One of my favorite posts to write last year – even if no one read it – was the 2018 in Review post. This was a review of the year, followed by some plans and goals for the next year. My shooting year is basically complete at this point, barring a couple of matches, so I think it’s time to start looking back so I can move forward.

Let’s talk 2019. I think it’s been a good year for me.

I took 14 classes this year. They were all really good:

• Green Ops Defensive Carbine I Clinic
• FPF Training Greg Ellifritz Knife Skills for Concealed Carry
• Modern Samurai Project RDS Day 2
• Green Ops Defensive Carbine I Clinic
• Green Ops low-light clinic
• PNTC Intro to Long Range
• JDC Speed Shooting
• Green Ops Practical Pistol
• CQB / Room Clearing at Shadow Hawk
• Green Ops Defensive Pistol II Clinic
• Advanced Covert Carry Day 2
• Green Ops Defensive Carbine Clinic
• Modern Samurai Project RDS Day 2
• Green Ops Defensive Pistol Clinic

All added up, this was about 80 hours of training, not counting the ~30 hours of BJJ I did. You’ll notice I took defensive carbine three different times; this was purely because I don’t do a lot of carbine shooting, and feel that structured practice keeps me from becoming too bad at it.

I shot 14 matches of varying sorts in 2019, assuming Practiscore isn’t lying to me somehow. That is way, way more matches than I thought, especially given that there was a six month period where I didn’t really shoot any. I had to clean a bit of rust off when I got back to it in November, but things are starting to look up.

I also listed off a number of goals last year. I accomplished most of them:

Goal #1: branch out with the training. I think I can easily say that this happened. I took a knife class, an extreme-long-range class, and a room-clearing/CQB class. I also learned CPR, which is rad. I also did six months of BJJ, which was amazing, but had to stop due to family obligations.

Goal #2: hit B-class in USPSA, and/or EX in IDPA. Didn’t happen. I picked up BJJ for six months, and this annihilated my competitive shooting schedule.

Goal #3: shoot a 3-gun match. This definitely happened, and it was a lot of fun.

Goal #4: improve my dry-fire practice. This also happened. I have a standard dry-fire rig with SIRT now, and bought some books with drills that I do regularly. My draw time accelerated tremendously doing this, and my transitions have improved quite a lot.

Goal #5: keep the blog relevant and useful. I’ll let you decide that, but I think the response to my posts has been good.

I think 2019 was a good year. Let’s discuss 2020!

I fully intend to keep up my training regimen in 2020. I’ve already identified fourteen classes I want to take, and they are a broad mix of non-lethal, pistol, shotgun, carbine, and long-range courses. If anything, there’s a little too much good stuff in 2020, and I’ve had to make some hard choices about what I do and don’t take.

Goal #1: hit B-class in USPSA. I missed this last year, but will be making a real go at it in 2020. I’ve already shot my first B-level classifier.

Goal #2: shoot more multi-gun, and suck less. I bought a bit of gear for this that I think will make a serious difference for me, and also built out a dedicated upper for rifle work. I need to work more on my twins/quads shotgun loading and perhaps build out a 3 gun specific belt, but I think my next match in January will show some improvement.

Goal #3: increase the blog’s visibility. I’ve started a Facebook page (still in stealth mode, albeit linked). I’m working with friends on some branding and design. I’m heading to SHOT Show to network with industry. I don’t have some sort of specific goal in terms of views or uniques, but I think I can do better than the ~50-60k views I have per year.

One really simple way of driving traffic is to do more gun and accessory reviews, especially of interesting new items in the market. I did very few of these last year, and I think the pendulum may have swung a little too far in the training and competition direction. As you can imagine, properly T&E’ing is a serious time sink, and if you’re doing 14 classes and 14 matches a year, and you want to get in some decent live-fire drills and re-zero/maintain your own guns, you’re going to have to plan pretty hard.

Goal #4: Buy fewer guns. That’s a bit of an odd goal, but the reality is that I have more than enough guns right now, and my focus needs to be on shooting and training more than anything else. I am sure the odd duck item will happen, and I may be due for a new pistol for USPSA, but I’m out of room in the safe. If anything, I probably need to make some harder choices such as selling stuff and decommissioning certain other guns to make some room.