.
First run was the best run with El Prez, 6.92 seconds, with a slow 2.12 draw, and 1.80 reload. Most splits were in the .24-.25 area, and transitions in the .36 area. I know I can shoot faster, but I felt like I was waiting a bit longer to wait for the sights to settle. I don't have a problem with that, it just feels slower than with the CZ, although being honest, waiting for the sights to settle gave me a much better sight picture, and I had better hits.
It was not all sunshine and roses, because that was the only run I had that was much good. Most runs were in the 9 second area because I either blew the draw, the reload, or both. Flipping the safety off is not something I'm used to, and it's going to take some serious practice to learn how to do that naturally. My best draws were in the 1.7 area, in Production I expected a 1.3-1.5 second draw. So I definitely have some work to do here.
I've spent 2 plus years reloading from my hip, and I kept going to the mag on my hip, instead of the mag that was on the front of my belt. That's also something I'm going to have to invest a lot of practice in changing. In a Production gun, I'd heard it bandied about that it could take 6 months of practice to get used to a new gun. From Walther to CZ I never had that steep of a learning curve, it was 30-60 days before I felt comfortable with the change, but then again I had a lot less to unlearn. Making this change to Limited division, I would not be surprised if it takes me 90-120 days at least to get comfortable. It's going to be a steep learning curve, and dry fire alone is not going to cut it. It will help build muscle memory, but doing it on a timer will be a whole different story. It may be that I won't put a mag up front, and will get them all close to my hip, we'll see.
As a whole, my hits were better, mostly because I had slower splits and transitions, and I really saw my sights this evening. I'm not going to push that a ton right now, that's a good thing, but I am going to keep hammering the other fundamental aspects of my game.
Linda tonight had some good runs. Her best run was a 7.26 run with a 1.82 second draw but a 2.21 second reload. What she found out was that she can shoot fast enough, generally around .28 splits and .35 transitions, if she can get her draw and reload in the 1.6 second area she'll be just fine. What was disappointing for her is that her dry fire reloads are coming in about 1.6. She had a few runs around 9 seconds, again a 1.88 draw, so she is consistent there, but an even worse reload at 2.47, it was her cadence that she needed to improve, with .40 splits and .61 transitions.
No bullshit, she just get's it. She's quick, she had good hits tonight, and she is building confidence. Her progress from dry fire really shows up when she is out there, I think as she get's some more live fire work she'll really make some big jumps. I'd be willing to bet that if she keeps up the practice she'll earn her "B" card this year, and be competitive. The truth is, she'll be a better shooter than I am in no time. More experience for the win. Pretty proud of her!
Limited: The Edge
Okay, this will take a few people aback, and I've already caught some flak about this decision, but I've decided to leave the Production Division, and move to the Limited Division in 2015. In Production you generally see stock type guns, no magwell's, and there is a limit of 10 rounds in the magazines. It's been a fun run in Production, but at the end of last year, post move, I was a little burnt out by the the sport, and it was just not as fun as it had been in the past. I attributed it to missing my friends, and I realized that a large part of my shooting fun was not just the shooting, but the people I went shooting with. I started to gear up for 3-Gun, thinking that maybe that would be something new and exciting, and would restore the fun that I was not having.
My New STI Edge
A few weeks ago I said to myself that what I really enjoy is pistol shooting, and maybe I just needed to make a change in that. The CZ Shadow is about as good as it gets in the Production Division, and there was no real reason to change guns. Maybe it's because I was having a harder time fitting in at the range, as it did not feel like the same community that I left in Illinois, I thought that maybe if I changed the game around it would be be enough to restore the luster. I had no interest in Single Stack, and revolvers are alien to me. That left me Open and Limited, and I've seen enough "Akai Magic" when Kozy is shooting that kind of scared me off Open. The constant tuning the mags, the gun, the sight's issue, I'm just not quite ready for that.
Limited allows me a nice big magwell, and 20+1 or 21+1 in the magazine if I can fit them, which really changes the game. Instead of planning stages, usually around, 8 shot array's, now I can plan around 16-18 shot array's. In addition, Limited is a major power factor, meaning it's scored a little differently than Production. Alphas have 5 points still, but Charlies and Bravo's are 4 points instead of 3 points in Production, and Delta's are 2 points instead of 1 point. Now it's not really an advantage because everyone shooting Limited is playing under the same set of rules, and I'm not competing against the Production shooters.
I'd looked at the new STI DVC, because it looked great, and came out of the box with a lot of highly desirable features, however it's brand new, not yet released, and frankly I'm a little hesitant to buy something like that. Let someone else run it for the year, see how reliable it is, and maybe down the road I'll look at one.
