I'd always planned on taking a couple of classes with other instructors in 2014, once I had completed the "Plan B" training with Les. Hearing different voices is a good thing, I may hear something from someone else that sticks, and they may watch my a little differently. I'd had an idea of attending a joint Matt Mink and Ben Stoeger class down in Springfield Illinois in March, but the class had filled up. I contacted Matt, and set-up a class, up here at Alpha Range May 3rd and 4th. Herb, Mr. Alpha Range, was willing to set aside the weekend for the class, and I appreciate his making this happen.
We've got a good agenda planned, one day with heavy skills and drills work, a second day with a MISS Match in the morning where Matt will coach us as we shoot the stages, and then we'll watch him shoot at the end of the squad, this should be beneficial for many of us. We'll close out the day with a review, and a plan for the individual shooters with items to focus on and work on. Should be about 1,000 rounds per student, which is some serious shooting! Thanks to Les for coming up with an agenda, and being willing to schedule a full MISS match, not just a mini-practice match. Both Herb and Les absolutely rock!
Matt Mink is a good guy, who not only runs Automatic Accuracy where I purchased my Shadow, my P-01, and where Linda sent her SP-01 in for work on Monday, he is also an amazingly accomplished shooter, who does not receive nearly the attention he deserves for his accomplishments:
Matt started his shooting career at the age of 5, plinking cans with his Grandfather in the yard with a .22 rifle. The interest in firearms was always there, but it wasn't until he started competing in the late 90's that a new hobby was born. As Matt grew into a better shooter, CZ-USA took notice and enlisted his talents as one of their top tier competition shooters in 2004. He started for CZ-USA with a CZ 75B and now favors the CZ 75 SP-01 Custom/Shadow for USPSA and the Dan Wesson PM 7/PM 9 for IDPA competitions. As a shooter, Matt is entirely self taught and is now known as one of the top IDPA, and top USPSA Production shooters in the US with a strong focus on accuracy and fundamentals.
Accomplishments
World Shoot XVI 2011 Greece - Production 3rd overall & member of 1st Place US Mens Production Team.
World Shoot XV 2008 Bali - Production 2nd overall & member of 1st Place US Mens Production Team.
2011 US IPSC Nationals - US Production National Champion
2009 US IPSC Nationals - US Production National Champion
2006 IDPA Nationals - CDP National Champion
2006 Area 6 Champion - Production Champion
6 Time Area 4 Production Champion
Numerous State, Section, and Regional Wins
Obviously Matt is an exceptionally accomplished shooter, and I look forward to the opportunity to train with him for a couple of days and see if I can take learn, and help improve my game further. He'll be the 2nd Grand Master shooter I'll have a chance to study from.
Class slots are $325, with a maximum of 14 students. Interested folks can register here.
I'm hoping to take a second class at the end of the season, to give me a list of things that I can work on headed into the winter season. Most folks up this way have taken a class with Ben Stoeger, and there is a Bob Vogel class this is local this year, but the cost is pretty steep, and he is trying to balance tactical and competition. That one sold out pretty quick because Bob is big name shooter, but for my dollar, the Matt Mink class is right for me at this time.
Friday night we had dinner at Jameson's Charhouse to
celebrate Emil's 70th Birthday, and I think a good time was had by all. Kozy
was going up toAlphathe
next morning to get some practice in, and he suggested that Emil, Linda and I
all go up there with him, and he would do some coaching and practicing. First
of all, I'll say how much I appreciate that he did that. Kozy is working hard
to earn his GM card, and when he takes three entry level shooters up to
practice, he loses a session of practice of his own, and ends up teaching his
dad, Linda, and I. It's a sacrifice, and I eat up the coaching, anything helps.
We started working the same classifier
that we ran on Wednesday night, and I started off with a nice run, 4.98 down 4
points (had steel issues), with a 2.17 turn and draw. We cycled thru a few
times, and my biggest issue is still the turn and draw, I'd been working at 1.9
in practice, but the long shot to the small steel is not easy. I felt better
about my ability to get hits when I just slowed down a hair and focused on the
center of the target, not just when I saw cardboard.
Linda started off around 5.62, and then
got down to a 5.32, with a 1.84 turn and draw. Kozy hit the nail on the head,
and told her that it won't be long before she is beating me, she's quick. We
focused on her hands on her grip, and came to the conclusion that there is
nothing wrong with her gun, the double feeds are just a result of her riding
the slide of the gun. It's good to know the gun is fine, and her riding the
slide is something she can fix, it's a dry fire and practice issue. The other
part where it showed was her inconsistent hits, she was dragging across a
target, and making some of the same mistakes I was making a few months ago.
