While it may seem like it’s still a ways away, the Area 5 Championship is in fact right around the corner. The match kicks off June 11th, which is just a bit over a month away; if you’re planning on shooting the match you need to get your registration in ASAP.
I’m already registered and ready to go, my concern now is practice time. Thanks to weather and other factors, I’ve barely shot my 625 since returning from filming Top Shot, and I still feel like I’m trying to drag my way through all the rust from the off-season. The month of June itself is going to be a busy month with the IDPA State Match, the Indiana Section match, and of course the aforementioned Area 5 Match. I need trigger time!
However, I have a plan for practice. My biggest area of weakness at the last USPSA match I shot were my reloads – my plan is to practice reloads until I can slam them home every time at a high rate of speed. I have trouble sometimes reloading on the run, so for now I’m going to forgo practicing that in favor of getting my basic reload fundamentals locked in tight.
Here’s a basic revolver drill to practice those reloads and good footwork which are essential to success at USPSA revolver. Set up one array of 4 targets, and then about 7 yards downrange another array of 3 targets. This means you’ll to do a total of 2 reloads to practice this array when shooting two shots at each target. Set up the arrays however you like, but make sure that there’s movement required from the first to the second array.
The reason it’s important for the first array to be 8 shots is that USPSA is not “revolver neutral”. You’ll need in a match situation to be able to plan your reloads and figure out the best way to run each stage so that you have the right amount of ammo going into a specific bay. While the experts say that you’ll never be competitive if you don’t load on the move, don’t try to push yourself so fast that you make mistakes. If you can’t load quickly on the move, focus on developing that skill in practice before you try it in a match. There’s nothing worse than looking down at your feet and seeing the full moonclip you just dropped!