As the 2013 shooting season is quickly approaching, it's time to Make Ready. Practice begins in preparation for my first match, the Smith and Wesson Indoor Nationals.
Last year ended well for me, placed 2nd ESP behind Matt Mink, at the IDPA Nationals. I was happy with my day 2 performance, not so much day 1. So my goal for this year is to perform more consistently throughout my matches. I will admit, some days you just don't need a gun in your hand. For what ever reason, you just can't get anything going. I too have those days, but you have to chalk it up to a bad day and move on. When you realize that is what is happening, DON'T try to fix it that day. I found that you end up getting so frustrated, that the practice is a waste of time. You don't want to start developing bad habits.
The first thing I'm working on this year, is more dedicated time on simple drills. Really taking the time to focus on what the drill is teaching me, perfect execution, and being able to repeat without thinking about it. A combination of dry fire for repetition and live fire for execution. In practice, I try to replicate shooting positions, shooting sequences, arrays of targets, and barricade work that I would be faced with in a match. Take those tasks and break them down to the most simplest form and that's my area of focus.
Some key terms that I try to live by during practice are: Be ready to shoot when its time to be shooting, let my gun lead me into position, get off the buzzer faster, associate the movement of the gun with the pull of the trigger, and associate the start of reload with the pull of the trigger. All these terms I explain in Competitive Pistol II in great detail. I believe its little things like this that have allowed me to grow in my own abilities.
Another thing I'm changing, is switching all my holsters and mag pouches to Safariland. New this year, they have come out with a new line of IDPA legal gear. I already run the ELS belt system for USPSA and drop leg SLS holster with my KIT setup, so it only makes sense. Once it comes in, I will give you a no BS look on how it performs. But like everything from Safariland, I have not been disappointed yet.
The big key to all this is REPETITION. If you only pick up your gun on match day, you have to expect that you will stay the same. In order to improve, you must practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment