Great Satan, Inc.

Are you ready to shoot a practical pistol match?

Robb Allen over at Sharp As a Marble has a plan for his USPSA match on Sunday.  ExurbanKevin at Misfires and Light Strikes has a plan for his IDPA match on Sunday.   Mz. VRWC and I are participating in an IDPA Regional Match this weekend, called the South Mountain Showdown, at Phoenix Rod & Gun Club.  Surely, I have a plan for shooting this event, I think.   The plan has to be somewhere around here, now where did I leave it?

The plan, meticulously based on the only three IDPA club matches I’ve shot so far…is:

1. Muzzle safety – Don’t point the gun at anything I don’t intend to destroy, including my own body parts, or my match is over early (instant disqualification).
2. Maintain the 180 degree rule at all times – Don’t point the gun in a direction greater than 90 degrees to the left or right of the downrange berm (instant disqualification).
3. Only shoot has fast as I can accurately shoot – Any faster than that will waste ammo, time, and incur penalties.  (You can’t miss fast enough to win.)
4. Have fun and enjoy the experience.
5. Maintain a relaxed approach to fend off the Red Mist, facilitating quick and safe draws from concealment.

That’s it!  That is my plan for this match.

I know how to pull the trigger smoothly, line up the sights correctly, and how to be safe while handling firearms.  Any other “things” I could plan on doing would probably exceed the mental bandwidth available after the timer buzzes.

Watching other shooters fire at lightning speed can create tremendous performance anxiety.  At some point, you realize that you can only perform at the best of your abilities.  You need this realization to keep your competitors’ performance from inducing the Red Mist.

Many people focus on the hoped for outcome of the event, at the expense of those tasks that have to be performed to achieve that goal.  When those tasks are performed correctly, the sum of those tasks will equal the desired outcome, which is a winning performance.  My focus will be on managing the tasks I have control over.  If I do everything correctly, the result will be safe competition,  zero-down scores, and a good place in the results.

Now I just have to remember my plan…where did I put that plan?

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It’s been about a year and a half since I dove head first into the world of competitive shooting, and while I’m making some progress with my speed and accuracy, there’s something holding me back, and I can’t seem to shake it.  I’m no stranger to the stress, anxiety and pressure present when participating in sports (especially since my nature is to be ridiculously competitive), but there is an element of practical pistol shooting that I have never experienced before, and it’s making me look like more like Jerry Lewis than Jerry Miculek when I’m shooting a match.

Some call it the Red Mist.  My better half has referred to it as bezerker.   It is an indiscriminatory and unrelenting force that is laser-focused on sabotaging your performance.  Ridiculously clever and devious, it will allow you to build up your confidence just until you step up to the line and into the shooting box.  And then the timer goes *beep*, the red mist appears, and all careful planning and strategy disappears as if it never even existed.

If you’ve been watching Top Shot on the History Channel, you may have noticed that the Red Mist makes a cameo appearance in almost every episode.  During episode two of season 3, it appeared during the elimination challenge and prematurely knocked my favorite contestant and WOMA home girl, Sara Ahrens, out of the competition.

During Sara’s commentary at the end of the show, she recognized the role the red mist played in her loss when she said,  “I’ve had practice in friend and foe targets, it’s just a matter of I’ve never done that next to another person.  I’m kind of being overcome by the intensity of the situation.”

Yep, that’s the unmistakable mark of the red mist.  It doesn’t just effect your performance on the range, it also leaves a trail of amnesia and dumbfoundedness in its wake, making it that much more difficult to overcome.

So, is it possible to defeat the Red Mist, and if so, what’s the secret?  Watching shooting greats like the Leatham’s and the Miculek’s make it pretty darn obvious that it can be overcome, but how does a mere mortal like me fend off this unwelcome creature that has the power to take over my brain at will?

I recently had the opportunity to ask World Championship competitive shooter, and all-around awesome woman, Eva Micklethwaite how she deals with the pressure and anxiety that builds up when she’s competing in a big match.  Eva was kind enough to explain to me what she did to conquer the Red Mist when she found herself a bit “freaked out” by one of the stages at the recent USPSA Area 3 match:

It’s the preparation I do BEFORE I even step on the range that helps me with that. At this particular stage, though, I told myself to take your time and get through it. Don’t rush it, stay focused, and be patient with myself and the trigger. Basically a mental talk off the ledge. Once the buzzer goes off, instinct kicks in as well.

Experience helps a lot, you’ll get there. Mental strength is also a BIG part of this game. And if all else fails….breathe!

Looks like I’ve got some dues to pay to the Red Mist.  If you’re looking for me, check the local ranges.  I’ll be the one trying to reload my left thumb into the magazine well.

