Steve,
Three months into the transition to Carry Optics in IDPA and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I've put maybe 600 rounds through the gun including three matches and one 250 round practice, and it's starting to feel normal. Three months of 5-6 days a week of the Daily Dozen makes finding the dot pretty easy.
I could go on about how I was only five seconds behind the shooter I use as my benchmark performer, or how I beat the match director in the overall scores, but I think the best thing was what happened as I stepped up to shoot my first stage. It was a reduced size match with only 49 shooters because of threatened rain, so I was shooting on a different squad. I'm usually a Safety Officer on my own squad, but not this time so I didn't get to shoot first like I usually do. That meant I had more time to think about the stage. Other people worry about shooting unprepared when they shoot first. I worry about feeling pressure the longer I wait to shoot. I could absolutely shoot first every stage of a major match and not be bothered by it. I actually got told I wasn't allowed to shoot first anymore at a major. Going first is easy.
When my time came, about halfway down the order, I stepped to the line. I hear someone behind me say to the guy next to him "now watch THIS guy." That's when I knew that others see me as a good shooter. It was a great confidence boost, and since confidence is at least 32-11/16ths percent of performance, I went up to the line and made it happen.
I think my superpower is that once I go through the make ready process, everything else disappears. I'm aware of it, but it doesn't matter. I check my dot, load, verify all my mags are loaded to 10 rounds, visualize the stage one more time, and assume the start position. The SO says "Are you ready," and I shout "READY!" Then nothing else matters except seeing the dot on the target and seeing it lift from the target area.
I've learned a lot from the podcast, but the most important thing I've learned is Anal-Strat-Mem-Vis. Because I know why I'm there and what I'm doing, the actual doing of it isn't really that complicated. I move through the stage hitting all my targets well enough that random shooters on different squads tell their friends "now watch THIS guy."
Years of dry fire make the gun handling automagic. Anal-Strat-Mem-Vis make the movement through the stage automatic. Now I've just got to find a few thousand rounds of ammo and get REALLY fast.
Thanks for the podcast,
Sean