STI DVC
I spoke to some local shooters, did a little shopping, and decided on the STI Edge, it's been around for years, it's one of the most common guns in the Limited Division, and it's got a track record of success. I got an introduction up at Dawson Precision, and went up there to order one, and Dave Dawson spent some time with me, and assured that he'd personally go over the gun, and make sure I had a good one, and one that I wanted. A premier gunsmith, the guy who developed the gun while the Production Manager at STI? Hell yes!
The New Edge
In any case, I picked it up, and have started dry fire with it already. It's going to take some time to really get things down, and it's probably going to be a couple of steps backward before I can go forward. My early impression is of course favorable, my reloads thanks to the magwell are as fast, and more consistent than they were with the CZ. My ability to index the gun to a target is remarkably better than the CZ as well, it points more naturally, and I like the weight distribution more than the CZ. My draw is inconsistent, when it's on it's solid, but having to take the safety off, my early dry fire runs have found me not quite getting the web of my main hand in place, and not engaging the grip safety. That's something practice will address, but I'm excited to get going.
While all that's good and well, and it is what it's going to be, my tune changed a little bit coming back from Florida. While I was there, being able to shoot with friends, I had so much fun, I found everything that I thought I'd lost, I found my passion about the sport again. I did not need to look at 3-Gun as another way to find it, or to move to Limited, I could have stayed right there in Production happily. If this match had happened in December, I doubt I'd have committed to 3-Gun or Limited. That said, I do want to experience both, and I'm looking forward to them, and going to put my best effort and energy to compete in both.
I caught a little grief from someone who thinks I did it because I wanted the game to be easier, and he felt it would be amusing to see me do it. That's fair, but that's not the real reason I wanted to, and knowing that, I'm okay with it. I'm looking forward to it. Part of me had some regret, but the die has been cast, and believe me, picking up that gun for the first time, shooting it, and now practicing with it, no regrets, and nothing but enthusiasm.
Part one covered the pre-lunch stages I shot at the Open, part 2 is for the 2nd half of the match for me.
Stage 1: Ancient City Conquest
19 Alpha
6 Charlie
5 Delta
2 Mike
33.77 Seconds
I'm glad we broke here, because I needed extra time to walk this stage, and learn the "trick". There was some definite distance here, but the big part should have been the swinger. At rest, the target was visible from the low port, so the plan was to hit the swinger, stop shooting, and then walk over and tap the activator. Since the timer will register the last shot, the time you spend walking to touch the activator is not counted, and you get to shoot a target at rest. You must hit the activator, or you get a penalty, so doing it, no moving target, all seem like a win to me.
What went wrong with that plan? Well, again poor hits, but I missed the non-moving activator from the low port. Again, something I'm not used to doing, taking a long shot from a non-conventional position. Something I need to work on.
Stage 2: Cigar City Comeback
23 Alpha
6 Charlie
2 Delta
1 Mike
32.61 Seconds
A shoot house type stage that was fun? Again, I ran a slightly different plan that cost me some time. Position 1 and 2 was the same as everyone, and I struggled to take the 3rd position on the move. I elected to dive into the window in the 4th position and take a longer target, other shooters waited to take that target because it saved them several steps from having to go into the port. It definitely cost me time.
I took the next 2 targets on the move, and then into the far window. I wanted to close then on the 2 targets near me, but I pulled off the closest target to me, and threw a mike on a target about 7 yards from me, just blew my mind, I was trying to transition, and just missed. This is where everyone else took the long target, it was a lean, but after the fact I can where and why my plan cost me time.
Stage 3: Capital City Shuffle
23 Alpha
7 Charlie
1 Delta
1 Mike
34.84
This was my second best finish, top 40% in Production, even with a miss. It was also perhaps one of the most straight forward stages of the match. The only variation was taking a hard lean at the start position, and hitting the 3rd paper target. You'll notice I slowed, and had to take that target from the port, had I done it on the move, it would have been okay, but stopping cost me some time, and then I had less time coming out of the reload. This was easily a place I could have shaved some time.
The delta and mike were on the same target, the 4th position had a hard cover target and I buried one in the delta, and one in the hard cover, telling me that I did not see my sights, and I almost broke the first shot before the transition was complete, and I was taking off to the next target before I got the 2nd shot off.
