2015 Plans (Pt. 2)

2015 Plans (Pt. 2)


In November I wrote a blog detailing what went right, and what went wrong for me in 2014. I've been putting off the follow-up to it, because I was not really sure where I should be going. The reality is that over the past few weeks, I've had to do some real honest self-evaluation and that's never a pretty thing to do. I suppose I avoided doing that, because I had an idea of what I needed to do, but the cold hard reality of why I needed to it, and what had been holding me up from doing it was immobilizing me. Today though, I acknowledging what those issues are, and I'm going to take steps to go forward, and deal with those things.


The move to Austin in 2014 was great, I love my job, I love being here, I'm as happy as can be with that. I love spending time with the family, sharing adventures, I'm happy with those things. Where I'm dissatisfied, is when I look in the mirror. I don't like the guy I'm seeing there. A few years ago, I worked at diet, I worked at fitness, and I dropped over 50 lbs in pretty short order. Since then though, I've made stabs at different diets, and even when I made progress, I lost my will to succeed and gave up. I used the travel excuse, and it is a challenge to eat healthy when you are on the road, and have to eat out 6-9 meals a week. All those things contributed (along with Migas, Tex-Mex, BBQ, and Chicken Fried Steak), to see me put all that weight back on. I look in the mirror, and I'm genuinely upset.


November 2013 thru mid-June 2014, I was a practicing son of a gun. I religiously did my dry fire, I weekly got in my live fire, and I saw good progress in my shooting skills. When I accepted the new job, and got caught up with packing, and moving, I started to drift away from shooting, not out of choice, but I just did not have the time with the huge life changes we were experiencing. When I got to Austin, I wanted to explore, get Linda and Lauren excited about living here, and there was some shooting involved, but not a lot of practice, and I think we all know what happens when you don't put in the practice time.

Both the fitness and the practice tie in to my focus for 2015 though. In that last blog, I think I correctly identified things that I'm doing strongly, and some serious shooting shortcomings. I looked up my last El Presidente that was an official classifier, (March of '14) and I ran 7.62 seconds, 56 points and a 7.35 HF which was about a 71%, and that was a solid "B" run. Several weeks ago, I ran it in practice, my best time was 5.35 seconds, 50 points, and a 9.28 HF, which is about a 90% run. My draw, reload, splits and transitions are solid enough to get me into "A" class. Runs were between 5.35 and 5.92. My biggest issue has always been consistent points, but I'm finally able to feel that I'm starting to see my sights well going fast. The video below shows some good to it, but it also shows where I was inconsistent. That's going to be a big focus for 2015, getting consistent.

Fixing my draw, and getting a little elbow bend has really been all I have accomplished the past three months in practice, which sucks, but for me that's been the first step in being more consistent, and shooting more points. I'm not where I want to be, but I'm actually improving. That's the one thing I'm going to build on.


Shooting:

In IL, Les partnered me up with Dave to begin "Plan B", and it was interesting, undertaking the process, going to classes, working classifiers, setting up dry fire routines with, and committing to weekly live fire with someone I had never met prior to that. Once "Plan B" was complete, I got to "tag along" with Les and Kozy, and both are intense (in very different ways) but our live fire had them on a whole 'nother playing field than me. I did however, not miss sessions, I went, I learned, and I made progress. I knew that if I did not show up, I'd hear about it, I'd be given a ration of shit. I fed off of that intensity, and it helped me be honest with my own practice habits. The past few weeks, I realized how much that meant, and how easy it is to say "I'm busy, I have something else I need to do, it's just this one time...." I can't allow myself to do that, and practicing with someone else is just something I need right now to help me keep my commitment. Is it a sign of weakness to say I'm not able to do it solo? Maybe, but no matter how much I want something, it's always easier for me to have someone to share the experience with. I'd talk to Dave, Les, and Kozy during the week, we'd talk shooting, talk drills, I was bouncing ideas, I had technique help, or par time assisted, I'd be given suggestions on drills to work to help what I wanted to fix, and I had people who were invested in me. People that I fought equally as hard to accomplish my goals because I wanted them to be proud, feel their investment in me was worth their time.

In the above video, look at the "thumbs up" reaction when Linda did well on a classifier from Les and Kozy, and look at the heads down, disappointment from both of 'em when I blew the run, and lost my cool. Those guys bled for me. I can't thank them enough, for that, and while I know they still do, I need someone daily in my face for 2015 to work with.

That leads me to resolution one. I need a practice partner to push me. Timmy is a "Pro GM", and he runs a lot of solo drills, and does his stage work with another GM, so I'm not seeing that. Linda and I talked about it, but it means a different level of commitment from her, and there are some pluses and some definite minuses to working with her in 2015. I don't want it to be easy to say "another day" when it comes to practice. That said, there are a couple of other people that are good enough, or strong enough shooters that I think I could learn from, and still bring something to the table with.

Resolution two is that I'm going work on things I'm not good at. Draw, transitions, those things may be low hanging fruit, but those will improve without a high focus on them right now. I'm seriously lacking in field course skills, I need work on position entry and exit. I need work on strong hand and week hand, and I really need work on shooting on the move. Watching video's over the course of the year, I realize that if I was bad at something, I shot to avoid it. I would go position to position, and would cost myself all sorts of time, which means I also need to stage plan to incorporate those skills I'm working on.

Resolution three, is that I'm going to keep my cool all the time. Little mistakes are not going to bother me. I see video's where I know I made a mistake and either all out melt down, or swear, and let it impact my next few shots. Mistakes happen, that's not a problem, but it becomes a problem if when a mistake causes me to keep making more. I need to cut that off. The QB who throws an interception, the DB who gives up a long TD. Short memory, stay focused.

Improving on field courses is not really a resolution, but it's going to be the result of how I want to practice this year. I want to shoot some major's, and finish within my "class" to the winners. If I earn my "A" here shortly, then I want to shoot 75% at least of what the winner shoots. Right now, I know I can't do that.

Fitness:

This is a big part of what I'm missing. When I've had to shoot 10-12 stages in a day, I've been exhausted, burned out, and done for before I was done shooting. Being physically out of the game, took me mentally out of the game, and I'm just not going to keep putting myself in that position. In addition, I need an awful lot more quickness, and explosion in my game, and getting in shape will play a huge part in that. I break down fitness into a couple of categories.

Weight loss, I've done the goofy diets, I've tried the stupid replacing a meal with a shake, eating certain size containers of food, and for different reasons they've been tough. You know what's worked for me? Counting my calories. When I went thru my weight loss before, I used My Fitness Pal, and in 6 months of using it, I never once went over my allotted calories. That taught me not just about portion control, but it taught me how to eat to keep sugars, salts and other key parts where I needed them to be. The other part of that successful run, was that I did it at the same time as some other work folks, and it was a daily competition sort of things, that kept me on my game, kept me motivated. I'm going to be a little more willing to have a "cheat" day here or there, but I'm going to use this to build the right habits, and keep them. Trying to be "perfect" made things harder than they needed to be, and I'm not saying I'm going to the other extreme, that I'll cheat every single day. When someone comes to visit this year, I can go out for BBQ, or I can enjoy some higher calorie Tex-Mex. I can't do it every day, and I may end up working out harder, but keeping sensible, and in moderation work. Project eat right begins on Monday the 5th. I'm not gorging myself, but there are a couple of Guinness in the fridge, and when they are gone, they'll be gone for awhile.

Fitness. Again, last time I lost weight, I was on the treadmill for at 30 minutes to an hour every single day, with no breaks, no days off for five months. Insane right? Everyone knows that your body needs a break here and there, but I was deathly afraid that if I skipped one day, it would let me skip another day, and it would spiral out of control. That's garbage, and I know it. I've got more will power than that. I'm breaking my workouts into both cardio and strength. Treadmill for the time being because every hotel fitness room has one, and I have one at home, and I'm shopping elliptical now because I think it provides a better benefit for my time invested than just a treadmill. Going to keep doing the miserable 7 day aerobic with weight routine I did in October, I hated it, but even I saw improved flexibility, and cardio plus weight work is good. The last part is a decision on either free weights, or looking at bow flex. I'm not 100% sold, but I want a workout that I can run both at home, and when I'm on the road.

The reality is that when I'm on the road, I'm not a drinker, I don't go out to bars, and after my last call, and unless I'm taking a customer to dinner, I'm back in my room by 7pm. I have ample opportunity to both workout, and to get in 30-40 minutes of dry fire. The short version is that I've got no reason not to accomplish my goals.

Summary:

I have been, and am the biggest reason that I have not hit my 2014 goals. Setting aside the other stuff, I did not accomplish what I wanted to accomplish because I did not put in the work, or make the effort I needed to make. How's that for a bit of honesty? When I lost my 50 lbs a few years ago, when I went from D to B in 5 months, I did it because I was committed, invested, and motivated. I was none of those things for the 2nd half of 2014, and I regret that. A night shoot, my last match, reminded me how passionate I am about shooting, and also how much I miss Les and Kozy. Those fuckers are working, why aren't I?

