Winning is better than losing, and I did say I wanted to win some plaque's this summer, but 3rd place C in Production is about as satisfying as shooting IDPA, where they give prizes to people to make them feel good just for showing up.
I'm bummed.
In full move mode, so once we get down to Austin and settled, I'm going to have to really start working hard again. I'm not ashamed, of it, I always want to do the best I can, but.....
I had a rough match, some magazine issues, some ammo issues, this was day 2 of the Matt Mink class, the class itself deserves a through review which I'll do soon. I picked up a few very solid things to help my game, but the stress of work, and lack of hard practice really shows. I need to get back on my game. You'll see on the last stage I blew a classifier trying to shoot "full retard", my frustration got the better of me. Practice or lack thereof shows.
Linda shoots the same match, and she had some issues as well, but it looked like a solid classifier run, although it was thrown out for not being set-up as per the classifier.
He's Matt Mink, 5 division USPSA Grand Master shooter, gunsmith, and all around baller guy. He'd spent all year shooting single stack to get ready for Single Stack Nationals, and the day before this match was the first day this season he shot production. By afternoon he was on fire, it took him less than 2 days to make a transition that would take most people months.
Matt actually finished 3rd at the match behind Kozy and Les. It goes to show what a competitive club we have, but by end of the day on Sunday, when he was closer to on his game, I suspect the results would have been far different.
After a disappointing weekend, and a hard practice Monday, I did not waste an ounce of time jumping back onto a match. I was a little worn out, but after finding Monday that I was pushing the gun and as a result shooting low, I was anxious to get out, do things right, and get myself moving back in the right direction, especially since I just got my B card on Tuesday.
The stage got tossed out because the 2nd squad had issues where a a piece of steel would fall and inadvertently cause a clam shell to activate. Our squad had no issue with that, but it made sense. This was my first stage, and honestly my worst stage of the night. I took a mike on the clam shell. This was a 90 point stage potential, and I had 79 points, 10 penalty points for the miss, so I was accurate enough otherwise. I ran it in 17.68 seconds, and my hit factor put me in 8th place for Production, out of 16 Production Shooters for the night. There was a late re-load after the first array, and a few other things, but more than anything, I wanted hits tonight.
Stage 2: Looks Familiar (East 1)
Statistically this was my best stage of the night. 160 possible points and I shot 152 of them in 20.32 seconds. This was good enough for 2nd place in Production, but 6 seconds behind Les. I want to see some video of him running this. I know my cadence slowed down the further along the stage I went, so I need to make sure I can keep a quicker cadence, but I was thrilled to run this with 28 Alpha hits and only 4 Charlie. My time can be quicker to be sure, but the hits made me feel good. Again, work on moving reloads, and hey, for once I shot on the move...kind of...but still better than static positional shooting.
Stage 3: On The Periphery (East 2)
One word, slow. This was another 160 possible point stage, and I shot 146 points, so 25 Alpha and 7 Charlie. Points are good, but after the first array I really slowed down, and then moving into the final position I missed a reload, which is not good. The only good part is that I did not let it phase me, I got the mag inserted, and I finished with good hits. Don't let something derail you, keep rolling! Success! Still a lot of things I can do better, and keeping the cadence up is one of 'em.
Stage 4: CM 99-62 Bang and Clang
No Video.....
It's a shame, because I think this was my best stage. I was 4th in Production, and 5th overall, I ran the 4 steel, and single paper in 3.23 seconds (4th fastest time of anyone) my only point deduction was one Alpha, and one Charlie, and the Charlie was close. Running the hit factor into Classifier Calc, it's right about 75%, so one day after earning my B card, I may have just run my first A classifier. How 'bout them apples?
Summary
There was a little redemption here for me. Combined overall I finished 10th of 28 shooters, and that will actually go up a little when official results are submitted and the first stage (my worst) get's eliminated. I was 7th in Production, about 85.8% of the points that Les had (he won Production) and he had one stage he was just screwing around on, and that much distance between him and everyone else. I won't say it's disheartening, it's actually a little inspiring. The guy is a Grand Master for a reason, and I learn as much watching him shoot as I did in class.
It felt good to get accurate, and roll for a bit, I can get back on my cadence and push my time again going forward, as I'm obviously seeing my sights again. I need to keep grinding my draw, and moving reloads, but starting to shoot on the move is a good thing. I need to feel comfortable and practice. Here I did it, but I did not do it "right". I got away with it.
In my final blog about the match, I wanted to cover a few of the things I learned, because I think they will help me practice and prepare to be a better competitor for my next match and beyond. It was educational to watch Ben Stoeger shoot a few stages, Matthew Mink shoot a stage, and as always watching Les and Kozy shoot. I picked up a few things that I really need to work on.
1) Shooting on the move
I'm pretty much a position to position shooter. I like to post up, get a good sight picture, and shoot. The problem is that not shooting on the move costs me a lot of time. It was one of the last lessons that Les did for Dave and I, and I honestly have not spent much time working on it, so I'm not confident. A week ago I worked it a bit at closer range, and my hits were just "okay". I only executed it one time at the match, at a relatively close range, so I need to work that into my dry fire. I need to expand my base, and keep my feet out as wide as my shoulders, and get down and move, keeping the sights as steady as possible. I have a tendency to move high, and then the sights bounce, and I lose any accuracy I might have had. Posture and walk can be practiced in dry fire, then I can go validate it in live fire.