Here is a video of Roy Steadman running the same stage:
Stage 4: Jax Juke
25 Alpha
3 Charlie
2 Delta
2 Mike
31.09 Seconds
By the book, this was my 3rd best stage. I liked the set-up, but I failed to execute the way I wanted to. I started the first position right back to left so I could take the last target on the move backing out of position, instead I just stood there and cost myself a couple of steps. Position 2 went well, but my reload sucked, and I had the misses on the poppers into the 3rd position, the slow activation on the swinger meant I really could have taken the activator steel first, went to paper then to the swinger, rather than doing what I did and waiting. Slow reload into the 4th, open middle position, and again I had some misses on the small steel on the final position that cost me some time.
There was a single miss on each swinger, again proving I need to put some time into swingers and make sure I add that to my practice routine. Watching the run, I think I should have shaved off 5 or 6 seconds. However this was two solid stages in a row, so I was not too unhappy, although I was just starting to feel like I was getting it together.
I felt better about my sight picture on this stage than any other stage all day long, but it also was a stark contrast from what I had been seeing, and looking past the sights to the target. Practice!
Stage 5: Orlando Overkill
23 Alpha
5 Charlie
8 Delta
2 Mike
1 No-Shoot
34.13 Seconds
Last stage of the day, this had a lot of shooting positions, and there were a couple of good ways to run it. I'll just say that my plan was not one of those ways, I took some longer shots than I needed to, I got caught waiting for the max traps to work, and I never paid attention to the 4th position, that once the max trap opened, the target was half covered by no-shoot. Alpha, Mike, No-Shoot....ugh.
The reload coming out of the 3rd position, and out of the 4th position left me feeling like I had a bad grip on the gun, and in the final position, I felt the gun, and the sights creeping up in my hand. So failure on the grip, and that cost me on the long targets.
Final:
I managed to keep my enthusiasm, and energy level up all day, I did not let things get me down, so both of those I see as positives. Let's face it, almost 90 days with minimal trigger time, one match since October, and one live fire practice? Perishable skills deteriorate, and I saw it first hand. I'm not going to dwell on the bad stuff, no point in it, focus on sight picture, incorporating swingers into live fire, and some shooting from uncomfortable positions will help eliminate many of the issues I had on the range.
I was not going down with any idea of winning my class, or kicking ass, I knew it was going to be a rough match, and with the mikes, and deltas it definitely was. I showed how out of practice I was, however the good stuff was a new side of me, and a skill I've struggled with. I'd like to think that in a few months with some hard work I'm going to start putting it all together, and shooting the way I think I'm capable of. No, that's not a GM level, but I think I can put together and be a solid "B" class shooter. I'm not afraid to work at that.
Florida Open will be a permanent fixture on my shooting schedule from now on. This was an amazing match, technically challenging, fun, well run, and the people are really what make it. Next year I'm going to raise my game quite a bit for this match. In order to do that, I'll have to get busy now, and really keep up the training.
I'll run my breakdown in order of stages shot, not numerical order. We had 3 stages early A.M. facing east just after sunrise, and on our first stage the sun was just over the berm, and it was a significant challenge.
Stage 6: Miami Muscle
21 Alpha
8 Charlie
1 Delta
4 Mike
45.28 Seconds
I was the 2nd shooter, and got lucky. I had mag issues (no feeding) at both the 2nd and 3rd shooting positions, and had to take those mags out of the match. However as closed into the final shooting position, I noticed nobody had pasted the "strong hand" and "weak hand" targets. Re-shoot was a blessing, or it could have been. There was a low target at a cross direction from me that I had to take at shooting points 2 and 3. First run I had A/C and A/C, 2nd run thru I had 4 misses. Short version is that I did not show enough respect to the targets, I never saw my sight, and I took the tough shot too fast. The sun did not help, but I should have taken the time to deal with, I did the first time, and failed the 2nd time.
My stage plan was not optimal, most people hit the middle after the 2nd position, but I was concerned with it taking too much time with the leans and the transfer's, so I wanted to finish there. I changed my mind the morning of, but at that point, I was too far down the path, so I kept to my plan, and figured to run with it.
Stage 7: Space Coast Challenge
17 Alpha
8 Charlie
2 Delta
1 Mike
31.24 Seconds
This was my best stage of the day. I was 29th of about 90 Production shooters for the match, so top 1/3rd, and I did not shoot it clean, I left points. The stage plan was awesome, Roy Steadman came up with it, and it was so good, I think our entire squad (save 1) used it. The moving shots as I came from position 1 to position 2, were both Charlies, and I should have been better there. I took a mike on the cross target paper shot from the final position. This was again a sun one for me, I did not have a great sight picture and I squeezed it off anyhow, I'd wager had I waited for the sight picture to come into place, I'd have had at least a Charlie.