I'm committing to 4 workouts a week for now.
I'm committing to hitting my calorie goal 28 days a month, and NEVER being more than 10% over on a cheat day.
I'm committing to finding a practice partner.
I'm committing to 10% of my dry fire to strong hand/week hand drills, all year long.
I'm committing to 5 dry fire sessions of at least 30 minutes a week.
I'm committing to at least one live fire session of 200-250 rounds per week.

I'm going to lose 10 lbs a month for the next 5 months, we'll see where I'm at then, and plan the rest of the year.
I'm going to shoot 75% of a winners points in at least one major match in the 2nd half of 2015.
I'm going to earn my "A" card.
I'm going to reach 90% of points shot in a major match.
I'm going to keep my cool, and not melt down.


I need to sit down with Les, and pick his brain, and put together measurable goals and run 30 day rotations on my drills to keep things fresh, and challenging. I'm need to determine what dry fire practice will help me most with ports, positions, and so on. I need to set-up tier goals that work for me.

Realizing that I'm getting into 3-Gun this year, those goals are separate. I'm not focused, nor am I committed to it, I'm doing it for fun. Will I practice shotgun reloads? Sure, but I'm not going to focus on them, 3-Gun could be a 6th dry fire day during the week. I'm going to enjoy it, but I'm going to achieve my USPSA goals this  year. I want to know I took myself as far as I could commensurate with what I'm able to commit.

The biggest thing I'm going to do, is I'm going to be honest with myself, and I'm going to stop and frequently evaluate what I'm doing. If something is not working, I'm not going to beat my head into a wall doing it over and over, I'm going to find another way to get the solution. I'm going to keep doing things that make me better, and I'm going to be honest when I'm not putting in the effort I need.

I've got a ways to go, but the last few weeks helped me realize that if I take responsibility for my goals, and my actions, only then will I accomplish what I set out to do. That sounds small, but sometimes it's the little things that get away from you. I'm done making excuses. In December 2015, I want to be a thinner, healthier, more fit, person, who is taking a winter shooting break, and able to say "yep, I rocked out 2015 to the best of my ability and left it all out there."

End of Season Evaluation & Practice Plans (Part 1)

End of Season Evaluation & Practice Plans


It's been 12 months since Les took me under his wing and told me that I could learn enough to earn my USPSA "B" card, and I actually managed to accomplish it in 5 months, from "D" to "B". There was an awful lot that happened this summer with the job change, and the move to Texas that interrupted my further plans, but the past few months I had the chance to get back on the range and shoot a few matches, and really assess where I am at, where I want to be, and what I'm going to need to start working on to get there.

What Went Well:

A year ago I had a hard time with draw and reload, and since January I have worked pretty hard on both those skills. Being honest, you'll draw in a match 5-6 times, so it's not the biggest or most important investment of my time, but I wanted to be consistent, and I'm definitely getting it there. I had in issue where on my draw I would lock my elbows, and my arms were straight out, this meant not much flexibility, and it was enough to earn me my "B" card, but it had to get addressed. I made a conscious effort to change that, and I'm starting to see progress, but it's not consistent, or natural. I still have to think about it, and if I don't think about it, I don't do it.

My reloads are fairly consistent, in the spring I had a very robotic motion that was not comfortable, I pulled in my strong hand elbow to my chest, and used that to cant the gun the way I wanted, and force myself to put the gun into my "work area" so I could watch the reload go in cleanly. I was able to get rid of that, and start to be natural in late spring, but the enforced absence really hurt, and I noticed this fall that my reloads were sloppy and inconsistent. Apparently this skill was a casualty of the idea that shooting skills are perishable. I had to return to my robotic motion in order to get my reloads under control, and I'm only now starting to return to a comfortable and consistent reload.

Perhaps the best part of the year is that I'm really focusing on my sights, not as consistently as I'd like, but better than I have in the past. With everything else going on, and everything I was trying to think about, I often forgot to see my sights. Finishes at the Buckeye Classic and Battle of the Bluegrass showed me that on some stages when I focused I was fine, but when I let something else bother me, I could be epic level bad. Highlights included a Top 10 Production finish on one stage, and a low light of 7 misses on one stage.

With less on my mind when I shoot, my mind is fairly clear, and now I just focus on the sights, and trust that the rest of what I want to do is taking care of itself, Practice and training are paying off. This is leading to better transitions, and more focus on stage plan. These days a miss does not "surprise" me, I know what I'm seeing, so I feel like I should know if I missed a target. This is progress. In the video, you'll see that my splits and transitions are solid, this is where I need to be, and I'm seeing more and more of this as the year has progressed.

My strength all year was stages that I could use what I practiced most. My draw, reload, and fundamental, speed shoot skills all worked fairly well for me, and if you look at my classifiers, you'll see strong finishes where I could use those skills.

What Just Did Not Work:

This could be a long list, but I'm a "B" class shooter, and I'm trying to take steps, not race to Grandmaster. I see a lot of things that I can work to improve, but there are definitely a few things that really stood out for me in 2014.

As strong as I was on classifier, and speed shoot stages, I struggled on field courses. I attribute my struggle to a variety of things. I need work entering and leaving ports and shooting positions. I need to improve my reloads on the move, and I have absolutely terrible footwork, which goes into entering and leaving positions. As Terry has so aptly pointed out, I lack the sense of urgency on field courses, and I slow the heck down. I'll take a slow reload, or slowly get into a position, I'll fail to consistently hit a position with the gun up, and ready to break a shot as soon as I hit the position. These are all skills that are critical to my being consistent, and delivering a match long performance. The last addition to this amalgam of misfortune, is shooting on the move. I'm awful. I'm a position to position shooter, and I'm uncomfortable shooting on the move, and I realize how beneficial it would be if I could improve at this.

I ran Quad Standards (CM09-06) at a recent match, and I had never shot my gun at 40 yards. I looked pretty good, but I did not hit much. That leads me into a few other things that I struggled with, it was not just extreme distance, but little things like strong hand only or week hand only shooting that presented challenges for me. These were all things that Les touched on, and we worked briefly on, but they did not become staples of my practice routine. In the case of distance, Alpha range was really only about 23 yards from target to the back of the bay, but I never went to OnTarget, and took some time shooting my pistol at range, seeing what my hold should have been at a distance.

My mental focus has always been something Les and Kozy had me focus on. Never get too hard on yourself, don't let a miss or a bad stage cost you. This fall I noticed that with nobody to help prop me up, I had to do it for myself, and with Linda shooting every match, it was my job to keep her on the even keel. Maybe it was the responsibility of doing that, but it helped me with my own game. I can have a problem, have something not go my way, and I need to keep my focus. It's not where it should be, but I feel like in the fall there was measurable progress. In the spring I had bad stretches at major matches where I let one bad thing cascade into several bad stage. I think I'm further along, but I want to see it on a bigger stage before I can say that I'm where I want to be. This will be an ongoing challenge.

Wheels Fell Off When I had to re-shoot because targets not pasted

This led to 5 stages of meltdown

Finally, conditioning. Bluegrass and Ohio both tired me out, and I was spent by the end of the day. 10 plus stages, heat, and an all day event, and my ass was seriously dragging. Texas is a whole 'nother ball game, and with potentially 6 major's here next  year, I can't afford to start to fade, and ultimately burn out before a major match, hell a club match for that matter, is over. This is not just a shooting thing, and we're going the right way, but shooting is a mental, and physically exhaustive experience, and I feel I can't focus on one and ignore the other.

Long day of RO'ing, the heat got to me.

Bad turn, bad reload, wrong attitude.

2014 was a successful year. I moved from a 30% shooter, to a 71.28% shooter, that's progress. I developed a lot skills that I need to be successful, but it's obvious that I do still have a ways to go if I want to progress. I believe the key for 2015 is going to be a comprehensive practice plan that has me focusing on skills that need practice, rather than on "fun" drills, and includes a better diet, weight loss, and physical fitness regimen that allows me to achieve my goals. This really was my first full season shooting after some coaching, and trying to measure and improve my progress. Heck, October was the 2 year anniversary of my shooting a gun for the first time. The more I shoot, the less thinking I have to do, it become natural, and I become a product of my practice, that's why it's important for me to practice the right way, and hit the right things.

I'm working on putting my goals down on paper, and that will be the subject of my next blog. Knowing what I want to accomplish should help me come up with a better practice plan. I'm actually glad I decided to review the year, because it helped me see some current things I'd like to address.

Get It Done Eve

Get It Done Eve


Tomorrow is the big day for me, it's the MISS Classifier match. Six great classifiers in one day, time for me to earn my "B" card. Doing the math, I will shoot 4 of the 6 classifiers, so I don't start to drop 70's, and maybe 2-3 will count. I could earn my "B" card with a three runs of 53%. That's 3 runs that are 7% lower than the 60% I need for my card. That means a couple of things, it means I've done a good job of earning some higher classifiers to give myself some breathing room, and it means that I can just shoot. No pressure, no stress, just go and get it done. I'm not looking to squeak by, let's do it right.


