Challenged at the Challenge

This past Friday through Sunday I spent up north of LA shooting in the West Coast Steel Championships. There are 8 standard stages that you shoot 5 times with your worst time thrown out. Each stage has 5 targets set up in different ways. It is a very simple, elemental test of shooting skill. At speed.

Three stages I shot averagely. Two stages I shot great. Three stages I shot poorly. I was category hunting at this match, shooting a gun I rarely shoot and in a type of match I'd never shot before. Not excuses, but just clarifying. It was my plan to shoot a category with few entrants in the hope of placing better overall in my division. Scores will be posted in a week, seemingly by passenger pigeon, so I'll let you know how I've done then.

So I didn't win my division. That I do know. But I learned I need to control some of my match jitters better when doing something new. I need to stick with what I am good at, not change the game plan. (meaning I shouldn't have shot a gun I rarely shoot)

Shooting in the competitions I do are a new and unique challenge for me. My mentor says I have all the skills within me to be very good at it, but they just need to be developed. I'm not inherently lacking anything to be successful at shooting competitively. But it is odd in what it takes to win. You have to execute basic skills, perfectly, on demand with no warm up. We all shoot the same course of fire. But I have to real opponent. I don't have to worry about what team mates or what someone else is doing. To win I just need to be the fastest with the least mistakes. It is all on me.

Right now in major matches my ability to perform consistently at my best is not there. My standard deviations are too great from "awesome". With time and good practice, this will change for the better. No reason for it not to and I'm up for the challenge.