Consistency is always an issue, but to me, this is probably the upside of where I am in Production right now, I can clean this run up for points so I know I can get a lot more competitive than I was the remainder of the match.
Minor note, when I ran from the 3rd position to my final position, I grabbed mags too far back, and that was a theme on the day, I lost count of where mags where, and I started grabbing from the back. Little thing, but still needs fixing.
Stage 8: Conch Republic
My worst finish on a stage, but not, I felt, my worst stage.
15 Alpha
9 Charlie
2 Delta
4 Mike
1 No Shoot
35.02 Seconds
My video got messed up, so I'm actually going to use the video of Les. We ran the same plan, but he did it faster and better. That's what a GM looks like.....
My Delta's and Mike were on the swinger and the long target, again proving that I need to keep on working those aspects.
Stage 9: Hog Town Hustle
20 Alpha
7 Charlie
3 Delta
38.62 Seconds
Hold the presses, a stage without a miss? What the hell happened? Well, the truth is I was every bit as slow as it looks. There was some memory to it, and the Cooper Tunnel, where the plan was to only have to go thru the 1st tunnel, and finish before the 2nd. This kept down the chance for a procedural, but I'm not sure if it was all that fast for me. I had an issue after closing down the swingers on the right, it was fast, and only partially available, I did not seat a mag headed to the next position, and had an extra mag change. Again another mag pulled from the match.
Stage 10: Daytona Drag
16 Alpha
4 Charlie
3 Delta
5 Mike
1 Failure to Engage
41.03 Seconds
This was my absolute worst stage of the day. This was the train wreck I was afraid of having. Match results say I finished better than Stage 8, but the reality was this was bad. From the minute the buzzer sounded, I completely forgot my stage plan. In reality, there was a lot of memory to this stage, and my plan was different than other people, and it was crappy to begin with. I'd looked at a few different ways to do it, but I never settled on one way. I paid the price.
After the first target, I was going to shoot the 2 orange steel, but when the buzzed sounded, I did not do that, I moved outside before going in. From the starting position, the 2 pepper poppers were partially hidden making for a very small aiming surface, and I managed to hit the wall a couple of times before I got them down, and got the swinger moving. Once that happened, I forgot what I wanted to do, and I never engaged the paper that was directly down range of me. I suspect on the video you can hear me cursing about what happened, because I knew I was in a bad spot.
My original plan allowed me to skip the 3rd position, but I forgot that, and ended up never finding the targets in the order I wanted to. In past matches, this would have derailed me for the entire match, and I admit it was pretty bad. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I did take a couple of things from it, I needed to put the same attention to detail in it that I did every other stage, I did this to myself. I also need to not let a bad start derail me on a stage, and I need to finish it as best I can to still earn as many points as I can, both things let me down.
Stage 11: Palm Beach Bash
12 Alpha
18 Charlie
2 Delta
3 Mike
34.94 Seconds
This was a crucial stage. History says I would train wreck this stage after the debacle on Stage 10. I had a bold plan that Les encouraged me to try. Shoot 4 paper targets and 3 pepper poppers at the first position. That's right, shoot to 11, go to slide lock, and reload on the way to the 2nd position. For a GM like Les, no problem, but I was worried that one miss, or one make-up shot, and now I eat a standing reload. Did I mention that there was not a single open target? Every paper target was a half target, just depended on which half was open.
Position 1 I was 10 for 10, and missed on the 11th shot, so I ate the standing reload, and got going from there. Despite it not going my way, I did not get upset, I ran my plan, I kept it going, and I finished the stage. My hits sucked because I was so afraid of ending up in the black, I was literally aiming at the C section because it was open, not the half of the A zone that was. When you are not being accurate it's tough to trust your sights. My mikes were all shots that ended up in the hard cover area of targets.
Going too fast, not paying attention to sights, it all kind of got me, but the realization was that I needed to get back to "aim small, miss small," and trusting my sights. Good idea, even if the execution was not what it should have been.
After Stage 11 we broke for lunch, which gave me a needed break to try to right the ship, and get my focus where it needed to me. Unfortunately my phone was ringing off the hook and I had to spend a good portion of time trying to close a sale. Even on a vacation day, I got caught up, that won't happen again, but it is what it is.
Last video for Stage 11 was Roy Steadman, Limited GM, Open GM, and the reigning IPSC National Champion in the Modified Division. (Reigning because the did away with the division the year after he won it....) My point is Roy is a great shooter, awesome squad-mate, the author of the plan on a couple of stages, and someone I learned a lot from this weekend.