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Whew!  There’s a slew of shooting events in Arizona this weekend.  I’d need a few clones to make it to all of them.  The ‘plan’ included a road trip to the Big Sandy Shoot outside of Wikieup, AZ.  The Big Sandy Shoot is the biggest machine-gun event in the United States.  Spanning three days, the shoot includes flying targets, tracer rounds, pyrotechnics, and lots of automatic fire.  You can check out the night shooting on YouTube.  R. Lee Ermey featured the Big Sandy Shoot in his Lock ‘N Load television show on The History Channel last week.  Unfortunately, a babysitter couldn’t be found for the puppies, so I’ll have to catch the shoot another time.

Another big event this weekend is the Arizona Game & Fish Department’s Outdoor Expo at Ben Avery Shooting Facility.  The Outdoor Expo is designed to introduce people, young and old, to the numerous outdoor activities we have available in Arizona.  Mz. VRWC was introduced to the various competitive shooting disciplines at this event last year.  She’s been hooked on shooting ever since.

The Dillon Aero demonstration at the 2009 Expo

Arizona’s Game & Fish Department is operated on a “user pay, user benefit” business model and receives no Arizona tax dollars (no tax dollars are used in conducting the Expo either).  AZ Game & Fish is a Government agency that’s awesome to deal with and views the public as current and future customers.

This huge event includes archery, a catch-and-release fishing tank, ATV and offroad vehicles, birds of prey, hunting field courses and education, as well

Cowboy Action Shooting Bay

as a full range of shooting disciplines that visitors can try for essentially the cost of ammo.  You can try your hand at shooting sports such as, the .22 Schoolastic Steel Challenge, rimfire steel, Blackpowder, Cowboy & Cowgirl Action Shooting,  youth .22 and airgun competition, practical pistol, silhouette, and you can try Glock, Ruger, and Smith & Wesson guns too.  I’m sure I’ll spend way too much time there on Sunday.

The other big shooting event this weekend is the Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun match Rio Solado Sportsman’s Club.  This is a huge match with incredibly challenging stages.  Exurban Kevin is working and shooting the match.  You can check out his posts about it here and here, but the photo he posted here on Twitter really tells the story of how challenging stage nine of eleven is.  Cowboy Blob, another gun slinging blogger, was also spotted among the competitors.

If you can’t make it to the three gun match, you’ll be able to watch part of it on Versus, since they were filming the match for their new series, 3 Gun Nation.

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I am still searching for the right words to describe the Babes With Bullets Ladies Action Shooting Camp I just completed.  The word Phenomenal comes to mind, but a single word doesn’t seem to do it justice.  This class was worth every penny and then some.

The instructors, Kay Clark Miculek, Lisa Munson, Annette Aysen, Deb Keehart, and camp founder Deb Ferns were all incredible, and worked with all 20 of us to significantly improve our shooting, regardless of skill level. There were Women there that had never touched a gun, and Women that had been shooting and competing for years.  Everyone got a great deal out of the class and no one felt left out.

Anyone that can get a group of 20 females to simmer down and pay attention for two and a half days deserves an award just for that accomplishment, in my book.

Within the first 24 hours of the class I went from having very limited pistol experience (less than 10 times at the range shooting bullseye) to comfortably and confidently drawing a 9mm handgun from a holster, loading and making ready (inserting a loaded magazine, engaging the slide to put a round in the chamber and returning the pistol to the holster) and drawing and firing at the desired target.  The next 24 hours brought me to shooting (and hitting) 8 inch steel plates, shooting while moving and actually shooting through a practical pistol match stage.  By the end of the course, I had competed in and completed a 3 stage practical pistol match.  I don’t have the results from the match back, but I am very satisfied with my performance.

If you had told me last week that I would be able to do all of the above in a matter of a few days, I would have told you to seek professional mental health assistance.

I would also like to give a quick shout out to Mother Nature and thank her for blowing over the entire third stage as I was shooting it so I could get a second chance to run it.

I have to give a big THANK YOU in to Lisa, Annette, Debbie and Kay for taking the time to work with me one-on-one to get rid of my bad habits.  Somehow, I had already developed a slight flinch and a bit of a trigger slap.  Each of these wonderful instructors took me aside and gave me tips on how to break these habits.  I was able to take each piece of information that the ladies gave me and put it all together  – which has almost eliminated both issues.  They even taught me some exercises that I can do at home to ensure that I am rid of these bad habits for good.

If you are female and thinking about taking this class, DO IT.  If you have never touched a gun and want to learn, TAKE THIS CLASS.  If you shoot all the time and want to get better, SIGN UP FOR THIS CLASS.

Here, I’ll make it easy for you – Here’s the link to the BABES WITH BULLETS 2010 LADIES ACTION SHOOTING CAMPS

Oh, and you better hurry – these classes fill up very quickly!

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