Match and Coaching Update

Had that club match today, which wasn't too bad. Had the highest overall score at 386/400, and the second card was a 197, with a very nice 100 to start, which looks like it would score 105 or very close, in decimals. The first card was obviously quite poor, but for a first return to live fire after so much dry-firing over Christmas, I'm happy enough with it. What I take from it is to have faith in technique and not to stress over relatively easy shooting, and in physical terms, that I have a minor consistency problem with left elbow placement, which is easily solved by taking the pistol grip, straightening my forearm to the elbow, and dropping it straight. I'm also finding that a less tight grip provides more consistent results. While it is not slack, it is far from tight. It gives better release and makes the follow through and recoil more consistent.

My coaching session with Geoff today was extremely positive. While I didn't learn anything new I should be focusing on in terms of expected results, we did discuss the methodology and I now have a clearly laid out path towards improvement, which will provide solid foundations to enable me to tolerate the stresses of larger competition. My current workload is to draw up a shot routine and break it down into its component parts, then to focus training sessions on each individual miniscule aspect of the routine in order to perfect it and develop a feeling for it, then write out how each aspect is achieved, in order to provide that information in textual form for revision. This saves that sensation of making it up as soon as I hit the floor in an important match. I'm looking forward to the results. While aspects of the process will certainly be dull, its benefits should be conspicuous. Since I'm looking for a ten to twelve point improvement over the course of a match, I'll be hard pressed in the next four or five months, but it's well doable.

Training Update

It's been relatively quiet on the training front here the last while. The extreme cold precluded outdoor training until now. One session in the cold weather left me quite disheartened. Constant spasming of muscles initially prevented the establishment of a strong and useful zero position, made clean trigger control impossible and eventually led to the deterioration of focus and follow-through. After this, when I couldn't live-fire, I spent a lot of time dry-firing onto a dot in front of a mirror. The outer position was constant, solidly composed and comfortable, though there's some minor refining to do around the trigger hand arm in terms of elbow positioning, but it felt alright. The problem was that after that live fire session, any time spent dry-firing created doubts with regard to the inner position and its consistency, and I'm certain that it was a counter-productive experience in terms of creating self-doubt, with no possibility of reassurance in the form of the feedback live fire provides. I managed to fit in a live fire session at the range this afternoon however, only a handful of shots, but enough to reassure myself that the inner position wasn't a huge issue and that provided I could get a good sight picture, the hold and zero would be solid enough to deliver good shots. I have a club match on sunday, an informal event which will hopefully provide solid reaffirmation. Following that, I have a training session with my new coach, with whom I intend to discuss my plans for the year and my current approach. I'll update with the results of that meeting. I expect it will be very interesting. There is one dramatic failing in the technical aspect of my shooting at the moment and it's in the aim. What I think of as a good sight picture still delivers nines and I'd like to see the movement more clearly. To this end, I'm going to order a sight extension tube as soon as I get a micrometer to measure the barrel. I'll be ordering it from Eric Upragrafft. His are low-profile and don't require sight raising blocks and are lightweight. I'm looking forward to seeing the results it brings. The extra small weight at the muzzle might also be beneficial in terms of controlling recoil movement. Hopefully this is going to be a good year now.