About Me | impactaustria.com

My name is Martin Thaler and I was born in 1987 in Baden, Austria. From a very young age on I've somehow developed an interest in firearms. From airsoft guns to paintball, from airguns to smallbore rifles, from centerfire pistols to precision rifles, there was hardly anything I have not tried. However, I never really did one thing over a longer period of time. Besides that I always enjoyed firearm mechanics and physics and read many books about various topics, reaching from the mechanics of a 1911 to shooting technique and even long range ballistics.

After some time, I guess I was one of those smartasses in onlineforums, that hardly shoot but (think they) know everything. Then, one day I decided that I wanted my shooting skills to match my theoretical knowledge and I started with regular smallbore rifle shooting practice at the ETSSC and dryfire training too.

I did that for about a year and a half and noticed some progress. It's what you learn after you "know it all" that really matters, some wise man once said.

Even though my skills with a rifle became better and better and even though I do have a passion for precision (I studied precision engineering) I never became too enthusiastic about static precision rifle shooting.

I always wanted to be a as well rounded shooter as I possibly can be so one day I got myself a 9mm handgun and learned pistol fundamentals. It wasn't long after that when I jumped the gun and registered for a rookie Level 1 IPSC handgun match. I'm really glad that I made that decision!

I guess I developed some interest for IPSC when I read about it in forums and watched youtube videos. I did some research on IPSC technique, got myself a very basic holster setup and did some dryfire drills to prepare for my first match. It did not take many rounds before I got hooked big time. It was a whole new experience of shooting and I instantly felt like that was something that I would love to keep doing in the future.

It didn't take long for me to become very passionate and very ambitious about IPSC. I tried to learn as much about practical shooting as I could by taking classes, talking to shooters, watching the pros shoot and reading books. Piece by piece a puzzle started to come together and the more I learned the more I knew what and

how to train. I also received a lot of motivation and support from shooting buddies, other competitors and proffessionals and I am very thankful for every instance someone said something motivating, gave me constructive feedback or critism, or helped me in any other way imaginable.

I had some successes that I am proud of, but the most enjoyable thing to me was the fact that I kept improving at a somewhat constant rate, and meeting all those people that I had a great time with on the range. I am also thankful to have become a member of the SCW IPSC Shooting Club where I got everything I need for live fire practice and a bunch of very helpful and successful shooters around me. Over the course of 2017 I competed in a number of (mostly) level 1 and 2 IPSC Handgun matches and it was worth every penny I spend on ammo, every hour I spend driving and every single thought I spend to figure out how to get more points.

As time went by, I developed a special interest in PCC shooting, since it kind of combined the fast pace of open/reddot pistol shooting with a platform very similar to the rifles used in IPSC Rifle competitions. After shooting a lot of PCC matches, my success rate in IPSC Rifle matches also greatly improved and I ended up shooting a lot less pistol than before.

After my first year of IPSC handgun I also got drawn back to rifle/carbine shooting and signed up for a handfull of PCC and IPSC Rifle matches which I enjoyed at least equally as much and which gave my pistol training a welcoming diversion.

I never felt like beeing a specially talented or gifted shooter. I attribute my fast improvement rate to all the countless hours I spent analizing other shooters, reading books, doing dryfire drills and precision training, trying to figure out what matters the most, learning from mistakes I made in training and competitions, and creating a training regime that is as efficient as possible. Besides that I also work on my mental game and prefer a healthy lifestyle. If there's anything that could potentially be called a talent I possess than It's some kind of internal drive or desire I got to become better and better and better.

I don't really have a motto, I got something more like a whole belief system, but the quote that probably inspired me the most goes something like: Ask yourself what you can do today, so that tomorrow you will be a tiny bit better than yesterday.

Success isn't about perfection. Perfection is an illusion. Success is about tiny daily incremental improvements that add up over time. Or as Pat Mac likes to phrase it: "If you cloned yourself yesterday, can you kick your clone's ass tomorrow?!"