27 replies to this topic

[SlivGod]

I realize that those of you who live in more sensible climates may not deal with this until later (or ever, I suppose). But, here in SE Wisconsin, the USPSA season essentially comes to an end next week. That means the best/worst 2-3 weeks of the year are coming up soon: don't touch my guns at all, triple down at work, maybe rest and heal a bit, and play the fuck out of some R6: Siege. 

 

It also means two of the most important steps are coming up: 1) Analyze how the year went / where I'm at now, and 2) Develop a plan of attack for next year. 

 

For me, previous years were easier because everything was low hanging fruit. To some degree, it still is (I'm locked into A-class like a fucking Disney ride). But, it's definitely going to require a bit more in-depth analysis this year, and a far more involved planning session. Thankfully, I have Iron Sight Nats to use as my "finger on the pulse" for some solid data. I would like to have a better structured plan for my training over the winter and next season. 

 

 

For those of you (looking at you, Hwansik and Yanutola) who break down your training and come up with comprehensive plans...

 

1. What do you look for in your current skills and/or this year as "data" for establishing where your skill is at?

2. How do you apply that information to developing a plan for next year? What does such a plan look like?

 

TL;DR. If you do such things, read bolded 1 and 2. 

If you don't, which - let's be honest - you probably don't because this is Doodie, post something useless that hinders the discussion.

[Peally]

Welcome to the club, I'll be so damn glad to get the hell out of A class.

 

Lodi doesn't have one more outdoor match in November by you?

[SlivGod]

Welcome to the club, I'll be so damn glad to get the hell out of A class.

 

Lodi doesn't have one more outdoor match in November by you?

They very well might. I rarely get out there though. I pretty exclusively shoot at Schultz / NISA, and occasionally at OSC. 

Indoor matches are available at Lodi in the winter and across the border into IL, so the season doesn't genuinely end. But the season is realistically over for me next week. 

[Peally]

Schultz is turning into a nice place, the new berms for the section match this year were pretty kickass. But yeah I hear you, now it's the slow indoor season.

[Motosapiens]

Whatever your weaknesses are is hard to say without knowing you, but for me as a mostly A shooter (just made M in SS, headed that direction in Limited) the things that were holding me back were shot-calling, and not treating every shot as a separate aimed shot (in dryfire and livefire both). I don't so much have a plan of attack for the new year as I just continually tweak and adjust my existing plan. I don't necessarily need to quantify what my skill level is (classifiers and match results do that just fine), i just need to improve my skill level. So I work on basic standing dryfire drills (anderson's first twelve drills) every morning for 10-15 mins, and then I do another 20-30 mins of more movement-oriented stuff in the afternoon when I get home from work. That plan of attack (or something similar) should work for *anyone*. It just requires some time, and constant monitoring of your visual discipline in dryfire. I can't count how many times I have screwed myself over by just going through the motions and not seeing separate sight pictures for each dryfire trigger pull.

[SlivGod]

Whatever your weaknesses are is hard to say without knowing you, but for me as a mostly A shooter (just made M in SS, headed that direction in Limited) the things that were holding me back were shot-calling, and not treating every shot as a separate aimed shot (in dryfire and livefire both). I don't so much have a plan of attack for the new year as I just continually tweak and adjust my existing plan. I don't necessarily need to quantify what my skill level is (classifiers and match results do that just fine), i just need to improve my skill level. So I work on basic standing dryfire drills (anderson's first twelve drills) every morning for 10-15 mins, and then I do another 20-30 mins of more movement-oriented stuff in the afternoon when I get home from work. That plan of attack (or something similar) should work for *anyone*. It just requires some time, and constant monitoring of your visual discipline in dryfire. I can't count how many times I have screwed myself over by just going through the motions and not seeing separate sight pictures for each dryfire trigger pull.

This has been my general approach, and it led to results that I'm pretty okay with at Nats. However, looking forward, I think I need to add some additional structure to my training to get to where I want to be. 

