Match #1 Critique

It's time to sit back and do a little self-critique on the videos from Saturday's match (see yesterday's post below). The two constants that remained the same throughout all three stages were that I was going to make my own plan and stick to it; there will be plenty of time later to dig into the heads of the top shooters and learn from them. Secondly, I tried to focus on moving slowly and worry more about procedure and accuracy than on speed.

Stage #3:
First ever competition stage. The nerves weren't as bad as I was expecting, but watching the video it becomes painfully obvious that they were affecting my shooting. First, notice at 0:18 when I run dry and pull the trigger; LOTS of muzzle drop from snatching at the trigger. Then I flubbed the reload: I didn't seat the magazine fully so when I racked the slide it didn't chamber a round. Followed by all kinds of sloppy trigger control as I went after the first star. I also flubbed the reload at the 0:44 mark as I didn't seat the magazine properly, again. Although this time I noticed it before I punched back out and started engaging the targets. One thing to note on the reloads, this was the first time I've ever pulled magazines from that position (I've always trained with them at around 10 o'clock on my waist) which is why I had to continuously look back to orient my hand to their position. At 1:05 I gave myself the only "mike" (miss) of the stage; except it wasn't actually a miss...I simply never fired the second round at the target; I had fired one round into the target, conducted a reload and then FORGOT to fire the second round into the target. I would've had the highest point total of all competitors for this stage if I had simply put that round on the target. So much for a clean run, but all in all a decent first effort.

Result: Points - 132; Penalties - 10 pts (from the "miss"); Time - 1:10.6; Hit factor = 1.7330 (based on the USPSA online calculator as the online score card from the match shows the incorrect time.)

Stage #1:
First, I don't know why I was holding the gun to my chest as I was moving to engage the first three targets. I need to work on finding the sights as I'm moving into position. This was a common thread for all three stages. The second reload was very slow, I can't really see what happened on the video. I shot terribly on the final three targets: I had two "A" hits and four "D" hits. At least when I didn't jerk the trigger when I went dry before the final target. Running dry really cost me alot of time on this stage. I have to do a better job making a plan that includes reloads BEFORE I expect to be empty.

Result: Points - 123; Penalties - 0 pts; Time - 55.65 (3rd slowest out of 40 competitors); Hit Factor - 2.2102 (32 out of 40).

Stage #2:
I was very frustrated after this run. What a cluster$*$%! I made a plan, walked through it numerous times, but screwed the pooch right out of the gate. First, I forgot to shoot the steel target after engaging the first two paper targets. Then on the reload (which was fairly smooth) I racked the slide and sent a round flying, a nice little waste of time there. This happened because in my plan I was supposed to shoot the steel guy which would've accounted for that round. Then I wasted several rounds trying to hit the steel target on the left. The second reload was extremely slow and nonchalant, AND I sent another round in the chamber flying. At 0:38 I remembered to shoot the steel on the left that I had neglected, on the plus side, that only took 1 round. The best news about this stage was that I threw down FOUR mikes. F-O-U-R. I don't really know what caused all of the misses. I know 2 of them went into the "hard cover" portion of the targets relatively close to the "A" zone, but 2 of the others were misses completely off of the paper...what a sad, sad showing to finish off the day.

Result: Points - 106; Penalties - 40; Time - 45.45 (4th slowest); Hit Factor - 1.4521 (2nd to last).

All in all, the match was very fun, albeit long, and gives me plenty of stuff to work on in the coming weeks and months. Thanks again to David for his guidance and Genaro for the videos!