Move On Up

Wednesday I had a chance to help a new shooter. I think it was her first time shooting CFDA in a public setting.  She missed her first 15 shots all high, but in the same area.  I began to help her. We changed her stance, holster location, draw, got her to cock in the holster.  Lots of changes.  She is a disciplined student. If she continues, she will be good relatively quickly.  She missed the next 10 shots again high in the same area.  So we moved up to 10 feet. Once she found the target, she began to hit at a 80% rate. She got down into the sevens.

Thursday, I was at the Camp and got to observe two Top Ten caliber Top Guns practicing at 21 feet for about 20 shots. They both were hitting less than 30%.  Now I ask you what good did those 20 shots do.  There was no pattern to the misses. What did they learn.  Wasted wax.

If you can not hit the target, move on up.  Move closer.  Once you begin to hit the target and you see the exact location of the hit, your mind and body will move your hits closer and closer to the light.  It is even best if you do it without trying.  Let your subconscious make the changes.  It will. You need to learn to make those slight, small changes, changes by the subconscious.  Changes by the conscious are generally too large.  

When I start a youth out or a new shooter I like to start them at 10 feet on 24 inch target.  It boasters their confidence.  It makes it fun.  It also gives their subconscious the opportunity to adjust their draw so that they hit the target.  Success breeds success. 

But shooting up close is not only for the novice.  In practice, anytime you are having a problem finding the target, "move on up!" even if for just a few rounds.  Give your subconscious the opportunity to work for you.  It will adjust your draw in those small increments that are needed.  If you hit the center of the target at 10 feet you will hit the target at 21 feet.

I know some of you practice at the Camp.  A good practice routine at the Camp would be as follow:  Ten rounds on the clock at 5 feet. On the clock because my manta is never ever slow down.  I want to be sure I am not lollygagging.  Where on the target is important. For me that is the lower right quarter at 5 five feet, hopefully all in a five inch circle.  Then 20 rounds on the wall without the light between two lines five inches apart at five feet. Target height is crucial here, you must know your target height.  With these 20 you are finalizing your draw and chunking data.  You are putting into your subconscious how to make those small incremental adjustments to walk the hits to the light.  The last 20 can be on the light at 15 or 21 or wherever you want.  Just remember, practicing missing does not help.  Having problems finding the target, then:

MOVE ON UP!

SooOuLow, SooOulow!

"If you want to fly with the Banshees, you have to go where the Banshees are! HOOAH!"

"Jake Sully will go first!"

"SooOuLow, SooOuLow, Jake!"

"You must fly now, flying seals the bond."

Saturday at the Camp blocker practice, Dry Glucher broke through the .40 barrier and was consistently shooting in the .39s.  Hi Strung broke the .35 barrier and reached down into the .34s.  There is no reason that they can't be consistently in the high 3s and low 3s respectively, shooting with 80% accuracy.  All they have to do is seal the bond. They have to make that draw their own and never go back.

They do that by finalizes that draw as their draw.  Blocker targets have nothing to do with it.  The clock has nothing to do with it. 

Dry Gulcher probably has the easier task.  I think it will be easier for him to bond with that draw. He simply has a .39 draw when freed from thinking about it.  To bond with it, he needs to go the wall to measure and calculate his 6 feet target height. Once he has his target height, he draws two lines one 3 inches above the target height and one 3 inches below the target height. Then fly! Shoot from 6 feet. Maybe 50 rounds. No light! No time! Time is irrelevant! Can't miss!  He doesn't have to worry about where he hits.  His body and subconscious will walk the hits into the target zone.  What he would be doing is finalizing his draw. Bonding with it while chunking data.  Putting those small adjustments to walk the hits to the light into his subconscious at .39 speed. He will get faster.

Once he has bonded with that .39 draw, never ever look back. Never ever slow down.  I don't care if he misses 30 in a row. The draw is good. His fastest draw will be his most accurate draw.  Misses are an alignment problem not a draw problem.

Hi Strung's task is a more difficult one.  He just has too many draws.  I don't know which he shot when he was hitting those .34s, but he too must fly with one draw.  To be constantly changing takes one into the agony of the mind.  Any thought is bad.  