She's really showing major progress though, she shoots less, practices less,
and is where I was just a few months ago? Good for her.
Go Linda!
After practice, Linda and I took Lauren to
a Birthday party, and then ran up to On
Target so Linda could try a couple of things. So here's the deal with
her. When we started, (and how naive does this sound?) we thought we would get
just one gun, and we could share it to shoot matches! I don't know if that was
innocence, or me just trying to get the foot in the door to the sport. It was
obvious quite early she needed to get something of her own, and she ended up
with a Walther P99. She picked it because it was there, and last February guns
were hard to find, and we could keep some cost down simply by being able to
share magazines. She actually controlled that gun really well, but it was not
the most “friendly” trigger for her to learn on. Terry and Les shot her
straight, and told her to “get rid of it”. She borrowed a Glock 17 this summer,
and liked it, and I had a “free” gun coming from winning a raffle at the IL
State IDPA Match. She got a lot of well intentioned advice that she should skip
that, and get a Glock 34 instead. So, without shooting one, she agreed, and I
went thru a process to get that “free”. She shot it for a match, and, well
there were a few issues there. With the money from selling the P99, I had
bought, and got some work done on a Springfield
XDM 5.25” Competition model, and I shot it in one match, and gave her the
option of taking it. I had intended on eventually replacing the Walther with it
at some time in the future, but since the work was already done, why not?
When we started shooting, Linda had rented an XDM, but a 4.5”, and
really liked the gun, so she more or less “assumed” the XDM from me. So come to today, and the truth is, she’s
never had something that she really picked, something that was what she wanted.
When she did try to pick the Glock 17, she got “overruled” by all of us who
wanted to help get her something really built for competition. Being completely
honest, she could have earned her A card, hell, gone beyond that with any of
the guns I mentioned, what’s stopping her is her own self-confidence, and faith
to put the pedal to the floor and really go. That’s something that Terry said,
that I happen to agree with. It’s not offensive in the least, I was in that
spot myself this summer, I was afraid to get up and go, I was so conscious of
being “safe” that I was afraid to run, to shoot fast, all that stuff. Her gun
is not holding her back, she is holding herself back.
The best wisdom is for her to HTFU and keep her gun, and get
better with it, I know it, she knows it, but I also understand her wanting to
try a few things, and for once pick and own something that she really wants. Way
back when, I wanted to try a steel gun, but since we were “sharing” (that’s
laughable isn’t it now?) and she hated it, I had to give up on the idea. So,
she’s been hearing me sing the praises of the CZ, so the idea of going to On Target
was for her to try a few stock CZ’s, and compare them with her gun. She started
with a stock 75B, and was not very impressed. It’s heavier than the XDM, and
lighter than my gun, and she rode the slide, and did not feel that much better
than her gun. At this point she was a little disappointed.
CZ 75B
She took out her XDM, and put 15 rounds thru it, and had some okay
groups, and some that went high and left. She was trying to focus on not riding
the slide, and on keeping her front sight in place.
While she did that, I exchanged the 75B for a stock SP-01 (my gun,
but with a firing pin block, and no custom work.) She put 30 rounds thru it,
and she really liked it. She had no problem keeping the hits in the “A” zone,
and she was able to do it fairly rapidly. She was not a fan of the long double
action pull, but she was amazed how the gun handled recoil, and how easy it was
for her to keep her eye on the sight and shoot rapidly.
CZ SP-01
Then I had her take her XDM out again, and try to repeat what she
accomplished with the SP-01. Same issue, it was harder to shoot quickly, and
her hits were inconsistent.
Springfield XDM
Finally I gave her my custom CZ SP-01 Shadow, and let her put 30
rounds downrange with it. Her 2 double action pulls led to bad shots, but her
grouping was outstanding. She totally understood what I mean that the gun makes
you look better than you are, it’s easy to shoot, forget the other stuff, and
just focus in on that front sight.
CZ Shadow
There is a local shop that has an SP-01 at a very reasonable
price, but to get it, she’d have to sell her XDM, and she’d want work done on
that SP-01. It would be an excellent gun, not as good as the Shadow, but
reasonably close for several hundred dollars less than what I paid. (Hey, worst case, it ends up a back-up gun for me, and we all know that's coming soon anyhow.) She’s got
some choices to make, changing guns can be an excuse or a cop out for lack of
success, especially since her gun now is more than capable of being a GM
caliber gun. The reason I see an exception, is simply that she’s never gotten
anything that she really wanted, or picked on her own, and that’s wrong too.
