2010 IDPA Nationals

Nationals went OK, not great but good. I finished 2nd SSP Expert and got my bump to Master.

As far as the actual match went, well I could of and should have done better than what I did. I started on stage 1 and the first 3 stages didn't go as well as I wanted. I had a plan on stage 2 and I almost nailed it except after a reload and before I moved to another position I needed 1 more shot on a target............I forgot that shot and in the end that could be what cost me the match since I only got beat by 1.6 seconds. If I would have hit that target, even with a decent shot then I would have been 2 seconds faster. Stage 3 was the standards, lots of shots, lots of 30 yard shots, and all Limited. I was doing OK until the last string and got way to fast and threw a couple of misses, I knew it when I pulled the trigger but being limited scoring I couldn't make them up.

I left the first 3 stages over 50 down and thinking I may have given the match away before I really got started. Then I realized everybody has to agonize over the Standards so I could still do OK as long as I got myself back into shooting my type of match. I got back to just focusing on the stage I was shooting and not worrying about the ones behind me. I put together a few good stages and felt that I had good monentum. After about 4 stages or so I had another bad stage, not terrible just not good, but got back into the right mindset and followed it up with another good stage. I did that cycle a few times but I was never able to really keep the ball rolling and find that groove I ususally get into. In the end I out of 17 stages I had 3-4 bad, 3-4 that were just OK, and the rest were good and solid stages.

It was either the non-shot on stage 2 or the really bad stage with the "dogs" that cost me the match. The "dog" stage was a minimum 1 scored round stage at targets that only had the -1 and -0 areas and 4 of them were out to 20-25 yards. I had a plan to hit the long ones with 2 shots to make sure I got the hits but I got to quick on the first target trying to beat the no-shoot swinger and missed that target and earned a "failure to Neutralize". Then I had the only gun issue of the match (actually the only one I remember since shooting the CZ), I had a stove pipe. That cost me about 4 seconds and on top of the 5 seconds for the FTN it really killed me. Knowing how my match went I spent the next 2 days watching the updated scores hoping I would stay on top but knew my time could be beat.

Overall I am happy with the match, I didn't shoot as well as I thought I should but I was able to stay focused and not panic when I had a bad stage. In the past I would have tried to make up for a bad stage by pushing to hard and then blowing the next stage. After a bad one I would go back to the fundamentals and just focus on the front sight and make my hits.

That makes the third division I have made Master in since May so I am really pleased about that. I worked hard this year to make Master and didn't know if I could do it in 3 divisions, that was my goal though. I was struggling a little in the early spring and that is when Garry Newton started to work with me. With his help I was able to figure out what I needed to focus on and it really helped me during the Nationals to regroup after a bad stage. I really want to thank Garry for all his help.

The year is pretty much done for me as far as major matches go. I will be shooting all the local stuff though working on the things I need to improve on so that next year I will not only be a Master but I will be a very competitive one.