167 replies to this topic

[SlivGod]

I’ve never done dedicated L-R or R-L SOTM to find out if one direction is more affective. All my practice has has been constant random movement. I don’t know if that’s truly the most beneficial method, but it worked well for me.

In all fairness, or perhaps to seem less like an idiot, moving that way isn't bad for me; it's just not as good as the inverse. 

[racetaco]

I wasn’t implying any mental incapacity, I just find it interesting how guys notice small aspects of playing the game and ether overcome or work around any shortcomings.

[SlivGod]

Pretty light day today. I'm trying to just stay sharp, and also save enough ammo for one more practice this week (and save my arms some fatigue). 

 

We (shooting buddy and I) started with Distance Changeup on Classics. I only ran it 6-8 times. They were all in the 2.5 - 2.7 range, which is okay. A couple early runs had garbage hits thanks to holding on the wrong spot on the partial. Notably, my first run was 2 Mikes by sailing them over the top. Once I unfucked that, it was all As, baby.

 

We switched to a stage setup. My buddy designed it and made it WAY harder than he meant to. However, I didn't struggle, and continued to feel on the hunt and in control. I'm not quite at the "warp speed feeling" that Ben talked about on Shoot Fast, but I'm getting there. The gun mostly does what I want it to. ETA: I think that reads far cockier than I intend it to be. I'm mostly trying to say that I'm jiving well with my gun/shooting.

 

Tomorrow I'll clean the guns and mags, and start prepping some gear for the Section match. I'll shoot one more day this week with something straightforward (dots or Bill Drills, for example) just to stay used to the way the gun feels. I pretty well have my game plan set for the match. All that's left is walking the stages on Saturday and execution on Sunday. 

[Sweet T]

Looks like you kicked your section match squarely in the nuts. Nice work!

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[SlivGod]

Looks like you kicked your section match squarely in the nuts. Nice work!

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Thank you!

 

It was far from perfect, and taking back two DUMB mistakes would have been enough to take 2nd. However, I think that's the most fun I've ever had shooting a match (rain and all). I was able to squad with Jon Anderson; he and I are at nearly identical overall skill level, and were neck-and-neck the entire match. Every time either of us raised the bar, the other did the same. The perfect example is my stage win being on our last stage (6) where I gave it everything I had left in the tanks and I knew it was a performance that would be difficult to compete with... that motherfucker had an even better run and would have won that stage too had his gun not malfunctioned. 

 

I didn't ask anyone to video, but apparently my buddy snagged a few stages of me. I hope to have those uploaded later along with an analysis.

[Peally]

Nice work! Aside from Alex it was pretty damn close, everyone wants to take back the little fuckups they had over the day but you did what you did and you earned your spot up at the top. Bout time you earned your M card, it makes me look bad when you beat me with an A next to your name

[SlivGod]

Nice work! Aside from Alex it was pretty damn close, everyone wants to take back the little fuckups they had over the day but you did what you did and you earned your spot up at the top. Bout time you earned your M card, it makes me look bad when you beat me with an A next to your name

Unfortunately, I don't think this match had enough GMs to give me a match bump. Forever stuck in A class

[MemphisMechanic]

Unfortunately, I don't think this match had enough GMs to give me a match bump. Forever stuck in A class

Nah. Once you develop midpack GM field course skills, you might be able to bag a few low-level M classifiers. 😁

[SlivGod]

A boy can dream. 

[SlivGod]

Not much to share in terms of practice lately since I haven't been recording sessions. Area 5 is next weekend, so I'm trying to get in as many good reps as I can before then. Spending a lot of time on SHO/WHO shooting. The former is shockingly good; the latter is shockingly terrible.

Both the speed and quality of the transfer to WH are awful with the S2, which is disappointing since it came naturally with my S1s. I'll be spending a lot of time in dry fire on that this week.

Section recap coming soon

[SlivGod]

Section Recap:

 

 

Only half the stages are on video, thanks to my buddy Matt being kind enough to record them. I hadn't asked anybody to video. Breakdown follows the order we shot them in.

 

 fullsizeoutput_a3.jpeg   69.67KB   13 downloads

 

Stage 2 "Looks Easy": 9th (83.05%). 10.74s. 10a, 1c, 1d. 

