TRAINING LEAD-UP
Sunday, Jun 8:
18A "Upper Body Prep" in 23:14, then "Push-ups" in 1:00:20, not bad given my right shoulder and how long it's been since I did this last time. I took all the rest that I wanted between sets.
Monday, Jun 9:
30#R around the waterfront neighborhood nearby with my dad, wearing GORUCK Rough Runners.
Tuesday, Jun 10:
45 min Power Zone Endurance Ride with Olivia Amato, although I was between z4-5 HR-wise, with 431 cal, 13.7 mi, 90 ave rpm, 40% ave resistance, and 18.3 mph ave.
FIRST USPSA MATCH
It was so convenient to be able to drive just a few miles from work to attend my first USPSA match at my local indoor range. They had been hosting them for a few months, but I hadn't made the effort to get out and try one yet. This was the time. USPSA had been recommended as a good way to be inoculated to buzzer stress, move efficiently, do stage planning, and learn when to throttle up or down. It's like PRS but for pistol, but a little more dynamic.
There were two squads. They sell out. We had two bays... you'd shoot in one bay, move to another bay to shoot 2 stages, then come back to the original bay to shoot your last stage. The stages shot on the same bays would be similar to each other, to minimize the amount of setup that had to be done, but they'd still add targets and/or no-shoots and/or change the round count or starting position, so that it wasn't a complete repeat. A nice benefit of having a lot of similarity between the two stages was that you could immediately learn from and apply the learning from the first run. There are many times where you wish you could re-do a stage to see how much better you could do it the second time around... this is about as close as you can get to that.
The people who signed up looked like they knew what they were doing. There's specialized gear for this kind of match, where speed takes priority over the robustness of gear setups. There are different divisions, though, so can still "run your own race" and find ways to challenge yourself however you want. Some people had concealed setups, some had irons, some had decked out race guns and belts that seemed to barely grab mags and guns, along with wild-looking mag capacity extenders.
I watched some Youtube videos on USPSA rules beforehand, so that I at least wouldn't break any rules or look like a complete FNG. Normal safe weapons handling and the 180 degree rule are the main things.
Another notable thing about USPSA is that round counts are either "Virginia Count" (strict limits where every shot counts) or "Comstock" (where you can shoot as much as you want and do make-up shots and just the best ones count).
I still haven't taken the time to really figure out how to optimize placement at this type of match, but points per second matter, and you get more points for A-zone than C-zone, than D-zone, etc. No-shoots have a penalty, as do procedurals. I haven't figured out how much faster I'd need to be willing to shoot C-zones vs taking extra time for A-zones, for example. A-zones are positioned where a high-percentage shot would be, so it's not exactly center of mass on the cardboard... you have to stay aware of where the zones are, especially when they're partially covered by no-shoots.
People do dry-runs before the stage goes hot, to run through their strategies and footwork.
Stage 1: <COMSTOCK>
- On the beep, move to the box and shoot 5 targets straight ahead at about 20yd
- Move to the window and shoot 4 targets
- Move around the end of the wall and shoot 3 targets
Overall: 20/30 O, 9/9 Div
- Pros said to do lateral runs while facing downrange, pumping elbows left and right to move, so that you could avoid breaking your grip. They also suggested punching into the window
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