TRAINING LEAD-UP
Tuesday, May 6:
APFT for PATHFINDER, with 44/40 pushups, 82/76 situps, 14:56/17:00 2 miler in Vizpro Saucony Kinvaras in 75 *F. Afterwards, I did a 2 mile strict ruck in the Altra Torin Plush with 2 shoelace tying stops, wearing the 30# v3 rucker plus a stowaway bottle of water.
Wednesday, May 7:
HDT-KB 12.6.1 (LEGS) in 27:30 with static stretches beforehand, then 5K on the Aviron rower with resistance 9, burning 174 cal, with a 2:36/500K average pace, 26spm, 144kJ, 93 ave watts, in 26:02. It's interesting to me how my rowing speed isn't very different from my running speed.
TTG CHECK-IN
I've been looking forward to trying my first Tactical Games. When the general public thinks about shooting competitions, this may be the first one to come to mind, because of their marketing. Their pictures include very muscly people shooting, with clothes that show off the muscles, vs traditional tactical wear, where you want to protect your skin from everything you might encounter in tough situations. The pictures always look very cool, and even if the people aren't good at shooting, they at least look good.
Their events sell out. I was lucky to get a spot, and a free one at that, from volunteering for a weekend at their sniper comp. It is pricey, but it must be worth it, if this many people want to do it!
I decided to make the most of it, and I splurged on getting lodging, vs sleeping in my car all weekend. I'd perform better this way. I even went in the night before the event, vs waking up really early on Saturday morning to drive in.
That allowed me to do check-in the day before, check out the vendors, and walk around to see the stages, along with unloading all my gear. Not everything was fully set up, like the consumables (targets, bean bags), but you could get a sense of what to expect. The most spectacular surprise was seeing ski ergs on top of the large connex structure. That was creative, and it would be pretty epic. I've been up there before, but only to shoot and rappell.
They published videos of testers doing the stages, along with a matchbook with stage descriptions. I wasn't familiar with all the formatting that they used, and everything wasn't detailed to the nth degree, but it was better than going in completely blind. The stage videos helped to fill in some of the gaps, though there might've been some small differences between what was shown on the video and what the final stage would be like, too.
I had done some studying beforehand of what to expect and how scoring is handled. They do have a lot of info in their pre-match emails, and they have a solid video library on Youtube. Many of their participants come to TTG from the Crossfit world, it seems, so it's so helpful to have these resources for first-timers. It helps to ensure match flow and safety, to give everyone as much info as possible ahead of time.
Staying over the weekend with random roommates would be part of the experience, too. I'd get to know the people in the TTG community a bit better. One of my roommates I did know from other comps. Of the 300-or-so participants, I knew 3 others who were planning to attend, although only 2 of them made it. Also present were 4 others who I've competed with in the past. I guess that's a fair amount of people!
Fortunately, my roommates also wanted a good night's rest.
DAY 1
The safety brief was at 6:45, with first stage walkthroughs at 7:10am. After the safety brief, we took a big group photo.
The way match flow works is that there are 8 stages total, and you'll do 4 of them each day. They provide a very detailed schedule on when each squad should be at a given stage for a brief, and you have a timeslot for when you'll be shooting after the brief. Right after you shoot, you're expected to stick around to judge the subsequent heat. That's different from what I'm used to, but it must be a huge benefit, logistically. It would otherwise take a ton of volunteers to RO. It is fun to stick around and watch others, anyways.
Of the 8 stages, there are 4 that are longer in duration (like 15 minutes), more complex, with a mixture of physical and shooting skills tested. There are 2 that are are purely physical and really short, and there are 2 that are very shooting skills-focused that are short. The stages alternate so that you'll do a longer one, followed by a shorter one. The physical ones can be cardio-based or strength-based.
I started on a longer one, whose physical element was rope climbing.
Stage 7: Rope-a-dope - 100 pt, with 10s/miss, 30s/rope not complete
- all mags but the one you're starting with are pre-staged at the start line (5x6R, 5x6P in all), and rifle is staged at the rifle box downrange
- You're carrying 1 loaded mag at any given time when travelling downrange, plus the plate carrier and the pistol on your belt
- do a rope climb, then go over the wall (or do 3 total HR burpees over the wall)
- Alternate going downrange to shoot 6 rounds of rifle @ the triangle targets or 6 rounds of pistol at the slanted rectangles
- go back over the wall, grab the next mag, then repeat for 9 more rounds
- on rifle, you must use a different barricade position each mag (left top slant, right top slant, and 3 horizontal rectangle slots of different heights
Learnings/Outcomes: 3/10 WI
- I was not a fan of how the penalty for skipping the rope climb was easier than the rope climb. You were essentially penalized for being stronger and willing to do the harder thing. Oh well, spirit of the game... I did the rope climb every time.