Today we went to Alpha, and it was a big crew doing some shooting for four hours. Kozy was up there already working, so he shot at the beginning, Les was up for a hour plus, Linda, Dave, Herb and even Tom Palmer and his wife worked into the session. I had hoped to see all 6 classifiers, but we only shot 4, two of which I suspect I will not even shoot tomorrow, so I'll have to shoot two completely cold. Sure, that could intimidate me a bit, but earning my "B" card to me, means that I should be able to deliver a solid classifier without practice. I should be able to trust my skills and ability to deliver.

Here were my El Pres runs:

5 Alpha
6 Charlie
1 Delta
44 Points
1.82 Draw
2.17 Reload
7.50 Total Time
5.87 Hit Factor
57% (C Run)


9 Alpha
3 Charlie
54 Points
1.76 Draw
1.93 Reload
7.35 Total Time
7.35 Hit Factor
71.6% (B Run)


6 Alpha
5 Charlie
1 Delta
46 Points
1.94 Draw
1.90 Reload
7.13 Total Time
6.45 Hit Factor
62.9% (B Run)

All of those are going to be acceptable, but I know what I can do. They key, as always, will be no misses, no deltas, all Alpha's, and Charlies. My draw is fast enough, my reload is fast enough, and I shoot fast enough, so just see my front sight, get hits, and kick some ass.

My Steely Speed VII runs were not what I expected. Last time I did this, I had a 61%, that has since fallen off my record, so I know I can hit the 5.89 second time I need, but I only did it one time today in seven runs. All runs had at least one miss, and no run was worse than a 55%. To me, this means that I really need to be fundamentally sound, and not lose that front sight, acceptable sight picture is not good enough. Linda actually had some outstanding runs on this classifier, consistently lowering her times to where she shot a couple of "B" level runs, and six of her seven runs were above her "C" mark. She's going to do just fine with this one.

So, here are the classifiers, and the mark's that I need for tomorrow:
(All scoring assumes 90% of possible points)

El Presidente  (60% 6.156 Hit Factor in 8.77 Seconds)
Steely Speed VII (60% 5.09 Hit Factor in 5.89 Seconds)
Close Quarter Standards (60% 5.72 Hit Factor in 18.89 Seconds) ***
High Standards (60% 4.79 Hit Factor in 22.55 Seconds) ***
Tight Squeeze (60% 5.90 Hit Factor in 9.15 Seconds)
Madness (60% 5.26 Hit Factor in 11.98 Seconds)

For that those that don't know, Hit Factor is simply points shot divided by time. Alphas are worth 5 points, Bravo 3 points, Charlie 3 points, and Delta 1 Point. A Mike is -10, and a no shoot is -10. That's the Production "Minor" scoring.

So, tonight? I'm going to do my dry fire routine of about 45 minutes, load some ammo, and enjoy the night with the family. I'm not going to over pressure myself, or work myself into a tizzy, if I get too tight, then I'll shoot poorly. I'm going to relax, and trust that all the practice and work I've done in the past 5 months will pay off tomorrow. Dry fire tonight is going to just keep me sharp.

I will get up early tomorrow, and do 30 minutes of dry fire before we leave for the match, and that's just going to focus on my front sight. I keep an eye on that tomorrow, I'm going to reach this goal of a "B" card. It's funny though, Kozy posted something on Facebook the other day, it was a picture that said "Work hard so one day your mentor's become your rivals." I was watching Les today, and I want to be that good. I'm not saying I'll ever be a rival, or that I'll be able to commit to the work it would take to reach that level, but this "B" card is just a step, it's not a destination. I love this sport, I'm glad I'm able to do it and compete, and that my friends and family support me. One step at a time, and tomorrow I'm going to get one goal completed, and then enjoy it for a little bit, before I jump back onto the treadmill, and set some goals worth working even harder for.

Tuesday Practice

Tuesday Practice

It's also my 100th blog, which I'm happy to say I've enjoyed writing! So, Dave and I worked on the same two classifiers as we did last Friday, we had to make tonight quick, so we focused on the standard El Presidente, and the classifier we will see on Wednesday, Too Close for Comfort. The idea this time is that we really need to nail both of these.


CM 13-06 Too Close for Comfort

4 Alpha
4 Bravo
2 Charlie
38 Points
1.95 Draw
1.75 Reload
8.73 Total Time
4.35 Hit Factor
52.5% (C Run)


4 Alpha
1 Bravo
4 Charlie
1 Mike
30 Points
1.89 Draw
2.06 Reload
7.95 Total Time
3.77 Hit Factor
45.5% (C Run)

5 Alpha
2 Bravo
3 Charlie
40 Points
1.95 Draw
2.30 Reload
8.68 Total Time
4.60 Hit Factor
55.5% (C Run)

8 Alpha
1 Bravo
1 Charlie
46 Points
1.54 Draw
1.67 Reload
7.60 Total Time
6.05 Hit Factor
72.97% (B Run)

5 Alpha
2 Bravo
2 Charlie
1 Delta
38 Points
1.86 Draw
2.27 Reload
8.35 Total Time
4.55 Hit Factor
54.9% (C Run)

7 Alpha
2 Bravo
1 Charlie
44 Points
1.78 Draw
1.89 Reload
8.05 Total Time
5.46 Hit Factor
65.86% (B Run)


El Presidente CM 99-11

7 Alpha
4 Charlie
1 Mike
42 Points
2.03 Draw
1.82 Reload
7.44 Total Time
5.64 Hit Factor
54.96% (C Run)

4 Alpha
6 Charlie
2 Delta
40 Points
1.88 Draw
1.87 Reload
7.51 Total Time
5.32 Hit Factor
51.85% (C Run)

9 Alpha
3 Charlie
54 Points
2.30 Draw
1.89 Reload
7.92 Total Time
6.81 Hit Factor
66.4% (B Run)


7 Alpha
5 Charlie
50 Points
1.84 Draw
2.03 Reload
7.26 Total Time
6.88 Hit Factor
67.1% (B Run)


Analysis

I'm showing some progress, but I really do need to do better. The botched and slow reload has definitely cost me a few times, but I'm feeling that my turn and draw should be in the 1.8 range for El Pres comfortably, and my reload should be 1.6 to 1.8 every single time. If I am missing then it's on me, I'm not looking something in, my next to last El Pres run, I did not see the front sight at all, and I ran it in 7.92, with a 2.30 draw, that that down .3 seconds, and a 7.62 looks respectable. I've got the match tomorrow and Too Close For Comfort, and then the last class with Les on Saturday, followed by two hours of range work with Dave and Linda, and then it's show time.

While I like my chances to get it done, I want to shoot my best, I don't want to shoot worrying about where I am, I want to go all out, and give each classifier my best. Looking forward to this!

Friday Practice

Friday Practice

With the game on the line, Dave and I decided we're going to work on Classifiers thru the 22nd, and then after that, we'll go back to standard practice sessions trying to break down certain parts of our game, and focusing all our work to improve those parts. Short term, working these classifiers will help us improve our scores, and give us some direction for dry fire. One week only!

We started off with CM 13-06 Too Close for Comfort which is a 10 round, 50 point stage, which will be run on Thursday. We did two runs each at "accurate speed", two runs "hair on fire", and finally "match speed".


Accurate

7 Alpha
2 Bravo
1 Charlie
44 Points
1.97 Draw
2.32 Reload
10.78 Total Time
4.08 Hit Factor
49.2% (C Run)

7 Alpha
2 Bravo
1 Charlie
44 Points
1.67 Draw
2.07 Reload
8.94 Total Time
4.92 Hit Factor
59.3% (C Run)


Hair On Fire

10 Alpha
2 Bravo
44 Points
1.44 Draw
2.05 Reload
7.61 Total Time
5.78 Hit Factor
69.7% (B Run)

5 Alpha
1 Bravo
2 Charlie
2 Mike
24 Points
1.66 Draw
? Reload
6.81 Total Time
3.52 Hit Factor
42.4% (C Run)

Match Speed

5 Alpha
2 Bravo
3 Charlie
35 Points
1.55 Draw
1.94 Reload
8.06 Total Time
4.34 Hit Factor
52.4% (C Run)

5 Alpha
1 Bravo
4 Charlie
35 Points
1.55 Draw
2.05 Reload
8.64 Total time
4.05 Hit Factor
48.8% (C Run)

Everyone's favorite, El Presidente was the second one we worked. It is of course a 12 round round, 60 point stage. Run the same way.

