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Monthly matches ain't practice


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Monthlies are not practice. They are for fun and for seeing how your practice is working.

 

If you want to practice do so separately from a match. After all, even a slow shooter is only gonna be shooting for about 5 minutes at a monthly match and a really fast shooter for only a couple. That ain't practice.

 

Possum

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Depending on the shooter's overall goal, I disagree.

 

If the shooter never intends to go to any match beyond his club's monthlies and is perfectly fine with just "having fun", I'd say you're 100% correct.

 

On the other hand, if the shooter has thoughts of winning state, regional, national and/or world championships, then the monthlies most definitely ARE practice. Sure, you need to do all the dry fire practice at home and live fire practice on the range but, there's no substitue for being on the clock under match conditions. That simply can't be duplicated and you really need to prepare yourself for that in order to have a chance at the bigger matches.

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On some forums certain words are banned. They are called 'trigger words'. This ugly 'P' word y'all are talking about should be banned. I find it very offensive. ;)

 

 

LoL :lol: You're right there Pulp. Maybe we should follow you lead and substitue "quality trigger time" for that dreaded "P" word. ;)

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Depending on the shooter's overall goal, I disagree.

 

If the shooter never intends to go to any match beyond his club's monthlies and is perfectly fine with just "having fun", I'd say you're 100% correct.

 

On the other hand, if the shooter has thoughts of winning state, regional, national and/or world championships, then the monthlies most definitely ARE practice. Sure, you need to do all the dry fire practice at home and live fire practice on the range but, there's no substitue for being on the clock under match conditions. That simply can't be duplicated and you really need to prepare yourself for that in order to have a chance at the bigger matches.

 

Gotta jump in and nit pick Philly a bit. :D

 

No matter the goal, any match is not practice, it is experience. both are important if you desire to place high.

 

Grizz

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Hmmm, experience vs. practice. Seems like a bit of semantics but, in this case I agree with you both. It's an important disticntion.

 

Problem is, it throws a monkey wrench into what Pulp and I just worked out because they could BOTH be called "quality trigger time". :lol:

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Monthlies are practice for club annuals. Club annuals are practice for State matches. State matches are practice for regionals. Regionals are practice for Winter Range. And, Winter Range is practice for End of Trail. Then it all starts over. It's part of the circle of life.

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Practice ain't worth spit iffin your not under-fire...(the match).

Everything changes when the timer go's Ding-Ding!!!!

 

Hell I even practice losing...encase I want to be just like Greta Dee!! :P

 

BH

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Monthlies ARE practice - they are practice shooting a match.

When I practice outside of a match, I don't shoot entire stages - I try to practice specific operations, be it first shot from holster or long gun transitions or whatever.

When working on a single item - I can see if doing "A" or "B" improves the flow or my time.

When you place a minor change into an entire stage - there are enough other places to lose tenths and hundredths that a completely unrelated bobble somewhere else can throw your results off. Making your practice results meaningless.

Afterall, if you cannot tell if the practice is helping you or hurting you, there is no reason to do it.

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Some of us don't have stages that we can use other than going to a monthly shoot.

 

My time at the indoor is practice but it really isn't going to make me proficient at shooting a stage, it just keeps me familiar with my firearms.

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Monthlies are not practice. They are for fun and for seeing how your practice is working.

 

If you want to practice do so separately from a match. After all, even a slow shooter is only gonna be shooting for about 5 minutes at a monthly match and a really fast shooter for only a couple. That ain't practice.

 

Possum

 

 

Agree mostly.

 

Practice session is practice.

 

Monthlies are tune-ups.

And as you say, to see how your practice is working, and what you need more practice on.

 

Both of which I have not been doing. And it shows in my shooting.

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I'm going to jump in here despite my lack of specific experience.

