We all started there…we were the “New Shooter” at some point in the past. For me, I still remember my first match in vivid detail. I went in with expectations of having fun and not DQing and, thankfully, I achieved both of these goals. I also made a bunch of friends that day and learned a TON. But let’s look at the other side of the picture for a bit. The veteran Range Officers faced with handling a new shooter. What should you do differently for these folks?
[Read more…] about New Shooter Coming OutThe Local Match as a Training Ground
Virtually everyone that participates in our sport of USPSA competition will shoot a lot more local “level I” matches than they will majors (level II or higher). Thus, we should view the local match as a training ground for higher levels of competition. Let’s take a look at some things we need to consider with this in mind.
[Read more…] about The Local Match as a Training GroundStage Design: Movement
One of the more frustrating aspects of the Freestyle rule, particularly for new stage designers, is trying to control shooter movement without breaking the rules. I’d bet every stage designer has designed some form of zig-zag type stage using a lot of fault lines thinking they will compel the shooters to follow the lovely path they created and the setup crew spent a long time spiking it down; only to see the shooters just run from shooting position to shooting position basically ignoring said lovely path. Might just as well positioned shooting boxes at each station and saved all that fault line and effort for other stages. Watch match videos from the most recent matches and you can see examples of this frequently. So, let’s talk about shooter movement and stage design.
[Read more…] about Stage Design: MovementWe Need a Rule(ing)
Here at NROI, we frequently get queries from someone about what rule prevents a shooter, or can be used to prevent a shooter, from doing x, y or z. While many of these fall into the “help them find the relevant rule(s)” category, a fair number fall into “there isn’t any rule that does that”. Sometimes they insist that we need a rule, or a ruling, declaring said action illegal. And 99.9% of those simply are things that really aren’t rule worthy but should be taken care of with proper stage design, WSB authoring, and setup. Let’s look at a few examples. I’ve generalized the questions somewhat.
[Read more…] about We Need a Rule(ing)Steel Challenge Q&A:
Having been the RM for a recently completed SCSA Tier 3 match I got to answer a lot of questions, especially from folks who were not very familiar with SCSA rules. For competitors that are used to USPSA competition, there are some differences between the rules that can cause some confusion which can lead to a lot of questions. Let’s look at a few of the more common ones.
[Read more…] about Steel Challenge Q&A:It’s ‘Legal’, But Should You?
Despite the size of our rule book, there isn’t a rule that specifically addresses every possible situation. I really don’t think anyone actually would want a rule book that did that because becoming an RO would become a multi-year intensive law school type course. No thanks. In large part we depend on common sense to get through life and our sport is much the same; we are expected to utilize some common sense with stage designs, setup and even during competition. Alas, in the words of François-Marie Arouet, better known to most by his nom de plume, Voltaire, “Common sense is not so common.”
[Read more…] about It’s ‘Legal’, But Should You?Unsung Hero: The Target Stick
Our rules basically state that they don’t exist; yet, matches wouldn’t go very far without them. People complain about their cost, after all, you buy nice ones that are mostly straight, mostly dimensioned appropriately, we seem to never have quite enough of them to start with and then people cut them up and shoot them to pieces. Alas, they are the unsung heroes of our sport; I give you, the lowly target stick.
[Read more…] about Unsung Hero: The Target StickWhat really matters?
Recently I have been looking at some sports that are similar to USPSA/SCSA in that they have a very large amateur component run at a local level and a smaller professional component at a state, regional, national and world level. Many of those sports face some of the same challenges we do so it can be interesting to see how they have solved those problems. One of those ventures is a return to almost 40 years ago for me, archery. I put up the bow when I headed to college and haven’t really paid any attention to it since.
[Read more…] about What really matters?