Accurate

7 Alpha
3 Charlie
2 Delta
47 Points
1.79 Draw
2.06 Reload
8.38 Total Time
5.61 Hit Factor
54.7% (C Run)


11 Alpha
1 Charlie
58 Points
2.09 Draw
2.18 Reload
10.98 Total Time
5.28 Hit Factor
51.5% (C Run)


Hair on Fire

1 Alpha
5 Charlie
3 Delta
3 Mike
8 Points
1.61 Draw
1.65 Reload
5.66 Total Time
1.41 Hit Factor
13.7% (D Run)


3 Alpha
6 Charlie
3 Delta
36 Points
1.69 Draw
1.59 Reload
6.09 Total Time
5.91 Hit Factor
57.6% (C Run)

Match Speed

8 Alpha
4 Charlie
52 Points
1.99 Draw
1.85 Reload
7.43 Total Time
7.00 Hit Factor
68.2% (B Run)


7 Alpha
5 Charlie
50 Points
2.02 Draw
2.00 Reload
8.45 Total Time
5.92 Hit Factor
57.7% (C Run)


Linda came up in time to run the El Presidente section with us, so here are her results:

Accurate

6 Alpha
2 Bravo
2 Charlie
1 Delta
1 Mike
38 Points
2.58 Draw
3.46 Reload
10.25 Total Time
3.71 Hit Factor
36.2% (D Run)


8 Alpha
3 Charlie
1 Mike
44 Points
2.46 Draw
3.59 Reload
13.33 Total Time
3.30 Hit Factor
32.1% (D Run)


Hair on Fire

5 Alpha
3 Charlie
4 Delta
38 Points
1.74 Draw
2.45 Reload
7.60 Total Time
5.00 Hit Factor
48.7% (C Run)

3 Alpha
5 Charlie
2 Delta
2 Mike
22 Points
1.73 Draw
2.02 Reload
6.87 Total Time
3.20 Hit Factor
31.2% (D Run)

Match Speed

9 Alpha
3 Charlie
54 Points
2.54 Draw
3.37 Reload
10.95 Total Time
4.93 Hit Factor
48% (C Run)

4 Alpha
5 Charlie
2 Delta
1 Mike
32 Points
2.63 Draw
2.36 Reload
10.62 Total Time
3.01 Hit Factor
29.3% (D Run)

Analysis

If it is not one thing, it's something else for sure. Friday, I was having problems with my trigger, I was not letting go of the trigger back to the reset, and I'd try to pull, and obviously nothing was happening. Not sure why I picked up that habit, because it was a frequent occurrence. I suspect it's a dry fire pick-up, where I don't release the trigger all the way out so I don't have every shot double action. I'll have to take a look at this, because it really was an issue.

My hair on fire runs on El Pres were better, I think, than the scoring. For one of the first times that I've moved from the PPQ to the CZ, I've really been able to just cut loose. Prior to tonight, my best times ever were with the PPQ, and around a 6.36, and I had rarely, if ever gone below 7 seconds with the CZ. A 5.66 and a 6.09 was a major improvement, and to be honest, I saw my sights. No, not perfectly, as my score indicates, but I did see them, and I was too lenient with an "acceptable" sight picture. I'm more than a few months off from running sub six second El Presidente's, but I believe that goal is reachable.

Accuracy still can be better, but reloads and draw's for the most part were more than acceptable. I'm going to aggressively dry fire this week, and put myself in the best position possible to get this done in 7 days time.

Class Today

Class Today

Usually after a match I'd have my match review with video up, but I'm waiting for a video from Les to complete that entry, so I apologize for the unusually long gap. Some serious work stress, and a start on another commitment are taking some time from writing, and that's okay, we are winding things down here, and once we hit the major mark, "B" card, I'll probably keep this blog going for match review, and progress tracking, and less practice work. That's a month or so down the road however.

Today the focus was shooting on the move, because up until today, both Dave and I have been point to point shooters, and while it makes us nice and accurate, it also means giving up substantial time. The lesson today moving forward was that I need to get low, keep my feet at shoulder width, and take many small steps. Doing that, I can keep the sights reasonably flat, and instead of a perfect sight picture, I get an "acceptable" sight picture. The difference for all three of us shooting station to station, to on the move, was about .5 seconds on a 5 target stage. That's actually a pretty substantial add-on, if you consider a stage could be a 30 round stage, and now we are talking 1.5 seconds per stage.

I've got several issues, I need to keep my feet wide to maintain my balance, I tend to start to bring them too close together, and I'm suffering from a case of Kozy foot. In a tight area, I tend to lean high, and pull the heel of my foot off the ground, this slows me down getting out of a position, and the correct way to move, is to get lower, keeping better balance, and then I can take off out of a position, and cover ground more rapidly. I know that a half second does not sound like a lot, a few months ago we were talking about shaving multiple seconds off a run, now we are talking about a half second, and we need that for progress. This means that the improvements are going to take more effort, and more work, but damn it's fun.

The other two stand out items on my list today, is an ongoing issue where I'm settling for breaking a shot in the middle of the target, and limiting myself to only 1/2 of the A zone, and my targets were shot low. I've said it since my earliest blogs that I need to train myself to find the high point of the shoulder target. I gradually got there by my last couple of runs, but this is something I need to practice and do naturally, not have to consciously tell myself I need to do.

My other noteworthy item to work on is still my reload. In dry fire I'm on a reload in 1.4 seconds, today I was between 1.9 and 2.3, and I struggled getting my mag out of the gun. Not getting the mag out screws up my entire run, I start canting the gun, and mag is then sideways and does not want to come out, and the magwell is moving when I'm trying to insert the new magazine. Talk about one little thing causing a lot of issues downstream. I'm going to focus on this in dry fire, hear the beep, and the mag is out instantly, if I'm doing it fine in dry fire, and I must be doing it better to get solid par times, then I need to keep that going in live fire.

We have one more class and we are done, thankfully there are a few classifiers coming up, and I really believe we can get it done, it's just going to be a matter of execution. Do or do not, there is no try.

Take Your Choice

Take Your Choice


So, getting down to the wire, Dave and I decided tonight to work exclusively on the classifier tomorrow, CM 99-12 Take Your Choice. The good news, is we had a bigger barricade, about 4' instead of 2', so tomorrow things should go better, and that's good because we did not have the night we needed to have. A classifier at 40' is not your standard classifier, but I'm glad, I've done well on the classifiers up close, but if I am going to say I earned my B card, then I want to prove that I can put up a score from a distance as well as on the up close classifiers. The plan tonight was to run it nine times, this was a Kozy suggestion for El Presidente that made sense. We were going to run it three times for accuracy, slow as we wanted, three times as fast as we could go, and three times as if it was for real. Here are my results:


CM 99-12

Slow Run

15.13 Total Time
1.97 1st Shot
2.69 Reload
8 Alpha
3 Charlie
1 Delta
3.30 Hit Factor
40.68% (C Run)

14.52 Total Time
1.91 1st shot
3.11 Reload
3 Alpha
9 Charlie
2.89 Hit Factor
35.63% (D Run)

11.87 Total Time
1.62 1st Shot
2.77 Reload
6 Alpha
3 Charlie
2 Delta
1 Mike
3.03 Hit Factor
37.35 (D Run)

Hair on Fire

8.66 Total Time
2.57 1st Shot
2.28 Reload
2 Alpha
5 Charlie
4 Delta
1 Mike
1 No Shoot
1.62 Hit Factor
19.9% (D Run)

7.91 Total Time
1.67 1st Shot
1.97 Reload
2 Alpha
4 Charlie
5 Delta
1 Mike
2.78 Hit Factor
34.37% (D Run)

8.51 Total Time
1.99 1st Shot
2.43 Reload
2 Alpha
4 Charlie
5 Delta
1 Mike
1 No Shoot
1.41 Hit Factor
17.38% (D Run)

Money Round

10.76 Total Time
2.10 1st Shot
2.70 Reload
5 Alpha
4 Charlie
2 Delta
1 Mike
3.16 Hit Factor
38.96% (D Run)

9.41 Total Time
5 Alpha
6 Charlie
1 Delta
4.68 Hit Factor
57.69 (C Run)

9.44 Total Time
7 Alpha
3 Charlie
2 Delta
4.66 Hit Factor
57.45 (C Run)


Review Time

Okay, a correctly sized barricade is going to do wonders for making this easier, but my concern is I need to flat out eliminate Delta's, and cut way back on the Charlies. Near the end, I realized that most of my shots were low, and my point of aim was the center or lower half of the target, that just won't work. The last 2 runs I made a conscious effort to get my point of aim up higher, and that was an improvement, not where it needs to be, but better. I've always had a problem breaking a shot when I saw cardboard, not the middle of the target, and at 40' if I aim at the bottom of the "A" zone, then I'm going to not have good hits. I also need to tighten up my sight picture, in this case, go a little slower, and get closer to a "perfect" sight picture, opposed to an "acceptable" sight picture. Acceptable plays better at close range.

Putting this classifier in perspective, if I shoot 50 of the 60 possible points, which means 7 Alpha and 5 Charlie, and do it in 10 seconds, for a hit factor of 5.0, I'll have a hit factor of 61.6. This means that Accuracy matters, quite a bit. My last couple of times are fast enough, I just need to tighten up my hits just a little bit, and honestly, I think the correct size barricade will help a ton, less lean, easier on my sights.  Doing the math even more, you'll notice that on my "hair on fire" runs, two of my three reloads were sub three seconds, on the money round, I was in the 2.7 range twice. I really think if I can keep it at a 2.20 reload, I'll be better off, and I did have that on my second run, so it's not just possible, it's a reality.

My shooting cadence is fine, my draw to first shot is acceptable, and even hair on fire it was excellent. I know where I need to be for this, and even though I did not get it tonight, I'm going to do my dry fire tomorrow, insure that my reload and draw are where they need to be, and practice for 20 minutes on the proper sight picture, using the shoulders as my point of aim. Frankly, if I just get my hits I should be absolutely fine tomorrow, and I'll be extremely disappointed if I don't earn a good enough classifier. I'm looking essentially for a Hit Factor of above 5.0.

