Texas Open 4-24-15

Texas Open 4-24-15


Texas Open was a lesson in how not aggressive I've become on stages. Scores are not in, but I achieved a goal of single digit mikes, and it was made worse by one lousy call (a paster, not enough ammo to re-shoot) and a magazine feed issue that cost me 2 mikes and got me a FTE. All that said, I had some solid stages in the middle, but I'm just not running the gun all that hard, and it shows. I went back and looked at match video from when I was shooting Production, and I was more aggressive on stages, I had good splits, and solid transitions. Today I had points, but my transitions were not very good, my splits were not good, and my cadence really needs work. Look, massive improvement from where I was at the Florida Open, but still not even touching the surface of what I know I can do. Maybe it's a lack of confidence, I'm not sure, but I do know that I've got to find out, and deal with it quickly.


I missed 6 stages worth of video, so here is what I have:


Stage 11:





As I predicted, the steel plates at my lunch. I've always had an issue where I have to aim almost upwards at something, and on this stage it kicked my ass.


Stage 8:





Okay, what went wrong? I did not go to my 2nd target, and lost time hunting and pecking, but I picked up a little speed from there. Once I moved to the 2nd position, I have no idea why I did not shoot faster, I went way too slow. Then post reload I had a feed issue, and ended up taking 2 mikes and an FTE on the long target when I spent 25 seconds trying to clear the jam. I thought that was a better play that finally taking the shots.


Stage 7:





I had a pretty sound plan, and I did execute it, but once again, transitions and splits are slow, I just did not have the urgency needed to make this an outstanding stage. I think it was actually the best run in the squad, but I left some time on the table here.


Stage 2:





Name of the game was speed, and I did not have it. Run was solid, good hits, good plan for Limited, but not running the gun all that hard.


Stage 10:





Running the gun? Got my hits, but had big gaps in some transitions, like I was not decisive, despite knowing where I wanted to go. The make up on the 2nd position really hurt, I thought I clipped barrel on my first shot, but turns out I did not. I also dropped a mag on the reload, which added to the time. Three mag drops in three matches, I think it's time to really work on my index.




Stage 9:





Got hits, but I'm a little disappointed that I had wide open, on the move targets out of the first position, and I went really slow getting to them. Hits yes! Speed no.



Stage 6:





Arguably my best stage of the day. Good hits (disputed call on one, cost me, especially since someone pasted it, and I did not have enough ammo for the re-shoot) This is the cadence that I was looking for, I did respect and take more time on the shots thru the port, but I'm fine with that. I felt really confident on this stage, and this is what I'm looking to carry forward.



Summary

Look, getting hits is a big step from where I was a couple of months ago, but I'm really not feeling the aggressive pace, confidence, and speed in running the gun. I think some of that is the change from minor to major, and I'm going to have to improve my grip along with the other items that I listed. I know I'm harping on the speed, but I really am a lot happier with the way I shot today than I was last weekend, I mean night and day in terms of hits. Obviously there are things that I'm going to have to fix, but one thing I probably missed is that I need to find that cadence, and really work on it. I know I can do it, I just need to execute the way I know I can.

Had some solid progress this week.