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.
Stages
Stage 5:
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.
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