Keep Working

Keep Working


There are just some practices where nothing is quite perfect. We started out tonight working on long shots, both from ports, and open to a port, with everything at a partially covered targets. I'll be honest, I did pretty damn well at a distance, I got good hits, and was reasonably fast, I clipped a no-shoot on about my 5th run, and if you add in my runs in class on Saturday I've been very good, and very accurate, when I focus on my front sight. Eighteen yard shots just don't intimidate me. We ran a couple of "Bill Drill's" from that distance, and my draw to first shot was 1.8 seconds, and it was an Alpha. We made it hard, the only clear part of the target was the Alpha, and I went at the narrowest part, and put my shots right where I wanted them to be, rapidly.

We moved and did a little draw to first shot from 10 yards to an obstructed target, and then to an open target, and the focus was on working the trigger on the way out. This was a good exercise since I work the trigger religiously in dry fire, but fail to do it in live fire. At home, I've had my par time down to 1.2 seconds, and am able to make it about 60% of the time, tonight in live fire I was 1.6 to 1.8 on the obstructed target, which is nuts since I was standing eight yards further back, and about doing it in the same time. On the unobstructed I was running 1.32 to 1.5 seconds, again, I know I can be faster, and the key is working the trigger. Dave has this down pretty well, and was around 1.29 on draw to first shot.

To close our our work, we ran a couple of El Presidente, just to see where we are, and I've gotta say, I was very disappointed with my results. As I've done before, I'll list out what Linda, Dave, and I ran it in, but I need to get back on my horse and get this done, by now I should have no trouble with this classifier.

For a reference, here is Ben Stoeger shooting an El Presidente. Granted, I'm not Ben, this should give you an idea of how fast it can be done.

Dave

Run 1
7.97 Seconds
1.72 Turn and Draw
2.00 Reload
6 Alpha
4 Charlie
2 Delta
44 Points
5.52 Hit Factor
53.79% (C Run)


Run 2
8.28 Seconds
1.93 Turn and Draw
2.26 Reload
7 Alpha
4 Charlie
1 Delta
48 Points
5.80 Hit Factor
56.52% (C Run)

Linda

Run 1
8.91 Seconds
1.91 Turn and Draw
2.23 Reload
3 Alpha
6 Charlie
2 Delta
1 Mike
30 Points
3.37 Hit Factor
32.84% (D Run)

Run 2
11.29 Seconds
2.54 Turn and Draw
2.29 Reload
8 Alpha
3 Charlie
1 Delta
50 Points
4.43 Hit Factor
43.17%  (C Run)

Luke

Run 1
8.99 Seconds
2.04 Turn and Draw
2.46 Reload
7 Alpha
4 Charlie
1 Delta
48 Points
5.34 Hit Factor
52.0% (C Run)

Run 2
7.77 Seconds
2.05 Turn and Draw
1.96 Reload
4 Alpha
7 Charlie
1 Delta
42 Points
5.41 Hit Factor
52.72% (C Run)

(Bobbled the mag release, and had to wait, this should have been a faster reload)

Analysis

The short version is that there is a lot to work on. My turn and draw is down, but my dry fire is around 1.7 seconds, so I've got .3 tenths of a second I can shave off, my reload par time in practice is 1.3 seconds, so that's .6 tenths of a second I can shave. That's almost a full second from my second run, and had I shot it a full second faster, I'd have had my 60% run. However, it's not speed that is killing me, it's the accuracy and the points down. I cant afford to have less than 52 points on this stage. If I had 52 points on my second stage, I'd have had a 6.69 Hit Factor, and a 65% run. So, what I really need to do, is keep moving down the times on things that I can control, the draw and the reload. Then I can afford to keep my same shooting pace, or even slow down a hair to insure good hits.

Another thing I realized is that at a distance I focused on where the sights are lined up on the target, when I'm close I don't pay as much attention, so I really need to make sure that my bright front sight is the middle of the target, just not over cardboard. It's a little thing, but it's a lack of attention and focus. I need to be consistent with these details.

El Presidente is not an easy drill, it seems easy, but it's unforgiving if you don't shoot Alpha's, and being honest with myself, I was not focusing on the center of the target. We've been doing accuracy shooting, but we have given away speed to get hits, hell, take enough time anyone can shoot Alpha's all day long from just about any distance. I need to get back to doing it at speed. More time on reloads, and draw in dry fire, and honestly some live fire reload practice would not hurt either.

I'm also going to work on my transitions, and cadence again. I almost feel like we are doing too many things, and we're leaving some key skills behind a bit. If I'm going to earn my card, I'm going to have to execute this classifier for sure, and the skills I use on this classifier, will apply to anything else I likely run. Part of me felt like I should have walked in and aced this classifier, and here I am not doing that. It was a Five Finger Death Punch in the gut, and made me want to get back working harder. I should be owning this classifier by now, and when I live fire next, I'm going to do just that.

Once we finished up, Lauren did a little shooting herself, she cranked out her M&P 15-22, her M&P 22, and I let her take and shoot my CZ for the first time, hey, a little 9mm never hurts, right? Or, in this case, the 9mm was just a little too much. She had a blast, as usual! Here she goes:

Class 2/22/14

Class 2/22/14


The end is near, just a couple of classes with Les are forthcoming, who had obviously ran a couple of 100 classifiers in a row, because he is tied atop the USPSA leaderboards, as the #1 GM shooter. Good for him, but even he knows shooting classifiers are one thing, and competing at that level are two different things, and he mentioned that he thinks he is a good year away from being able to compete with some of the top level USPSA Production shooters. I know how hard he works, so it's quite a realization for me that even at that level, he's got that much work and improvement in him, and how long it will take to accomplish it to reach his goal. You really do never stop training, never stop improving.

Our class yesterday was driven by some issues Les and Kozy had at the Florida Open last weekend. The match is known for having challenging shots, and challenging long range shots. Those generally have small target area with large parts of the target covered by no-shoots, making it very important to get your hits, and not get no shoots. The only limitation with Alpha, is that about 18 yards is all you are going to get, you can push it to 20, but that leaves very little room at the back of the range. This issue has Kozy and Les looking at an outdoor range membership that they can utilize during the summer from time to time to work on this issue.

Imagine it being covered from middle of the "C" over on either side

For Dave and I yesterday, joined by Kerry Dean, 18 yards was a good enough place to start. The first drill was simple, 3 classic targets down range, the one on the left had a no shoot covering up the right half of the target, the middle was open, and then one on the right side had half of it's left side covered by a no-shoot. Those have been my bane, since I tend to break a shot when I see cardboard, had I done that, I'd have taken no-shoot, this forces you to wait for your shot. Our shooting positions were on each side of the range, with a "port", the "A" zone cut out of a metric target. In other words, not much room. We started on the right, and had to move to the left, in part because as right handed shooters this is also a harder re-load.

My first run was simply not good. I had issues getting hits, only 2 on the left target, 3 in the middle, and 2 on the right. It may have been the worst first run of anyone, and I was brutally embarrassed. Les was talking about how Dave is almost there, to his card, and what he needed to do, and he did not say anything about me, I felt like it was a situation that he could not find anything positive to say about my performance. From that moment on, it was a different story. We each ran this drill a couple more times, I put every shot on paper, the center target was usually 4 Alpha or 3 Alpha and 1 Charlie. The left was 2 Alpha 2 Charlie, or 3 Alpha and 1 Charlie, and the right target had a few 3 Alpha 1 Charlie, with one 4 Alpha. On one run, on my last 2 shots on the right target, I "called my shot", and thought I either missed low and right, or got a Delta, and brought my sights over and nailed an Alpha. So what was the difference? I was so focused on the sights, I never saw the "vision barrier". The targets were blurry, but my front sight stayed crystal clear. This is something that the last couple of matches, I had thought I saw my front sights, but in all honesty, I did not. I can say that in hindsight.

Metric Target, the center zone was cut out, and all we could see thru

While my accuracy improved, the one criticism was that I was shooting my alpha's, and hits into the lower half of the target. Typically when I shoot at a metric target I look for the shoulder, and take my point of aim from there. Due to the slope of the classic target, doing that, you shoot low. Les pointed it out a few times, and even though I would tell myself to aim higher, once the buzzer sounded I went back to my normal point of aim. Les also made an adjustment for us on our reload, having us reload after the first side, before we started running to the other port, and it was infinitely faster.

Second drill kept the targets in the same place, but moved the shooting positions to the middle, the left one placed slightly in front of the right, with the vision barrier removed, and now we would start there, and reload normally moving back and to our right, the natural reload for a right handed shooter. I started going faster, comfortably, and my reloads were solid, keeping with excellent hits. Even Kerry mentioned that my reloads looked exceptionally good. In fact, of all my practice, that's something I really enjoy working, meaning I need to keep pushing that par lower, and not get comfortable.

Final drill, one target, but both sides were covered with a no shoot, leaving a very small part of the target that we could actually hit, and the best place to hit was the higher part of the "A". This drill forced me to look at the top of the target, and not at the shoulder, in other words, it forced me to find the "proper" point of aim for these targets. My first run of 6 shots I had 2 high, and one no shoot. I'll to that in a second. Even the high shots were "okay" though. Second run, I went quick, and put all into the high "A" zone. I'll say it's not me, it's the gun, again. I'm supremely confident that the gun will deliver an "A" zone hit on demand, if I have less than an "A" hit, it's because I did something wrong. Talk about a level of confidence. All I have to do is focus on the front sight, and not on all the other things going on, and I'm good to go. I need to bottle that, and keep that for a match, and not get off my front sight.

So, all day long I was having a high primer issue. I had probably 15-20 light strikes, where I had to pull the trigger a second time, a full double action pull, to get it to fire. I was doing it without my easy single action pull, and I kept my focus and intensity despite pulling the trigger and nothing happening. I did start to flinch eventually because I was pulling and nothing went "bang", but I kept my shit together, and got hits. That's a baller recovery for a bad situation. Les looked at a box of 100 rounds, and just on a visual inspection thought that 70% of the rounds had high primers. 70 of 100.

Short version for the day is that I felt like I picked up a lot good info, and that I was again reminded of how easy it is for me to lose my front sight in a match, and how I may think I have it, but in reality I don't. Next match is Sunday at Pine Tree, followed by a Wednesday MISS match. I'm going to remind myself, and try harder to focus on the sight, and get my good fundamental's back.

Had a nice breakfast with Les after practice, and then ran past Kozy's, who showed me how to fix the primers. The consensus is that I was "short stroking" the press, and not going all the way up, which would result in the primers not seating at the right depth. I tried to fix 10 rounds, and not one of the primers seated deeper, and I looked at ammo I loaded last month, all the primers are at the right depth. So this is really just the last batch. I'm willing to admit I can make a mistake, but if you told me I short stroked 30 of 100, I'd say that's more likely than me short stroking 70 of 100, and having the issue consistently over 500 rounds. Old rounds are perfect.

I looked a couple of things, could not find the problem, so time to disassemble and see what could be wrong, Kozy will come take a look, and I hate asking him to do that. I hate to believe it's me, but I'm finally open to the idea that it could have been me, I can't argue with the result. We'll see what he says though.

Eight Days

Eight Days

This has been the longest gap I've had while writing the blog, and some of it was burnout, the 4 matches, 2 practices, and a class in 11 days combined with dry fire had me burnt out. I needed to decompress, get some family time, and just as importantly work time, because there are potentially some stressful changes coming with Hertz Equipment being for sale. Nothing I can do, so no reason to worry about things I have no control over, but this past week, had a lot going on.

Last Monday I dry fired for about 30 minutes and my heart and head was not into it, I missed a class on Wednesday night, because of work, but I'm almost glad I did, I would not have learned much from it where I was at mentally. Friday I dry fired for about an hour, repeating that on Saturday, and settling in to 30 minutes on Sunday. Today of course begins prep work for the Classifier this week, CM 99-08 Melody Line. I did do a little math yesterday, and found that potentially with two classifiers above 68% I could earn my "B" card. However if I don't get that, I'll have to shoot four 60%, because I will have one drop off my classification. Honestly, two in a row at 68% or greater won't be easy to do, but with prep work on the last two, I shot an 82% (did not count as the classifier was removed the day before I shot it by USPSA), and a 71%. Possible, not likely. I'm going to prepare like I need a 68%, but in the back of my head I'm going to work on getting four 60%'s in a row, and just making this happen.

I picked up this parts washer a few weeks ago, based on seeing Kozy's, and I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have done that. In the past, cleaning a gun could take me 30 minutes to an hour and a half per gun depending on how dirty they were. With the parts washer, I cleaned my gun and Linda's, oiled, and greased them both in under 30 minutes, and they were clean. The mineral spirits are too harsh for polymer, and they "whiten" my grips a bit, although a shot of Armor All restores the finish, but for a steel frame gun, this is absolutely the way to go.

When I started shooting, I religiously cleaned my gun after every single trip to the range, but that just to take so much time that I started putting it off longer and longer. I never had an issue, but when I did go to clean a gun, it just was that much dirtier, and took that much longer, making me dislike the job that much more. Now with how much quicker it is, I don't mind doing it, and I'll do it that much more frequently.

CM 13-05 Tick Tock Practice

Classifier Practice

Tick Tock is the name, and it's the classifier for the WIIT. Tonight I accidentally forgot my belt at home, so it limited in what I was actually able to do while practicing. My goal was to set up CM13-05, Tick Tock, and get some baseline runs in on it. Find out what I am capable of doing on it, so I know how to structure my practice for it this week. This classifier is a table start, which means gun is unloaded on the table, along with 2 magazines. When the buzzer beeps, I grab the gun, slam the mag home, rack the gun, and fire 2 shots at each of four targets, reload, and repeat the shooting.

WIIT Matchbook

I ran it 6 times, and here are the results:

Stage is 16 rounds, 80 points.

Run 1:

9.12 Seconds Total
3.40 Second to First Shot
1.79 Seconds to Reload

7 Alpha, 2 Bravo, 6 Charlie, One Delta, One Mike.
56 Points
6.14 Hit Factor

I pushed myself to go as fast as I could, my splits and transitions were good, but I had way too many charlies, and the delta and mike are inexcusable at this distance.

Run 2:

9.49 Seconds Total
3.24 Second to First Shot
1.85 Seconds to Reload

10 Alpha, 1 Bravo, 3 Charlie, 2 Delta
64 Points
6.74 Hit Factor

Still not happy with the 2 Deltas, but the first shot was good, and the reload was acceptable.

Run 3:

9.87 Seconds Total
3.56 Seconds to First Shot
2.40 Seconds to Reload

14 Alpha, 2 Charlie
76 Points
7.70 Hit Factor

This was my overall best run of the day, I felt like I saw my front sights better than the first two runs, but I wasted a lot of time on the first shot and reload. This is the shooting cadence I want, with an improved first shot and reload.

Run 4:

10.28 Seconds Total
3.58 Seconds to First Shot
2.19 Seconds to Reload

13 Alpha 3 Charlie
74 Points
7.20 Hit Factor

I had trigger freeze after the first shot, I went all the way out and could not find the trigger, coming back, it was a bizarre feeling, but something I repeated in the next two runs as well.

Run 5:

10.70 Seconds Total
3.38 Seconds to First Shot
2.43 Seconds to Reload

12 Alpha, 2 Charlie, 1 Delta
70 Points
6.54 Hit Factor

Trigger freeze again after the first shot, slow first shot, slow reload, and again a delta.

Run 6:

10.90 Seconds Total
3.73 Seconds to First Shot
2.30 Seconds to Reload

15 Alpha, 1 Charlie
78 Points
7.16 Hit Factor

Same trigger freeze, but I have an idea on what I'm going to do to fix it, and painfully slow first shot and reload, but again, I had good hits, and the points kept my Hit Factor over 7.


The catch with with classifier is that it is a new classifier, so there is no data on a high Hit Factor. If I don't know what a 100% run is, I'm not sure where I need to be in order to get my 60% or greater. I thought, and Les thought it was in the neighborhood of 10.5, and I called Kozy and he thought it was 9.5. Analyzing this, if it truly is a 9.5, a Hit Factor of above 7 should give me somewhere above a 71%, but if it is 10.5, we are talking it'll be in the 60th percentile. While I believe Kozy, I'm also going to set my par time, and practice as if 10.5 is the high hit factor, and I need an appropriate time.


Practice:

I find it strange that the more I ran it, the slower I ran it. My effective split/transition was about .21/.39, any faster and my hits really suffered. I think I need to set my par time to 3 seconds to first shot, and 1.8 seconds on the reload. I never was that quick getting to the first shot, but I think I can, and the 1.8 is a time I beat on my first reload, but I kept getting slower. If I can shave off .7 on my draw from my last time, and .5 from my reload, I can have a slow shooting cadence, and still cut 1.2 seconds from that time. If I were to run it in 9.7 seconds with the same points my hit factor jumps to just over 8.

Setting and practicing some par times for the table start and reload is going to happen, and I'm also not going to go all the way out to constant double action pulls in my dry fire, I'm going to spend some time not releasing the trigger all the way, so I don't get used to running the trigger all the way out, and I start to adjust to how short the single action pull of my gun really is.

Advantage one of "Plan B" as put together by Les. Even if I don't have a high hit factor, I can take some baseline live fire times, and help build par times to practice, and improve this score. If I did not understand the scoring, then I'd have no idea what, or how to practice. This is just another small piece of appreciation for what I'm learning, and how just a gift of that little piece of knowledge can go a long way.

I closed out practice with some group shooting, one shot into a target, and then try to put the next shot thru the very same hole. I ended up with some excellent groups, so again, I realize that I have an accurate gun, it's easy to shoot, and I can shoot accurately when I focus in on that front sight, something I just don't do enough. To get my groups, I could not look beyond my sight to the target, I had to keep my eye on nothing but the sight, and essentially call my shot.

I can do this shit, not just on steel, on paper. It's a matter of staying on that front sight, and not rushing. Focus! I can own this shit. My own pacing, and my own mental mistakes are my biggest problems. I can shoot, I can shoot quick enough, I can shoot accurately enough, I can draw well enough, transition, and reload too. Stop rushing, stop being in a hurry.

