The question is whether it benefits a professional gunslinger, i.e. CFDA, to participate in an ISI event.
There is a significant number of gunslingers who believe shooting in an ISI event will lead to bad habits, defective draws such as the flail, shooting low, generally spraying wax everywhere. This is a valid concern especially when coupled with the observation that shooters that participate in these events have not shot as well in professional events as you would expect based on their quickness.
An opposing view is that it is just another opportunity to excel. Mental toughness is the most significant factor in a CFDA event. It is more important than accuracy, more important than quickness, and more important than luck of the draw. More gunfights are won or lost on mental toughness than the other three factors combined.
An ISI event can benefit the professional gunslinger when used as an event to practice mental toughness. If you can stay focused on the task at hand you will do fairly well. You are practicing that mental toughness necessary to win in professional events. If you lose your focus and begin to race your opponent you will be doomed to boot hill not only in these events but in professional events also.
If you are going to participate in these events it would be good if you had some objective standard to determine whether you are improving as a gunfighter or getting worse. There a simple way to do this. We can use a gunfighter rating. ISI stands for Individual Speed Index which is your historical average speed. Since they already compute this for you if you subtract it from one you have a speed number that is compatible with your hit ratio. To these two numbers you add the ratio of shots that qualify (faster than your ISI plus .03 nationally or in Arizona .02). This gives you a good rating of your ability. Using the ISI ratio includes the factor of whether you are erratic in your shots relative to speed.
For illustration, last Saturday my ISI was .44 so my speed number was .56. I hit 98% and 98% of my shots qualified so my ISI gunfighter rating for the event was 2.52 (.56+.98+.98). A goal to strive for would be a ISI gunfighter rating of 2.70, which would be an average time of .3 hitting 100% with 100% qualifying shots.
I will probably continue to participate in these event so long as my ISI gunfighter rating stays the same or improves.
I have questions as to clarification of your formula, and these are just questions no judgments of any kind yet. You say you hit 98% and 98% qualified ISI. So were all your hits within your ISI or were 98% of your hits within your ISI? If all hits were within ISI shouldn't the formula be 98+100? If it was 98 of 98, should the ISI value for the formula be a percentage of total shots or total hits? For instance: I hit 50% of my shots and 50% of my hits were within my ISI. Should the ISI value be .50 or .25?
ReplyDeleteI had 1 shot miss the target. I had one shot above my ISI limit which here is .02 above ISI not .03 as it is nationally. 98% of my shots hit target. 98% of my shots qualified. As to memtal toughness only lost my focus on two shot out of 54. My most accurate round was last round of the event which was also my quickest, but that is the system. Gunfighter rating in last match, 2.56 (,56 + 1.0 + 1.0). First place was at about 2.26 (.66 +.60 + 1,0) Best gunfighter does not always win because of format.
ReplyDeleteYou could combine hits with qualifying but that would be harder to compute. This way is easier.
Possum, your mind is like a steel trap. Guess i am assuming misses were witin qualifying time. Only counting nonqualfying hits for ease of calculation, small number for the professional shooter, may not be small for all, there is some pretty wide swings at these events.
ReplyDeleteThis realy is a pretty good practice session, Bucket work with a light. Have to have good mental toughness to shoot your quickest and your most accurate. If you are just slinging wax everywhere, you are training just to be another pretty shooter.
Thanks for the clarification. I have only shot on blockers once but do believe that it can be useful practice, the old see your misses premise. I do feel that for it to be useful for improving CFDA performance two conditions need to be met, one for the target and one for the shooter. The light needs to be set at CFDA height for the distance being shot and the shooter must shoot at the light. Hits outside the lines are training for WFPG optimum competition, hits inside the lines are training for CFDA optimum competition. Thinkin', maybe, with the ISI these can be called 6 bit matches now.
ReplyDeleteYup, atleast they are not hiding the easy draws in ISI events. Mental toughness bucket work. Last Saturday was my best event of the year.
ReplyDeletePossum, it didnt seem to hurt me at Rio. Had to go through the field for the win. Finished final match with a gunfightet rating of 1.588, but that is the system, quickest and most accurate in the final match. "Bucket work with a light." Or "6 bit match" for ISI.
ReplyDeleteI think I proved that practicing the ISI on blocker targets will not mess up your draw but help it. I shot the triple crown with better consistency of speed and accuracy than I have ever had. It certainly didn’t mess me up. I will train the same way I did for triple crown for Worlds this year. My training methods are designed to not only improve skills but I practice with purpose for belief and confidence.
ReplyDelete