Target changes are a part of match life for ROs, but if the wrong target is used during the change-out, it can have major consequences. One wrong target can lead to squads needing to reshoot the stage, or even a stage getting tossed. Let’s talk about how to avoid this.
[Read more…] about Mind Your TargetsArchives for January 2020
Revisiting Freestyle
At a recent class a couple students approached me during a break because they were confused by the concept of freestyle as I had explained it during the lecture. Apparently a lot of the stages they shoot at their local matches are designed with and rely on heavy use of the 1.1.5.1 exemption from Freestyle (1.1.5) even to the extent of applying it to Long courses…which 1.1.5.1 explicitly forbids. Most of the stages they see involve boxes and the only time there is true freestyle occurs in larger contiguous shooting areas. Thus, they had come to associate freestyle with larger shooting areas and thought that shooting boxes precluded freestyle entirely.
[Read more…] about Revisiting FreestyleLet’s Get Retro – Part IIIb: U-Turn Stage
Let’s Get back to our discussion of Retrograde stage design. In this installment, we will examine a typical U-Turn type stage. There are myriad ways to design these types of stages and we are only going to look at a single example here but the concepts we will discuss can be applied to most of these variants.
[Read more…] about Let’s Get Retro – Part IIIb: U-Turn StageFixing Floppy USPSA Targets
I forget where I first heard about the concept of using small bamboo skewers to support the floppy upper scoring zone on USPSA cardboard targets so it isn’t possible for me to give credit where credit is due. For whomever first thought this one up, thank you!
[Read more…] about Fixing Floppy USPSA TargetsLet’s Get Retro – Part IIIa: Simple Retrograde Stage
Welcome back! In part I of this series we discussed some considerations for properly designing a retrograde, or “retreat”, stage. In part II we talked about how to run a retrograde stage as an RO team. Now let’s take a look at some example stages and discuss them from the stage design and RO standpoints. We will work through this as three separate posts.
[Read more…] about Let’s Get Retro – Part IIIa: Simple Retrograde StageDistance from belt
What happens when a competitor’s pistol is too far away from their belt when holstered? We explored this in the December Question of the Month: During a course of fire (COF) an Open shooter’s pistol grip is 4 inches away from his inner belt when holstered. What is your call?
[Read more…] about Distance from belt