2015 Florida Open Summary
Good, bad, and ugly, I had some of it all. If you have followed the blog the past few months you know how little trigger time I have gotten, and how little practice I have had before really getting committed and starting again here in February. I was fully expecting the FLOP to be a major disaster for me. Most blogs I would hammer down on all the things that went wrong, and I'm not going to deny that things did, oh did they ever! However I saw improvement in quite a few things, and even if my score is going to be about the same as the last 2 majors I shot (Ohio and Bluegrass last year) I'm way ahead of the game, and I can "buff out" some of the errors I had.
L to R: Kozy, Me, David, Roy, Drew, Ryan, Les, Ralph, David, Raimondas
This match was both the hardest, and most enjoyable match I have ever shot. There was distance, swingers with partials, fast swingers, and some pretty tight shots. There were a couple of stages that were pretty straight forward. I had a great squad to shoot with, and this was the first time since the move that I have seen Les and Kozy. Adding to the squad was Limited GM Roy Steadman (and my travel partner for the match) so I had some excellent shooters to watch, and to work with on plans. Aside from the friendship part, great squad, great people to learn from. (2 GM's and 2 Master Class shooters....if you pay attention, and listen, you stand to learn.)
My biggest improvement was attitude. Last year when I'd have a bad stage and melt down, I would never recover from it, at Bluegrass I had a meltdown, and let it fester and carried it for 5 more stages before I righted the ship. In Ohio I had a bad stage and let it carry for 4 stages. You just can't do that. In Florida I shot 11 mini-matches. I had one train wreck of my own making, and I was unhappy, but it was completely forgotten when I got to the next stage, and built a plan based on shooting to slide lock, confidence right after a disaster. That's a baseball closer, or a football defensive back, gotta have a short memory for bad things. When it's all said and done, I'm really happy with this improvement, it's the single biggest thing I could have improved on, and I need to keep it together, remember how it felt, and carry it forward.
So what went wrong? 25 Mikes, and 31 Delta's. That alone tells me I was not focused on my sights because those are remarkably poor hits. Add in 214 Alpha and 81 Charlie, I did not have the A/C ratio I need, and expect. To compare it, Les had 277 Alpha, 64 Charlie, 6 Delta, and 4 Mike, and he felt the D/M were too high. That's a lot of points he had on me, and granted he will likely win the Production Division, that level of points is where I want to be. I need to be more accurate.
Accuracy Breakdown:
Why did I struggle? The most obvious reason is that I did not see my sights. The truth is there were some stages I felt like I had the front sight, the others I was looking beyond the front sight to the target, and I never saw the sights rise, or settle. That's an embarrassing admission, but when I breakdown my video, I remember what I saw, so I'm going to try to notate it, and see what is in common.
Swingers. I cant tell you the last time I practiced them. I had some luck, but I had a ton of struggles with the speed, and the fact that many were obscured, so there were very brief points where you could see them and hit. I had an awful lot of mikes on swingers.
Distance. There was some serious distance here, on Stage 6, where I started I had to run the stage twice. Second shooter, I had some mag issues, but I took some time and respect 2 half low targets in the sun, and had A/C and A/C on my first run. Thankfully there was a re-shoot because of no pasting, and I saved about 25 seconds on the reshoot, but I did not respect those same targets and ended up with 4 mikes. That's a huge swing, but in my haste to go fast, I never saw my sights, and I remember never seeing my sights come back down. I looked past the sight to the target.
Fixable:
I think my accuracy issue is totally fixable. It's not just going to go away, but dry fire, and live trigger time, with a focus on fundamentals, and it will fix itself. One of my goals was to shoot 90% points in a major match this year, in Florida I shot 76% points before penalty, and only 60% after. That's pretty awful. Last spring, early summer, when I was at my best, I was shooting 85%-90% points in a few club matches, so I know I can get back to that level of accuracy thru practice. Now it's just a matter of doing that, dry fire focusing on my sights and trigger control, shooting groups in live fire, and getting used to the recoil of my gun again.
Marksmanship is something I've worked on before, so I'm confident in my ability to get it back up to shape, I've done it, I know what and how to do it again. Now it's just a matter of my living up to my commitment and actually doing it.
Overall:
I made a comment that my passion for the sport was renewed because of the people I shot with. Seeing Les and Kozy brought all that back again. I had so much fun. If I was shooting with those guys still, I would never have wanted to try 3-Gun this year. That's how much fun it was, and how much I don't want to suck next time. I'm not saying I feel obligated to do well, but those guys invested an awful lot of time into working with me, and I did not show much for that investment this weekend. Next time out I want to show 'em that their investment was worth it. No, that's not the main reason, I want to do it for me, but every little bit of motivation helps.
