Florida Open Match Review (Part 2)

FLOP Match Review (Part 2)


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.

Florida Open Match Review (Part 1)

FLOP Match Review (Part 1)



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.