- Furthermore, when someone in my heat was getting called out for not touching the top bar every time, like the RO giving the brief had said we had to, the competitor said that the womens' intermediate division only had to touch the tape. I was already like 5 rounds in to going all the way to the top, and I didn't want to potentially have arbitration change things again later on, so I kept going all the way to the top
- I didn't make it to the last round of rope climbing and pistol shooting. Not getting to physical tasks causes time penalties, along with not getting your change to score shooting points
- This was a lot of rope climbs! It got a little dicier towards the end, but I'm proud of doing as many as I did
- I was at least getting through the fastest out of the heat in the beginning. It got harder to tell later on, when it was less clear who was on what round. And I don't know how many switched to the penalty HR burpees-over-walls at some point, since I was just paying attention to my own run
- In the last couple of rounds, my MACV2 laces got a bit loose, but it was ok
- I made some bad pistol shots, not even hitting paper sometimes
- Good eye relief on my first horizontal rifle slot was tough to acquire, but I eventually figured it out
- For a moment, I thought I was seeing the berm behind my target get impacted, so I took a moment to double-check that I was shooting at the right target, and I was, but that wasted a little bit of time
- For the left and right slopes, it worked out well to use the area near the apex.
- I used 5x zoom on my LPVO to see the triangles better, since it was an odd-shaped target, and I needed to see where my POIs were
- I didn't catch that misses were worth 10s until afterwards, otherwise I might've slowed down more to get more hits... a few seconds extra would be worth it.
- I did adjust towards the mag for the horizontal slot shots.
- The top triangle seemed more favorable for cant adjustments for me as a righty, than the bottom one, maybe
- I should've aimed in the upper half of the pistol slanted rectangle, in retrospect, in case I shot low left
Stage 8: "Smol Arms Shuttle Run"
I figured that the rope climb stage would be advantageous for me. This running-based one would be, too. It's a shuttle run with beanbags at 25, 50, 75, and 100yd, where you had to bring the beanbag back to a bucket each time, for 500yd total.
Learnings/Outcomes: 3/10 WI
- I went shirtless for more heat dissipation and speed
- I changed into Salomon Speedcross's for better traction
- They ended up running 10 at a time, so we went through all the heats earlier than the schedule had us, which was nice because we'd have more downtime before the next stage
- I did 1:59, tied for first among the women in my heat of 10 (there were guys in a different division who beat me)
- It went fine, with no fumbles
- My legs felt fatigued oddly, on the last out-and-back... because of the rope climb?
- I was glad to have the end lane, which made it easier to figure out which beanbag was mine in the 10-lane area.
- The GORUCK PC was really nice in this case, since it's made for shirtless work. A Crye might've been more abrasive.
Stage 1: Black Diamond - 100pts
- Rifle starts staged in the box next to the prone shooting mat
- Mags with ammo must be on you, but you can dump empty mags
- You have 3x7, plus 21 loose rounds
- For 6 rounds, you have 1 min max ski erg for max cal with 1pt/cal, then 1 min max to shoot 7rds at 300yd steel with 3pts/hit
- After 3 rounds, you get 1 minute to reload (if you hadn't already reloaded in the time remaining in each minute of shooting)
Learnings/Outcomes: 2/10WI
- I rowed 12 cal every round
- I've only ever ski erged once before, at a
DEKA Strong event, and didn't even remember how that went, so I asked people for tips
- I decided to go with medium resistance
- I didn't want to tax my arms any more than they'd be taxed this weekend, especially because grip and arm strength is important for good shooting, so I decided to use as much core as possible. It was like just doing a bunch of situps
- I had a high stroke rate and very short strokes, compared to the others, but it felt the most efficient for me. I didn't tricip push further, or do very much of a pullup move
- During shooting, I couldn't see my hits, but I saw steel splash on other peoples' targets, so I figured I was missing. I wasn't getting any feedback from the berm, since it was made of tires. I did try to burn a round at the base of the t-post but only saw general dirt everywhere, so that didn't really help.
- I resorted to aiming all around, about halfway through, and I only saw 2 hits in all, when aiming high right
- I ended up with 12 hits out of 42, so maybe my original hold did work, since that's what I had used most often
- According to the ROs, some people did well, but many got 0 hits on this stage
- I got hit by hot brass a couple of times, which was a distraction, without a lot you could do about it when prone in a limited area, but fortunately, it only happened on one round
- It had started raining, so I wiped rain from my front and back lenses with my shirt sleeve. I also put a trash bag over my my gear, but a little too late, since the plate carrier and gun were pretty wet by then
- My GORUCK friend John came to watch. He hasn't competed before and is still somewhat new to shooting. He was nigh enough to take a little video.