A few months until I see 'em again, and we're shooting several major's together this year, I won't go as long without seeing 'em again. I really need to stay on self-motivation, and of course shooting with Linda helps too. It's early in the game, really just two weeks since I affirmed my commitment, and got back on the horse. That's a good start, and FLOP was a good way for me to see how far my overall performance has degraded, and give me a place to start working.
L to R: Myself, Roy, Kozy, & Les, post match, leaving Frostproof.
I'm going to get busy working on it, and go. I'm so excited to be practicing again, and it's fun again, I don't see it as work. I'm doing it because I love it.
Florida Open Prep
Not a whole lot more to do, the match is in a few days, and if I'm honest with myself, I realize I'm not close to where I wanted to be, so I'm not going down with any real expectations. A few weeks ago I said I just wanted to shoot the match and not DQ, which was a pretty pathetic attitude. The dry fire, live, and getting back on the daily practice bandwagon has really helped, but no, not even close to the top of my game.
I'm going to the match wanting to find the gaping holes in my game, to identify them, and to start fixing them over the course of this season. I'm going to take one stage at a time, and with no expectations, I'm going to reset after every stage, and forget about the previous one. I think from a mental aspect, I need to do this, I need to be able to treat each stage as a mini-match, bring my best effort to it, and not carry over any lingering effects of issues on previous stages.
I've never spent time on long range stages, never seen 25-35 yard double swingers, so this is going to be an eye opening experience. Just going and trying should help me set higher challenges going forward for myself, and in the long run, it's a positive step.
What I'm really looking forward to doing, is having a couple of days to hang out with Les and Kozy, it's the first time I'll have seen 'em since we moved, and while I don't want to interfere with their "game face" and match performance, I also know those two guys help me. The little e-mails, encouraging words, texts, they'll help me find as much success as I can down there. I'm really looking forward to it!
It's painfully obvious that shooting is a perishable skill, and a lack of live fire has really been an issue for me. There are limits in dry fire, simply things that I can't reproduce, like muzzle rise, recoil, and so on. Yesterday I had a sporadic issue with not watching my front sights, and I had moments where I was in "zone" and was able to shoot like the only things I was seeing were my front sights. In addition, I had an awful lot of mental errors that cost me, mental errors that I was not making last summer. I had a mag loaded to 7, I'd forget a stage plan, or lose my stage plan while making up a shot. These are all correctable, but I realize that I don't have a substitute way to practice that stuff, and yesterday it hurt. With Florida end of the week, I know where I'm at, I also realize it's not just dry fire, and live fire I need, but to stay focused the way I was last year. Last summer I would have called those things instinctual, this year I have to think about them.
Awkward lean to start since I had to transition and shoot on the move to 3 targets. Once upon a time I would have just used the starting position to turn and shoot from, and not shot on the move, or I would have "baby stepped" which is really crappy, and offers no benefit. Since one of my focal points is on the move, I wanted to take these moving, and I did. Hits were good on the first target, but by the 3rd target I had a C and D, so it's a step, but I need work.
2nd position I came into the open target a hair slower than I wanted, and then had the long angle to the steel, and because of the mikes had to eat a standing reload, that hurt.
3rd position I wanted to come into the head box only target because I felt like it deserved the extra time and if I transitioned from the star to the head box I would end up rushing it. I have no idea if that was the right decision or not, and I was so focused on the head shot, I forgot I was going to the star next, and I looked for another target. I ran the star really well however, probably the best I have ever done.
Final position I was slow on the transitional reload, but had good hits, and I felt like I was slow on the transition from the far target to the final far right target.
Stage 6:
This one started out pretty decently, not a bad turn and get to the gun, I hit the targets in the order that I wanted, and I thought my splits, transitions and hits were good. Issue one was moving into position for the 2nd array on the left hand side. Despite telling myself 10,000 times in walk thru that I needed to get to the back of the shooter box, I failed to do it. I had to do it to see a low target on the 2nd array, and only with a lean, not moving into position cost me the reset.
Reload was okay, and I had the gun up and shooting into the inside position on the right, but this was my biggest failure. If I went 1 for 1 on the steel, my plan was to take out the big popper back left, so my last position was only paper, and I could come in flying rather than having to line up another long shot. Problem was, I missed a popper, ran dry, and had to eat a standing reload before getting to the other position. Had I taken the small popper, I could have moved to the final position, like I tried to do, and taken the long shot, and not eaten the long reload. That mental mistake cost me.
