Max is very smart, very much an out of the box thinker. Something he told me, is that before a major match he fasts for 96 hours, carbo loads the night before, and eats nothing during the match. Kind of in gest, I suggested this to a buddy who is a PCC GM, and his reaction suggested eating came before winning, if this is what it took to win.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesting Devil
Day 4, TPC
Where the first three days of the TPC class were all about building skills necessary to be successful in competition, day 4 was where the rubber met the road. Day 4 was designed to replicate the day before a major match, and to create that environment, TPC had built five national level stages, each different, to test a wide range of skills. We spent the morning as individual squads, walking through each stage with our instructors breaking down the stages, explaining alternative ways to shoot each stage, and developing our own stage plans. Despite the wind picking up to 40-50 in the afternoon, and creating a complete malstrom, we spent the afternoon practicing the stages, while being critiqued.
As an example, here is a stage designed by Aaron Brekke.
Attachment 30508
And, after breaking the stage down for us, here is Aaron shooting it.
https://youtu.be/JqoE6YEqLJA
Here is the stage that Max Leograndis picked, that came from a large European match.
Attachment 30509
Here is Max describing and shooting the stage (with his Production gun not the PCC).
https://youtu.be/S2BDd9cUMdI
Later in the afternoon, here I am shooting the stage.
https://youtu.be/A6XZrFLWjFg
We repeated this process through the various stages, although feeling like you were in a Saharan dust storm only added to the realism.
While the stages were going on, TPC had also set up some classifier stages with instructors there to coach students as they shot them. As part of the class, TPC offered that on Sunday you could shoot the main match, or if you wanted to obtain a USPSA classification, shoot just the classifier match.
At one point, I walked to a stage Ken Nelson was coaching on. Listening to him work with a student, I was reminded what an accomplished diagnostician he is. He basically tells you how screwed up you are, suggests an alternative or two, and does it in such a way you thank him. I asked him about technique for an uprange start, and after watching mine, described it as a tornado of movement, and suggested a simple, efficient turn that placed me in a perfect TPC stance for the shooting part ahead. Here is a video of Ken on day two discussing how he practices reloads and the presentation, which gives you a sense of his style.
https://youtu.be/8PoNmdKFjq0
By the end of the day, we were all full of sand right down to in our ears and mouths, and agreed to meet that evening for a session of critiquing student videos. Max had been filming during the day, and over at the Holiday Inn in St George, started showing us in action. Ron Avery was there and not only did that as only Ron can, with highly technical analysis of movement by movement through the stage, and where the low hanging fruit to be picked was. Then, Ron delivered a memorable technical shooting mindset lecture that I put up there with Jeff Cooper’s best effort at Gunsite. Really, really amazing, and he seemed to transform to another person and another place as he shared his philosophy on shooting at a high level, as he has for over thirty years.
Day 5, TPC.
Day five was set up to simulate a major match, and it felt that way. Started with a shooters meeting, and we did everything but the pledge of allegiance. A neat thing was many of our instructors, including a number of the TPC pro team shot the match with (and against) us. Off with our squads to our stages, and the tension was palpable. I really focused on Ron’s advice from the previous night, which was to treat each individual target as the only target in the entire match that meant anything at that moment, and that helped manage tension and treat each target with an appropriate level of attention. It seemed like we were sipping through stages and, in what felt like just a few minutes, we were on our last stage. I made the mental mistake there of focusing on the entirety of the match, which was going very well, which did not help me on the last stage. On that stage, I had a mike, my only penalty for the match, but that was a mental failure on my part.
Here is my match video.
https://youtu.be/aDt1iVSEcmU
TPC posted results to Practiscore, just as with a “real match.”
https://practiscore.com/results/new/...q_individual=0
In the afternoon, the bays were open to repeat any stages, although not for score. I was both satisfied and exhausted from the morning and just observed. At 2:45 it was awards and we were done.
To pull this class off took enormous scale — 50 students, 15 instructors, a terrific range, Ron Avery’s vision, and Ken Nelson’s organizational talent. Highly recommended!
Nice report.
The second stage on your video is a stage from the last year's iron sights Nationals. While most of the shooters from D to local GMs were calculating if it was more beneficial to leave the disappearing clamshells alone or shoot them (for most average folks it ended up no difference), the contenders were double tapping that steel activator so it would drop faster...
Great report GJM!
One of my shooting buddies at a match was talking about this and he talked me into registering for the the 5 day super camp that’s in Sept. As usual great write up GJM, I’m pretty psyched about attending this. Was planning on doing at least one if not two class around competition shooting but this seems like a great deal for 5 days of total immersion into competitive shooting. Can’t wait.
My wife and I are repeating this class week after next.
well I guess that’s a testament to the class. Wish I could take it that soon.Quote:
Originally Posted by GJM