I shot the 2017 Alabama Sectional this past Saturday.

POV Video:



3rd Person Video:



Stage 1 and 2 were pretty disastrous. Stage 1 was poor execution. Stage 2 was a bad stage plan, due to not understanding the activator sequence properly. I thought that the far right popper activated the drop turner, but second one from the right actually activated it. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to watch many shooters ahead of me, so I picked a (wrong) stage plan and it didn't work out very well. Lesson learned: know exactly what activates moving targets. Man, I wish I could have that one back.

Stages 1 and 2 were shot back-to-back (like separate strings in a single stage), staying hot in between. I was very jittery at the beginning of this match and I think that is because I've been working hard to improve and this match was the first opportunity to really see how far I've come since my last major in October.

Stage 3 - Pretty simple stage, as long as you didn't forget any targets. I felt like I was moving fast, but the video was slow. Decent result, regardless.

Stage 4 - I went first on this stage and changed my plan before I shot. The good thing was that I walked it a whole bunch the day before and considered all 3 main stage plans, so committing one to memory quickly wasn't an issue.

Familiarity with the stages was very beneficial to me throughout the day. I shot with some very high level competitors who were more than happy to discuss their plan and thoughts, and that information led to some stage plan changes for me.

Stage 5 - I noticed from the video that my transitions were slow. That's been a work in progress and I'll continue to work on it.

Stage 6 - One of my best stages. I need to stay lower to help me change direction quicker, but this stage went well.

Stage 7 - Almost DQ, and I didn't even realize it until I was told by others after the stage. I remember having to fire a makeup shot on the first target, but I didn't realized that I was already swinging toward the next target when the gun fired. I guess it was a combination of trigger freeze/delayed press and trying to transition too quickly. I tagged a no-shoot with that shot, but wasn't DQ'ed. My initial position on the bridge wasn't as stable as I hoped, so I had to kick my right leg out a little wider. Once I did that, I just let my hips swing with the bridge and was able to hold my upper body pretty stable.

Being told that I was almost DQ'ed shook me up a little, but luckily I was able to clear my head before the next stage. The movement to the left after the first 4 targets had a lot of people either break or come really close to breaking the 180, but the RO was almost always behind them so it didn't get called. I made sure to be hyper-aware of my muzzle direction, especially while doing the reload.

Stage 8 - Another good stage for me, and one where I changed my plan completely during the walk through. Many thanks to one of my squadmates for seeing the inefficiencies in my initial plan and explaining his thoughts. This match had a lot of jerky changes of direction, but my plan on this stage was about as smooth as it could be.

Stage 9 - Another plan change during the walk through, though a minor one. My original plan was to go to the left at the start signal, then step on the stomp box as the second position. The plan worked well, I just had way too many make up shots, a few of which weren't necessary.

Stage 10 - Another change of stage plan, to eliminate coming back up both hallways and to account for the door potentially staying open or half-open. I should have gotten a re-shoot because the activator cable caused my gun to malfunction, but I forgot about it by the time I got to the end of the stage. It probably wouldn't have made much difference in the results, though.

Fun match overall. Not much target difficulty, just lots of movement, changes of direction, and deep positions. I'm pleased with my overall percentage of the Open division winner (82.15%), considering I shot 63% of the Open winner at the Gator Classic in October. My consistency was good for 7 of the 10 stages, but stages 1, 2, and 7 really brought my match score down. Gotta be consistent all the way through the match to score well.

Nice shooting.  I was there too in squad 4.  Had a rough go in my first full match shooting my TSO.  A couple of user induced malfunctions on my second and third stage (I accidentally engaged my safety on bay 5 and palmed my mag release on bay 6) doomed my day.  I finished the day strong but had too much to overcome.  

I know what you're talking about on the bridge stage.  I saw multiple shooters break 180 coming around that corner.  

Fun match and nice weather.  Looking to improve at SC.

Very nice.  

Watching I thought, "really fast and smooth stage 6" and then, "damn, gave it back on stage 7".


Still very impressive and something I aspire to achieve.