Practice Runs

Practice Runs

I know the adage is that “Practice makes perfect,” and we've all heard that from the time that we were little kids. The bigger question then, is why don’t more people expend some energy on practice to improve? I appreciate that it’s a time commitment, I really do, but if you want to improve at something, then you need to commit to doing just that. Your words and heart may want to improve, and say the right things, but unless you commit to doing the right things, you simply don't progress.

I mentioned a few blogs ago how this fall I was seeing people I thought were good shooters last year, and now I realize that they are not anywhere near as good as I thought that they were. Some of these folks I've seen in Skills and Drills classes, and last Wednesday at the MISS match, I asked a friend, another instructor (not Les!) a pretty simple question: “How do you feel teaching some of these people month after month, and having them make the same mistakes they have for the past year?” He gave me a tight grin, and made a good point, a teacher can teach, but it’s up to the student to put in the work to learn it. If the only time you practice something is at a class, it’s going to be a long and slow struggle to learn something. Sure, I’d agreed to be taught by Les, and to put in the time, but that remark hammered home what is happening. Unless I do my part, then I’m not going to magically get better. It’s up to me.

Yesterday I broke my 30 minute session into two 15 minute groups, one in the morning and one in the evening. Right now I’m focusing on a sight picture, and on keeping my sight picture across three targets, meaning target, and two transitions. I started out in the morning with a 2.8 second par time from low ready and did that for 5 minutes. Putting this in perspective, you could do 20 of these repetitions in a minute at 3 seconds each, but figure I was doing 15 repetitions per minute, that’s 75 repetitions per 5 minute period. The next 5 minutes I moved closer to the targets and lowered my par time down to 2.2 seconds, and worked that. Lower par time but closer was easy enough. For the last 5 minutes I moved further back and kept the 2.2 second par time and worked it from a distance. I admit, the first few runs were not ideal, but I was able to get, and keep it there. Now it’s not just sight picture, but I’m learning the cadence I need to pull the trigger at to hit those par times. So, in those 15 minutes, I probably ran the drill about 225 times, which is far more than I’d ever do in live fire. As I was doing the drill, I had to be honest with myself, and I’d ask if the sights were moving as I was pulling the trigger. This made me work to keep a smooth trigger pull to not disturb the sights; I was surprised how often my trigger pull was causing a sight to move. In order to hit the par time, I also had to start taking up the trigger while I was coming up, so just as I saw the A zone, I could break the shot. Same with the transitions, after the second shot, start the take-up to the break, so when I get to the second target, my shot was ready to break.

In the evening I repeated my exercise from the morning, and actually went for an extra ten minutes. Linda came down to practice as well, and she started out just getting a good sight picture and transitions, not even pulling the trigger, just seeing what she needed to see. While I closed with what I did in the morning, she worked it as well, and slower, but she found out how much she was moving the gun to pull the trigger, and how much she needs to work on that as well. I’m glad she did it, and she has a few other fundamental things she needs to work on, but thankfully Kozy offered to help her out for an hour or so on Friday. It won’t fix everything, but if she practices what she is being shown, and does it consistently, she’ll see some progress. For me, with Day 1 complete, I have now done over 500 repetitions, and am gradually seeing some improvement. I’m seeing sights, my pull is much smoother, with less sight disturbance, I’m moving quicker, and I’m moving more hips than just arms, which is making it smoother and easier. I knocked off my Tuesday morning session early, and will practice again on Tuesday afternoon or evening to complete the cycle.

Why does this keep popping up?

Yesterday I also started loading 124 grain Bayou Bullets. I switched over because they are cheaper, and for less money I get 500 extra rounds. For purposes of this project, I think it’s smart to shoot as affordable as possible. I’d consider going back to the 147 grain for the next summer’s Major Match season. However that's something that does not bear consideration until next spring. No more loading a week in advance either, I’ll take a little time and load up 300-400 rounds a day and keep a ready stock of about 2,000 rounds. This will keep me well ahead of the game, and with a little effort now, I can focus on practice, not on having to do something in order to practice.

I also came up with a list of 13 Major Matches that I want to shoot next year. I realize that I won’t get all of them, and that probably half of them make for a reasonably aggressive plan. I picked those majors because  some are close, or are ones I’d like to make a vacation out of. There is a major match in Florida in St. Augustine, and I love the town, and it’s not all that far from Orlando, so could the family go down, I shoot the match in a day, and take them to Disney for a few days? Just maybe that would work.  I would feel guilty spending the time away, and money on myself to attend all the matches, so I want to find cost efficient, as well as some places I’d like to show Linda and Lauren. Heck, match in Mesa Arizona at the end of the year, and I’d love to show them my old Arizona State stomping grounds! I sent the list to Kozy and Les to see what they have on the agenda, and I’d like to shoot a few majors with them this year. I know them, I learn by watching them, but I also don’t want to be the “tag along” who slows them down. I understand how they have to be focused, and the last thing I want to do is get in the way. I do however want to shoot at least one major where I am not with them. It’s nice to meet new people, but observing people that I don’t see shoot all the time is beneficial to my learning, and for myself, I want to approach a match with no support, come up with my own stage plans, and apply everything that I've learned. When I have that sense of independence, then maybe I’ll have something more that I can contribute.

Here is what I am looking at:

4/3 Area 6

4/11 Battle In The Bluegrass

May Buckeye Freedom Blast

June Area 5

June Double Tap?

July Indiana Sectional

August Area 3

August Michigan Sectional

August Illinois Sectional

September Wisconsin Sectional

September Area 4

October Production Nationals

November Area 2 (Only if in AZ)

Practice tonight, MISS match tomorrow!