She should have gotten what she wanted, so she could own her progress. Get an
SP-01 and work on it? Get on the list and order her own Shadow? Stick with the
XDM, grind it out, and get better before making a change? I’m not sure what she’ll
do, but those are three legitimate possibilities, and I’ll support whichever
choice she makes. 100% up to her. Does she just say "this is it" with any of them? We'll see.
In 2013, USPSA saw it's first ever female Grand Master shooter, Jessie Duff:
Jessie Duff
IPSC also had it's first ever woman match winner of a level 4 match, the Far East Asia Championships, Maria Gushchina
I know sometimes people think that shooting and USPSA are for the guys, but the truth is there are women out there who can shoot, it's good to see them achieve some notoriety in the sport. I'm not saying that Linda will shoot with 'em, but who knows, maybe she will. At the very least, and sooner than she thinks, she'll be beating me on a regular basis.
I'm pretty proud of her, and I hope she sticks with the work, and can accomplish her own goals.
I skipped my MISS match on Wednesday night, my ankle is not hurting anymore, but it is definitely tender, and while I can shoot, I felt uncomfortable trying to shift my weight, and I definitely was not up to running and cutting. That's two missed matches, and a total of 5 classifiers that I could have shot the past few days, and I missed. I could say that missing them hurts me, but if I had shot poorly, and I likely would have with the ankle tweak, that would have been worse. Thankfully, there is a MISS match for the first time ever on a weekend, this coming Sunday, and both Linda and I will get a chance to get out there and shoot it. If it was not going on, I probably would have tried to push myself and go Wednesday.
Go Shoot Here!
On Tuesday, Linda and I hit the range (nice being on vacation together, with Lauren in school!) and we got some drills done and shot for a couple of hours. I got my turn and and draw El Presidente going, and she did some low ready to a target, and some groups. She had some pretty nice groups with her XDM, her struggle was with her first shot, it was typically very low, but once she got past that, and was working the reset, it looked very good. She also got in a hundred rounds or so with the .22 just groups on steel plates, and it was good experience for her.
El Pres
I ended up with one pretty baller El Pres run, and I have no trouble beating the 8.45 second time that I need to get my 60% classifier. When everything went right, I was in the mid 6 second's, solid hits, 1.65ish draw, and a 1.70 second reload. All hits were on the paper, and I had a run with plenty of alpha's, that said, there was plenty of inconsistency on both the draw and the reload with times as high as 7.40 total, with a 2.11 draw, and a 2.63 reload. I was a little frustrated, but I walked out feeling that I simply need more repetitions right now to improve both draw and reload.
By Thursday night, I've got my draw to first shot on a target in front, to the right and left in the 1.50 to 1.60 range, and I'm getting the sight picture I want about 90% of the time. I had been struggling with how often I got the picture, and the time, when I again realized that I was so tense that I had a tendency to go straight out, and then my arms would drop a little bit bouncing low. When I'm relaxed, I did not have that issue at all, and I am smooth. It's funny, I always thought I was more relaxed, and odd that I have to remind myself, but truthfully being relaxed is a key to bringing out my best performance.
The XDM 5.25"
My hand sit's below the grip
The other part of my practice, the reload has been an ongoing struggle this week. I have been having an issue hitting a 1.70 second par time, and Les wants me at 1.50 seconds. This was extremely frustrating because I could not seem to break past 1.70, much less 1.50. Tonight though, I did two things, and got self 1, and self 2 together a little bit, and started to see a few 1.5 and 1.6 reloads. What I did, was a rehash of what Les did at our last class, I looked at my reload for the different components. I'm content with how quick I drop my mag, but I realized that my support hand had no urgency going for a mag, and I pushed myself to get that indexed into my hand as quick as I could. That alone made me feel that I was going faster. The biggest struggle still remains getting the mag into the gun. In the picture, you can see that my hand is bigger than the grip, and unless I get the mag in, I have a tendency to either get my other hand, or pinch it between the mag I am inserting and the magwell. I picked up Linda's XDM, and with the bigger grip, that is not an issue. Mind you, this is not a gun issue, it's a practice thing, where I need to make sure that I'm getting the mag in, and if that means looking it in, I need to do it. I'm also getting my elbow slightly lower, and it's a more comfortable place to get the gun and reload. Objectively, the other thing I know I was doing, was admonishing myself as I was reloading, and trying to tel self 2 what all the steps were, and that was causing me to lose focus. With the few little changes, I was able to not tell myself what to do, I just started doing. My times went down, and now that I've felt where I need to be, I think I'll be able to repeat that tomorrow.