2) Grip / Accuracy
When I shoot groups, the fast I go, the more I lose my accuracy when I don't have a gorilla grip on the gun with my weak hand. I notice that as I start to go faster, I weaken my grip with my left hand, the gun bounces, does not cycle perfectly flat, and I shoot a lot of Alpha/Charlie. My first shot is where I aim it, the second shot is not accurate. With 150 Alpha and 74 Charlie this past weekend, I can fully admit I'm not gripping the gun as tightly as I should be. The "Two Alpha" call was rare for me. I'm going to work my draw, and get the ogre grip from the start, and then I'm going to go shoot some groups solo, and validate that I'm right about my accuracy issue from this past weekend. I could be wrong, but I know this was something I did not do.
3) Stage Planning
This was actually a plus. I walked on Friday with Kozy, and we both found ways thru stages that worked for us. I listened to him, but I made calls that worked for me. On one stage he wanted to take a target from 18 yards thru a port on the move, but I did not feel confident in that, and found plan that suited what I do well. Granted, we both watched a video of Ben shooting the stage, and we adapted that slightly for each of us. I was prepared for every stage I shot on Saturday. I've never felt that confident before a big match, and it was almost relaxing to know what I was going to do before we shot.
4) Get Physical
I need to up my training. At the end of the day I was spent, and on Sunday morning my calves were killing me. Heck, it's Monday as I write this, and they are still aching. Diet is a positive step, treadmill is a positive step, but I need to up my game, and add some more stretching exercises to a morning routine so I stay loose thru a match. Those are long days, and I need to be as sharp on my last stage as I am on my first stage.
5) Get Mental
This was the biggest killer. No stage beat me, no other shooter beat me, I beat myself into the ground. Everyone is going to make mistakes, one big difference between a great shooter and a mediocre shooter is that the great shooter does not try to make it up, and does not carry it from stage to stage. Great shooters acknowledge mistakes and move on. I've been over this a lot, with Kozy and Les, and I thought I was moving past it, but this was a repeat of several matches last summer. I never want to repeat this error at a major match, heck at any match ever again. Time to get tough.
6) Strong Hand/Weak Hand
This did not bite me at the match, but it could have, and unless I practice it, it will. A couple of days a week I'm going to add some strong hand a weak hand to my practice routine. I need to up my game and bring it closer to the rest of what I do. I can't be so weak at something that it can entirely kill a stage for me.
Summary:
I have more skill than I demonstrated at the match, so that's a plus. I had some solid runs, also a major plus. I beat myself in a lot of ways, and that's all part of the sport. I'm never going to be as good a shooter as I want to be, until I learn to become a more mentally tough person. That one is correctable quickly, it's going to be some willpower, the other things, those will just take time and effort, both of which I'm going to commit.
2014 Battle in the Bluegrass Match
I wrote earlier how I went down this match to compete, and how that differed than from the past where I went to a few major matches just to shoot. The attitude, the mindset, and the elevated expectations were new to me. My initial thoughts were that I did not perform at the level I expected myself to perform at, and that I expect myself to compete at. Why I did not perform is going to be the subject of another blog, because I think I made some mistakes that I can learn a lot from, and work at not repeating in the future. With ten stages, there is plenty of stage breakdown and video for one blog.
The weather was mid 80's by lunch time, low 50's to start the day. The staff put together an amazing match, that I think everyone I spoke with enjoyed thoroughly.
The biggest thing that jumped out at me for the entire match, was an overall lack of accuracy on my part. I had 150 Alpha's, 2 Bravo, 74 Charlie, 23 Delta and 7 Mike. Combine the Delta and Mike, I've got 30 shots that were just not good, and frankly my Alpha to Charlie ratio was very low. I left a ton of points on the table. I'll present the video's in the order in which I shot the match, not the match order.
Stage 3 Run Around: No Video
I had some jitters, and my run here was 71st of 119 Production shooters. I just wanted to get thru it with no misses, and I had 2 delta's, My hits were not great 16 A, 12 C, 2 D, but it felt good to get past my first stage of the day.
Stage 4: "Y" You Mad, Bro?
I was 46th of 119 Production shooters, I had 23 Alpha, 5 Charlie, and 2 Delta. Since I shot a variation of this the weekend before I was comfortable, and the only disappointing part was the 2 Delta. I can clean up the load and rack, and I could have picked up the target coming across sooner, but, on the whole, I felt good about this stage.
Stage 5: Eights and Plates
I was 55th of 119 Production shooters on this stage, with a disappointing 11 Alpha, 2 Bravo, 7 Charlie, 4 Delta, and 8 Steel. I'm not sure if I was not seeing my sights, but the delta's were on the open targets, I slowed down and had decent hits on the partial targets at my 2nd shooting position. I almost took a miss on a partial, but the bullet hole broke just enough of the brown, majority was in the black. Lesson here was to take a little extra time, and make sure you get the head shot.
Stage 6: Speed Demon
This is where things started to unravel. First thing to notice, is I switched hats. I put on the white Automatic Accuracy hat, so I'll blame that! Actually, I had a very good run, but we came to score the first array, and found it had not been pasted. There were 15 Alpha's and 1 Charlie, had it been an Alpha, run would have counted, but with the 1 Charlie, I had to re-shoot it. I had one shooter go before I had to re-shoot it, and from the get go, I was not right. I looked at the target, and did not look at the gun as I picked it up. I missed my grip, resulting in me not having my sights, and at a 3 yard target, that was bad news. Second array after I sprinted over, I broke a shot early, knew I did it, and kept going. I had 23 Alpha, 8 Charlie, and 1 Mike, I was 83rd of 119 Shooters. I let that single Mike bother me for awhile, and it dragged me down, lack of mental toughness hurt.
