Last season, Clemson University came back from the Collegiate Nationals with medals for 3rd PCC and 2nd in the 1911 division. Ryan himself secured male overall wins in Centerfire Pistol, 1911, PCC, and Iron Sight Rifle. When not focused on SASP competitions with his team, Flowers actively strives to achieve what is called the GM Sweep in Steel Challenge, who’s competitions follow a similar format to our SASP matches. The sweep requires the competitor to achieve Grand Master-level mastery in every division, something that has never been done before.
Even now, Flowers is in a league of his own as the first in history to earn 11-divsion Grand Master certifications, his current record.
“We’ve learned from practicing SASP stages during the season and transferred what we know about shooting steel over to Steel Challenge competitions,” detailed Flowers. What I find enjoyable is being able to shoot other guns on these stages. I got my first GM classifications in Rimfire Pistol Open and Irons. Then I started thinking, if I did this well with these two, how well can I do in other divisions? By the time I got to three or four, at that point I thought, maybe I can get all of them?
It’s fun to be able to go from shooting an Open gun, to a revolver, to a pistol caliber carbine on the same stages. Something I’ve learned through achieving a high level of mastery in many different kinds of firearms, the principle is the same. When you sit down to analyze, “how can I shoot rifle and pistol better,” you can break it down even further and simply ask “how do I shoot the gun the best? “ At that level, I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference between divisions. When you approach it this way and are honest with yourself, it can really take your comprehensive shooting to the next level.”
|