Month: August 2017

Following through!

My daughter decided she wanted to try her hand at softball this year.  I encouraged her to sign up on a local team and this is when the fun started!  My daughter went to her first practice; I was an anxious onlooker because I only played one year of baseball when I was her age before I transitioned to Lacrosse.  I know my role is to be a support person for her as well as a coach off the field.  I remember the first time she swung her bat at a ball.  She swung the bat, what seemed to be, 100 miles per hour and then as she focused on the ball she virtually stopped her bat halfway through the swing.  She was able to make contact with the ball, and it dribbled past the coach and barely made it to second base.  I was elated she was able to make contact with the ball, but I know how strong she is.  I am not sure why, but at 10 years of age her favorite activity when I get home from work is to try to tackle and wrestle with me.  Not sure why her uncle (my brother) taught her this was the thing her daddy enjoys the most, but nonetheless she is very strong for her age.

The coach approached me after the second practice and asked if I would work with her.  I told him I did not know too much about the game. He told me one thing: have her FOLLOW THROUGH with the bat while hitting, then she will be able to crush the ball.  Being caught up in the spirit of improvement, I discounted many viable options such as going to the school’s ball field, the Church’s ball field, and somehow we ended up in the driveway next to the garage.  After all, she was not hitting the ball that hard, right?!

I pitched her a couple of balls. I soon realized throwing a softball underhand with the right height, speed, and distance away from the hitter was a bit more challenging then what I thought.  Soon, I was able to put a couple over the plate, and my daughter hit one.  It was just like she was at her first practice, and again the ball trickled up the middle.  I showed her she needed to swing through her hips while not let up on her swing and FOLLOW THROUGH.  The very next pitch I realized she got the hang of it.  A ball went past my face going 60 miles per hour.  By any standard it was a home run, well it looked like it when the ball rolled up hill next to the neighbors porch!  I told her great job even though I was concerned by the giggles her and her sister let out by missing my face by a very narrow margin.  I then thought to myself this is a bad idea, and that we needed to turn around and hit toward s the woods, so we did.  I pitched another one to my daughter, and the bat made that magical sound. Then I heard a loud crash, and acrylic type glass fell down around me.  I have never seen anything like it, she had just shattered the back of the family basketball hoop by putting a softball right through it!  Boy, did she ever FOLLOW THROUGH!

FOLLOWING THROUGH is defined by Merriam Webster in two ways #1: “to continue a stroke or motion to the end of its arc or #2: to press on in an activity or process especially to a conclusion.” Clearly my first story is about the first definition and shooting Steel Challenge and NSSF is the second definition.  Too many times, both novice and experienced shooters alike fail to follow through when shooting.  If you are shooting a stage with 5 targets, in my case plates, you don’t give up on any target.  You FOLLOW THROUGH each and every shot and the most important is the last shot on the last target.  I can’t tell you how many great strings of fire I have seen ruined because someone did not FOLLOW THROUGH on the last shot and gave up on it.  The shooter missed the target and did not make sure they hit the last target or plate.  This is evident when you see a missed last target, the gun is lowered, and suddenly the gun is jerked back on target and engaged until it is hit.  Even though you have ‘called a shot’ as a hit and you think you have hit the last target, your gun and sights need to stay on the target to make sure you hit it.  The validation of a “hit” is best done by your vision and secondly by hearing the plate ring.   As with my daughter, it is important you finish the swing as well as your string of fire with confidence!

Until next time, see you out on the range soon!

Steve

The First Shot

For newer shooters, one of the biggest pieces of feedback I give them when training is to look at the first target they are going to engage and not at the sights of the gun.

Is this really that big of a deal?  When I first started shooting Steel Challenge and NSSF, I would look at my sights while ‘aiming’ at the starting cone.  Now I point my gun at the cone and transition my eyes to the first target.  For me, this change saves .25 seconds per string.  Although .25 seconds may not see like a lot of time, in an 8 stage Steel Challenge match with four strings per stage time adds up.  In this example, .25seconds X 8 stages X 4 Strings = 8 total seconds.  8 seconds can bump you one full classification in Steel Challenge!