I hope these gunslinger will not be offended by my analysis but I see so much potential. I would prefer that they stay where they are because then I have a chance against them.  Grailfever is a terrible and limiting disease.  The myth that you have to slow down to hit accounts for more loses than wins.  Bond with that draw, then never worry about hitting or time.  Hits and time will take care of themselves. Your job, if you accept it, is alignment and mental toughness.

"SooOuLow, SooOuLow......You must fly now, flying seals the bond."

 

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.

Lessons from Tombstone

Through the wind, cold, and hail there were some valuable lessons to be learned from Tombstone.  Dirty Dan was the #1 seed shooting in the final match against Patchem Quick.  Patchem Quick had a definite advantage having come up through a Magnificent 1x shootoff.  He reached the final match warmed up and on target.  Dirty Dan on the other hand had to sit around for two hours in the cold and wind.  Dan never found the target and Patchem won.  Patchem Quick on this day was a 7 flat shooter (.65 to.75 at better than 60%).

This is not an uncommon occurrence. In the two titled matches in which I placed second last year, I came up through the shootoff to win one match against the #1 seed before the #1 seed found the target.  At the Four Corners, Slow Poke came from the 6th seed to win and at Oklahoma the ladies champion came from the 7th seed.  To win it is imperative that you are able too hit and hit right now.  You need a routine that gets you on target quickly.  Once you are on target in a magnificent shootoff you have the advantage because the higher seed is coming against you cold.  For many of the shooters, it takes more than a few shots to get on target. By then the match should be over. Unfortunately for me at Tombstone, I was seeded 12th, the 11th seed was Old West, who knows how to get on target immediately.

My routine gets me on target, normally within one shot.  I call it "walking the hits to the light." If you are interested in it I will discuss it with you in person.  Each shooter has to find his/her own routine to get on the target quickly.  This weekend we will be shooting Arizona Five again.  That is a club drill to get on the target quickly.  There is pressure to hit and to hit right now!  For those who don't like Arizona Five, you are the ones that need it.

Dismal River Kid is moving away to Nebraska and I will no longer be able to mentor him.  I have one last chance to share with him some training tips on being mental tough in a match.  I will do this Wednesday, 25th, at the Camp at about 1:15 a.m., also training Lil James, and with Niobrara running the clock.  If there are any other Alleluia shooters who want to get the good stuff come to the camp at that time. Probably have room for 6 other shooters.  I have a specific mental toughness drill I am going to share with the Alleluia gang.  These boys are both skilled athletes so they should pick up this training drill easily.  We are shooting at the Camp because "We don't practice missing!"

Got a look at The Tempest.  She has a champion's draw. Just got to get that draw aligned and she will be tough.

"If you wish to survive you need to cultivate a strong mental attitude."  Col. Quaritch, Avatar.

Worry, Worry, Worry!

Levi thinks I am slow because I worry too much about hitting. His thinks I am so fanatical about accuracy that I don't try to go fast.  My take on it is just the opposite.  I have always said never, ever, slow down.  Your quickest should be your most accurate.

I don't know why I am slow. Maybe I am just old.  Maybe I sleep on the line.  I don't know.  I do know I don't worry about hitting too much (normally). I do know we lose most matches because we worry.  We worry about hitting, we worry about the draw, we worry about speed.  When I am in the "zone" like at Texas, at Oklahoma, at World in the resurrection, I have no worries.  I don't think about missing, hitting, losing on speed, my opponent, or anything.  I just know, "I ain't missing, bring me the next shooter."

A couple of our Champions are talking about developing another draw.  They seems to think there is a need to have at least two draw so they can change up against different shooters.  Cal tried to tell me that at Texas and I would not listen to him.  Makes no sense to me.  A 4 flat shooter at 80% will beat a .36 at 30% shooter with a .45 at 100% second draw ever time.  The problem with a "go draw" is not the draw but the "going to".