Practice, practice, and more practice! I figured I'd have my draw down to 1.3 seconds in short order, but it's taking me a little more time than I thought, same thing with the reload. Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset with my progress, part of me just thought I could pick things up and instantly I'd be there. I know that is not actually the case, and these are skills that are earned. There really is no substitute for multiple repetitions, and to get some solid coaching. Now that I'm finding what feels right, and works for me, I think some of the road blocks are out the way, and the path is clear for me to improve in practice.
It’s week 7 of the NFL season, and this is the second week
that I’ve been home on a Sunday this season to watch a little football. The
plan was to go up to Wisconsin
and shoot Oconomowoc USPSA today, but after talking to Kozy yesterday, we
decided to take a pass, and I’m actually thankful. It’s been a busy couple of
months, and I need today to decompress, and get some small tasks done. That
said, it’s 11:15 am, and I am already itching to shoot, something does not feel
right.
First off, hats off to my friend Les Kismartoni who rocked
out USPSA Nationals to the tune of 22nd place (of 295 shooters) and
81% of champion Eric Grauffel’s score. This is a major league awesome
accomplishment, super happy for him! It’s a shame that Beretta makes things
hard for people who choose to shoot them in production. I suspect that Les will
eventually make a change in platform, and enjoy extra added support. Not only
is he a great shooter, and a good friend, but he’s the guy who came up with
“Plan B”, and is going to lay out the path. Can’t let him down now! Seeing his
success makes me want to start to lay out my plan for 2014, what major matches
I want to shoot, and my full season goals. I’m going to start to get some them
down on paper, and will discuss with him what is, and is not reasonable. Way to
go Les your accomplishment is inspiring!
One of the hardest things that I’ve had coming up with in
terms of reloading supplies has been powder. Les introduced me to Power Pistol
as a good starting powder, and I’ve spend the last couple of months trying to
find Tite Group, or Solo 1000. While I’ve seen the occasional N320 at $30 a
pound, plus a $27 haz-mat fee, I’ve held off. I was getting down to my bitter
end of Power Pistol. A friend told me that he had 4 pounds of Tite Group he could
spare, for around $75-$80 after haz-mat, and I told him I’d take it. Yesterday, when I was out, I stopped at a
local guns shop that I don’t like to frequent because of their price gouging
tendencies, but I was shocked to see an 8 lb jug of Bullseye powder for $149.
While Bullsye is probably suboptimal, it’s still useable powder, and the price
was good enough that I did not pass. Twelve pounds of powder is around 12,000
rounds I can load, so just a few thousand primers and bullets and we are in
business. Good stuff.
I’m going to spend today cleaning my 10 match mag’s, and
clean and lube up my PPQ while I’m watching the early football games. This is
never a fun job, but it needs to get done, equipment in prime working order is
a big deal. I’m also thinking about what dryfire I will be doing at home this
week. My plan right now is to go back to fundamentals and work my draw, and
just draw to sight picture, no pulling the trigger. What I want to do is
eliminate the movement that has crept into my draw again, and make sure that
when I’m driving the gun out, that I’m getting a good sight picture, and not
having it bob around, and struggle to find it. That alone would be worth a
couple tenths of second. I’m also going to work a little on reloads, yesterday
Kozy made the suggestion that I’m reloading too low, and costing myself time,
and I could reload higher. When I tried it once yesterday it actually felt more
comfortable, and let me see the reload cleanly.
What I’m looking at it is this:
Sunday- Clean Equipment, Dryfire 15 minutes
Monday- Dryfire 20 minutes
Tuesday- Alpha Range Live Fire with the .22 only 40 minutes,
group shooting
Wednesday- Off
Thursday- Dryfire 20 minutes (Possibly Pine Tree USPSA)
Friday- Dryfire 20 minutes
Saturday- Dryfire 20 minutes (Possibly a little .22 at Alpha
taking family up)
Sunday- NISA versus Schultz’s Match (Switch to dryfire if I
shoot Pine Tree)
Dryfire may be a misnomer this week, as I don’t intend on
pulling the trigger, I simply want to insure that I eliminate some of the
sloppiness that has crept into my draw. No forums, no podcasts, no outside
interference.
Never carry one bad stage to the next, never take a bad
match to the next. If you make a mistake, get over it, and leave it behind. I
understand and embrace that mentality, and I think sometimes people mistake my
frustration as getting the best of me at a match. The truth is that I get
frustrated when I make a mistake and know that I am “better” than that mistake.
I've had an issue dragging a shot while preparing to transition, I know I’m
doing it, I practice to not do it, and in a match I say I’m not going to do it,
and I do it anyhow. That’s the kind of
mistake I have a hard time leaving behind, clip a no-shoot, slow on the draw,
all things that irritate me, but are easier to leave behind.