 

While this is something I've been thinking about for a while, the real kick in the ass was listening to the Firearms Nation podcast with MFCEO, where he mentioned how he laid out a plan for this year. 

[Alfred Salveti]

I can speak on this because I once felt I was locked in A class and wanted to get to the "next level" and I did.  I was mid to low 80's consistently in classifiers and it seemed I would never make it out of A.  I also was usually about 10% behind the big time GM's that shot in my area. 

 

I sent the question into the podcast and the panel was kind enough to answer it.  I supposes you could go back to about September 2015 and hear it from Nick and not sure who else. 

 

But basically the answer was there was no more big things, just fine tuning everything.  A bit of really, really good advise I got was to go over everyone's match videos from a particular match, pour of the scores: time, hits, etc. and evaluate your own.  If you beat them on this COF, how and why.  If they beat you on this COF, how and why.  I came to see it was literally half a step on a 10 yard partial that I used to shoot flat footed.  Hosing A/C on a 20 yard open target when before I made myself get 2 Alpha.  "Letting go" of this need to over verify my sights were in the A zone. Calling shots on steel with the sights and not my ears.

 

The next year I overtook the top shooters in my area.

[Trigger Warning]

I can speak on this because I once felt I was locked in A class and wanted to get to the "next level" and I did.  I was mid to low 80's consistently in classifiers and it seemed I would never make A.  I also was usually about 10% behind the big time GM's that shot in my area. 

 

I sent the question into the podcast and the panel was kind enough to answer it.  I supposes you could go back to about September 2015 and hear it from Nick and not sure who else. 

But basically the answer was there was no more big things, just fine tuning everything.  A bit of really, really good advise I got was to go over everyone's match videos from a particular match, pour of the scores: time, hits, etc. and evaluate your own.  If you beat them on this COF, how and why.  If they beat you on this COF, how and why.  I came to see it was literally half a step on a 10 yard partial that I used to shoot flat footed.  Hosing A/C on a 20 yard open target when before I made myself get 2 Alpha.  "Letting go" of this need to over verify my sights were in the A zone. Calling shots on steel with the sights and not my ears.

 

The next year I overtook the top shooters in my area.

 

 

The next year I overtook the top shooters in my area, defiled their women, burned down their houses, and enslaved their children with the lash regularly deployed to remind them that the failure of their fathers has doomed them to hopeless, unceasing servitude.

[maximis228]

MISS will be holding 33 indoor matches in Very Northern IL during its indoor season. I highly encourage you to check some of those out to scratch that itch in the winter.

[SlivGod]

MISS will be holding 33 indoor matches in Very Northern IL during its indoor season. I highly encourage you to check some of those out to scratch that itch in the winter.

Incredibly unlikely you'll see me there

[maximis228]

Incredibly unlikely you'll see me there

 

We have Sat. Matches on the last Sat of the month. 6 Stages. Starts at 8 AM. You can do it!

[SlivGod]

We have Sat. Matches on the last Sat of the month. 6 Stages. Starts at 8 AM. You can do it!

Unrelated to the topic at hand. But, the chance of me waking up at 4 or earlier to get to a club match is nil 

[Will]

You said you have Iron Sight Nats data, have you compared your scores and video runs to a shooter you aspire to outperform? I say this as I believe H. Kim performed this step and posted the differences between him and JJ Racaza on his YouTube page: 

 

 

Also, have you considered taking a private lesson with Ben or taking one of his classes? Having taken one myself, and will take another in the near future, he's not shy about telling you what it takes to get to where you want to be performance wise.

[SlivGod]

You said you have Iron Sight Nats data, have you compared your scores and video runs to a shooter you aspire to outperform? I say this as I believe H. Kim performed this step and posted the differences between him and JJ Racaza on his YouTube page: 

 

 

Also, have you considered taking a private lesson with Ben or taking one of his classes? Having taken one myself, and will take another in the near future, he's not shy about telling you what it takes to get to where you want to be performance wise.