 

When I was shooting trap competitively, I would practice by going out to the trap range and shooting. I also watched videos and did exercises to make myself a better shooter. At one point I would practice just mounting the shotgun, settling my cheek weld and extending my vision about 50 to 100 times per night. None of these things would get the heart pumping and the adrenaline flowing like competition. It wasn't uncommon for me to run 25, 50 or more straight with no problems.

 

When I went to a trap shoot to compete, and the adrenaline would get going, and the "bad brain" would start trying to override the "good brain" is when all of the practice would help out. At competitions my goals were two-fold. First, to shoot as high a score as possible. Second, two improve so that I would "peak" just before the large competitions, such as the Regionals and Nationals in college, State Shoot and Grand American as an amateur. Then, to carry through to the last of the large shoots of the season.

 

I saw this as no different from a basketball player who shoots jump shots and free throws then goes to practices and scrimmages to get ready for the actual season, hoping to be at his best just before tournaments.

 

It seems to me what is being discussed here is pretty much the same thing.

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I was confused until post #7. Now I understand what you meant.

A once-a-month match is hardly a substitute for practice if one wants to be competitive.

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Muscle Memory......unfortunately, I'm finding that my muscles sometimes have alzheimers..... :rolleyes:

 

Now that's funny - I don't care who you are!

 

CR

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Howdy

 

I still have not figured out what this 'practice' business is all about. Powder is much too expensive to waste and cleaning guns is too much of a pain to spend my time at it. I will continue to confine my shooting to matches, thanks very much. And I don't have to shoot just once a month, I can get plenty of 'practice' almost every weekend around here if I want to.

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Howdy

 

I still have not figured out what this 'practice' business is all about. Powder is much too expensive to waste and cleaning guns is too much of a pain to spend my time at it. I will continue to confine my shooting to matches, thanks very much.

 

I don't burn a lick of powder during dry-fire practice.

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Possum,

If we knew the answer to that - we would know how many it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

The world may never know.

 

Three! Everyone knows that!

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I consider each shoot practice for the next one. I have been getting to go to so few it really doesn't matter. When it has been 2 or 3 months, I do try to get in some off the clock practice. Maybe.

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Possum I understand....partially semantics to a degree. i use monthlies to do as T bone teaches, see how fast I can run a stage, furst it can git ugly real easily, but with "practice" yu lurn to keep the wheels from falling off if the start wiggling a bite. Yu have tu be willing to give up a number of monthlies to see how fast yu can actually run. But then of course I taint tellun u nothin.

 

I wunce got taken to task for saying i was using a special monthly for practice for winter range. U kant please everyone all of the time. sometimes you kaint please a few at all. Life goes on. Life is good, the Afterlife is even better.

 

Cheyenne

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I can practice gun handling, accuracy, transitions and other such details outside of a match. But a match is the only place to really practice the energy level when there are 15-25 other shooters watching (some of which are very good) and the mysterious affects of an RO holding a timer near my head.

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Monthlies are not practice. They are for fun and for seeing how your practice is working.

 

If you want to practice do so separately from a match. After all, even a slow shooter is only gonna be shooting for about 5 minutes at a monthly match and a really fast shooter for only a couple. That ain't practice.

 

Possum

So, like is this a rule? Is this your opinion? Are you admonishing someone for presuming to use a monthly as practice?

What's your point? Is someone doing something wrong and you feel a need to publicly correct them? Are you bothered by

something, or are you just trying to set some of us straight?

 

Frankly - I disagree - I get maybe one or two weekends a month to practice, and the stress of shooting under the clock

is the best training I know of for competition . . shooting holes in paper is a form of self gratification, but it is

NOT a match, and will not teach you anything about how you perform in competition.

 

So . . thanks for your advice . . I'll respectfully pass on it though.

 

Shadow Catcher

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I get a little frustrated with hearing that monthly matches are just practice. For many shooters out there, its not practice....it is a match. For a lot of them, there are no big matches. The monthly matches are about the only matches that they shoot...for one reason or another.

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