Secret Sauce

In the "things I never thought I'd see on my blog" category a picture of me shooting a gun, in a bath tub, while a cowboy watches has got to be pretty dang near the top.

This weekend I was second place of 6 in my class (stock service pistol/unclassified)and 5th out of 16 overall in all the classes and divisions. Go me! I definitely seem to be getting better and stated to some of the master shooters that I wanted to be expert class within a year. They said I am close and could possibly be there in 8 months! Wow.......

I've been called a competitor. Obsessive. All or nothing. So you can imagine that is how I am with this new sport. I mean, if they're keeping score and I'm playing; I'm in it to win it then. I mean, I do have fun but I am strongly focused on improving skill sets and competitive results. My long term goals are to be classified as an Expert level shooter in a year, so August 2013, and to shoot in two major or national tournaments within the next year as well. (secretly wanting a medal place finish as well)

Or as Dimitri Martin says, "I found out you can buy trophies. Now I am good at lots of things."

For those who say, what's the big deal, it's just shooting a gun at cardboard. How hard could it be to be an "air quotes" expert? Well let me tell you just what I am doing to improve at this sport. (as I doubt any of my competitors are reading this I feel safe in telling)

-I still exercise. But with a focus on cardio for a slow heart rate and breathing control. Shoulders, arms and wrists for good gun control. I also do lost of standing stuff on the bosu ball for core, balance and proprioceptive work.

-I do drills to heighten my visual acuity. Patterns I do with my eyes closed to strengthen the muscles and get my eyes working in concert. Also drills to relax my eyes as well as improve ability to focus over changing distances.

-As a subset of the above I take extra beta carotene for vision and b-12 for nervous system health. Vision and reflexes as sharp as I'm able.

-Dry fire drills. Reloading drills. Quick drawing drills. Soon I will have a shot timer as well.

-Sight picture and stance/grip drills against 1/3 paper and full size official IDPA targets.

-The modifications I can afford for my class on the top gun for it, a new gen 3 Glock 34 I just bought.

-An excel spread sheet where I tabulate all my match results and information for analysis.

-Videotaping as much of my matches as I can for later review.

And in the near future I am going to join a shooting range so I can practice once a week live fire. Which brings in all sorts of more drills. And the purchase of a real shot timer like we use in competition to get me faster, used to the beep at start and to quantify exactly what I am doing during life fire practice.

What do you think my competition is doing?????