[rexican]

My second match went well, except for a couple small details.
My first classifier as a USPSA member was "both sides now." I didn't change mags before switching sides and to add insult to injury, I locked the slide back before I changed mags. This is a mistake I will never make again: the course description clearly states that one must change magazines before switching sides. I picked up four procedurals and turned a good day of shooting into a really frustrating showing. I read the advice in this thread, but screwed up anyway. I went in to the match knowing I needed to spend more time visualizing each shot I was going to take during the walk through. Next time....

[lugnut]

It probably won't be the last time. Everyone makes mistakes when starting out- people that say they never have are lying. Chalk it up to experience and let it go. Just have fun and keep improving.

[JThompson]

rexican, on Nov 20 2008, 11:13 PM, said:

My first classifier as a USPSA member was "both sides now." I didn't change mags before switching sides and to add insult to injury, I locked the slide back before I changed mags. This is a mistake I will never make again: the course description clearly states that one must change magazines before switching sides. I picked up four procedurals and turned a good day of shooting into a really frustrating showing. I read the advice in this thread, but screwed up anyway. I went in to the match knowing I needed to spend more time visualizing each shot I was going to take during the walk through. Next time....

Never do it again...? heh. wanna bet?

[Neomet]

To add to the chorus here don't beat yourself up too much. The ways that we can screw the pooch on any given stage are both infinitely variable and amazingly repeatable.

[boz1911]

A lot of us have forgotten the original screwups, so we're repeating them to refresh our memories..

[Lee King]

BTDT.. First "on the books" classifier was one of the barricades requiring a reload between sides. Took 4 shots before I remembered the reload.

Baseball standards still gets me to this day. Last time I ran it I told myself over and over "On the 3 reload 3 string... shoot 3 and STOP". Timer went off. Shot 3. Called a miss on the last. My brain screamed "MAKE IT UP!!" so I snapped another shot w/o doing the reload. The second the trigger broke my brain was screaming "ABORT ABORT!!!!!" Too late.

[rexican]

My mistake, It was "take your choice".
Y'all are probably right, but if it does happen again I hope I'm shooting a helluva lot faster.
I shot alphas on 102 of the 120 shots I fired that day. I'm heading out to the range to work on transitions after I get out of class.

[rupie]

The nice thing about being a new shooter is the constant opportunity to improve. As you get better the improvement get less noticeable because of that can be less rewarding. Make your first goal to shoot the stage's safely the next step correctly, the next step no misses, the next more A's etc etc, I personally like that part of shooting better than trying to shave a second off a classifier or a tenth off a reload etc. at your level a little practice and coaching makes a big difference. Enjoy the journey and set short term goals.