This was a very simple, short stage that tempted people to be really dumb - especially as our first stage. I chose to shoot conservatively. Unfortunately, I didn't shoot all As (something I was dead set on). The C was really close, but the D was barely on paper and came right after having the conscious thought of "Why am I shooting the paper so slowly?" I also found out later that it was more efficient to shoot the stage the opposite of how I did... I simply did not give the walk through the respect it deserved. 

3 "Oddball": 17th (77.46%). 21.48s. 21a, 6c, 3d, 1M. 

My intent was to also shoot this stage conservatively. Instead, the timer beeped and I decided to hop on the gas instead (shocking, I know, considering the video). The Mike was on the first target when I came into the top of the triangle. I never called it. The other points down were from not giving far, open targets enough respect and I paid dearly for it. Moving uprange to the port was grossly slow. That said, I really liked my stage plan here and glad I stuck with it. Making the triangle into two foot positions is maybe not ideal, but I think it avoided a lot of disaster that others occurred there.

4 "Hit The Wall": 4th (73.80%). 19.10s. 21a, 4c, 1d.

This was a little bit of a memory stage and I kept things super simple. That seems to work well for me on those types. My D was a disputed barrel hit. Those poor ROs were arguing barrel hits with everyone while they were waiting for somebody to bring them appropriate tape to patch barrel strikes. In regards to my shooting, I definitely needed to be faster in the first two positions. I didn't have my gun up for the first target and I was overaiming into the 2nd position (aiming off of a NS in the back)

5 "K.I.S.S.": 4th (92.96%). 11.76s. 16a, 4c. 

This stage was a shitload of fun. I kinda shot like a bitch on the first array. I also should have tripled the large popper to speed it up more. 1 of the Cs was on the clamshell, which I can accept. The other 3 were unnecessary and would have been an easy place to pick up points and a higher finish.

1 "Big Deal": 2nd (83.87 --- holy shit, Gutt!). 22.92s. 26a, 5c, 1d.

Well, stepping over the fault line at the top was dumb and easily avoidable. I paid dearly for hitting the HC steel in the 3rd position: those makeup shots really slowed me down. If I recall correctly, the D was on the far target by the barrels and just a lucky miss. I also put one into the edge of the NS on the right target up top and just barely missed the perf. Lesson learned to aim off just a little bit more. 

7 "The Big W": 25th (67.26%). 19.59s. 10a, 7c.

This was right after a longgggggg lunch and I don't think I fully had my head in the game. I was also up early in the lineup, and realized while I was making ready that some explosive BM was coming. That certainly didn't help concentration, but I clenched up and holstered. The targets were fairly far here, nothing closer than 15 but all wide open. I shot with intermediate sight focus rather than hard front sight focus (more on that later), and the points show it. Most importantly, in the third and final position, I missed my spot (it was a mildly tricky spot for somebody my height), and shuffled my feet while transitioning to the mini popper. To no surprise, I missed, went on to the paper, and then came back for it. And missed again. And again. Grand total, I shot 4 or 5 rounds at it (I don't remember which) but I fucking DISMOUNTED the gun each time like an idiot. That alone made me about 4 seconds slower than Jon Anderson. 

8 "Multiple choice": 6th (73.24%). 26.09s. 27a, 4c, 1d.

I really wish this one had been on video because I want to know how or why I was so slow here. I hate to resort to such childish thoughts, but part of me thinks they either recorded the wrong time or bumped the timer while I was ULASC. I guess we'll never know. Dropped the Delta on a 15-20y target on the 2nd shot. I called it, but thought it was a C (very near the perf)... should have taken the make-up. 

9 "Shortie": 3rd (94.39%). 7.89s. 11a, 1c.

Really fun short course. Unfortunately I took a makeup on the tuxedo (you can see it in others' videos if you care) which 1) was not necessary because the first 2 were As (and the makeup was a Mike lololol), and 2) those extra tenths dropped me from 2nd to 3rd here. At the end of the day, I needed every stage point I could get as it turned out.

10 "Turbo": 4th (87.34%). 30.49s. 27a, 5c. 

A really complicated stage in terms of stage planning for low-cap shooters. I still like my plan, just wish I had gotten on the gas a bit. I was almost 4 seconds slower than Gutt, and about 2 seconds slower than the 2nd and 3rd place dudes (sup, Peally). I lost about a second alone on an uprange reload off a barrel because I caught the mag lip on the frame of the gun. I've been practicing uprange reloads quite a bit since.

