Month: November 2009

My First IPSC Match Scores

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

The scores from my first IPSC match have been posted.

I suck! 🙂

To keep things in perspective, this was my first time and so I was going slow because I don’t know how to play the game. Along the lines of not knowing how to play the game, there were learning experiences with Comstock scoring; say if I shot twice on a target and one shot was a clean shot to a no-shoot I could shoot again and that would have affected my score. So, I don’t take my scores from the match as any sort of gospel as to what sort of shooter I am. However, it is some degree of a snapshot and I want to analyze things to see where I need to improve.

Continue reading →

A Damn Good Question

/ hsoi

In light of the Foot Hood shootings, many people are asking this question.

Of all the places you’d expect someone to be armed, wouldn’t it be a military base? We trust them with massive amounts of weaponry when they’re overseas doing their jobs, so why can’t we trust them here?

On a side note, the officer that stopped the killer did exactly what has to be done these days: direct and immediate confrontation. Still, 3 minutes went by, many people died and many more wounded. How might things have been different if these soldiers were able to do what they’re trained to do?

Aliveness Training

/ hsoi

Catching upon blogs and news, tgace had a brief blurb about aliveness training. He links to this post at TDA Training that contains a video discussing “aliveness” training. Here’s the video:

I must admit I laughed at the use of chess to explain aliveness, because it makes a good point. The way a lot of martial arts are taught (traditional or modern, doesn’t matter — it’s not the art itself, it’s how the art is taught and trained) is that sort of static pattern memorization and following, and that’s not going to make you a better martial artist. There is a place for “dead” (to use the opposite term) training. You do need to learn basic movements, basic concepts. You do need a compliant partner so you can learn the basic movements, how the mechanics work, the subtle factors (e.g. “if the arm is angled this way it’s not going to work…. try it here, now try it there, see?”). There is certainly a place and requirement for dead training.

But it shouldn’t stop there.

Once you get the mechanics down, now you need to take it into alive training. It can be as simple as a your partner providing some resistence so you can really refine the mechanics from the dead training, or it can be a full-out freestyle sparring session. It’s an attempt to take the movements and concepts into actual application.

This is one reason I had a problem with how my Kuk Sool training was taught. It was all fancy dancing and compliant partners. The vast majority of the training was dead training. There might have been a night now and again where something alive happened, and I relished those classes. But the majority of emphasis both in the school (depending who was teaching; Dewain did like aliveness) and moreso the WKSA (witness the “Houston testing” sessions that were little more than memorization-regurgitation dance-offs) was dead training. I do recall before I had even heard the term “aliveness” training that I was seeking this sort of training because I realized that me doing a lock and throw and my partner just falling to the mat was not the way to do things. My partner should go to the mat because I took them down through proper technique application not because “step 5, I the partner fall down on the ground”. There were attempts to improve this in the school, but it just didn’t happen before I had had enough. Again tho, this isn’t necessarily about the art. While Kuk Sool may be taught that dead way as a majority, I know it is not the only way it’s taught. There are schools, both past and present, that certainly do teach in an alive way. It is not strictly the art, it’s the school, it’s the teachers, it’s the students, that ultimately determine how things go.

But that all said, is aliveness some holy grail?

Nope.

Those that preach aliveness seem to forget that people can and do practice martial arts for reasons other than sport or combat or self-defense. Some people just enjoy it as a healthy activity that stimulates both body and mind. I know some people just cannot stand Tai Chi because there’s no throwdown hardcore kombat, and true there may not be as much martial application in how Tai Chi is practiced today and thus probably doesn’t have much for aliveness training. But does that make it any less valid an activity for someone to participate in?

Aliveness is a worthwhile concept, but it must be kept in perspective. It is just another tool, another training aid, not a holy grail. Depending upon your goals, it may be a useful tool or it may be one worth discarding. Just be honest in evaluating the use of the tool against your goals.

Sunday Metal – Ted Nugent

/ hsoi

I may refer to “Uncle Ted” in other contexts on this blog, but today it’s all about the music (and not just because this is opening weekend for white-tailed deer hunting in Texas).

Say whatever you want about Ted and his politics, the man’s a great guitar player. A lot of hard rock and heavy metal bands and guitarists wouldn’t be what they are if not for Ted Nugent.

Random stuff

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From today… just some random bits of things.

iPhone

I’m peeved that my iPhone went dead. I have no idea what caused the sudden drain of battery. Google turns up this isn’t an unheard of thing and hypotheses are some apps just are poor at battery management. That perhaps somehow I put the phone to bed with particular apps still running and someone sucked the battery dry. Don’t know, but oh well.