Stage 7: Crash Factor
I was 84th of 119 Production shooters, 8 Alpha, 5 Charlie, 2 Delta, 1 Mike, and 6 Steel. In my mind, I was thinking about the earlier stage, that if I just shot faster, I could make up the miss. Reality is you don't make up a miss, you leave a miss with the previous stage, and shoot this stage on it's own merits. My miss was on the 3rd position, closest target to me. Unreal, but a lack of focus cost me.
Stage 8: Cluster
First stage after the midday break, and I was 58th of 119 Production shooters. I had 22 Alpha, 7 Charlie, 2 Delta and 1 Mike. This was a stage I felt confident coming into, I had walked it, had my plan, and knew what I wanted to do. The Mike was on the first position as I turned to the left, long shot, and I was transitioning to the next target. The truth is that even with the miss, the run was not horrible, but 3rd stage in a row with a miss and some Delta, and it was really in my head. We had a long wait before the next stage, and I thought too much about what happened, as opposed to what I needed to do.
Stage 9: X
Worst stage of the day, 9 Alpha, 6 Charlie, 7 Delta, 2 Mike and 8 Steel. Starting loaded but no round in the chamber meant 10 rounds to start, not 11, and with 5 targets to take, that meant shooting until slide lock. It also meant I had to shoot accurately and be confident of my hits. I was okay on the first array, but looking back across the x, thru a port to targets, I was not. I dove into the steel and with misses actually shot until slide lock again. My plan was to take the targets to the left, but I turned right, knew I did it wrong, rushed without any sight picture thru the targets to the right, and back to the left. My last port was more about "Oh hell, I just really screwed up", and I had horrible hits. This was the nadir of my match. I walked off after shooting angry at myself, and tried and failed to shake it off.
Stage 10: Knock Knock
88th of 119 Production Shooters 12 Alpha, 10 Charlie, 3 Delta, 1 Mike and 6 Steel. I was tired, mad, and more or less felt like I was sleep walking thru this stage. I did an awful lot I wish I could have re-done on this stage.
Stage 1: Theorum Pythagoras
It was a long walk from Stage 10 back to the beginning. During the walk I finally cut loose from my earlier issues, and left them behind me. I made a conscious choice to shoot the last two stages as if only they mattered, nothing else had happened. What happened? My best stage of the day, 42nd of 119 Production Shooters. 12 Alpha 6 Charlie, and 9 Steel. I actually did not need to make the last reload, and could have shaved a little extra time from my run. It would have meant shooting to slide lock, and I wanted to be safe, rather than have to re-load in the port, but when I focus, I should be confident that I can get hits. I did.
Stage 2: Can You See Me Now?
14 Alpha, 8 Charlie, 1 Delta, 1 Mike, 2 Steel and 71st of 119 Production Shooters. My plan was baller, and my failure to execute here was the 3rd position on the long shot after the awkward angle steel, and then after the run, I had a the delta on the turn back to my left. Excellent plan, and I wish I would not have had the Delta or the Mike, but I can live with it.
Full Match Video:
Review:
I could sit here and be negative, but that's counter productive. There were certainly elements that went my way, and I think the biggest thing I need to address is my tendency to let mistakes get under my skin and then carry them to the next stage. I've shot watching Les and Kozy for a year, and I don't often see them do that. I know something bothers them, but it's done and over before the next stage. I heard Ben Stoeger say he had two misses, but it did not bother him, he did not try to make anything up, he just went out and rocked each and every stage he shot. If excellent shooters manifest that trait, why do I insist on carrying that load with me? I know better.
I dry fired on Monday morning for 30 minutes, and I'll live fire again. There are plenty of things that I'll take from the match, it'll help me work on my deficiencies, and the mental aspect will be something that I'm just going to have to HTFU, and do. If need to learn and move on from mistakes. In a match I can't fix 'em, I can just keep shooting my best.
I had a great time, excellent squad, and I'm confident that my next Major match will result in a better finish. I am however a better competitor for this experience.
Last year I shot three major events, one IDPA, and two
USPSA, and my results were not exactly stellar. As I was making the 6.5 hour
drive down to Kentucky
on Friday I considered that last year I went to shoot, and because I thought it
would be fun. This year, I was approaching the first major of the season with
the attitude that I was here to compete, it’s a subtle change, but significant
at the same time.
With an early, 5am start, my co-pilot, and I were down the range
early. The Bluegrass Sportsman’s League is a sprawling outdoor complex at the
end of some winding roads that made me feel as if we were going to go careening
out of control at any moment. The benefit to arriving early was that we were
able to walk all 10 ten stages, and I took copious notes on how the stage
layout different slightly from the match book. I was able to see walls, look at
angles, and build a preliminary stage plan for each and every stage. The other
enormous benefit was being able to watch some of the Friday competitors shoot
stages, and in particular it’s always good to watch Ben Stoeger shoot. I was
shocked to hear him say that he had 2 “mikes” on the day. He mentioned it to
Kozy as if it was an afterthought, and for him it was, a lesson that did not
hit home for me until Saturday night.
