USPSA Nationals

[ny32182]

If you like USPSA, and like shooting it at a Sectional/Area level, and have never shot nationals, do yourself a favor and shoot nationals sometime. It is a pretty incredible experience unlike any other match. I had very good shooters tell me it is WAY beyond any other match on the schedule in terms of the totality of the experience. They were right. That is all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZW_DT7Beh0

 

[g.willikers]

Don't you have to earn your way into a National level match?

 

[mgmorden]

Don't you have to earn your way into a National level match?

Not exactly. Each section is given a certain number of entries that they can distribute as they see fit. Often times there's sufficient lack of interest that just asking your Section Coordinator about it is enough to get you an entry if you want one.

Any of those handed out that don't get assigned are distributed to the membership at large via a waiting list.

Most people who want to go can get in either via their section's slots or the waiting list.

 

[ny32182]

I thought I was supposed to get one from sectional performance, but it never showed up, so I got one from the SC coordinator. I also had offers of extra slots from other section coordinators, so at least this year if you wanted to go there seemed to be a fairly large number of slots available.

 

[twofifty]

Sweet 13

Interesting to see how well the guy in the video uses space and time, speeds up and slows his tempo, pivots to the next target by leading the body with the head/eyes, arrives smoothly at a station ready to fire then explodes to the next station, reload mechanics very efficient.

 

[ny32182]

Well I happen to know that guy put in some work this year and was happy to see it pay off with a recognized top 16 finish.

 

[g.willikers]

Leave it to the folks at USPSA to make attendance as convoluted as their score keeping system.
But don't get me started.

 

[twofifty]

Well I happen to know that guy put in some work this year and was happy to see it pay off with a recognized top 16 finish.

I wasn't sure if this was you. Now I can extend my congratulations on surpassing your goal.

It would be interesting to know how you trained yourself out of the multitude of bad habits that keep the rest of us in the bleachers at the higher level events.

Do future goals include competing in the IPSC World Shoot?

 

[Ankeny]

I enjoyed your video. I also took the liberty of taking a peek at your history. GM and a Top 16 finish in two years? That is some dedication and hard work. FWIW, I could tell you were a GM about 10 seconds into the video.

 

[ny32182]

Thanks guys. I wanted to hit GM last year, but didn't actually do it until the January update this year. I'm out of vacation days this year but would definitely like to be shooting at least IPSC nationals if I had the time. Yes I'll be looking at the next WS schedule when it comes out. As far as training, I just set goals, and do whatever I can to reach them. I view technical shooting skill, and competitive skill; "learning how to compete" as separate and try to get experience with both. I try to do SOMETHING every day, even if it is just pointing the gun around at targets on the wall while hanging out on the couch mostly watching TV, and obviously the more high quality dry fire and live fire you can get in, the better.... if I could only have one book it would be Ben Stoeger's "Skills and Drills"; it is basically a manual detailing the technical skills you need to be capable of to shoot at a GM level. Just because you have the technical skills does not mean you can execute on demand and compete at a GM level; again, I view them as separate topics, but if you can hit the goals in the book, you have the technical skills to shoot at a GM level.

Nationals especially was really great in that it shows how far you've come, and how far you probably have to go to be competitive with the very best. At my current skill with great execution, perfect weather, etc, I think I could have finished as high as 8th this year, but above that I got whipped pretty good.. and the 7th place guy is a guy I beat at a match earlier in the year. It was a great experience in many ways, mostly in getting some experience in how the aspect of competing steadily over the course of more days and a deeper field plays out. I felt like I got better throughout the course of the week so that makes me happy... day 1 was unquestionably the worst. But anyhow, that basically concludes my USPSA season, and so it is time to think about goals for next year... I missed many this year unfortunately, so those will carry over and I'll add some new ones.

But back on topic, shoot nationals, it is great.

 

[Ankeny]

Two of my friends shot in the mud, rain, and overall crappy weather. It really whipped them in the mental game department. Huge difference in stage finishes vs. the nice weather. I used to shoot year round in all kinds of weather for that very reason.

 

[ny32182]

The schedule I was on (same as the supersquad, had to be same as your friends), we got rained on pretty good for 6 out of 7 stages on the 3rd day, and then a little rain and some hail during one stage on the 4th day. The opposite schedule had beautiful weather all week, as did people shooting earlier in the week.

Seems like last year nearly every match was in the rain, so, I've spent lots of time handling that and don't really think it impacts me too much with the exception of mud... which was a factor for sure. Stages with lots of mud basically are just going to be slower since you can't plant and drive in and out of positions like you can when it isn't muddy... still I had a pretty good day in the rain since fortunately we were shooting mostly smaller stages that didn't require a lot of movement that day. It probably didn't really impact me much except on two stages total.

 

[waktasz]

Leave it to the folks at USPSA to make attendance as convoluted as their score keeping system.
But don't get me started.

Nice work dude.

I need to get myself to a nationals eventually. Maybe next year at PASA.

 

[Reconinforce]

Congrats. How long you been doing the uspsa thing?

 

[ny32182]

I joined USPSA in mid 2012, but had a few years of casual IDPA experience before that.