Newsflash: Who Can Transition Fast?

Newsflash: Who Can Transition Fast?

I can asshats! (Fast being a relative term, which in no way implies it's actually fast, it's just fast for me!)

On Thursday I took a trip down to Washington, IL, which had a tornado run thru the town on Sunday afternoon, and it was a pretty sobering experience. I had about six hours of drive time to do some thinking, and I had a Kozy phone call which helped pick-up my spirits. He made one comment that made me get a little scared, after reading my last blog, he told me that I understood about “half” of what he’s saying finally. Half is better than none, but obviously I have a ways to go.

So let’s close out the pity party saga. On the trip I decided what it really takes for me to have my head screwed on straight before a stage, and what I need to do to properly prepare. I’m done keeping score. Pinch hitting for a couple of people is fine, or helping after I shoot a stage is fine, but not before. I need to focus. More walk thru is needed. During the summer I would paste fast, and try to walk a bit of a stage. I put in a lot of work then, and towards the end of the summer I was showing some progress. I’m not sure what made me slack this fall once we went indoor, but I have, and it shows, my DQ was a direct result of that. I do have the RO class in January, but I’m going to treat that the same way I do score keeping. I’m a pinch hitter to help, I’m not going to do “heavy lifting”. I’m just not ready to do that. The remainder of MISS season I’ll get a little experience, but I’m going to focus on my shooting, that’s what is important. I like helping the club, but I won’t let that get in the way of my shooting. When it comes to a match, I know what I need to do to be ready, I’m not going to shortchange that again. So, HTFU is in full effect, pity party is over.

Tonight was live fire practice with Dave. As an aside, he really picked up the pace on Wednesday night, and I have to give him a lot of credit, he’s picked up and ran with what Les has taught us. He’s shown a lot more and quicker improvement than I have, and I’m really proud to see him do it, and just “get it.” Dave is getting his B card with ease. Tonight I actually forgot my .22, and it may have been intentional. I wanted to kill the flinch, and I need to get the feel of my 9mm again. I did not purposely leave the .22, but subconsciously, I suspect I may have just left it behind.

Dave and I started out on the steel plates, and we were going pretty slow. I had my flinch early, was missing, and it was just a rough way to begin. After a couple of runs we swapped out for paper targets, I wanted to run a few Bill Drill’s from 7 yards, and just start pulling the trigger, getting my pull smooth, and managing the recoil. This helped me immensely, and pretty soon, I stopped thinking about my flinch, and it disappeared for the night entirely.

Draw and Shoot Six Shots As Fast As Possible

Les came up for a few minutes to talk to us about the draw, so we could start to incorporate that into our dry fire routine. I had a few issues drawing cleanly, so that’s something to work on, but Les made the comment that we should go fast to the gun, and starting to get it up, but decelerate and control it as we get the sights where we want them. This seemingly small and simple piece of advice was something else. The skies shown lights on me, angels sang hallelujah, I felt like John Belushi in The Blues Brothers where he has seen the light. When I looked at my draw, I was rushing and stiff arming the gun into place, and the sights were bouncing, and I have been struggling to get my sights since probably the first time I picked up my gun. I exaggeratedly slowly did it, and felt the difference, my sights hit where I wanted steady, no fumbling around. I’m not going to lie, it was still slow, but it made a difference. My practice par time for this week is 1.7 seconds, and I expect that by next week I should have that in the 1.3 range. It’s a lot like the past few weeks. Now I know what I’m trying to do, and what I want to feel, I just need repetitions to consistently do that.

I Have Seen The Light

Once Les took off, and I’d had the revelation, practice took an entirely new turn for me. I just relaxed (something I still have a problem with, I tense up before the buzzer, and I need to relax), I had fun, and I shot. I pushed myself. Dave and I ran a 2-2-2 drill from 10 yards, with an El Pres set up, and I said to myself that I was just going to blaze it. My draw was slow, 1.65 to 1.90, but my splits were in the .22 to .23 neighborhood, and my transitions were in the .30 to .34 area.  Putting this in perspective, we need .55 second transitions for our 60% El Pres, and I was transitioning in .37 to .40 with the no recoil .22 a week ago. A week ago with the 9mm, my transitions were in the .65 range with a .40 split. The change from .22 to 9mm was a big one for me, and obviously my times showed that. This was improvement on an immense level, and I think it was possible not just because of a physical change, but because mentally I was just shooting. I had nothing distracting me, no number I had to hit. I just shot.

My hits? Actually not too bad, the left target was consistently alpha charlie, the middle target was two alphas, and the right target was alpha mike or alpha delta, with a delta being a lucky mike, that’s where I was having an issue. So, I can actually back off the gas here, and focus, and get that shot. Today, totally relaxed, not caring, I pulled off some of my fastest transitions ever, and proved to myself that I can do it. I know what I need to see in terms of a sight picture, and I can control the gun enough to do it. I was taking the trigger up immediately, and on transitions, I was taking it up across, and breaking the shot just as the front sight was hitting the center of the target. I’m proud of the progress I showed in practice tonight. I'll bet if I dial those transitions down to a .40 for now, and give myself just that extra hair of a second, my hits will be solid. 

Yes, I know I failed on the third target, and did not get good hits. I’m not saying that I’m where I need to be, but after last class with Les, and the match, I absolutely needed something to go my way. This was the most relaxed I have been in awhile, and was the most fun I’ve had just shooting. The last few times I was there, I wanted to get our work in, and be done, and tonight I did not want to leave. I wanted to keep running things until I could get all my hits. This felt so damn good.

What showed up today?

I’m on vacation for the next 11 days, so time for some more dryfire, live fire, and I’m going to load up 1,000 rounds. I’m excited to add the draw to practice, and I really think that with refinement I can improve the draw. Slow down to speed up. It makes total sense to me today.

Match video from Wednesday will be coming this weekend, there is a 4 classifier match at Pine Tree on December 1^st, and I’m going to be rushing up there to shoot it, as it is Lauren’s Birthday on the 1^st, and I have to be home in time to help set-up for the party. I know some of the progress here was mental, but I’m in a better place today than I was on Wednesday night. I’m so much more relaxed, and my focus is back where it needs to be. I’m also having a hell of a lot more fun.

I don't know what I don't know, but I'm also done thinking I have answers. It's learning, I'm going to shut up, go into sponge mode, and pay attention when people talk. This is all a process, and there are no shortcuts. If today was a reboot, it’s where I should have been a few weeks ago. I’m just glad to be here.

Feels So Good I can Dance

Yes guys, I'm on a mission from God.