The entire group headed out to City BBQ in Lexington where we were staying, and were
treated to some mighty mediocre barbecue. Despite the great reviews, the end
dish was nothing all the special. There was a an air of excitement for the
match, but I also had a chance to see how calm some of the more experienced
shooters were, while I know it was more than a “club match” to them, they were
not too keyed up. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, and Kozy and I got
some dry fire in the room, and he cleaned his gun up a little, and we called it
a night feeling excited for the match.
We were up before the sun on Saturday, a little dry fire,
some breakfast, and it was time to hit the range. The match itself was fairly
wide open, only eight partial targets, and I don’t believe there was a single
no-shoot target out there. For the first match of my outdoor season it was a
good set-up, nothing terribly challenging. Nothing that I felt I could not
handle. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that there were a lot of “hoser”
stages, but while there was nothing extremely complex, there were some long
shots, and some stages that rewarded those who shoot accurately on the move.
The match director, and the R.O.’s were great. Professional,
accurate, and they kept everyone moving. Our squad was short a few people so we
kept moving fast. Despite how I initially thought the stages would be, I found
myself not shooting as well as I wanted to. Last year just shooting was the
reward, and this year I had some expectations for myself that regrettably I did
not even come close to. Personally, I let some mistakes get to me, and I
compounded them by thinking I could actually make-up for them on subsequent
stages, which led me into an ever deepening hole of my own making. I know
better, I’ve had plenty of advice that oftentimes I can be my own worst enemy.
I paid more than lip-service to that advice, but for the first time, I really
understood it. It was on a long walk from Stage 10, to Stage 1 and 2, where we
were to finish that I got back on my game, and proceeded to shoot my best stage
of the match. I don’t get into what would have been, but here and now, that’s a
mistake I won’t make again.
Post match we drove to the clubhouse, and got to visit with
some of the sponsors, and let me tell you, the sponsors donated over $24,000 in
prizes, so it was great to visit with them, and it was nice to know that
Automatic Accuracy and Bayou Bullets, both products I use, were sponsors there.
When called to the prize table, I tried to take a piece of firewood, but was
denied, and that’s when I finally felt like I’d completely shaken off my
mistakes. There will be plenty of time to break down the video, and learn from
the match.
Despite being exhausted, we went out to Saul Good in Lexington, and had some
Fried Chicken and Belgian Waffles with Maple Syrup. I don’t want to think about
the calories, but what an amazing good meal! My trip was complete. I spent the
6.5 hour drive home on Sunday just enjoying the scenery, and thinking about
some of the good stuff I did see. I watched Ben Stoeger shoot a couple of
stages, and I learned just watching him, I saw Matt Mink shoot a stage, and I
saw things differently that I had approached them. As usually, I watched the
amazing shooters in my own squad, Les and Kozy, and saw how they worked. I
actually felt prepared for the match ahead of time, and no matter how I did,
I’m walking away a lot better for the experience.
Considering how good the stages were, the mid 80’s weather,
the R.O.’s, and the reasonable drive, I’ll definitely be making Battle in the Bluegrass a
regular match. Next year I expect to do better, but I’m already looking forward
to the town, and the match.
Pine Tree Pistol (The Warm-up)
This morning we headed out to Pine Tree to get a warm-up match in before I head to Kentucky next weekend for Battle In The Bluegrass. I shot on Wednesday at MISS as Limited 10, and I did the same thing today, same rules, but out of Production just to insure that I stay where I think I am, and earn my "B" card this month. We rolled up with Kozy and Les, and somehow we did not get put in the same squad together, so there was no safety blanket. It was a good experience to not have a crutch to lean on, but being honest it was a real challenge today.
The struggle today was that we had 2 R.O.'s in our squad, and Linda and I were the only two people who knew how to work the Kindle to keep score. That meant I ran or scored every single run today, I never got to just watch a run, or get my bearings straight. I pretty much ran/scored/pasted and then had to jump to the line to shoot, which was a bear. We had 3 re-shoots on Stage 5 because people were not pasting, including one absolute tool, Steve L., who walked down the range with a tape gun, and did not tape a single target, but when asked said "I got 'em." After the third re-shoot in a row, I handed him a roll of pasters and told him that since the gun was too complicated, just take "one of these, and cover the holes after I score the target." I get that he was up there with his wife and father-in-law, but dude was completely useless, and not just useless, a real hindrance for everyone else. We had to work harder because of him. Linda and I for several stages had to carry pasters with us, and I would call out the scores, she would record, and then we were the only people to be pasting. Short version, I really don't want to shoot with that guy again, while I kept polite, and kept asking people to help and paste, it was a very frustrating experience.
First string was just fine, second string I missed the re-load, and ended up throwing a couple of mikes. This was actually the last stage we shot for the day, and I was happy to be done, but I realized, and you'll see on the 2nd target in String 2, I pulled the trigger before I was back to the target. Inexcusable error.
Luke Stage 2:
I'll be honest, I was not looking forward to this stage. A low squat, and a very high steel, but I ran it clean much to my own surprise, and I attribute that to my going a little slower, and being sure of my sights, plus I made an effort to squat low so I could get the good sight picture. I sure won't complain about this stage.
Luke Stage 3:
This was the first stage of the morning for us, and I had someone on my case because originally I was supposed to shoot earlier, but since I had to R.O. I pushed myself down, because John was loading his mags for the next stage. The shooter who got bumped threw a shit fit at me and kept it going all thru the stage on how he should get a re-shoot because he was not ready, and instead of preparing, he had been sweeping brass. It's times like that I want to look at someone and say "hey, even if you had time, I still think you'd blow it," but you can't do that. So I took it and apologized.