Stage 2: Rifle Speed Barricade - 50 pt
- start from low ready, loaded, in front of the barricade
- shoot the steel square at 50yd from each of the 5 ports, reload, then repeat
Learnings/Outcomes: 1/10WI- I finished in 44.28, with no misses
- I whose the white square (there was a black one and a white one that you could choose from), since it was easier to find
- I had to slam the mag an extra time upon reload to make sure it clicked, but it's worth it, over realizing later that it's not seated... fool-proof SOPs matter in stages where every second counts and there's no margin for error
- I needed 3x to see the target well... 2x didn't cut it
- I used my red dot for the first time all day, for extra speed
- I think I used the appropriate amount of visual patience to get good hits
After the match, I got to re-fuel and shower, prep gear for the next day, and get more sleep. I did catch up with Adir, who I had meat at the Jericho tournaments in
2021 and
2022, and his crew, for an hour or two, which was fun.
DAY 2
We had a 6:40am brief, with 6:50am first stage walkthrough.
Stage 3: A Walk to Remember - 100pts (18 min PAR, 10s per miss, 360s for FTC on the wheelbarrow)
- Start with 4x10R and 4x10P on you, with your rifle staged by the barricade up top in the pavilion
- On the beep, do 12 SB tosses with 40#, with toes behind the line and the bag going past the other line (no touching allowed)
- Go up to the barricade in the pavilion and shoot 1 mag or rifle from the "V" of the barricade top, then 1 mag from the square port, then clear
- Switch to pistol, where you'll shoot 1 mag with strong hand and 1 mag with support hand
- Take the rifle down and stage it at the tank trap
- Do 12 more SB tosses
- Shoot 2 mags from the top of the tank trap (no touching the metal crux)
- Go up to the pavilion and repeat pistol
- Put the SB in the heavy wheelbarrow that has a 45# plate as a wheel, and push it for about 1/4 mile, then return the SB
Learnings/Outcomes: 5/10WI
- I had to clean and toss, extending my body on the toss, to get enough height to clear the wood
- I could've done one-way tosses downhill and carried it back the whole time, but I switched to going both ways, since it was doable
- I was the slowest of my heat on the 1st set of tosses
- Earlier heats struggled with the wheelbarrow, but 2 did pass, so it would be a differentiator with such a high FTC
- I thought about whether I wanted to spend all my time shooting and intentionally not even get to the wheelbarrow, but I finished shooting with lots of time on the clock, which made me think I still had a chance on the wheelbarrow
- On the rifle, I had some bad timings on wobble
- Pistol was hard, since the target was small, one-handed shooting is hard, and you have a high HR
- Lots of my shots landed to the right of the target, so I used Kentucky windage at times
- I failed the wheelbarrow, covering a little over half of the distance
- I thought I was good at farmer's carries, but this was a lot!
- A few did pass the wheelbarrow, so I figured that this stage would tank my score
- John came back to watch and took some awesome pics
Stage 4: Floater - Max Distance Sled Drag - 50pt
- 90s max distance drag with 2 loose straps with loops on the ends
- The sled has some weight, plus there are 45# and 25# plates on it
Learnings/Outcomes: 9/10WI
- A guy helped me set up the straps so that I wouldn't choke myself out
- I only made it out and back (barely)
- I got stuck in the mud near the peak/middle of the not quite flat ground... under normal circumstances, you wouldn't notice any elevation changes, but when you're dragging something, you notice!
- Both lanes were muddy, it turned out
- I used Salomons here for traction, too.
