I got a rude awakening this morning...At 5am, when my alarm prodded me from a deep sleep and a dream about...Well, that's none of your business actually...And I'd have to mark it NSFW if I wrote it here anyway. 😛😈
I was up, showered, dressed and on the road within about 25 minutes and after a quick goodbye cuddle with Faith who groaned that I had disturbed her.
I'd packed the night before, my on-board fridge full of food and drinks so this morning I only had to throw in my shooting bag with gun, ammunition and other associated gear neatly stowed within. I'd checked and re-checked my equipment last night and so accelerated away confident that I had everything I needed. Too late now if I don't. ðŸ˜
I'm on the road to...Compete in the South Australian IPSC handgun State Titles this weekend as previously posted about and right now I'm on the open road heading out to the range about 100 kilometres away from home, hence the early start.
I've been thinking a lot about the event and have been focusing on the fun-factor of it rather than taking it too seriously, certainly from a results perspective anyway. Doing this for fun is far more enjoyable than taking it too seriously.
Having said that, I still want to perform at my best and so was feeling a little nervous-energy yesterday. This morning I seem to have settled down into a more relaxed state and there's nothing I can do now anyway I guess. I've practiced, trained, prepared my gun and equipment and tried to cover off on every aspect...There's little more I can do now, if anything.
All I can focus on is to shoot more Alpha's than Charlie's, Delta's and Mike's and move as quickly as possible around the course of fire. (A, C, D and M relate to where on the target I place bullets with the A-zone being more valuable from a points-scoring perspective.)
I've got my tunes on, see this blog to see what I'm listening to, and am working on clearing my mind of everything but the task at hand. I won't know until I get there exactly what stage my shooting squad will begin the day on however I'm hoping it's one of the larger stages (there's two huge ones) as it would be good to get that hurdle out the way early rather than think about it for the whole event knowing it's coming up. Go hard or go home style.
I'm looking forward to testing myself out against some of the best shooters in the nation as all the top guys travel around shooting all these big events. I've heard there's several international shooters here too, including the world number one Production shooter, who I will have to compete against as I also shoot in the Production Division. No pain no gain right? 😉
I'm going to check in with you later tonight (if I'm not in too much pain) so will let you know how day one of the event went.
Oh, I forgot to say, if any of you want to come out and watch you are able to. Just bring some hearing and eye protection and you're good to go. Today and Sunday this weekend: Balaklava Sports Shooting Club - 261 Pistol Club Rd, Balaklava, South Australia. If you make it there don't be a stranger and come say hello.
I hope y'all have a great weekend...Don't forget to celebrate Australia Day on the 26th y'all - Hoist a beer for the Aussies!
Tomorrow isn't promised - Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
An original post written by a human
Discord: galenkp#9209 🇦🇺
Here's a mud-map of one of the stages which competitors are given prior to the event. The stage procedure at top left is all we are given as a stage brief. All brown targets must be hit twice, yellow are falling steel, the X's are penalties (minus 25 points) and the black and brown one is a swinger which activates when the door in the wall is opened by the shooter. The red line is a demarcated are with which the shooter must stay.
You will note no ranges or distances are given so we won't know until we arrive at the stage. Makes for a lot of fun. A stage like this will take around 14-25 seconds to shoot and the distances run by the shooter could be around 20-40 metres or so.
There are 12 stages like this over the weekend, and there will be a few hundred shooters. OK, see you on the flip side.