6 "Coming Around the Corner": 1st (100%). 25.75s. 28a, 4c.

A very tough stage that gave a lot of options. I chose the riskier plan of cutting out two positions by taking some really far shots from the top of the stage. I was a little slow into the 3rd position because I chose a very specific spot on the ground to hit (over running that position would require moving back to make a target visible and/or a 180 DQ). I was WAY slow running to the port. I guess I could blame exhaustion, because I was indeed GASSED, but it was really just laziness for foot speed. I should also note that this "stage win" is a fugazzi. I'm told Gutt had mechanical issues on this stage; I don't know what. Had everything worked, he would have had another win, I'm sure. Ditto for Anderson. 

 

Total: 83.23% of points available. That's simply too many. It was a shockingly technical match with some really hard shots, but that's still way too many points down. I think 90% would have been reasonable for me, and it was my goal for the match after walking the stages. Shit.

 

Two important things to work on after this match:

1. Dismounting the gun after steel. It's a shot calling issue and also just a bad habit. I need to stay on the gun and on the sights and be sure that I knocked it down. Better shot calling would mostly remedy the issue as well. 

2. I noticed I was having a hard time achieving front sight focus on targets that needed it during the match. I think I've spent so much time trying to extend my target focus shooting, and intermediate focus shooting, that my eyes are more accustomed to those visuals. I'll be spending more time working on drawing my focus to the front post. To be clear, I am only referencing the physical ability for my eyes to focus on the sight; not that I was neglecting to do so when appropriate generally.

[SlivGod]

Set up the array from CM 13-02 "Down the Middle" tonight. I ran it as-is cold.

Cold: 3.58, 8A.

2nd: 3.25, 8A. 

3rd: 3.29, 8A

4th: 3.06, 8A

 

I then ran it both ways a few times to see if anything interesting happened. It didn't. Far to near was marginally slower, which somewhat surprised me because that's typically my preferred method. After that, I ran the array, did a reload, and then put 2 on each head box. The upper A is very manageable out to those distances, so the challenge became to keep 4A on each target. 

 

I ended with some position entry using the same array + barrels as a vision barrier. I experimented a little bit with how early I could start aiming hard when coming in right to left (far target visible first). It was further than I anticipated, and didn't change the time much - if any - but it did help reduce sight wobble when settling in. 

[SlivGod]

A5 is over and scores are out. I shot good points, but was light years slower than the ballers.

I was already planning on taking the next week off shooting, but I'll add "licking my wounds" to the list. Quite disappointed in the results.

Video and breakdown will follow later this week.

[MemphisMechanic]

Scores are out WHERE?

Cannot find on PS or on A5s website, or USPSAs

Could never find scores from the Czech EEO either.

[maximis228]

Search Cheely. Area 5 just pulls up local Area 59 stuff.

[SlivGod]

Actually, search "Cheesy" thanks to their typo

[CheesyD]

It's an honor to have the match named after me...

 

 

Any idea where the "slower" part of you game lives? I'm working through something similar at the moment.

[SlivGod]

It's an honor to have the match named after me...


Any idea where the "slower" part of you game lives? I'm working through something similar at the moment.

Yes and no. I'm purposely not thinking about the match for a few days because I definitely need to decompress. I'll include those thoughts in an upcoming post when I've dug through the data

[Sweet T]

Yes and no. I'm purposely not thinking about the match for a few days because I definitely need to decompress. I'll include those thoughts in an upcoming post when I've dug through the data

Give it the time you deem necessary, don't rush it.

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[SlivGod]

Give it the time you deem necessary, don't rush it.

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I don't intend to rush it. I'm cognizant enough to realize that I'm taking this L very, very personally. 

 

However, in my efforts to not think about the match today, I did realize I have two grand fears coming out of this weekend: 

1. When I come back to reality, I'm worried that I won't know where to go from here. I've been working so hard, spending so much time, shooting so much fucking ammo, and believing that I've been taking an objective, no-nonsense approach. If I'm really that far off the tracks, I'll have zero clue how to get back. 

 

2. I don't want to get into a seesaw routine. Meaning: I start focusing on speed, and then lose the progress I've made on accuracy, and get stuck in an infinite loop to nowhere. Maybe it would be more like quicksand (shout out to The Replacements. What a terrible, but glorious movie).