Fantastic. Here's the standard advice I give to new-to-USPSA shooters about not DQ-ing in their first match(es):
- You're not going to win the match. You just aren't, any more than you're going to shoot a 63 the first time you play golf or run a 4 minute mile the first time you lace up some track shoes. The good news is that nobody expects you to win, or even be particularly good. What they're all going to wonder is: IS HE SAFE? As long as you're safe, they'll love you, and then they'll help you figure out the game. So focus on that - being SAFE (and making some friends).
- Your usual "keep the gun in a safe direction" muzzle discipline isn't the same thing as pointing the gun at the backstop - and keeping the gun pointed downrange is what's required. Most new shooters who DQ never point the gun at anyone else, but they do break the 180, and are, therefore, disqualified. Pointing the gun straight up or straight down is putting the gun right on the 180 - so don't do that, even if you've been "trained" about that being the safe way to move with a loaded gun. My suggestion: get out your cordless drill (or, if you live alone, you can do this with your UNLOADED gun). Pick one of the primary walls/sides of your house to be "downrange." Let's say you declare the north wall of your house to be downrange.) Now, carry that drill around the house for a while, always keeping it pointed north, and keeping your finger off the trigger.
- If you do this, you'll discover that moving in certain directions requires certain arm movements, and that turning one way to head south requires turning back around the other way to go north again (i.e., if you turned to you left, you have to un-turn to your right when you get where you're going).
- You'll have to trail your arm and the drill behind you to go south... but you'll have to trail it differently to go southeast than southwest.
- You may notice that getting too close to walls or doorways tends to bunch you up, and exerts a kind of "pressure" to turn the drill sideways.
- Don't crowd walls or ports. People who get very close to walls that are ahead of them often end up "flipping" the gun sideways when they move. Their brain screams that they are about to bang a loaded gun into a wall, which is a bad idea... so they fold up the gun and break the 180. Instead, give yourself more room to work.
- In dry-fire, make sure your reloads and slide-racking are with your index finger sticking WELL out to the side. You don't want to be in an argument about whether you were or were not inside the trigger guard on a reload or during movement... stick that thing out straight and off the gun.
- Drawing happens on the clock. Holstering does not. The shot timer records the time from the beep to the last shot fired. Once you have fired your last shot, there is literally no reason to go fast. Put your mind back in first gear and follow the range commands very deliberately.
- Speaking of holstering, this is a common spot for newer shooters to get DQ'ed. One common problem is "chasing" the holster with the gun. The shooter starts to holster and begins turning to his right... and his hips turn to the right... and the holster goes with them. Pretty soon, by the time the muzzle has found the holster, the gun is canted backwards and the muzzle is pointing past the 180. Don't do that. Pivot your right hip forward by about 30 degrees... bring the gun and holster together well clear of the 180.
- Another common DQ scenario is when the shooter drops something. Usually it's a magazine, sometimes a prop. If you drop something and plan to bend down and retrieve it, you should be on red alert that you are about to break the 180. When people bend down with something in one hand and reach with the other hand, the full hand automatically sticks out behind them for balance. Perfectly natural... and totally unsafe if the thing in your hand is a loaded gun. It takes conscious effort to keep your right hand and gun pointing downrange while bending for something you dropped and reaching with your left.
- Most DQ's happen when something is going "wrong" with someone's plan. They're flustered for some reason (maybe that texas star ate their lunch, maybe they bobbled a reload, maybe they just put 3 consecutive shots into a no-shoot... anything they didn't want to do but did anyway). They feel that everyone is judging them (they're not - if they're watching, they're watching for safety and/or rooting for you). SO: If you are feeling flustered during a course of fire, re-focus on safety.
Hope that helps. Oh, and speaking of help, that's the only non-safety advice I'd give: be ready to
help keep the match running. Throw some work gloves in your bag to help tear down stages at the end. Be ready to paste targets (only after they are scored). This is a volunteer-driven sport. Very, very few matches have
anyone getting paid to put on the match... it's really nobody's job to do all the before-during-after stuff that makes matches happen. Your focus during the first few matches should absolutely be yourself and staying safe, but an early demonstration of a willingness to pitch in will make you "one of the guys" much faster.