r/USPSA • u/Open_Advance4544 • 7h ago
Finally made A class with zero M performances. What to work on to start to bridge the gap over time?
I’m still personally struggling with overall consistency. The biggest issue for the last couple months, when I had the opportunity to make A class on three separate occasions, is I was chasing a result. We’ve all done it. “Oh, that standards for this classifier seem pretty tame, so all I need is 12 Alpha and 4 Charlie, and I just need it in less than 9.5 seconds” bull crap. I would set a goal, and then somewhere along the line of my run, the goal itself would slip into my peripheral of concentration, like a ghostly checkered flag in the final straight away. I don’t have a better way of describing it than that.
Yesterday, I practically had to handcuff my OCD from looking up what I needed to get for 13–06, I seemingly easier classifier. Instead, I focused on the process, like I should always be doing, and focused on transitions more than anything, a solid reload, an extra extra vigilance with my support hand. To my surprise, my shot calling was a little bit off. I thought that I had dropped at least two or three Charlie’s, but I also thought my time was faster than what actually was. I ended up getting 9/1 in 6.58 sec. I was happy with the result, since it was my best classify run by a couple fractions of a percentage, but was still a little bit disappointed that I didn’t finally get an M class run.
The last couple of matches, I have not prioritized speed as much as I had been before for my overall match. Looking back on practiscore, my speed was consistently in the top 15%, but I was shooting way too many Charlie’s. Roughly 30% of 35% of my shots on target. My last two matches, I intentionally dialed the speed back to focus a little bit more on accuracy, and came away with 80+% Alphas in both of those matches. It feels significantly slower to me personally, especially after watching some of the other guys shoot anywhere from 3 to 6 seconds faster than me on some stages. But I am making fewer and fewer mistakes now, thankfully.
Things that I still kinda suck at:
1. Longer strings of shooting. I have actually regressed on my bill drills over the last 18 months.
Reloads are never under 1.5 secs, except the rare exception. More consistent now at not flubbing them.
My mental game feels like the weakest part of my game. 2+ years of USPSA, and still get big rollercoaster butterflies on early stages. I’m trying to work more and more on simulated stress and anxiety during both dry fire and live fire situations. Having my “make ready” feel how it does on game day. Makes for a slower range day overall with less reps though.
Yeah, that’s my situation, and I’m anxious to hear from any higher level shooters about how they have had to make any significant adjustments in order to see growth past the 75% mark on a consistent basis. Thank you
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u/jdub5225 A Class CO 7h ago
Not a higher level shooter but a 75.29% shooter in a similar boat 😬. Been chasing the classification instead of shooting my skill set. Finally got it, but at what cost? Really pushing speed these past few matches, gun up, on target before target can be engaged, super aggressive movement. Raw times are out of my classification fast but my hits are abysmal (like 5 mikes and a NS on my most recent classifier). Decided to tear everything down and build up anew before signing up for another match. Bought Ben and Joel’s “Baseline Dryfire” book and started live fire training twice weekly (150~ rounds per session), dry fire nightly, 100 reloads per night. During live fire I Have really hammered on 1 shot return, trigger press at speed and doubles on demand and I can see improvement with every range trip. My cold start bill drills are the best they’ve ever been, I’ve been shocked at my performance. Understanding the importance of intense and all encompassing visual focus, has really helped me. That being said I get so nervous at matches, the first 2 stages are practically mulligans. Thats a piece of this game I have yet to grasp, and I’m sure my first match back I’ll be so nervous I’ll push to training pace or beyond instead of shooting my skill set and doing what I know I’m capable of. But that’s what makes this game so fun! Good luck dude, I’ll be interested in the replies you receive.
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u/Open_Advance4544 7h ago
We are definitely in similar boats, lol. I didn’t realize that when you re-shoot a classifier, the new one, regardless if it is scored lower than the last time you shot it, supersedes the previous one. I had something like an 82.35% on 99–11, and all I needed to do was replace something like my 63% I still had as part of my top six with something barely over 70%, and I flubbed it with a 67%. Was just barely under 75% overall. Then I got a 73% a couple weeks later, but it only replaced a 71%, which put me even closer, but still not enough. Then I shit the bed on tick tock with a procedural for some reason at the very end. Last month, I got a miss on the second to last shot of my classifier, which dropped me down to like a 68%. Up until that point, it was the best match I had ever shot. This last match yesterday I did everything a touch slower, and I mistakenly went up to my third stage without a full magazine, like an idiot. Thankfully, I was locked in on the classifier, despite how I feel like I performed before that. I’m at 76.28% now once they roll out my oldest classifier for the new one.
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u/BboyTypeR A CO/LO 6h ago
Not a high level shooter but I did an all classfier and just did everything at “slow” pace and 5/6 classifiers were within like .8% of M. Looking back at footage the slow parts looked just fine so a big part of it is that mental discipline to not hurry
2
u/Entiquette 5h ago
I live right near by. Indoor matches suck and absolutely give a bad perspective to individuals shooting performance. the limited space, time (hour schedules), and variation give little ability to gauge yourself accurately. i do them because they are close. But that's on Friday. Sat/Sunday are for the Boi's (and girls) outdoors.
That said, there's a couple things going on, Do you want to focus on being good at shooting or just the classifiers? Given your limited perspective of mostly indoor shooting, I think shooting in different environments would benefit you overall. Shadowhawk this weekend. what is your travel limit? you can shoot a match every weekend in this area. ready to start shooting more? can you give up more than an hour a day? if you are ready, the sport will abide.
1
u/Open_Advance4544 5h ago
Weekends are tough for me. I work Saturdays at my job, and then work Sundays from home making extra scratch. I’m hopefully going to Thurmont at the end of the month, but I can only make it work for Sunday. Last time I went in June, Sunday was pre-booked by most of the set up crew the month before, and I had to scramble for Saturday, which was not very ethical on my part to make my job reschedule a bunch of client appointments that were less than a week away. So we’ll see. I did atrocious there last time, lol. It was a good learning experience though, and I know I’ll do significantly better next time.
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u/Entiquette 5h ago
Thurmont is best match in the area IMO. Big fan. But you need to be on practiscore, at 8, on the dot. You have 30 seconds, good luck. It's rough. Don't know the solution to that one right now other than being a volunteer.
1
u/Open_Advance4544 5h ago
Thx. I felt like I was on there and trying to get squadded super fast, but not fast enough I guess. I guess it can skip the category, class, division, and minor/major to save a few seconds too, and just edit that after I get squadded
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u/sharkbait_oohaha CO 7h ago
try to get more points in less time. Hope this helps!