Stage 5: Double Oof - 100pts (10s/mis, 60s per incomplete length of push, 30s per incomplete bag over bar)
- Rifle is staged at the box at the shooting line
- Carry 4x9R and 4x9P
- Put 60/60/80/80# sand medball on the sled (one at a time), push to the bar, and move the bag you have over the bar, 8/6/4/2 times
- Shoot a mag of rifle, then a mag of pistol
- Push the ball back, grab the next ball, and repeat for the required reps mentioned above
- You're only allowed to count u to 18 rifle shots per triangle and 9 pistol shots per slanted rectangle
Learnings/Outcomes: 6/10W
- I got 3 rounds of shooting in before time... I ended up speeding through those last shots, too, so it wasn't max accuracy
- Moving the bag towards me on the sled counter-intuitively made the sled easier to push
- I may need to pick a better hold for the triangles, since I had quite a few rounds in the gap between the two triangles
- Pistol wasn't terrible... my HR would go down by the time I got to pistol, after shooting rifle
- Rifle was surprisingly hard
- I kept the Salomons on for the sled pushes on the astro turf
- I wasn't sure if pulling the sled was allowed, but later heats did, so apparently, it was... I guess I should ask next time
- This stage was also a bit demoralizing, but I hoped that the shooting result would help a bit
Stage 6: Aimbot - 100pts (150s PAR, 5s/miss, 2.5s/ FTN, 5s/ no shoot)
- From low ready with both guns loaded
- Shoot 2 static, 1 plate rack, 2 static rifle steel
- Run to the left side of the bay with the rifle pointed downrange (or else get DQed)
- From the barricade, shoot the plate rack with rifle
- Move forward and shoot 7 cardboard (including 2 no-shoots) with 1 A-zone or 2 on cardboard
- Dump a safe rifle in the barrel
- With pistol, shoot a 6-arm TX star, 5 poppers, 1 square around the corner
- Move to the center cut-out and shoot 3 sets of 3 mini poppers and 1 dueling tree
- Move to the right side and shoot 1 static, 6 plate rack and 1 static pistol steel
Learnings/Outcomes: 1/10 WI
- 30 rounds were needed to clear the rifle portion, if you wanted to do 2/cardboard, so my plan was to not miss, to avoid having to do an extra mag change (I guess if I had missed, I could've taken my time on an A-zone hit)
- I started with 3x magnification and ended up staying there by accident on the close cardboard, but it was manageable... the targets were close enough to each other that you could keep good enough track of where you were, assuming recoil management wasn't terrible
- I remembered height over bore for the one cardboard headshot and took my time there
- I struggled a lot on the TX star, which I'm normally good at... I ended up skipping the last target, since everything is worth 5s anyways
- I also had to reload before my very last shot... every shot counts, so too bad I missed so much before!
- I hadn't expected to clear the stage because very few people did, even with the TX star outcome
- I knew the stage would be big for me with the points situation, and it was!
After
After the stages all ended, they had a final mini-stage for the elite division. It wasn't a tie-breaker, but it was a last chance to rack up points. As someone not in the elite division, I just watched, but my friend was competing in it, and she did awesome.
The plaques were really cute.
We got nice swag bags, too.
I had visited the Vortex vendor tent while I was there. Their 1-10x LPVO was really nice, better than I expected.
Overall: 1/10WI
Differences between this and other matches
- Don't count on having spotters for long range rifle, which means you must be confident in your holds, or find a way to spot your shots
- Slick plate carriers are the norm here, which influenced my belt setup choices on stages where we had to carry a bunch of mags
- Good blend of fitness and marksmanship.
- The targets are small, but that's good... if they were easy to hit, everyone would hit them, and this would end up being a pure fitness competition
- We rarely moved with rifles
- Clearing procedures are different here... they don't want you to go back on safe (by re-racking), even after you finish clearing your rifle, at least per one RO on the ski erg stage
- Judging for the next heat is different but a good experience
- The odd shapes of the targets add another strategic element to your shooting
AAR
- Always use fool-proof SOPs
- Visual patience pays off, always
- Know what zoom level is best for different target ranges... 3x was surprisingly useful in most cases
- ROs may not know everything, especially division-specific rules, so it doesn't hurt to ask, so that everyone is aligned and is playing by the same rules
- They don't go by scheduled times for the short stages, so be ready to go
- Good to verify scores for accuracy... on the sled drag, someone had written my distance correctly on the paper, but whoever inputted that into the tablet swapped 2 digits. That didn't impact final rankings, but it made my lead a little bit bigger in the end after it was fixed
- Watch the seasoned pros for gear and implement setup best practices
- There is a learning curve for the implements and props, but they stay consistent across matches, so it helps to be a return customer
- Stay aware of variations in miss penalties among stages, in case it influences your strategy
- Work on 1-handed shooting (as always)
- Good to remember height over bore
- Check weather (even the night before) for changes in rain forecasts so that you have the gear you need
- Bring a wheelbarrow to haul gear around, even at a venue where everything is together
- Nice to stay in the lodge and have a comfortable place to refit between stages
- Continue spending time on priorities of work between stages... reloading mags, wiping down equipment, etc
- Know your holds
- Adapt your footwear to stage needs, in case you need a lot of traction
- Thigh straps on the holster were nice on some stages, and worth having to deal with fewer places to store my mags, with as much exercising as we were doing
I'd do another one in a heartbeat!
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