My own issues stemmed from a lack of accuracy, I threw a mike, and I missed steel, I just never got on the front sight myself.
Luke Stage 4:
So, before my run, I was scoring and setting up the star every single time. Second stage of the day, and I had an inkling of what a lazy bastard Steve L. was, because he grabbed a second broom and was going to "help" sweep brass, two people paste, and same two people (R.O. and scorer set-up the star.) Okay, enough venom! What went wrong? I'm an idiot! I missed my first shot, and inexplicably I moved down, and started shooting at the bottom of the star. If you start at the top you minimize movement, in my case I made the damn thing go faster and faster. To my credit, and you hear me exclaim when I shot it, I stuck with it, and finished it. Kozy mentioned I should have taken a mike on the last steel and kept moving, he's right, and in hindsight, I learned something. From there, the rest of my transitions were not bad, I took another mike when I broke a shot early on the last array though. My other improvement from The WIIT, is that I kept my gun out of the tube, and did not crowd myself in. Hey, it isn't much, but I can be positive about that.
Luke Stage 5:
Hands down my best stage of the day. I was 3.6 second behind Les, and I'm going to attribute it to a few things. I did not shoot on the move which cost me a second or two. I'm sure Les was faster getting down to the 2nd position than I was, and if you notice, after the second port, I almost slowed down an extreme amount before taking the last target. I'm not saying I was slow, my point is that I transitioned like a boss. You can see the results of working on this a week ago with Les. I'm much more confident that close.
Summary:
Not a fabulous match, but there were some real positives, Stage 5 alone was a win, Stage 2 was my best effort in a long time with an uncomfortable shooting position, and to a small plate with a high elevation. I was not on my front sights so I did suffer some mikes that I should not have. It's amazing, 6 months ago I expected to have mikes every match, now it surprises me, and I'm better able to call them when I do, I can see a moving sight, or something else. Now I just need to bear down on that front sight and get moving.
Battle in the Bluegrass is next weekend, so I'm going to get at least one day of live fire, may have to chrono some rounds because I did not make minor power factor on Wednesday. I'll check the powder drop, and it's not a big deal, it was very close, but considering the expense of a major match, I'm going to insure that I'm good to go. Going to hammer some fundamentals in dry fire this week, and make sure that my draw, and my reload are in tip top shape. I'm probably not comfortable enough to go 100% shooting on the move, and I'll probably go position to position. I know Dave is going to read this, but I'll say it, I'm going down to Bluegrass with every intention of shooting my best major, and winning first place in C class. It'll be my last match there, and when I jump to B, I'll be bottom of the heap, so if I'm going to bring a "finish" home, it starts next weekend. I'll put in the work, and while I'm realistic about my ability, I'm going down with confidence.
As far as Captain No-Help, the truth is, I was annoyed, not mad, and I'm glad I kept my cool. More than anything, I really appreciate the people I normally shoot with. The fact that they contribute, help, and that we all pull together makes for a fabulous shooting experience. Today it was just about the shooting, and I miss the camaraderie.
Linda Conquers The Texas Star
We trekked up to Pine Tree Pistol Club this morning for a match, and we more or less kept from Linda that she would have to shoot the Texas Star, oh, did I mention that it was not wide open, and that she had to shoot it from in a tube? Yeah, good thing I did not mention that to her either, but as Brad, Kozy, and Les all made sure to let me know, she kicked my ass on the stage. I inexplicably shot the bottom first and suffered, she shot it smart. She get's a well done!
Yes, she zeroed that one like a pro! Who is the gamer now? Somehow, I missed the video on stage 2, I know why, and that's a whole 'nother story for my blog.
Linda Stage 3:
Linda Stage 4: (She Conquers the Texas Star!)
Linda Stage 5:
It was an up and down match, and she found things she needs to work on, stage plan, reload, but most important something that I still struggle with as well, keeping her composure on a stage when something does not go according to plan. It cost her some standing reloads, but on the whole it was not a bad match for her, and she should find plenty of confidence in what she did on the star!
Yesterday I was excited about reaching my goal, although I will not be satisfied until USPSA runs the numbers, and I see a B card with my name on it in the mail. Not to be out done, Linda really had a good match yesterday, I'm really impressed that her hard work is slowly starting to pay off. Coming in to the match, she was right about a 21%, but she cleaned up yesterday, and even with a little Practicscore inflation, she should be right around 38%, meaning she is getting close to earning her C card. With less practice, less matches, she's going to be where I was last November. In fact, last night she was trying to figure out ways to go out, and get a couple more classifiers in, so she can earn her card now, and it would be nice to get my B card at the same time she earns hers.
More concerned with shooting than video yesterday, we missed more than a few stages, but here are a couple of her runs, and I laugh saying this, but these were her two worst stages, wish I had managed to get the video for her 3 outstanding runs.
CM 99-48 Tight Squeeze
CM 99-46 Close Quarter Standards:
Pretty proud of her, and gotta make mention of her progress here as well! Here is what she is looking at right now:
* Denotes lowest 2 of current 8, do not count in the calculation
** Denotes shot yesterday, and are not official USPSA scores.
Her 8 round average would be about 38.29%
Kozy has one video of me from yesterday, which I'll get later on, here is my Tight Squeeze Video:
This was actually my worst run of the day, I had a miss on the 2nd target, and I called it. I did not let the tuxedo target phase me, and I was fast. I was nearly a half second faster than any other Production shooter, and I was 4th fastest overall. Being honest, I actually saw my front sight, and other than trying to make sure I stayed away from the no-shoot, I felt this run was just the right speed. That's good confidence, but the bad part is that I over compensated by staying too far away from the meat of the A zone, and did not get the hits I wanted. Next time......
