Just Walk'en!

A couple of weeks ago I took Niobrara (6), Lil James (8), and Dismal River Kid (9) to the Camp for some training on mental toughness.  We were going to work on specifically walking the hits to the light. I was dishearten because the training session was overwhelmed by kidness, the kids being distracted by the mic system and mud puddles.

Saturday I took Dismal to the Camp Jackpot shoot because he is moving to Nebraska and it was the last chance I had to shoot with him.  I got to hand judge his third match.  His first shot was right and high 18 inches. He second shot was on the plate. His third, fourth and fifth shots were within 1 inch of the light. After winning, he turns and says to me, "I was trying to hit the light!"  Guess he was listening more than I had thought.

The next match I got to hand judge was against Hell on Wheels.  HOW hits the first two shots. Dismal misses the first shot then walks the hits to the light on the next four shots.  The match ends with HOW being confused as to how he could have lost, looking at the target he has two hits, Dismal has four, score should be 2-2. No, you miss three against an Alleluia shooter, you lose.  Dismal shot 80%, HOW shot 40%.  Speed was irrelevant.

Dismal and HOW met again in the 7th round. Winner goes to the shot offs, loser is out. This time HOW was on target, hitting 75%.

The Gunfighter Ratings for these three matches are interesting.  Dismal's speed factor is .185, his accuracy factor is .80, his mental toughness is .04, giving him a gunfighter rating of 1.025.  That rating would put him in the top 10% of our shooters.  HOW's rating in the first match is speed .62, accuracy .4, mental toughness -.02, for a combined 1.0. For the two matches HOW was speed .62, accuracy .55, mental toughness -.02, for a gunfighter rating of 1.15.  Pretty evenly matched gunslingers with a 1-1 match record between them.

So much for Dismal.  The point of this post is that to be a competitive shooter you need to learn to walk the hits to the light. First shot is a guess, second shot should be on the plate, and each shot thereafter should be closer to the light.  Alleluia shooters should shoot no worst than 66% at the Camp.  That big wall is a tremendous advantage for us.  Since our training leads us to the light the worst we should shoot is 2 out of 3 or 66% if our opponent is faster and hitting 100%.  Most matches your opponent will be hitting less.  At Pioneer only 10% of the shooters hit better than 60% and of those only 3% were quick.

Walk the hits to the light. "Aim small, miss small" Oh, we don't aim.  Chunk that data, learn to make small adjustments.