I Love Steel

I Love Steel

I admit it, I love steel. Steel plates, a plate rack, mini-poppers, classic poppers, even a Texas Star, I love shooting steel. I know steel is an anathema for some people, they see it and groan and feel they are going to struggle, I see it, and my eyes light up, and I feel my confidence take off. Steel is my b***h!

The unfortunate side is that most people see cardboard targets, and look forward to them, and I have an unfortunate habit of throwing some mikes, and getting myself into trouble with paper targets. I've been thinking about this issue I have for quite awhile, and I've come to the conclusion that it's a mental issue as much as anything, and right now, today, the biggest thing that is stopping me from earning my card is my spotty accuracy. My draw is good enough, my reload is good enough, my transitions and my movement is passable. I'm not saying I'm an All-Star, I'm not, what I am saying is those skills can get the job done, but the most basic thing of all is doing me in, and that's my accuracy.

My Dream Stage?

Mentally, I have to slow down, and get a good sight picture to hit steel, it's a smaller area, and you have to be precise to get your hit. Paper provides a much bigger area, and I have a tendency of looking past my sight at the paper, and just pulling the trigger once I start seeing cardboard. This is why I end up with delta's and mikes. Keeping focused on your front sight is a lot easier said that done, and that simple lesson is something I'm still struggling with. I've said before I need to treat paper like steel; focus on the front sight, and nothing else, and get a sight picture. If I do that I'll start getting an awful lot more alpha hits. Think about it, an 8" steel plate is, well, 8". A paper target is about 6" wide by 11" tall. If I can hit an 8" plate, I'm certainly accurate enough to hit paper much more effectively that I have been. Part of what it tells me is that I can shoot accurately, I just need to focus.


Wednesday night is a man versus man steel match, and I admit, I'm looking forward to it. There are definitely some better, and faster shooters, and other than a few people, Les and Kozy, I think I stand a reasonable chance of advancing pretty far in the tourney. This is my game, this is what I do. The reason I mention it, is not because I'm bragging, but because I want to bottle that confidence and attitude, and find it again on Saturday at The WIIT. In my dry fire, I've been trying to focus on just my front sight, nothing else, not pulling the trigger until that front sight is right where I want it to be, and not when I first see cardboard. I'm going to work paper targets Tuesday and Friday, I'm going to drive the gun to each target, commit to each shot, and not lose that front sight and start looking past it.

This is a fundamental thing that I still have not picked up, but I pick that seemingly simple skill up, then my goals are going to be reachable. You'd think that would be the easiest thing for a person to lean, and it's been my biggest struggle.

Les gave me a challenge a week ago, don't beat myself up, don't get mad, accept mistakes and move on. Mission accomplished last week, I have up days, and down days, and I never let myself get too excited about the good, or down about the bad. I know what that feels like now, and the last part of that challenge, will be for me to accept it during a match.

Range Officer Class

Range Officer Class

Class complete!

With the snow, and lousy roads it was a little bit of a challenge just getting to and from the class, but it was a worthwhile experience. I came out of the class with a solid understanding of the USPSA Rule book. Not only do I understand the rules better, I know where to go and look up things that I still have questions about.

Saturday was 8+ hours of classroom "book learning", which was good, but even I was on information overload at the end of the day. We had a take home test as homework, where we not only had to answer the questions, but cite the proper rule. Thankfully the ctrl-f function worked with the online .pdf, but it was still a painstaking process to answer everything. The test itself was another hour plus of my time.

Sunday we started out in the classroom for another 3 hours going over the test, looking at Practiscore, and going over the rule changes that go into effect on February 1st. Following the class we drove out to Alpha Range, about a 40 minute ride, and did our range test. Everyone had to score a shooter, and run a shooter using the proper range commands. That was the end of the class, the only thing left to do is complete a 50 question test, again citing each specific rule, and subset, send it in to the instructor and score at least an 85%, and then I'll be a certified USPSA range officer.

To be honest, there is definitely a part of me that does not want to send in the test and get certified, because I really want to concentrate on my shooting. On the other hand I do want to be able to help the club, and think that by not helping out if needed, it's a little selfish. It was a good education, and in the end I'll get the test done, and send it in just because it's the right thing to do.

On a side note, after the class I have a deep appreciation for the crew at MISS. Everyone, range master, range officers, the entire staff does an incredible job, and I had no idea how much I had learned from watching them for the past year. There were people from other clubs who had been shooting for a much longer period of time, the IDPA safety officer types, and I had a better handle on it than most of 'em. Not because I'm all that smart, but just from watching everyone run the MISS matches.

I got absolutely zero practice in on Saturday, and some worthless live fire on Sunday as part of the class, as I write, I realize I'm going to have to head down and get 30 minutes of dry fire in before bed, so that's all I have to say, work to go do.

Weekend Update

Weekend Update

The last time I thought Weekend Update was funny, Dennis Miller was doing it, talk about a random, out there, and totally inane reference to start this blog. Is it possible I could be this far off topic? Ah yes, the golden years of SNL for me growing up, because unfortunately I was too young, to appreciate the true golden years.

Good practice this week, a lot of dry fire, in fact I took exactly one day off this week, and I've done a nice job of hitting my drills for 45 minutes every single day. I'm starting to find that I do things a little easier, it's not as hard, I don't have to pay attention to every detail, I just do things on my reload. I don't have to focus on being fast to the mag, or getting the mag dropped, I just do it. Same thing on my draw. I'm also doing a much better job of not breaking a shot until I get to the middle of the cardboard, that's been a bane of my existence, and I'm not really going faster, I'm just finding it easier to stay focused on my front sight. I'm not thinking about my grip, or any of the details.

I think some of this is mental progress, but the other part is just the repetition, and that I'm developing muscle memory, on how to do things right. To think, all the practice I did last year, all the matches, all the rounds down range, I've never felt as comfortable as I do now, but I still feel like I'm in a remedial place. I'm understanding and working the fundamentals.

Not Shooting, But Good Anyhow

Going off topic, I had a taste for Tabasco sauce flavored wings today, and I'm talking a serious, absolutely "have to have 'em" type of thing. I realize that's something that Buffalo Wild Wings, Wing Stop or Wings & Rings just fail at. They have a ton of flavors, but sometimes I just need that Tabasco flavor. Next week I want to hit Gator's Wing Shack, and with a great recommendation from Les and Liv, I have high hopes. Of late though, best damn wings by a long shot? Kozy. Dude knows wings!

This weekend, back to more dry fire, gotta set up some live fire early in the week, but I start a string of 4 matches in 12 days, 3 MISS matches, and The WIIT. The first MISS match is all steel, and generally I can make steel my bitch, so I'm pretty excited to get out there and see how far I can go in the head to head match. I'm definitely going to come out aiming to kick some ass.

Saturday and Sunday though is the Range Officer class, day 1 is 8 hours of classroom, day 2 is 3 hours in the class room, and 4 hours out in the range. I think knowing and understanding the rules helps me become a better shooter, but I hope to only be a pinch hitter, not a "full time" RO for quite awhile.

Linda should see her gun back next week from Automatic Accuracy, she's excited to get it back, and I want her to have it, so she can stop using mine for practice!

Tuesday Practice

Tuesday Practice

I'm pushing myself harder to accomplish my goals, I'm not doing simply the minimum of dry fire, I'm going above and beyond. I'm not saying it to insult myself, but in some cases I'm just a slow learner. I hear a concept, and I have an understanding of it, but I have to crank out the repetitions to really be comfortable with it.

In the morning I did turn and draw, I set the par timer back to 1.8 seconds, and focused on when I was getting to the gun, and snapping around. I did 15 turn and draws, all at or better than the 1.8 second par time, then doing the turn and draws in rapid order actually had me a bit dizzy. I don't think that's an effect of the concussion either, just me essentially trying to spin halfway around repeatedly. I feel good about this now, and I now how to practice it, what I specifically have to focus on to make it happen.

Reloads were improved, I set the par timer at 1.4 seconds, and did 50 reloads, 10 runs of 5 reloads each. I got 5 of my first 20 reloads at the par time, but I got 18 of my next 30 at the par time. I can do this too. Going back to the challenge Les presented to me, there were a few magazines that went flying across the room as I missed the magwell entirely, but I did not let it phase me. Shit happens, right? Just keep doing it, and I can get it, and guess what, I did.

I also worked on my 2/2/2 drill, starting a 2.20 seconds, and working it down. At 2.2 seconds I feel very comfortable moving the gun from target to target, and committing to a shot, it was easy. As I dropped the par, I felt myself getting sloppy, at 2 seconds I had perhaps 70% right, and at 1.80 seconds, about 10% right. The good part is even a 2.2 par time on that is good enough to get my B card, so as long as I stay at that speed, I'm fine. It's a little different when there is live ammo, so I'd like to get the time down a bit in dry fire, but now that I know what I'm looking for, I can insure that I'm not cheating on my drills.