It was nice yesterday to savor the good match, but I got my dry fire practice in already today, and I'm already starting to work to become more competitive in my new class, and do it as fast as possible, and then beyond that towards taking the next step by the end of the year. 24 hour break was more than enough!
You know, I seem to find new and different ways to screw up classifiers. While I'm disappointed about that, it's not end of the world, and I'll go get done on Sunday what I need to do. I'm not worried, I realize I actually realize I just need to relax and shoot my game. So there, that's the bad part of this weeks match. The good part is that I finished 6th overall, my highest ever match finish, granted no Les, and no Kozy, so it would have been 8th. That said, I can't shoot against people who are not there, and I'll take 6th place when I know I had a bad classifier stage.
Stage went pretty well, 2nd place in Production. I had good solid hits, I was not happy with some of my transitions in the first position, and I took too long with some in the second position. Draw and reloads were solid, and I made sure that I was leaning in the last position, instead of having "Kozy foot".
Stage 2: (East 1: Crickets)
I had a mike on the 4th target. Second shot I started to pull back to reload and move to the next position before I completed the shot. This is an old issue, but with the movement, I just did not complete the shot, and I realized it, I thought it was either a mike or a low left delta. 7th place in Production, and the 10 penalty points did cost me a couple of spots.
Stage 3: (East 2: Chirp)
Can't complain too much, the run was good enough for 2nd place in Production, but there are some things that I could have done better. In the second position, I thought I had a good game plan, but I took way too long waiting for the swinger to come "open", I could, and should have taken it sooner, I took 3 shots, and all were Alpha's. My transitions in the final position were a little slower than I would have liked.
Stage 4: (West 2: CM 13-06 Too Close For Comfort)
Okay, new mistake here. I put the reload mag backwards into my mag holder, so on the reload I tried to insert it, and it was backwards, so I had to flip it. That and a misfire on my 4th shot really cost me. 9 Alpha 2 Bravo and a Charlie meant I had the hits, but the time cost me, and it's around a 45% run, which kind of hurts my run towards "C". It's done and over with, and lesson for Sunday is just be relaxed, don't get all tensed up, and shoot. Terry told me I was tense after I shot, and I denied it, but in hindsight, he was right, I was. For once instead of hosing it, I shot thru it.
Full Match Video:
Overall:
I could sit here and harp on the bad things, but what good would that do? The truth is there is an awful lot of good in this match, as my finish proved. Twelve months ago was the first time I ever shot more than one match in a month, I was still drawing lines on my hands to line up my grip. In October I was still a "D" class shooter who was struggling with fundamentals. Here we are five months of training with Les, breaking me down, and building me up fundamentally, this is big time progress. I'm not close to the same shooter I was a short time ago. So I'm pretty proud of my finish, but it's definitely made me hungry to continue to grind off rough spots and get better. I'm not even close to satisfied.
3/5 Match Review
I know, out of order, but things are how they are. This was once again, a typical match for me, I had some good, and some awful, although one of the awful ones was of my own manufacture. I could underplay it, or over play the results, but the truth is this had one of my best stages at a MISS Match this year, and possibly this entire season. For some reason (thank you Les) I ended up shooting first on three different stages for the night, an all-time record for me on four total stages.
Stage 1: Longshot
No video for this stage, but it was a 3 position memory stage where you needed to remember what targets you were shooting from each spot. I had a hard time in walk thru, and only figured it out the last couple of runs, but once I had it, I was okay. My time of 23.34 was the third fastest in Production, but my hits were pretty bad, 9 Alpha, 8 Charlie and 7 Delta. I'm not sure in retrospect if I was not seeing my sights or had some other issue, my hunch was that it was sights.
Stage 2: Plate This
This was the stage I was feeling good about. I was keeping score, had just called the first shooter to the line, and was actually last, when Les came in, said he'd score, and put me first and at the top of the order. I had to laugh, but this was good practice, I had to shoot the stage on demand, and bring a good performance. I ran out the 4th fastest Production time, and combined it with 23 Alpha and 7 Charlie, and finished 3rd in Production on the stage. The video showed pretty solid reloads, a passable draw, but an issue with "Kozy Foot", and some other technical improvements to be made. I felt really good about this stage, and I wish I could bottle the way I felt, and saw my sights and pull it out on demand.
Stage 3: Take Your Choice (Classifier)
I knew what I needed, a 50 point, 7 Alpha, 5 Charlie run in 10 seconds. Talk about eminently doable. We'd practiced this, and even if I did not get it in practice, I was confident I could do it live. My "original" time was fine, 9.29, but I did not know that. I kept the squad waiting, and did the math in my head to see where I would have been. I counted up 7 Alpha, 2 Charlie, and 2 Delta, and then realized I threw a mike on my very first shot. Even if the mike had been a Charlie, I would have fallen just a hair short, as the 2 delta's did me in. It took me 12-13 seconds to do the math, and then I iced it by putting three more into the no-shoot to insure I'd zero out the stage.
