Indiana 2010 IDPA Championships

Alternate title to this post is “Caleb – always a bridesmaid”.  The Indiana State IDPA Championship wrapped up this past weekend; due to a conflict (namely my wife’s 10 year high school reunion) I was unable to attend the awards ceremony.  Initial reports that came in to me from the match to me via email indicate that I had won the state championship in Enhanced Service revolver division – turns out that wasn’t the case; instead I came home with 2nd place in ESR and 2nd in the unofficial combined revolver divisions as well.

I’m disappointed, because I felt like I shot a good match, and in fact I shot a REALLY FAST match.  The winner, Pete White put up a time of 223.10 with 41 points down, that works out to a raw time of 202.60.  I finished second with a total time of 241.29, 72 points down AND two procedurals (thanks Kyle), which works out to a raw time of 199.29.  Third place was Massad Ayoob, total time of 248.81 with 40 points down for a raw time of 228.81.

The top 3 in ESR were as follows:

  1. Pete White, ESR Expert
  2. Caleb Giddings, ESR Expert*
  3. Massad Ayoob, ESR Master

The biggest takeaway I have from the match is that you cannot in fact miss fast enough to catch up.  In IDPA, since the scoring zones go from 0, -1, -3, a fast -3 is rarely better than a slower 0, with 0 being the most desirable.  Of course, my next two major matches that I’m shooting with the wheelgun are USPSA matches, where the scoring is different from IDPA and a fast C beats a slow A hit, so who knows how this will work out?

The Good:

My reloads were fast and smooth.  Not Jerry Miculek or anything like that, but I didn’t have any of the bobbles that have hurt me in previous matches.  My splits and transitions were fast and smooth as well.

The Bad:

My accuracy wasn’t what I needed it to be.  I missed a couple of shots on wide open steel that cost me time and points, and had some actual misses on wide open paper at close range because I was rushing to get a static target before  a disappearing target went away.

The Ugly:

2 procedurals is absolutely unacceptable.  Sure, I didn’t shoot any no-shoots, but two procedural penalties indicates epic brain farts and that just can’t happen if I want to win this thing.

What’s Next:

The USPSA Area 5 Championship, then the Indiana USPSA Section Match are my next two matches with the revolver.  I will say that this is the first match where I felt like I truly earned my Master Class tag – the asterisk on the “Expert” label in the standings is because I shot Master Class after everything had been finalized, so while I’m a Master class shooter, I officially shot Expert in this match.

The thing I’m most proud of is that I absolutely went for it on some stages.  There were stages where I could have played cautious and not pushed my speed, but I chose to go for it and it really paid off on those stages.  The stages where I had the most trouble were when I second guessed myself, so the lesson I’ve really learned is “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”.

Thanks to everyone at Atlanta Conservation Club and our hardworking IDPA Team up there to put together a great match.  It was a ton of fun to shoot and I guess I’ll have to settle for second place!

6 Comments

  1. I’m going to go to my first IDPA match ever this Sunday. The local club has them and I’ve never been to one but I’ve made up my mind to get off my ass and try it.

  2. I agree with you on stepping up the accuracy. When I take my time, my scores go up since I can’t miss fast enough to win. Slow being smooth and smooth being fast and all that.

    1. The one thing about that is that I made a conscious decision at the start of this match to push my speed and see just how fast I could shoot some of the courses. In a couple of places that cost me points, sure – but overall a second place finish isn’t too bad. Honestly, if I had slowed down and shot better points, it probably would have been a wash.

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