I haven't had time to break down all the details from Nats yet. That's on my to-do list for compiling my thoughts. 

 

I've taken 2 classes with Ben. Both were fantastic, and propelled me much further ahead from where I was. Highly recommended. 

[WJM]

Not exactly what you asked, but I am still in the process of trying to decide my aspirations for the next year. I know that I can shoot into 95% of the match winner at Prod Nats. But to do that would require almost more time than I believe I am willing to devote to a sport that won't really pay me back.

So, TLDR: I am still trying to figure out what I want to do with my fucking life. Then a plan will be built.

Now as to what I plan to do in regards to building a plan. I train in blocks best. So focus on one thing in a hyper focus, and then move to the next thing. Low ports and aggressive movements are going to be my first 2 things I focus on (whether or not I decide to aim for that goal or not). Then after that its more just in general things.

I've also noticed that I seemed to shoot best when I was training less rounds a session, and more sessions. So I am going to stick with that. 

This year was mainly to figure out how I train best and what I learn from the most. And for me that is specifically built to my skills and my style of learning.

Wyatt

[MemphisMechanic]

I know that I can shoot into 95% of the match winner at Prod Nats. But to do that would require almost more time than I believe I am willing to devote to a sport that won't really pay me back.

That’s something I spent a lot of time kicking around last year after I took a class with Ben. How good do I want to be? Or said differently, am I willing to train 1-2 hours daily for years in order to dominate... my hobby? There’s no career to be found here.

I came to the realization that I do want to push to be a competitive M someday, and hopefully earn a GM rank someday that I can’t defend at an Area match against the guys willing to train their asses off. Just to say I’ve done it.

But for the time being, the rest of my life has me parked in the bottom third of A’s with the other guys who don’t dryfire. And I’m okay with that.

I think that even before you tear the Nats data apart to develop a plan, you should set an attainable and honest goal for yourself for 2018.

[SlivGod]

Not exactly what you asked, but I am still in the process of trying to decide my aspirations for the next year. I know that I can shoot into 95% of the match winner at Prod Nats. But to do that would require almost more time than I believe I am willing to devote to a sport that won't really pay me back.
So, TLDR: I am still trying to figure out what I want to do with my fucking life. Then a plan will be built.


I've also noticed that I seemed to shoot best when I was training less rounds a session, and more sessions. So I am going to stick with that. 

Both of these resonate with me.

1. I'm in a position where I can really launch my professional life, so I need to decide where I tip the scales of shooting vs. work.

 

2. The only thing I know about my plan for next year is to incorporate more frequent, lower round count sessions. That's how I led up to Nats, and was pleased with the results. I need to continue that theme through the whole year.

 

I think that even before you tear the Nats data apart to develop a plan, you should set an attainable and honest goal for yourself for 2018.

I feel like that's integral to the process, but I do agree.

 

 

All of that said... I'm still curious how people break down and compile 1 and 2. 

[Motosapiens]

Unrelated to the topic at hand. But, the chance of me waking up at 4 or earlier to get to a club match is nil 

 

Ok, I see the problem. You are stuck in A class because you are lazy.

 

 

(in all seriousness tho, local matches are the less important part of getting better, and it is often a better use of time to just train more, as long as you shoot enough matches and have a strong-enough match-mode mindset to deal comfortably with match prep and pressure).

[WJM]

Ok, I see the problem. You are stuck in A class because you are lazy.

 

 

(in all seriousness tho, local matches are the less important part of getting better, and it is often a better use of time to just train more, as long as you shoot enough matches and have a strong-enough match-mode mindset to deal comfortably with match prep and pressure).

I actually really feel like I shot my best when I was training 2-3 times a week, and shooting 2 matches a week. And I don't feel it would've been any better to do 4-5 training sessions a week.

[Trigger Warning]

Unrelated to the topic at hand. But, the chance of me waking up at 4 or earlier to get to a club match is nil

Lame.

Nice long early morning wiz around 4; 15-20 minute country time duece drop about 4:30. Wake up around 5.