Stage 4: Quick Shot
After the classifier, I was out in the lobby with Les, going over the video review of Stage 2, and I missed walk-thru, and had to be told twice to enter the range. When I did, every single bastard in my squad was, arms crossed, facing the door, waiting for me, and told me that I had to shoot first. I'll get 'em for that! I made a lot of fundamental mistakes on this stage. I ended up starting off on a head shot only target. This meant I had a slow draw to a tough target, when I could have drawn to an open target, and closed on the head shot. 3 Mikes, and a No-Shoot, 2 Delta did not mesh well with 16 Alpha, 1 Bravo and 6 Charlie. My time was not bad, but the poor hits, and plan doomed me. Notice the almost standing first reload as well. No reason to do it, but I did it....
Summary:
The best part of shooting is that I'll never be 100% satisfied with my performance, there will always be things that I can improve on. For some reason I'm having issues with the front sight, or with planning, and it's all the rough edges that need to be ground off for me to achieve some consistency. I can feel it's not all that far off, but until I grind off these edges it'll be more up and down performances, and that's what I'm trying to avoid. A real commitment to focus on fundamentals for the next couple of weeks in dry fire should go a long way to at least knocking off a few of my issues.
MISS Match 2/19/14
I had an exercise in frustration with the match. I had numerous misfires, where the primer was hit, but I had to pull the trigger a second time to get it to fire. I'm 99.9% sure that the reason for the issue was high primers, and not super high, just the nub over the case, where you can barely feel it if you were to rub a finger over it. The Walther would eat this ammo all day long, but the CZ is definitely more finicky and tonight it really cost me. Overall there were a lot of things I did right, and other things that I can do better, so I'm not going to beat myself up, some of this was the result of my week long burnout, the rest some less than perfect execution.
The short version is that I did not have good hits. I had one miss on a low target, and I had a lot of delta's. My movement felt stilted, and I never felt like I cut loose on this stage. I did have my first misfire on this stage (I had at least one on every stage).
Stage 2: Dan Steely (West 1)
Continuing the theme, I just did not see my front sight and break the shot when I should. I had another mike (on the misfire) but just in general poor hits. My time was actually not horrible when compared to most other shooters, but Les and Jay Carillo were about 9 seconds faster each, so I'd love to see how they shot it (accurately I would guess).
Stage 3: Melody Line CM99-08 (CLASSIFIER)
This did not go the way that I had hoped. Despite practicing my reloads I still bobbled the re-load, and if you notice I had two misfires on the string. Tony was busy trying to give me procedurals, but pulling the trigger twice to make it go bang is not a procedural. My time of 10.80 was slow, and my Hit Factor appears to be about a 58%. I was extremely disappointed by this run. We had some time after we finished the stage, and I re-ran it in 8.63 seconds with 52 points, which would have been a 74% run. This is one I should have crushed, instead I'll just replace a 33% with a 58%. Good I guess, but not what I wanted.
Stage 4: Double Leaner (East 2)
We had run late with the doors staying open early, and the ventilation system shutting down and having to wait to reset and restart. I was the next to last shooter on the last stage, and I had it in my mind to just cut loose, and go out and shoot fast. I did that, and my hits while not great were not horrible either. What got me, was the same thing that had me all night, two mikes, one the result of a misfire again at the very end. I liked the way I ran this, and believe it or not I did feel like I had an acceptable sight picture for the better part of this run. Too often I feel I have to have a perfect sight picture which slows me down. I won't go this speed all the time, but I can pull it out when I need to.
Full Match Video:
Summary
The misfire issue is going to be a non-issue, I'm going to take all my CBC brass and pull it, and the loaded ones make into practice ammo. My "match grade" ammo will not have any of it, it will be brands I know, I trust, and am 100% confident that the primer is seated properly. Sure I was bummed I cant take the easy path with two high B's to earning my B card, but it's okay, this still helps, and I'm going to get my card anyhow. If I can't run off 3 more good classifiers now, then frankly I don't deserve it.
I was big time down about the classifier, but I did get it out of my head and was focused on what I wanted to do on the last stage. I'm looking at this as an opportunity to learn, not a setback. I'm back on the good dry fire regime, and I am going to burn out some of the little mistakes I made here. Being realistic, I need to maintain my focus on my front sight, in hindsight I had very little discipline with that last night, and that is part of the reason I tend to see past my sights to the target, my focus is on the wrong thing.
MISS Match 2/9
This was a long, morning. I was prepared, but made plenty of mistakes, it was not until the last stage that I shot a stage that felt good, and even that came with 2 mikes. In a way, I'm glad to take a few days off now, just dry fire, do a full Skills and Drills Class on Wednesday, and shoot the next match on the 19th. A ten day break to get back to hard practice is going to be just what the doctor ordered for me. I do have to give a shout out to Linda, who shot a really great match, her first match with her decked out gun from Automatic Accuracy.
My stage plan was okay, I was just very slow, never found a shooting cadence, and had a mike on my last target, for some reason I took 3 shots at the next to last target, and only one shot at the last target. This could have been worse, but it really should have been a lot better.
Stage 2: Long Range Mind Games (West 1)
Mental mistake started it off, I was supposed to re-engage the far left paper target a 2nd time from inside the box, and I never did that. Not sure what I was thinking, but the truth is that I was just not thinking, and I knew it as soon as I was going to reload, plus I stuck a bad reload in there.