Managing Unknown Contacts

To understand the term “Managing Unknown Contacts” (MUC) see here or here. I failed at this this morning. *sigh* When I left the house this morning I stopped into the drug store to get some food and drink to eat during the match. When I went in I saw a girl (probably 18-25 years old) gathering her stuff on a bench outside the store. I go inside, do my thing, I come back out to my car and the girl approaches me. Initially I was stand-off-ish and unwilling to help her, but she ultimately said she just wanted directions. I answered her question and she went on her way. So, it was probably nothing.

However, I got in the car and realized I failed MUC. I didn’t move well, I didn’t use my hands right (e.g. fence), wrong dialogue. I know why: I was preoccupied with the match. Bad bad bad me. *sigh*

CHL

I am surprised at the number of people who have CHL’s but don’t carry. So… why do you have a CHL?

People at the match seemed surprised that I came to the match carrying and that I wanted to leave the match carrying. They were surprised at my carry. I was surprised at their surprise, and at their lack of carry.

I want to start asking people who have a CHL why they have a CHL if they don’t carry… and carry always (apart from legal or other such reasons).

Reloading

I got to try a Hornady Lock-n-Lock AP. I’m sold. No the Dillon isn’t bad, but there’s no question the LnL AP is evolution.

Walked away with a LOT of 9mm brass today (lots of people didn’t want their brass). Happy me.

Match People

I forgot to mention about the match. I was surprised at the level of shooters. I figured it was a local club and that it might not be that hot… maybe one or two guys, but that’d be it. I was floored at the number of people with “sponsor” shirts on, race guns, and other very serious gear and really into it. Lots of quality shooters. It was good to watch them and how they went about things, from how people choose to handle the course of fire (I like that about IPSC, vs. IDPA) to how they shot (e.g. the steady cadence in particular strings of the stage). Or just being impressed with how fast some of these guys are.

Family

I love my wife. She supports me. She is a rock for me.

My First IPSC Match

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Finally!

I got to try my hand at action pistol competition. Specifically, an IPSC (USPSA) match run by the Austin Lone Star Practical Pistol Club (ALSPPC) and hosted by the Austin Rifle Club.

Foo.c was there too. In fact, we were on the same squad together.

This is the first time I’ve done any sort of formal firearms competition. Why do it? Because I can. Because I’m curious what it’s all about. Because I’d like to test my skills in pressure situations, and push myself to improve. I know this is not “self-defense handgunning” and I don’t pretend that it is. I do think it can be likened to sparring or how any sort of competition is akin to “self-defense” and “on the street”. It will still make me a better shooter, period, even if it’s not all “tactical”.

There were 66 people participating (fairly big turnout). Everyone was broken up into 5 squads, since there were 5 courses of fire, one in each of the 5 shooting bays. Because there were a lot of people, the match did take a while to do… 4-5 hours to run the actual match. Frankly, that’s the biggest downside to this. Cumulatively I shot probably what? 5 minutes? And meantime I was there 5 hours (a total of about a 7 hour day, including driving time). That’s the biggest bummer about it all is all the “hurry up and wait”. I will say I did like how our squad ran, in that everyone contributed to helping with tasks to make things move quickly: taping targets, resetting poppers, picking up brass, scoring, etc.. Because everyone chipped in, our squad moved along pretty well. The bummer was the squad in front of us in the rotation was moving very slowly (few people on that squad were helping) and the held up the waterworks, which was a shame. But oh well, this is how it goes.  The only other downside was today was unseasonably warm, but still a great sunny day for shooting.

So what was good about it?

Why the shooting, of course! The courses of fire were fun and challenging. I am “unclassified” since this is my first match, and I shot in a division called “Production”, which is basically using a factory-produced firearm. It can have a few modifications (e.g. better sights), but it’s nothing like the highly-customized race guns. Works fine for me, because at this point who cares. I just wanted to go and try… there’s no “gaming” involved in this (yet) for me.

My goals? To learn how to shoot IPSC, to not come in last (ha!), and to have fun. As of this writing, I don’t know the results of the match, but I did learn how to shoot it and I did have fun. I also learned a few things. I need to continue to familiarize myself with the rules of the game so I can just “go” and not have to sweat some of the stuff (e.g. making up a hit on a no-shoot). I need to do a lot more dry fire working on my trigger control (sometimes I was pressing “too hard” and thus end up pulling the muzzle down). I need to work on my long-distance shooting. A lot of the shooting today was at longer distances and it’s on those I had the most trouble; most of my handgun work is defensive handgunning and thus mostly at closer distances (and those I shot fine).

