At last night’s KSTG match, the first stage involved going prone before firing six shots at a fairly close cardboard target and knocking down one full size Pepper popper at 25yd. A significant number of people had a hard time remembering to fire six rounds at the paper. Many people fired only five shots, and a few only shot it four times. There was no ammunition management issue, no tricks, no delay between when the instructions were given and when the shooter took his turn. In fact, quite a few folks messed it up after being specifically reminded it was six shots at the paper just before the buzzer went off.
The last stage of the match was the Classifier, which is simply three runs of the F.A.S.T. using the KSTG target scoring. To keep things running smoothly, we put a table in front of the shooting position so the shooter could, if he chose to, preposition the magazines he’d need for each of the three strings of fire. Out of thirty-six shooters, I counted five who forgot they had spare ammo on their belts and picked magazines up from the table instead during the drill. Quite a few other shooters reached for a magazine on the table before remembering to go to the pouch instead. The mere presence of the magazines in front of them was enough to throw their whole plan out the window… even for some people who’ve shot the F.A.S.T. many times in the past.
Even under the mild pressure of match stress, people make mental errors. All of us can count to six. But counting to six while trying to focus on the front sight, trying to press the trigger smoothly, while lying prone on the floor in front of our buddies… suddenly that gets a lot harder.
And that’s precisely why we do these kinds of things in matches. Getting your brain engaged and distracted from what it comfortably and calmly wants to do is important because if you ever need your gun in a defensive situation, you’re probably not going to have the option to aim and shoot comfortably and calmly. You’ll have other things on your mind, things that will distract you from “front sight, trigger press” and other seemingly simple tasks.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
I do hate counting shots.
As Kenny Loggins once said…
“You’ll never know what you can do
Until you get it up as high as you can go”
Thats definitely one of the biggest benefits to any sort of competition: pressure and stress. I’d rather make some simple and stupid mistake when enjoying some time on the range with friends than the heat of the moment when life hangs in the balance.
Pressure at the range doesn’t inoculate you from pressure necessarily, but it can help you figure out what you need to get better at for when there is stress.
being able to handle match stress is one of the biggest hurdles most people will face in competition, the shooting is usually easy by comparison.
Weight lifting also helps. Once you’ve spent some years counting repetitions while lifting really heavy stuff, you tend to count everything, all the time. What I find interesting is that it only works in my average repetition range.
Maybe just making it a habit seems to work, too: Counting stairs, steps, that kind of thing. Might also be a good way to condition yourself towards OCD, though.
@Tom, Danger Zone!
I know a lot of plans went completely out the window while someone was commencing to beat me severely about the head during the evos at ECQC this weekend… Even during the live-fire sessions once we were shielding, shooting from different positions, and moving, my brain was full and that was without the distractions of any actual threat.
@LOKNLOD: beating YOU severely about the head?!?
“Everyone has a plan until they’ve been hit”, Joe Louis (misattributed to Mike Tyson)
I hate counting shots in training, as few if anyone ever does so in a lethal force encounter, as most are taught to shoot until the threat is incapacitated…
Wow, that popper was out at 25 yards?
Guess my hit speaks well for my M&P 9c!
@LOKNLOD: beating YOU severely about the head?!?
ROLFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!
I think he was talking about me…. Sure wish I’d had more ammo in that Sims gun!!!!
and TLG’s post need’s a “like” button!!!!
“@LOKNLOD: beating YOU severely about the head?!?”
LOL Well in all fairness I was pretty much done shooting by the time I cracked you with the malf’d simgun…
Good ideas. We used “distractors” in two matches, this year. One, the shooter was writing their name when the timer went off, and the other the shooter was reading tongue-twisters and limericks. Very interesting!
Didn’t get to shoot at the last competition but I did enjoy watching the first stage! What I did learn is that you actually need to just chew on leather to avert the discomfort and take care of the task at hand. I won’t be a whimp on the next game. By the way, isn’t the next game on May 1st? When does sign-up start? Was that not on April 16th? Let me know. Thanks and ASMS!