Ok, here we go. I should probably start a word doc and just continually update it. Its so easy to forget something here as this one is a doozy.
- First off, lets get the obvious out of the way. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. We hammer this to the point of nauseam. But its just a universal truth.
- You have to know what the fundamentals are. If you can't rattle them off on command anytime someone asks, you don't know them. If you don't know them, you can't perfect the.
- Knowing the fundamentals also allows you to know when/what you can compromise. If you see an obstacle like a mouse trap and know you can't get behind the rifle properly.....if you know the fundamentals, then you know your sight picture and recoil management are going to be shit. So you focus on making sure parallax is absolutely dialed out to alleviate the sight picture. Then you either back the power down on the optic or figure another way to mitigate recoil to see what's going on.
Also if you don't know them subconsciously, you may find yourself wondering/worrying about them on the clock.
- Moving onto competition mindset. Lets talk about a few things that mess with people and how to train this out.
- The clock. This is the big one. "Time starts now" and it all falls apart.
Lets get something out of the way immediately. The clock does *NOT* put pressure on you. Its just a stopwatch. Just like a gun doesn't go off and kill people by itself. A clock does nothing except tell you when to start and when to stop. *EVERYTHING* else is absolutely you putting mental pressure on yourself.
So, if we are the ones imparting the stress, we can obviously mitigate this. The first step is realizing the above fact. Once you realize its all in your head, its much easier to move forward.
Stress inoculation. This is basically training the stress of the clock out of your head. You do this by practicing on your own with a clock. You'll eventually get to where the start and stop buzzer literally mean nothing to you. If they mean anything other than start and stop......you will literally *NEVER* live up to your potential. You have let the clock defeat you.
Fuck that clock. It means nothing. It does nothing.
- Knowing your own shot timing. If I walk up to you and ask "on a stable barricade, with your usual bag and rifle on a standard 2moa target, how long does it take you to get into a proper position and fire a round?" You should be able to answer that immediately. If you can't you're handicapping yourself.
Not every stage has enough time to complete. If you know your own shot timing. you can now use that to do a little math and know if you can actually get all 15 shots off, or if your goal should be 10 clean shots.
Practice Practice Practice on the clock. Give yourself less than than you would want comfortably and use that to start.
- Having a plan. This is two or three parts.
- Stage plan: knowing what you plan on doing from position to position. Go over it in your head 100 times while waiting. No movement on the stage should be a surprise unless you missed something. It should feel like you've run the stage 20 times.
- Dope strategy. Dial vs hold. Hold over vs under. Etc etc
- Shot timing. Referenced above. You use the math to plan your stage.
- Wind strategy. Search for a post I wrote under Dthomas3523 on wind strategy. I also did a episode on the Rifles Only Accuracy Podcast on a wind strategy I guarantee will help anyone who isn't at the top of the pack, and even then it might help.
Decide on dialing vs holding wind.
Moral of story: nothing you do on the clock should be a surprise barring you didn't miss something while planning it.
- What to think about while on the clock
IMO this is the most critical point to make. All the shit I just talked about should have been decided on long *BEFORE* it was your turn to shoot.
Already having the other stuff fixed allows you to think about very, very basic stuff. Here is something you can tell yourself:
"I already have my plan. So all that's left is to build solid position, apply proper fundamentals. and stay laser focused on where the bullet ends up."
No bullshit, that's it. Thats all you have to do (for a standard PRS math, field matches can be different). If you make a plan, stick to the plan, and just focus on the fundamentals......thats all there is.
Even if you blow every wind call on every stage, barring any tricky/switchy winds, you'll get the answer to the wind on the first show as long as you're applying proper fundamentals. After that, its off to the races. In a 10 stage 100 round match, if you dropped only the first shot each stage, you'd shoot 90%. You'll either place very high or win every match you shoot 90% at.
Here is an example of what I do on a stage. The assumption is, we have finished the last stage and arrive at the next. Here is what I do step by step:
- Read/understand the stage rules. Read it 10 times. Commit it to memory.
- Find targets with binos or spotter. Commit things like landmarks to memory. You can save a bit of time never searching for targets on the clock
- Range every target. I do this 100% of the time and its one of the reasons I now own a Vector 21. This does two things:
- Never miss because bad range. You paid a good amount of money to shoot this match. Don't fuck it up because the MD got a bad reading when he ranged things
- Further continues to make you know the stage cof inside and out
- Get dope and wind strategy figured out.
- Choreograph the stage in your head. Know where every movement is going to be before you do it.
- If not up immediately, I will glue my eyes to glass. I want to see everything I can on the wind. And I want to see if there's any pattern shooters are displaying. Such as always missing in a similar direction. Or see the angle of the berm forces the dirt to splash high and fast. Leaving a lot of shooters thinking they shot high and it was a windage miss. That last sentence is very important. Lots of compounding misses come from not understanding how the bullet is interacting with the environment.
Now its time to shoot. I have done all of this pre prep work. Ive been staring through glass and have a good idea what's going on out there.
You would be noticing most of the real work is done. Its all pre-stage.
-Check and make sure my desired elevation and/or wind is dialed in. Triple check, then check again.
- Set parallax and magnification where you think it needs to be in the beginning.
- Make sure you have ammo and the mag is in or out, depending on the stage COF
You should have at least one spare mag and more rounds than you need to finish the stage. If the other mag is completely extra, if you encounter a feeding failure, just move right into dropped mag and clearing the malfunction and then inserting your new mag. Ites exponentially faster than trying to make the first mag work. Trust me on this, just do it.
This is all done now. I tell them shooter is ready and my time starts. Here is actually the easiest part.....shooting.
This is all I think about while shooting:
- Keep eye out for wind changes. During your glassing time, find something that is in your FOV and gives you a good idea about the wind.
- Do *NOT* make the mistake of using the dirt/splash at the target to look for wind hints. For the distances we shoot, wind at the target is all but meaningless. This is a trap and you will see almost everyone at a match doing it.
Breathing, trigger control, follow through
Those three things are the only thing I think about unless something like wind comes up.
I am laser focused and I will breathe through my mouth and exaggerate breathing so I know I get it right.
Trigger control is given. Make good trigger presses.
Follow through. This is important. If you don't see where the bullet went, you just wasted a shot. And one point matters a lot here.
Watch either via trace or splash and see where the rounds went. This is imperative point is to only miss one shot per stage if you absolutely must.
And that's it. I figure everything else pre stage. Then while shooting I'm just telling myself "breathing, trigger control, follow through).
This make it seem very easy. Since you did all the prep work and its just making great shots and keeping and eye where the bullet went. Also, don't be shy and not adjust when your impacts favor one side. Unless its a wind bracket strategy, move the impacts to the center if they drift during the stage.
If you trained properly, the timer should mean nothing to you at all. Its just a piece of plastic that makes noise.
You made a plan and you're sticking to it.
Then you're doing the "easy" part and just shooting and paying attention.
I'm sure I missed something. 2022 we will be doing a lot of competition based training. We believe this type of class isn't offered as much as it should be. So ere going to focus on match training when people want that.
Hope this helped. If anyone needs any help with this, shoot me a PM. Or if I'm at a match near you, come over and we'll work on it, talk about it.
- DT