Another good thing? The people. Everyone in my squad ranged from friendly to very friendly. We had a mix of old timers and n00bs like me. While the guys that knew each other certainly joked around a lot with each other, they were all willing to answer questions, help out, and just talk and have fun. It was a great attitude and great group of people. I’m sure I’ll see many of them again at future matches. This is also a good thing because of the wait factor. Having good people to talk with really helps pass the time.

So that’s all good stuff. I learned a bit about how to shoot IPSC. I learned about some things I need to work on. I had a pretty good day. I’m sure I’ll do it again.

BTW, no pictures because something strange happened with my iPhone and it lost all battery charge. Don’t know why, but I’m bummed I couldn’t get any pictures or video because the phone crapped out. Oh well, next time.

Learning to Program

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I learned to program on my Apple //e a long long ago.

But I did take a class in undergrad that was a sort of introduction to programming for non-programmers (now that I think about it, I don’t know why I took the class as it was well below my knowledge level). It used a neat book called Karel The Robot. You can Google on “Karel the Robot” and all sorts of stuff comes up, including a lot of love and praise for it. It’s really a good way to learn how to program because it’s simple and friendly. It doesn’t focus upon a particular language, which is part of the simplicity and appeal. It allows people to learn about general programming concepts and constructs, and how to use them as building blocks to solve problems. After you grok the concepts, then you can get yourself caught up in the semantics of a particular language… trying to do both at once is just too much to focus on.

So I’m writing this blog entry as a bookmark to myself. I’ve been wanting to teach my kids how to program and wanting to use Karel to do it. So I found Karel on SourceForge. I also found RUR-PLE (history of it here) which is a Karel-like approach that uses Python. There’s also Guido van Robot. I really like Python as a language (tho I don’t get to use it often enough), and feel it’d be a great first language for my kids.

Anyway there you go. Karel.

The plutil command obeys no one’s rules but its own.

/ hsoi

I love stumbling across little bits of programmer humor.

I just looked at the man page for plutil (“man 1 plutil“):

STANDARDS

The plutil command obeys no one’s rules but its own.

Heh heh.

Making Lemonade

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

This weekend marks the opening of the (firearm) deer hunting season in Texas.

And I won’t be a part of it.

*sigh*

All that work on the lease, working towards this point. And I can’t capitalize on it. My first opening weekend.

*sigh*

Why not? Work obligations. To be fair, no one at work is forcing me to do this. I spoke with a co-worker about a problem the product is presently experiencing, and given the scope of the problem, the customer requirements, the greater implications for relations and contracts and revenue and so on well… in my mind the only right thing to do is stay home and work on the problem.

I’m mostly doing it out of obligation to myself. I just feel that’s the right thing to do. As soon as the fix is completed and given to the QA department, you better believe I’ll be out hunting. The rut is on and I don’t want to miss it. I already put in for a day off (to have made for a longer weekend), so if it means mid-week next week I just take a single day and spend it out in the stand, then that will have to do.

It’s life. These things happen. You roll with it. And in this case, I may be able to make some lemonade.

You see, due to all the rain we’ve been having the action shooting bays at the Austin Rifle Club have been soggy and any Steel and IPSC matches have been cancelled for the past some months. Finally the rain has held off long enough for ARC to get in and repair the bays, and so this weekend ALSPPC won’t be holding an IPSC match: they’ll be holding 2 IPSC matches! One on Saturday, one on Sunday. If you read this blog regularly you know I’ve been trying to get out to competition but the weather and range issues or some other 3rd thing always prevented it. But now it’s here, and if workload is such that I wouldn’t be able to go hunt, I ought to be able to at least slip away for half a day and shoot my first IPSC match.

Don’t know how it will go just yet, but here’s hoping for a little lemonade this weekend.

Updated: I want to go on public record saying, Jon you’re a good guy.

1911 dreams

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The 1911-style pistol.

It’s something I don’t have, but something I want.

Yesterday my interest was renewed yet again due to that race gun. I spent some time last night drooling over the STI website trying to figure out what model I’d want someday.

Then this morning I read about new guns from STI.

And about Ruger making a 1911.

And Taurus debuting a 9mm 1911.

Just a day for 1911’s.

The fact I’ve got a bunch of .45 ACP bullets and brass and other .45 ACP-related reloading gear, but no .45 ACP gun in which to use it… gosh Honey, I really need to give them a home. 🙂