Corey
01-09-2014, 08:24 AM
I haven’t been keeping a training journal but have kept up with the Drill of the Week and I have been tracking my performance so this seems like the best place for this post (mods feel free to move if you this it is more appropriate elsewhere).
I decided to set some training/performance goals for the new year and as part of that I took a look at my performance over the past year by comparing some drills to how I was doing on them at the end of 2012. Instead of taking a snapshot of what may have been a fluke by looking at personal best or one specific run I thought it would be better to review several runs. I decided that by looking at my average of the last 5 runs of a specific drill at the end of 2012, and the average of the last 5 runs of the same drill at the end of 2013 it would give me a better look at how my skill level has changed over the past year and give me some basis for what I should try for this year. For reference, I did not use multiple runs of the same drill shot on the same day. If I shot a drill multiple times in one practice, then I took the score from the first run only to use in the 5 run average so each average is taken from 5 different practice sessions. So here are some numbers.
99 Drill (4x6 card from concealment)
2012: 51 2013: 65
4567 Drill
2012: 23.15 sec. (only one clean run out of the 5) 2013: 20.95 sec. (no clean runs of the 5)
20 Hits
2012: 43.93 sec. 2013: 37.22 sec.
Bullseye 1000 (this drill I shot less than 5 times each year)
2012: 795 (average of 3 runs for the year) 2013: 822 (average of 2 runs for the year)
And finally, the FAST (average is of cold runs only, first shots fired at a practice session)
2012: 8.39 sec. (2 clean runs out of 5) 2013: 7.77 sec. (3 clean runs out of 5)
I still do the no more than 3 FAST runs per day deal and have a personal best of 5.72 seconds clean, but I suck at getting clean runs consistently.
My pistol goals for 2014
1. Make master class in IDPA (SSP division).
I started shooting IDPA in 2012 and have only shot the classifier twice. First time was in April 2012 with a score of 139.71 sec. and second time was
in October 2012 where I scored 119.84 sec. I didn’t get to shoot the classifier in 2013 but I think breaking 98 seconds is reasonable for this year.
2. Get my average cold run for the FAST under 7 seconds. My biggest problem is missing too much. Getting to where clean runs 4 out 5 times is normal
for me would put me most of the way there. It gets frustrating when I will be doing 20 hits and get 5 or 6 clean runs in a row, then look at my FAST
and see that I have a hard time getting 3 straight runs with no misses on the 3x5.
3. Get my average on the 99 drill over 75. The 99-drill is what I credit the most for my overall improvement over the past year (thanks Jody). I still drop a
lot of points from late shots due to my slow time to first shot (especially on the first string of fire) but I also have to concentrate on accuracy at
speed which seems to be my biggest weakness. My long term goal is get a score of 90 at which point I will switch to using the 3x5 card, but I don’t
think that is realistic for this year.
4. Shoot the BE 1000 at least 5 times this year. Because someone around here said you can’t be too accurate.
5. Get serious about dry fire. My dry fire practice has been intermittent and inconsistent. I have both the Dave Anderson and the Ben Stoeger dry fire
books, now I need to get my money’s worth out of them so I can reach my other goals.
Any comments, critiques, or observations are welcome. I want to thank everyone here on the forum for the advice and encouragement I have received here. While I don’t post very often, I do read the forum several times a week and continue learning a lot here.
Finally, since we all seem to like numbers here, in 2013 I shot 9,916 rounds and had 7 stoppages. These consisted of two failures to extract, three failures to feed, and two failures to fire (one of which was a dead primer). I used 2 identical Smith Wesson M&P9 full size pistols equipped with Apex DCEAK triggers and stock sights. I did upgrade to Trijicon HD sights on both of them as a Christmas present to myself at the end of December.
I decided to set some training/performance goals for the new year and as part of that I took a look at my performance over the past year by comparing some drills to how I was doing on them at the end of 2012. Instead of taking a snapshot of what may have been a fluke by looking at personal best or one specific run I thought it would be better to review several runs. I decided that by looking at my average of the last 5 runs of a specific drill at the end of 2012, and the average of the last 5 runs of the same drill at the end of 2013 it would give me a better look at how my skill level has changed over the past year and give me some basis for what I should try for this year. For reference, I did not use multiple runs of the same drill shot on the same day. If I shot a drill multiple times in one practice, then I took the score from the first run only to use in the 5 run average so each average is taken from 5 different practice sessions. So here are some numbers.
99 Drill (4x6 card from concealment)
2012: 51 2013: 65
4567 Drill
2012: 23.15 sec. (only one clean run out of the 5) 2013: 20.95 sec. (no clean runs of the 5)
20 Hits
2012: 43.93 sec. 2013: 37.22 sec.
Bullseye 1000 (this drill I shot less than 5 times each year)
2012: 795 (average of 3 runs for the year) 2013: 822 (average of 2 runs for the year)
And finally, the FAST (average is of cold runs only, first shots fired at a practice session)
2012: 8.39 sec. (2 clean runs out of 5) 2013: 7.77 sec. (3 clean runs out of 5)
I still do the no more than 3 FAST runs per day deal and have a personal best of 5.72 seconds clean, but I suck at getting clean runs consistently.
My pistol goals for 2014
1. Make master class in IDPA (SSP division).
I started shooting IDPA in 2012 and have only shot the classifier twice. First time was in April 2012 with a score of 139.71 sec. and second time was
in October 2012 where I scored 119.84 sec. I didn’t get to shoot the classifier in 2013 but I think breaking 98 seconds is reasonable for this year.
2. Get my average cold run for the FAST under 7 seconds. My biggest problem is missing too much. Getting to where clean runs 4 out 5 times is normal
for me would put me most of the way there. It gets frustrating when I will be doing 20 hits and get 5 or 6 clean runs in a row, then look at my FAST
and see that I have a hard time getting 3 straight runs with no misses on the 3x5.
3. Get my average on the 99 drill over 75. The 99-drill is what I credit the most for my overall improvement over the past year (thanks Jody). I still drop a
lot of points from late shots due to my slow time to first shot (especially on the first string of fire) but I also have to concentrate on accuracy at
speed which seems to be my biggest weakness. My long term goal is get a score of 90 at which point I will switch to using the 3x5 card, but I don’t
think that is realistic for this year.
4. Shoot the BE 1000 at least 5 times this year. Because someone around here said you can’t be too accurate.
5. Get serious about dry fire. My dry fire practice has been intermittent and inconsistent. I have both the Dave Anderson and the Ben Stoeger dry fire
books, now I need to get my money’s worth out of them so I can reach my other goals.
Any comments, critiques, or observations are welcome. I want to thank everyone here on the forum for the advice and encouragement I have received here. While I don’t post very often, I do read the forum several times a week and continue learning a lot here.
Finally, since we all seem to like numbers here, in 2013 I shot 9,916 rounds and had 7 stoppages. These consisted of two failures to extract, three failures to feed, and two failures to fire (one of which was a dead primer). I used 2 identical Smith Wesson M&P9 full size pistols equipped with Apex DCEAK triggers and stock sights. I did upgrade to Trijicon HD sights on both of them as a Christmas present to myself at the end of December.