Stage 2:
Unloaded start, something I need to work on more, but that was not a big time cost. I got out hit the first 2 targets pretty well, but when I came into the port I did not have my front sight, and missed on the steel, when I got composed and took it, I did not have enough to finish my original plan, and went dry again. Just a dumb mistake. I was pretty unhappy with this run, because it was a couple of mental mistakes that I just plain know better.
Summary:
First match in 90 days because of weather, and a few other things, and I can see that my "match skill" set needs to be brought back up to speed. That also includes a focus on my front sights, One of my "soft goals" is to earn 90% of points, and the only way I can do that is maintain a consistent focus on my front sight. I did not have it today, but it was definitely there in bursts The way I ran the Texas Star felt great, I actually tried to shoot on the move, I had some good splits, and some good transitions, so I don't think it was a total disaster.
Some of the issues are going to self correct with dry fire, and live fire work, and I'm definitely back on that. I've gotten my dryfire in for the past week each and every day, and I've done it effectively. I also saw improvement in things I felt I was weak in the past, and struggled with, so dry fire helps. What I did not see was consistency, and that will be a big thing going forward. In order to achieve my goals, I'm definitely going to have to get more consistent.
The last positive thing I see, is in my attitude. A year ago, I would have been frustrated, and been angry, and found very little positive in this match. This year, I'm willing to accept that I can find positives even when things don't go the way I want.
On the eating front, keeping up my log on My Fitness Pal, have stayed well under my calorie goal each day, and I'm getting smarter about my portions again. The issue normally is that I'm hungry as hell, feel cold, and am tired, I think that's in large part because I'm way under my calorie goal, and I can, and probably should have a couple extra healthy 100 calorie snacks during the day. Once I make it past the first week or so though, life will get infinitely easier, so keeping the willpower now is very important.
Last night in dry fire, we worked some core skills. Starting with El Prez, I set my par time to 6 seconds, and had no problem with that, so I gradually moved the par time towards a 5.0 second goal, but once I hit 5.4 seconds was struggling to push myself to meet the par. I have shot it live faster, so I know I can do this, and as the rust wears off, I think I'll see real progress with this one. I did however feel like I had a very good sight picture (something I can't always say I have) and I think I would have shot it very well.
We did several draw drills, and my time is even a little better than it was on Sunday, so gradually the rust is starting to come off. That felt good. The struggle for both of us was the reload drill we closed out with. Three targets, draw, six shots, reload, six shots, reload, six shots, par time was 6 seconds, and I could not manage it. My first reload was usually pretty solid, but once I was in shooting rhythm, my reloads got progressively sloppy. I can see where 2 reload 2 is key, I need to up my comfort and expand the skill. A single 1.0 second reload is nice, but there are very few reloads where I'm not in a shooting rhythm, and I need to maintain focus.
It was good to get back to old routines. I have not practiced since June. Really being honest about it last time I practiced it was before the Ohio Sectional. Shot my last Illinois match about June 8th and then my gun sat in the box til August. So it is time to chip away at all this rust that has built up since the move.
Goals:
I would like to earn my B card this year.
Would like to shoot 1 or 2 bigger matches in state.
Really want to focus on having solid/consistent matches.
Classifiers---I dislike them, I let them intimidate me completely...needs to stop
Commenting on the last goal~ I need to leave what happens on a stage, at that stage when I leave it and not let it put me in a down spiral for the rest of the match.
1st dry fire practice ( in awhile)-- Sunday Night-
WHOA!! Tons of rust! I picked 3 dry fire drills to work on.
Trigger Control at Speed
Transition Component Drills
Reload Components
Not one of them could I hit where the timer was set at. Trigger Control at Speed- really notice the slap of the trigger due to not finding the re-set. The sight goes down and to the left. By far the work drill for me was the Transition Drill--I have always struggled with this drill. I don't see the sight, I drag across all targets. I am aiming to low. Reload Drill- I was sloppy, stuff I know I can work on. Either I was on and turned the gun correctly, and did the whole process decent, or I was bad.
1st live fire practice ( in an even longer time)- Monday-
Was great to get back on the range. When you're there, nothing else matters, but you and your practice. I was intimidated at first staying behind what felt like a backstop to me. But I quickly got past that with the first pull of the trigger.
We ran 10 yd groups that I was ok with. 15yds I struggled. We had a turtle target out at 25 yds and I had them all on paper but not in a group.
As a whole on other drills I notice my splits at ranging between.30-.35. My transitions are in the .50's. My draw started out hairy at a 1.9, but then slowly got it down to a 1.5.
BILL DRILL- Well for some crazy reason, I can't count to 6! Seems so stupid, I need to laugh at myself. I started out at a 3.3 then got down to 2.79.
All in all a good practice, needed to get out there and get going.
I still see my flinch, and need to seriously work on finding the re-set to my gun, I don't most of the time..... I slap the trigger and my front sight is dancing down and to the left.
Back In The Saddle
Day 1 back on the diet, and I'm in the game again. I made the call to use My Fitness Pal to log again, (ldsundevil827) and I'm off and running. Putting things in perspective, right now, I'm allotted 2170 calories a day, with three exercise days a week. That puts me dropping my first 10 pounds by March 9th, should be easy enough, just need to stay on things, and eat right. I've got this, one day at a time, one meal at a time.
Today is also day 2 of getting ready to shoot again. I hemmed and hawed all January long about a shooting partner, and after some long discussions, Linda and I are going to partner up to shoot and work together. The biggest downside is that it's easy to skip practice, for us to say "let's watch TV" or something like that, and that she is not pushing me. I got a great benefit from working with Dave, because he was an equal, and with Les and Kozy because they were infinitely better than I was, so I had to push myself harder.
The honest truth is that Linda has a lot more potential than I do in USPSA, she's quicker, faster, and has good instincts, so while she may not be where I am today, I think she can rapidly catch up, and surpass me as long as she is committed to working at it. By our teaming to work in 2015, I think that she'll move in that direction, and she'll definitely have me nagging her to go practice. This has meant a deeper investment, a second timer, more targets, and double the ammo. Right now we are committed to a live fire practice 200-250 rounds once a week, and 6 dry fire practices a week, 15-30 minutes per session. We're going to try to work 2 local matches a month, weather permitting, My goal is to earn my "A" card, and get competitive within that division, I'm going to give Linda access to the blog, so she can write as well, and she can put her goals, and track her progress.
Yesterday we worked fundamental skills in dry fire in order to brush the rust off. Trigger control at Speed was the starter, I was about 1.6 second in my first run thru, by my 3rd set, I was able to hit the par time of 1.2 seconds with pushing it, it was not comfortable, bu that's a good thing. We worked Transition Component Drills, with a 1.6 second par time, and that was a struggle for me, I was in the 1.9 area pushing myself, I know that needs some work, and today at the range I saw it in person. Finally we worked Reload Components, we ran a set of reloads with a 1.6 second par time, and struggled, I think we were around 1.8 seconds. We broke it down to the micro drills, and after a few runs, I had the Burkett Load to the .6 second par time with relative ease, then we ran two sets of the follow up, seat mag, extend and sight picture, and again after a few, I was comfortable with that part at .6 seconds. Then we came put it all back together, and my reloads were around 1.4 seconds, which was a .4 second improvement after starting that way cold. I need more work here, I had to go "robotic" to make sure the cant was right, the mag was out, and everything was right. More repetition here will smooth that out.
Today at the range, we shot some groups at 10 yards, 15 yards, and 25 yards. We worked on some medium transitions, from 10-15, and vice versa with about a 10' spread between them, and we closed out with some Bill Drills. My 10 yard groups were excellent, my 15 yard groups were decent, and my 25 yard groups took a while to tighten up, I'm going to have to get some video, because I sense a flinch, I ran a good group, but all in the "C" zone left (metric target). On the transition drills, my draw was in the 1.4-1.6 range, with .5 transitions, and that's slow, last spring I was running .38 transitions on those types of distances. Splits were in the .21-.22 range.
Bill Drill was slow, I think I started at 2.79, but the last ones I closed at were in the 2.08 area, with all Alpha's. Draw was the slowest part, and I never got my transitions below .20, which means work, again, last spring/summer my splits were consistently in the .17- .19 area. Again, not perfect, but considering how little work I've done in the last 60-90 days, I saw some progress, I just see 30 days of working the rust out to get back where I was at, and before I can really start pushing hard forward.
Tonight we're going to work some Core USPSA skills, and I'm going to dry fire El Prez, a Plate Rack Drill, Partials, and 5 minutes on One Handed Shooting, before closing with a few more minutes on the Bill Drill. One of Linda's biggest area's of need is picking up the speed, and pulling the trigger faster, for her, some extra focus on things like a Bill Drill should really pay off, for me, they all help, but a little focus on strong and weak hand shooting should be a good thing.
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