consistancy?

[wJAKE19]

I have a hard time being consistant from match to match (IDPA), even if they are just a week apart. I dry fire almost everyday, I shoot weekly, about 7-8k rounds a year. I try to track my progress and set goals. I shoot the classifier at about 109ish right now (SSP, w/M&P9). I shoot great one match, horrible the next. I usually crap out one or two stages per match when I shoot bad, but when i shoot good, I am right up there with the best MA shooters at the club. We have a pretty large IDPA club, w/ about 125 shooters a month and 8 stages.

My FUBAR's are usually hitting NT's that are tite to targets, (I know I just answered my question, take your time and hit wat needs to be hit) or small targets at distance.

what drills, excersises, or jedi mind tricks can help me get more consistant in my shooting. My goal is to make MA in the next two months.

[Lomshek]

The jedi mind trick would be to not fire that shot unless your sights and grip are where you want them (quit rushing). The training would be to reduce what you consider an acceptable hit in training. Block half of your A-zone/0-zone on the target and only accept perfect hits or re-do the drill. Block half the target with a no shoot and run the drill until you can consistently hit the center of what is left of the maximum scoring zone.

[gringop]

Stop caring where you place in the match. Let the masters shoot their match and you shoot yours. Don't ask about anyone else's time, points down or penalties.

If you have a bad stage or make a mistake, devote no more than 10 seconds thinking about it afterwards. Note things you need to improve then flush that stage down the crapper and never think of it again. Ever.

If you have issue with tight targets then you need to practice tight targets until you don't have issues with tight targets. Don't think of any target as slowing down and taking time to hit it, think of it as needing a more refined sight picture and smoother trigger press. There are no fast shots and slow shots. There are only easy shots, medium shots and tight shots. Think that way and you will shoot each one as quickly as needed.

Your goal may be a little aggressive. Expert to Master isn't just a matter of pushing harder. It's being as efficient as possible and not missing. But, then again, stretch goals are good.

Maybe posting some of your practice plans would give us something to critique/suggest.

Gringop

[NEPAKevin]

Some shooters that have a problem with hitting NTs have developed a mental issue where they worry to much about about the NT instead of just identifying them and moving on to concentrating on making the shot on the intended target.

[JeffJ]

I learned in golf that your brain ignores the word don't - in other words when you think "don't hit it in the water" or "don't hit the NT" your brain hears "hit it in the water" and "hit the NT"

In other words, use the power of positive thinking - focus on what you are going to do, not what you are afraid you might do

I know that sounds like a lot of new age BS - but give it a shot, start paying attention to how you phrase things to yourself and see what happens

[ErnieB]

I am just starting to shoot USPSA and IDPA matches regularly again. Traveling for work put a dent in my ability to shoot matches in my local area. I am just getting back on the horse and I am finding that I am not far off where I left off and just need to polish a few things. Consistency is one of those things that tends to dull a bit after a hiatus from shooting regularly. However, I notice that all the work I have done over the years has paid off and things seem to be coming together much quicker than in the past. Although not where I want to be, I am going to set some goals for myself and see if can't be tuned up enough to place well at the IDPA Nationals work schedule permitting. I shot a USPSA match yesterday, Production class, and had a fairly decent day. I placed second at 99.86% (that hurts... so close...). I won two stages and placed in the top three in the others EXCEPT for one stage... My first stage of the day I had two delta hits and just edged a no shoot. Crap! That put me at sixth place on the stage. I try not to let my mind play "what could've been" but I ain't gonna' lie... I was bummed!

Here are some things I am going to work on before the next match next week in an effort to build more consistency and confidence:

1) Warm up. Stretch, dry fire, draws, reloads. The first time I touched the gun that day was taking it out of the bag, loading and drawing to start the first stage. Though a good test of where I am cold, I could have at least stretched my bum shoulder a bit when I got up in the morning. As I get older the old shoulder injury is getting stiffer. I might have to get it looked at. Stubborn... Usually when I go to the range to practice I shoot a series of drills with no warm up to gauge where I'm at. I base my days practice on how I performed those particular drills. However, I have plenty of time to warm up and get my act together prior to starting a match.

