Friday, February 26, 2010

Practice, practice, practice

I have been doing a lot of practicing lately, sometimes I can't tell if it is helping. I have been shooting a bunch of local matches, both IDPA and USPSA trying to apply some of the stuff I have been working on during the practice sessions. I can see an improvement in certain areas like transitions since that is one area I knew I needed to work on. I have dropped about .2 off transitions by learning to snap the eyes and trust the shot instead of double checking the sights. I have found though that some other areas are now popping up that I need to work on. I guess that is the way it goes though, fix one thing and then find the next to work on. And now that I have a goal oriented practice routine I am noticing things more and critically analyzing my shooting to find those areas.

I have noticed that I am getting good hits and splits on closer targets, and targets that are easier. Where I am noticing issues is longer shots, maybe 20 yards, and tougher shots (like hard cover targets). I think I am applying the same thought to those as I am to all targets and getting to quick. I need to get a better sight picture on those and work the trigger better. I worked on that today.

I set up the IDPA classifier as good way to concentrate on some of the longer shots and to make sure I can get clean hits. I did some work on the infamous Stage 3 and ended up shooting it in 97.08 and 43 down. That is at least 13 seconds faster than my previous best time and the last stage wasn't really the killer. I just got a little sloppy up close. I ran it a second time to get a good baseline and shot it in 99.71 so it looks like my practicing is paying off a little.

I need to keep working on it so if/when I make Master I can actually compete with and challenge the current masters.

Video of my classifier run is linked below and it show many areas I need to work on.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Thunder Tactical Saturday Match

Well after rain and cancellations I finally shot the first IDPA Saturday match of the year yesterday. I have only been shooting wednesday practice matches and some other fun type matches so it felt good to shoot a full match for a change. It was pretty chilly for Houston, only around 40, and muddy but it was a good match. I have been practicing a few times a week working on splits, transitions, and reloads so it was good to apply some of the things I have been working on to a real match.

Match Recap

Stage 1 was the second stage I shot and it went pretty well. You started with the gun on the table unloaded, my hands were not wanting to work that fast so I had a litle fumble trying to get the gun loaded. I also was a little sloppy on hitting the 4 8" steel.

Stage 2 was a standards with 6 targets getting 1 each, a tac reload the 1 more each. I took all head shots since the targets all had different amounts of hard cover. I dropped the 1st shot on the last target by getting ahead of myself but that is what happens when you try to push the speed a little.

Stage 3 was a pretty good run. I did a tac reload while moving to a new position as to not have a standing reload, it wasn't the quickest but it was OK. I threw a 3 on one of the targets, again I pushing the transition speed and missed just a little.

Stage 4 was my best stage and I got the stage win.

Stage 5 was my last stage and of course my wosre one. You had to go to an opening, shoot some paper, then activate a swinger then go back to the direction you came to shoot the swinger. Well when I got back to shoot the swinger I didn't time it right and had to wait for it and then I stalled on teh trigger so I had to wait on it again for the second shot. The last group of targets included a No Shoot and of course the last shoot I fired in the match just grazed the perf on the No Shoot.

Stage 6 was the first of the day. You had 3 windows and 9 targets but could not see them all from any one spot. I had a good plan but lost my head halfway in and skipped 2 targets from one of the windows. Luckily I knew it as soon as I left that position so it only cost me time.

Lessons Learned:

Keeping your head in the stage. Being cold and the first real match in a long time I let my plans drift a little. If you do mess up your plan keep going and try to make the best of it.

When shotoing when it is cold make sure to keep your hands warm so you can get them to work as fast as you want them to.

VIDEO