As I noted last week I shoot with WHIDPA (West Houston IDPA). It is a pretty good group and there are some pretty good shooters that come out, even for the weekly Wednesday night matches. Take last night, Gordon Carroll and Greg Garrett shot. They shoot with us a bunch and it is always good to see how they shoot and see where you can improve on your shooting. I don't try to follow exactly how they shoot the stages (if there are options how to do it) but I watch how they play to their strengths and I try to use that when I prepare to for my run. The stages were pretty good last night with movement, movers, and some other stuff all in effort to get us ready for the TX State match next week.
I was hoping to run with those guys last night, or at least stay close but alas, I did not. Last night I actually shot pretty well, the mechanics of sights and trigger were working pretty well, reloads were not to bad and I moved some what efficieintly, where I failed was the mental part. In the third stage I made a decent reload right upto the point of seating the mag, it went in but not like usual. My M&P will slam charge consistantly if I forceable seat the mag, yes this can be a real problem if you rely on it and it doesn't happen as evedenced last night. See I had to reload, then activate a drop turner, well the slide did not fall when I did the reload but I was more focused on the activator so I just tapped the bottom of the mag again and the slide fell. Activate, turner drops...........I go click, by the time I racked the slide the turner was gone so that was 2 misses/5seconds. Not only that but I let it throw off the remaining part of the stage.
The other mental error was just dumb on my part and not keeping focused on the last stage. You had to activate the swingers and step over to the side of a truck. I even aske the SO where it was acceptable to move to so I knew I had to move about 2 seconds before the buzzer. Yep, you guessed it, buzzer went off and I stayed put so I earned a prcedural because I did not keep my focus on the entire stage, just on the shooting. I got edged out in ESP SS and ESP overall by less than 3 seconds. Mistakes happen and errors get made, the important thing is to limit the mental ones and when they happen, regroup and stay in the game.
Lessons Learned :
Having a plan and following it I think is a huge part of practical shooting. Knowing when you are going to move, which target you are going to index on, and when you need to reload are all things that lead to a good stage. But you also have to shoot the plan you came up with even if you messed up one part you need to stick the remaining plan. The worst thing you can do is get flustered after a mental mistake and let it ruin your whole stage. Make a mistake? Well you can't fix it now so get back onto your plan and make the most of the rest of the stage and that may help you get a little bit up the competition that just folded.
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