Today I found myself up at AlphaRange,
it was a strange coincidence that Kozy was up there as well. I had absolutely no
idea that he’d be up there at 7am on a Saturday morning. (Les, do you believe
this? TOTALLY UNPLANNED! That’s our story, and we are sticking to it.) Since he
was up there, and I was up there, we figured what the heck, let’s share a range
and run a few drills.
The Amazing Kozy
We started by placing single white paster on the target, and
trying to hit it a 7, 10, and 15 yards before moving to calling shots. I’ll
just say that I feel okay about it, but having an open shooter next to you,
definitely caused me to pull a few shots. Calling shots at 15 yards, we had a
large 2 target spread and transition, draw, 2 shots, transition, 2 shots, and
stop. We did not look at the targets, but told the other person where the shots
went, obviously the goal was two alpha hits, and do it quickly. Kozy is a pro,
but there were a couple where he thought he threw a Delta, or even a Mike, and
he had an Alpha, Charlie. My point is that calling a shot is not easy, even
for someone who is a lot more experienced than I am. However the value in
knowing that you are getting a good sight picture and squeezing off your rounds
is invaluable. I understand now better than ever why Les has me focusing on
shooting groups, and knowing my sight picture. The more I do that, the better I
am at that, the easier it will be to call my shots, so call this a lesson
learned, and it gave me a better understanding of why I’m doing what I’m doing.
(I really need to get the M&P Sights ordered so that sight picture will
match my PPQ sight) I had a harder time with my calls on my first target than
my second target, but I was not too far off, when I threw a shot, I knew it.
Some may not see that as progress, I’ll take a positive from the experience, in
that when I throw a bad shot, I do know it, I may not have called the others
perfectly, but knowing a bad shot is a step in the right direction.
There were a few other drills that we ran, two close
targets, and a middle third target, that was head shot only. We ran it right to
left, left to right, and middle over. Because these were not wide transitions,
I actually felt better shooting this drill, and I had a harder time with the
head shot when I started with it, than when I transitioned to it. No real earth
shaking discoveries, but I do now really understand why practicing varied transitions
has value, and how, and why I struggle with wider transitions.
We closed out with a Bill Drill, and my first run was awful,
I think I had let everything get in my head, and I was slow, and probably had 3
mikes in 6 shots. Soon as I was done, I knew it, said it out loud that the next
run would be 6 Alpha’s more to clear my mind, and get my focus. Sure enough,
next run, faster, smoother, and 6 Alpha’s. Kozy picked up a few things on my
draw, and while I got it down to a 1.24, I feel off, I feel slow. This is one
of the things I spent a lot of time practicing, and back in August, I could do
it in 1.1 at 7 yards and get an “A” hit. I’m moving around too much, and I’m
struggling with getting my support hand on the gun. The gun is not coming out
to where my eyes are, and once it’s out, I’m watching the front sight bob
around. I’m not sure why I regressed, but I definitely have, and I know this is
correctable.
Until we kick “Plan B”, I’ll stay off this kind of live fire
practice, and stick with the groups that Les has me working on. The truth is,
that I learn better by seeing something, than hearing something. Today, if
nothing else, I walked out understand what I was accomplishing in dry fire
before, and why Les has me focusing on groups. Today I could see some problems,
and I can also understand how and why I can correct them. This reinforced what
we are going to do. In addition, I can see a few things I want to look at in
dryfire, like my reloads and my draw.
Today I also took a look at Kozy’s open gun, and I can
understand and appreciate what it really is. The red dot sight and trigger are
amazing. I always said “someday” I’d consider trying one, but touching it made
me realize how far off that day is. It’s great, but it just is not for me, not
for awhile. I did however put a few rounds thru the Tangfolio Stock II and was
blown away. The gun feels great in my hand, the double action first pull was
manageable, hardly more than the 5.5 lb pull of my PPQ, and the single action
pull was amazing. When we went down to paste, I was a little embarrassed
because I thought I’d thrown a couple of mikes, in actuality I put three rounds
thru the center of the “A” in damn near the same hole. The gun just does not
move much, it was amazing. It makes me think that if I do ever move away from
the PPQ platform, that I’ll move away from polymer entirely, again, something
for down the road.
Tangfolio Stock 2
Good session today, I picked up some insights on how I
learn, which I hope will assist me moving forward, and I gained a better
understanding of what I’m trying to accomplish. I’m starting to see how the
entire game breaks down into a series of interrelated skills. Thanks Kozy for
spending the time with me today!