I was keyed up for this one, I had dry fired, worked my transfer and so on. First string I had a bad reload, I missed the mag release button, and took an extra second to get reloaded, although the 11.38 time was still plenty good. I had all my hits at this point, and felt that with a sub 14 second run on the 2nd string, I would be just fine, and have my 60%. Second string went just fine freestyle, all good hits, but things went downhill fast weak hand, and I had a couple of mikes, and realized I put one thru the no-shoot. In order to zero the stage, I went back freestyle, and put 4-5 thru the no-shoot to the dismay of everyone who thought I had it. It was a bummer to do this. This one will haunt me as one I should have had, but as a result, I will start adding a little weak hand shooting to most live fire sessions, even if it's just a mag.
Stage 4: Still His Fault (East 2)
No real complaints. I did not sprint to the first position, but I got my hits, second position I blazed thru with a very good cadence. Third position I again had good hits, and stayed fast, and in the last position, my cadence slowed down a bit, and did not need to. I was fast enough, but 2 mikes (one into hard cover) cost me. I would not run this one any slower though, my first mike I called as being close.
Summary: Full Match Video:
I had a great cadence on the last stage, so I know I can shoot fast, and I can do it accurately, I need the confidence to do that all the time though. The rest of the match was a mishmash of errors, not following the front sight, and general mistakes. I'm not going to beat myself up too much though, what's done is done, time to put in some work again, get on the dry fire and kick some butt on the 19th. It's definitely time for a well deserved day off.
As I said before, Linda shot better, I know the overall result is still not what she wanted, but coming out of the match she has a lot more confidence. She knows she can reload, draw, move quickly, and transition well, she had a few instances of not following her front sights, but for her 2nd match with this gun, and first with it back and worked on, she's happy. I'm pretty proud of her as well. Here is her match video:
MISS Match 2/5
This is a pretty busy span of shooting for me. Four matches and a class in 12 days, with another class on day 14, toss in some live fire practice as well, and I have a lot of ammo going down range. Add dry fire, and there has not been a day where I am not doing something to improve.
This is the home stretch, including last night, I make it 9 possible classifier's until the completion of "Plan B". There have been times where I was getting discouraged, and felt like there was no way I could make it, or that we should just start buying Les ammo, but with 9 runs to go, this really has become do or die time, where each classifier matters. I need 6 runs of 60% or better. This is not an unreasonable expectation, although I hear the classifier for this weekend is El Strong And Weak Pres which is not going to be something I'm comfortable doing, and is going to be something I'll struggle with. That does not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I started off pretty cold, 3 misses, low points, and kind of slow. In watching the video, I'm seeing some occasional flinch, and I think that is starting to become a problem for me, so I'll have to address that again in practice. It's strange how it comes and goes, but the only thing to do is deal with it. The stage build did not go quite as planned, as I ran past the 2nd position into the 3rd position and was able to clean the 2nd position targets. In general, I think I just had issues seeing my front sights.
Stage 2 Do The Math:
Another poor run, 4 mikes, and you can see some flinch, and very slow plan. At this point I was really struggling to see my front sight. No excuses, but I picked up my front sight much better at Pine Tree, the range there seems brighter than at Alpha. Since I've picked up my front sight at Alpha before, I know I can do it, but I probably need more prep time before the match. This was the first time I had to run people as an R.O. before I shot. I had a lot going on in my head when I ran.
With everything that had gone on earlier, I could have completely cracked, and shot this poorly. That's been my history. To me, it was obvious that I did not clear my head between the first two stages, and I was still judging myself, and not keeping clear to just shoot the second stage. I've been begging to run this classifier for a couple of months, so this was my big chance. Les made the comment that "If you want your B card, you don't want to run this." I'm not sure what convinced him to go with this stage, but I suspect Terry had something to do with it. At the short distance, it's all about a fast draw, fast reload, and fast shots, all while being 100% accurate. I got the accurate part down, 20 shots, 20 Alpha. My speed 9.36 seconds was just good enough, and my hit factor of 10.68 according to Classifer Calc is good enough for about a 64%, or "B" run! Challenge conquered! This stage was 4th in Production, and 7th Overall. What the video does not show, is that I almost DQ'd on the stage, between strings, I started to holster with the hammer down, and the RO stopped me, and I de-cocked. Had he not stopped me, instant DQ. Lesson here is safety is the most important thing, and even though I'm shooting, my head was not in the "right" place. That one won't happen ever again.
Stage 4: One Way Or The Other
This ended up being my best longer course of the night. Slower than I would have liked, some extra shots, but no mikes, and no flinches. This is how I should be running more often than not, and the idea is not to make those mistakes in early stages again. After I shot, I grabbed the timer, and ran the rest of the squad to get some more experience on the R.O. side of the game. This is actually the way I'd like to R.O., after I shoot.
Summary:
I think my continued early struggles simply means I need to prep better at home before the match. Get in my 30-40 minutes of dry fire before I leave for the match, get my head wrapped around my sights, know what I'm looking at, and go from there. This is not something new for me, and one of the things that has had me saying that I need to shoot a complete match, and start off well. After The WIIT, I know I am capable of doing just that, but I also know what I did before I left to shoot, and the dry fire practice I put in, so when I got there, I knew exactly what I wanted to see.
I can feel the rounding off of my game I need to do, clean up just a couple of little things and it'll help both my overall accuracy and speed. I need to keep working, no off days for right now, and matches are not practice. This means Sunday will be a match, and 30 minutes of dry fire later in the day. I've got two 60% classifier's on the books, and that does not include the lost 82% run from The WIIT. Problem is one will fall off, so I need to start stringing together more of these. This goal of hitting "B" by the April USPSA classification run is very possible, but now it's entirely up to me.