Dave and I set out to do some live fire, and it was one of the better practice nights that I've had. I need to realize that I don't have to go all out to do well. I ran an El Pres with 9 alpha and 3 charlie in 7.19 seconds, well below the 8.45 par time we needed. In some cases the faster I was going, the more issues and poor hits that I had. I don't need to have .17 and .19 splits, hey it's nice, but if it costs me an alpha, and gives me a delta, then take the little extra to .22 and get the alpha hit.

We ran a variety of drills, El Pres, Accelerator, and some plate rack. It was a good variety and kept us working on accuracy, draw, reload, turn and draw. I loved finishing on the plate rack, that little steel is so much fun, I was able to clear the rack once with splits in the .42-.47 range, but when I tried it that fast again I could not do it, I was far better off shooting it in the .62 to .68 range. My accuracy is good, as long as I keep a nice cadence, when I start to push faster I get sloppy, my fundamentals go to hell, and I start dropping mikes. So, I know what I need to do, I know that I don't always have to put the pedal to the floor, and I know I still need to keep hammering my fundamentals down if I want to improve my game. It was a damn good practice, and I may try to sneak back out and get another live fire session at the end of the week. I have my Range Officer class this weekend, so I won't be able to shoot. I will check with Dave and see if we can't make it happen.

I also had the occasion to think about my attitude. Kozy's attitude is that he is a GM shooter, with a Master level card, and that's a good thing. I tried to adopt it for myself, and wanted to believe that I was a B shooter, with a C class card. When I think about it, that just does not work for me, not yet anyhow. I've always had to work to achieve my goals, if I say to myself that I'm a B class shooter, then deep down I think there is a sense of entitlement, and I know that's wrong, but it does change my demeanor. I'm hungry, I'm a fighter, a battler, a grinder. I'm a C class shooter today, but there is a B class shooter in me, and probably more. The only way I'm going to unlock that, is by getting on my horse, and working, and earning it. I've gotta put in the time I need.

This does not mean I'm going all self critical, I'm not. In a way I'm reverting to something that is comfortable, the underdog role. If I want this bad enough, I'm going to work as hard as I need, USPSA, Les, nobody is going to give me my B card. I'm going to earn it, and I'm going to take it. Les gave me tools, I'm going to reach up and grab the card because of that, but I'm getting it done.

Dry Fire Work

Dry Fire Work


The bad news is that I was cheating myself on transitions. With my PPQ I had a 3 target array par time of 1.80 seconds, and I was between that and 2 seconds with my Shadow, but after Les made the comment about me not committing, I looked at what I was doing, and set my par time to 2.2 seconds, and kept the gun steady until I had completed the trigger press, and before moving to a target. Instead of swinging the gun thru a target, you could see a distinct pause for me to shoot before moving again. The good news is that I caught myself practicing wrong, now I just have to focus on doing it right.

I also worked for 15 minutes or so on reloads today, I kept moving my par time lower and lower, to eventually 1.4 seconds. On my last 30 runs, of which I dropped from 1.6 to 1.4, a tenth of a second every 10 reloads, I was able to get every reload at or below 1.6 seconds, I had 5 of 10 below 1.5 seconds, and I got 2 of 10 at the 1.4 second par time. This was not easy, but I'm glad to see that I can do things faster. Most of my drilling had been at 1.6, but since that is achievable, I'm going to drop my mark to 1.5 for half of my drilling, and 1.4 for the last half.

The spent a 15 minute segment on draw at a 1.60 second par time, and on turn and draw which is a bane of my existence. The 7-8 minutes I spent on a standard draw were solid, probably 75% of my draws hit my mark. Turn and draw I started at a 2 second par time, which is still faster than I've been doing it live, and hit about 50% of my draws. When I pushed it down to 1.8 seconds to close, I hit maybe 1 or 2. I think I'm not snapping my head, and engaging the turn when I hear the buzzer, and I'm not starting the draw quick enough. This is another instance where I may need some video analysis to determine if what I think I am doing, is actually what I am doing. My guess right now is that it's not, since I need to get my turn and draw into the 1.7 range consistently.

It felt good to hammer some dry fire today. Last week was a long week not being able to do any, and Thursday and Friday were more about getting some rust off than they were about any kind of meaningful progress. The comments Les made also made me evaluate how I was practicing, and the subsequent changes should net me some progress.

Day After Thoughts

Day After Thoughts

I really want to improve, that's a given. Something I'm still not using to it's full potential is my video. Today though, I took some time to watch each stage, make some notes on things that I was seeing that I'm doing wrong, and I want to use that to focus my dry fire for the week. I've done my dry fire trying to focus in on one or two things a day, and drill those, but I've more or less done it on a rotation, and what I really need, besides just more repetitions, is to spend a little extra time on areas that I'm significantly deficient.

We did some grocery shopping and I spent the time thinking about what I saw, and when I came home, I had a match review e-mail from Les waiting for me. As usual he picked up on a few things that I missed, and he confirmed something that I thought, but was not sure I was doing. (Linda will be happy to hear this....go figure...she felt beat down by seeing her own flinch) I thought a couple of times yesterday I may have flinched, and in one video, Les found a specific example that I could clearly see of me flinching. I think if there was a different camera angle on the first stage I shot, I would have seen a couple of other flinches.

Two for Flinching

So, probably some ball and dummy for me, but acting on a suggestion from Les, I'm going to run some rounds with no time constraint, isolate it, and eliminate it. I hate saying that this is a "been there, done that", but I have, and I've eliminated it, and its creeped back a couple of times.

Les found an example of me pulling off a shot before it was completed, and it was the last shot of the stage, I was already on my way back to unload and show clear before I had finished breaking the shot.

I see you do this in dry fire from time to time. You see the sight,
then snap the shot while moving the gun away. Snap the shot AND stay
committed to the sights.

I think you can tell yourself to stop "trying to go fast" and relax a bit.

**I see that after the last shot you are defeated.**

You are the one judging yourself here.

-Les

That's a pretty meaningful commentary. I've been trying to break a tendency to swing the gun thru one target into the next, without making a commitment to driving the gun to the target, and staying committed to the sights. Les is dead on, and it's going to make me look at my practice, and ask myself if I am being honest. Am I doing it right in practice, or am I continuing to practice incorrectly? This has been going on for awhile, and since I have not improved enough on it, I tend to believe that I'm not being honest with myself in practice. I think I'm going to probably do a couple of minutes of video tape on my practice this week, just for personal review, so I can help use that to see if I am practicing right, or if I'm cheating myself. 

Watching stage 3, the classifier, I can see myself doing exactly this and not "owning" my shot. It goes a long way towards understanding why I may have hit the paper, I was not hitting the paper where I wanted to be hitting it, 8 charlies and 4 deltas, with only 7 alpha's is not how I was aiming.

As far as judging myself. I hate to admit it, but if I'm being truthful, I made so many mistakes in the stage, and I was judging myself as I was going, and that probably played a part in my making even more mistakes. Shit sometimes just happens, accept it and go on, don't dwell on it. I'd like to think that I'm leaving frustration with a stage at a stage, and not carrying it forward, but I'm definitely not leaving a mistake where it is and continuing on, I'm letting it impact my game.

I want to give you a specific mental challenge:

For a week, I don't want you to Judge... I don't want you to be upset
when something doesn't pan out - just accept it. I don't want you to
be passive aggressive" 

This may give you the freedom to accept that you will make mistakes. I
don't just mean learning  from the mistakes - I mean accepting a mike
without it even rustling your feathers.


Just observe. Just do.

-Les

This is a pretty good challenge. I actually achieved a bit of this just one time yesterday on the last stage I shot. On the array after I shot the steel, I miked a shot coming into the position, and I knew it was close, I saw it as I pulled away from the array, that it was a mike, and I did not care, and I kept going. It did however effect me, because if you notice, I had a slow reload there, no urgency getting the mag out of the pouch, and into the gun, and I was standing waiting to shoot, if you look at the reload after that, I was quick, and as I came into position, the gun was already up, and in position. 

I'm not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination, nor have I ever been a part of Alcoholics Anonymous, but a little bit of the Zen of Les makes me think of the Reinhold Niebuhr Serenity Prayer: God give me the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. (Hey, I'm not all that shallow....there is more to me than just shooting!)

Time To Rise Above This Plateau

I need to accept a mike, and it should not bother me, sometimes there is nothing you can do about it but just accept it, let it go, and don't let it bother you. I have a huge issue doing that, but mentally I'll improve when I stop focusing on one mistake, and having it pave the way into more mistakes. In this case, one often begets many.

It's a little life lesson there as well, because I'd be better off applying this in other aspects of my life as well. Short version is that I've got some work to do, and I've got a good place to start. Making this kind of mental change is not going to be easy, but I think if I apply the lesson in other places, not just shooting, it will make it that much easier, effective, and quicker to see some positive results.


This is the home stretch, but as I'm finding you can go 80% of the way easily, but the last 20% to this goal is where progress slows down, and I'm really having to work and earn success. I'm happy to see that Dave is pushing thru, and getting close to the goal, I'd like to think that with some work, and some conscious effort to relax, I can do this too.

See why I've got the utmost respect for Les? Not just a great teacher, or a great friend, pretty damn good person too.