The other important tip I provide shooters is to make sure you get your string off to a good start.  You want to make sure you get a hit on the first target.  How many times have you missed the first target and a sense of urgency consumes you, then your fundamentals break down and you try to make up time on the next targets?  When this happens to me, I end up missing 2-3 targets on the string.  It is very important to start your first shot and your first string with all of the fundamentals you have practiced.  Just because the ‘buzzer’ goes off does not mean you are getting ‘flashed’ like the movie Men in Black and all of a sudden you forget everything!  Take a deep breath and listen for the buzzer.  Don’t jerk the gun.  Swing the gun with authority to the first target as you do in practice.  Get a solid first shot in and the rest of the string is off to a great start!  You miss the first shot, odds are you can’t ‘miss fast enough’ to make up the time.  Snap your eyes to the target, see the sights aligned/dot hit the target, and squeeze the trigger.  Rinse and repeat.

Until next time, see you out on the range soon!

Steve

Golf is a fun game and it can test your mental state like none other!  It was not that long ago where I crushed a driver over 300 yards, and I was on top of the world.   I remember my golf partner Larry stating he wished he could hit a drive that far.  Larry is in his upper 50’s, and he has a slow and methodical swing.  Every single ball he hit was directly down the middle of the fairway.  His swing could not have been more than 80 MPH.  It looked like it was half of how hard I swing the club.  He would hit his drives consistently 220-235 yards every time.  This hole was a par 4 – 410 yards.  I had 105 yards left to go, Larry had 185 yards to go.  I pulled out my “A” wedge and Larry grabbed his 5 wood.  Larry took a ¾ swing and hit his ball on the green, in regulation.  I nodded in appreciation of his shot.  I swung a ‘full’ “A” wedge and mine went right, right into a bunker aside the green.  Larry two-putted for par.  I managed to get out of the sand and two-putted for bogey.  Needless to say, the advantage I had off of the tee box lasted only momentarily.

While shooting Steel Challenge, there will always be someone who can shoot a particular stage a lot ‘faster’ than you can, but you can ‘beat them up the middle’ by being consistent.  Go one-for-one on your string.  If you can shoot Smoke and Hope in 1.85 seconds on a string and your ‘Edge’ is 1.80, get your four strings of 1.85 for a total time of 7.40 and try for a fifth and final of a 1.65 in hopes to drop your total time to a personal best of 7.20 seconds.  More than likely a B or A class shooter with a same “Edge” will shoot Smoke and Hope with a first string of 1.85 seconds, a second string where they say to themselves “I can really speed up” and they have a make-up shot or two and shoot a 2.35, a third string of 2.30, just like the last.  On the fourth string they decide they are going to really focus on the target and then their sights and shoot a conservative five shots and shoot a 2.10 even.  Then on the fifth and final they say to themselves: “I have the fundamentals, and I am going to shoot a strong run just shy of the edge.” Then, they shoot a 1.95 just a little off their pace of their first run.  Instead of a 7.20-7.40; four solid runs just shy of their “Edge” they shoot; 1.85, 2.35, 2.30, 2.10, 1.95 for a total time of = 8.20.

I had this exact conversation about Smoke and Hope with one of the best Rimfire Rifle shooters in the world after he watched (and heckled) me at a major match.  Below are the exact times from the match for Smoke and Hope:

The four strings I kept were all within .04 seconds of one another or 2.3% deviation.  At the time of this match, my “Edge” on this stage was 1.65, and I made sure, in my mind, I had a 5% buffer or so from my “Edge” to be consistent to get the stage win.  So, how did the match end up? Although I had two malfunctions on one stage, I ended up placing 2^nd place in Rimfire Rifle. I was able to win Rifle Master at this match.

Just as Larry did with me in Golf, I returned the favor to my competition out on the gun range; I beat him up the middle.  Sure, shooting a 1.63 is great, but you have to be careful.. consistency will sneak up on you!

Until next time, see you out on the range soon!

Steve