2) Hard cover targets at distances beyond 12 yards. We had quite a few of these in this match and though I did OK I had a hard cover hit and did not feel comfortable enough to be as confident as I should be. I shot a gen 3 G17 that was stock except for a 3.5lb connector. I shot the stock plastic sights (as an experiment) and they were fine for most everything except for tight shots on hard cover targets at distance. I am still experimenting with different sights but I am finding that, for me, there is a fine line between too narrow and too wide a front sight and too narrow and too wide a rear notch. This has mostly to do with my vision. I am trying to find that happy medium. More to follow on this as I play with my pile of sights. Aging eyes suck.

3) Reloads. I was pretty happy with my reloads however reloading from my 5th and 6th mag pouch could have been a bit smoother. Again, another area to polish and build consistency.

One of the things that helped me greatly especially from a consistency perspective was not worrying about the match overall and shooting each stage as if it was the only stage I was shooting that day. I made sure I had a good plan and visualized executing it repeatedly prior to my turn to shoot. One of the things I liked was I am new to the area and I don't really know too many people so I don't get drawn into the social jaw jacking and can focus on playing the game and having some fun.

To gain consistency and improve confidence to attack stages rather than just shoot them I find it is important to do a self debrief and make a practice plan and take that into the next match. Damn.... this post got wordy....

[ggruber]

I have a hard time being consistant from match to match (IDPA), even if they are just a week apart. I dry fire almost everyday, I shoot weekly, about 7-8k rounds a year. I try to track my progress and set goals. I shoot the classifier at about 109ish right now (SSP, w/M&P9). I shoot great one match, horrible the next. I usually crap out one or two stages per match when I shoot bad, but when i shoot good, I am right up there with the best MA shooters at the club. We have a pretty large IDPA club, w/ about 125 shooters a month and 8 stages.

My FUBAR's are usually hitting NT's that are tite to targets, (I know I just answered my question, take your time and hit wat needs to be hit) or small targets at distance.

what drills, excersises, or jedi mind tricks can help me get more consistant in my shooting. My goal is to make MA in the next two months.

i staple 8 inch pie plates with a center mark to standard IPSC targets and shoot those at 10 yards to warm up. it takes me 30-40 rounds of this until i hit my stride. i belong to a private club and usually arrive at matches an hour early to do about 20-30 draw and shoot at a plate rack prior to the match. this warm up has made a big difference in my performance and first shot hit ratio.

you don't need to put a lot of rounds down range in training. I rarely shoot more than 50 rounds a day, but they are 50 good rounds and I track my time and progress. I have shaved 0.5 of my draw and have upped my my first shot hits to over 95%.

it's almost all front sight for me. if i see it, i hit the target ALL the time.

[jslaker]

I learned in golf that your brain ignores the word don't - in other words when you think "don't hit it in the water" or "don't hit the NT" your brain hears "hit it in the water" and "hit the NT"

In other words, use the power of positive thinking - focus on what you are going to do, not what you are afraid you might do

I know that sounds like a lot of new age BS - but give it a shot, start paying attention to how you phrase things to yourself and see what happens

In a similar vein, I've just started lifting weights again, and in my reading on the topic, Mark Rippetoe talks about mental and coaching cues in his book for a few pages. He advocates keeping cues to 2-3 word reminders, and that as the cue gets wordier, the less likely it is to be effective with the stress of being under a heavy bar. I can see the same applying to the stress of shooting in a match. Your brain is more likely to process a simple reminder than a more complex instruction

[wJAKE19]

Just a short update from last month.
I shot the classifier in 104 and I totally blew the first stage, I had 9 points down. Last time i shot the classifier, i was 3 points down on stage 1. so if i can fix that and shave a few points off stage 3... i am hoping to make MA next month or so..

I've shot 3 matches in the last 5 or 6 weeks, and I am seeing an improvement. I have been planning my stages, before I was sort of planning them, but now I am making a plan for each stage as to where and how I take each target. This has helped my consistancy on those small and far targets, I have a plan to slow down just a tenth or two on them, and I am making much better hits.