Levi's problem at World and my problem was the same.  We both worried about hitting.  I was in between my new stance and my old stance and began to worry about hitting. Levi lost to some slow shooters and he began worrying about hitting. I got over it quicker than he did.  When we both made it to the top ten of the resurrection shoot, I was in my "bring me the next shooter zone," he was still worrying about some shooter that he should dispatch in three under normal circumstances. He never got to me.  In the final match I did lose one match to Red Ryder, but that did not take me out of my zone.  Just another match, bring me another shooter!

I attended ten titled events this year.  I can only say that quickness mattered in only one.  At the Great Plains Territorial, Slow Poke was matched up against two other ladies that had fewer x s than her.  Slow Poke was 10 mls faster than the other two.  I think she won four byes in a row because she was quicker.    

We get this impression that quickness is more important than it is because most of the winners are quick.  What really matters is mental toughness.  Nationals was a perfect example.  Powder Keg beat Marshall twice even though he is on average 50 mls slower.  You might think those two matches were won on accuracy, but they were not!  Marshall is a .34 shooter at better than 60%.  He should handle Powder Keg with ease under normal circumstance.  But finals are not normal.   My bet would be that Marshall worried more than Powder Keg.

"If you wish to survive you need to cultivate a strong mental attitude" Col Quaritch.

Mental toughness wins matches and events.  You can practice mental toughness.

Backups and changes!

Everything I need to know about what happened at the Great Plains Territorial is right here on this bucket target.

I was having misfires with my competition gun and so I change to my backup. I was shooting low and in an attempt to bring it up I reverted back to my old stance and draw.  NEVER EVER CHANGE YOUR DRAW DURING A COMPETITION.  Those sandhill cowboys sent me to boothill in short order.

This target was shot today.  The first 25 was with my competition gun and are on the right side of the target. 23 of 25 would have hit the target.  The second 25 was shot with my backup and generally are low.  The first 5 was a good group but was about 6 inches low and would have been clear misses at 21 feet.  I got the backup up a little but never to where I would nave been hitting consistently.  It is a concern.  With my old stance and draw I have been able to adjust to the backup gun.  With the new draw and stance apparently I can not.  I better have Shady replace my hammer spring and tune the competition gun up for World.

I will continue to shoot both in hopes the backup comes around in the new stance and draw.  May have to look for a different backup.  Backup has sights, competition does not. That may be the difference. 

Alignment

We talked about cross training in the last post and emphasized  the benefits to the subconscious by using cross training.  It is probably beneficial to think a little about right/left alignment.  This is easiest adjustment to make.

Some mentors will tell their students to move in the direction that they are missing.  This does seem to work even though it seems to be contrary to logic.  Likewise sometimes we think that if we are missing right, for example, we should move over to the left only to find that we miss further right.  The reason it usually works to move in the direction of the miss is that by moving in the direction of the miss our natural and visual tendency is to turn our bodies in the opposite direction. Likewise, if we simple move over away from the miss our tendency is to turn our bodies and miss further in the direction of the miss.

To make easy right/left adjustments you need to understand that you are standing in the center of a big circle.  The center of the circle is the heel of your shooting foot. My foot is about 12 inches so the circle has a diameter of 44 feet( 21+1 times 2). The tip of my shooting toe makes a smaller circle with the diameter of 2 feet or 24 inches.  If I rotate my shooting toe 1 degree, and my body, hips and holster follow, I will move my point of impact 4.6 inches on the circumference of the larger circle. This is calculated using simple math.

If you understand and practice moving your point of impact by rotating your alignment, right and left adjustments become easy to do.  For example, if I am missing the target 3 inches to the right, I know I need to move the point of impact about 15 inches to the left.  15 inches is about 3 degrees of rotation, for me that is about .6 of an inch movement of my shooting toe.  For me each degree of rotation is .2 of an inch  movement of the toe, not very much.

Now in practice, we don't do calculation during a match, but if you understand that is how to move the point of impact right or left, we can practice making these adjustments.  They are very small adjustment in your alignment.

Now some shooters will try to make adjustments right or left by changing their draw or by changing where they "aim".  If you do that you are hopelessly lost and will be relegated to boot hill because once you start changing your draw, it is never ending struggle with accuracy.

Try in your practices to walk the hits to the light.  You need to learn to make these small adjustments in your alignment so that you can walk any miss onto the plate and then continue with your trek to the light.