Last week I introduced everyone to the definition of location and view in relation to stage design. But let’s talk more about making sure your stage is legal in regards to these terms.
[Read more…] about But is that stage a legal location and view?Stage Design
Locations and views
Short, medium, and long courses cannot require more than 8 scoring hits from any single location or view. Which means if you help build or design stages you need to understand the definitions of a location and view in order to make sure the stages are legal.
[Read more…] about Locations and viewsThis is a shooting sport
One of the things every stage designer and match director needs to keep in mind is that USPSA is a shooting sport. Our sport is supposed to test accuracy, power, and speed (Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas – DVC). Are your stages testing those things? Are they testing in a way that separates the skilled marksmen from the rest of the crowd? Let’s look at each of these and discuss how to test them.
[Read more…] about This is a shooting sportThe hard cover edge
Whether you paint your own hard cover targets or purchase pre-painted ones, it is important to check the targets to ensure they have the edge of the hardcover in the right place. We don’t score targets on the ‘intent’ of where the hard cover edge should be and hard cover targets need to be consistent for the entire match.
[Read more…] about The hard cover edgeThe Evolution of Stage Design Tools
Back when I started in this sport the new hotness for stage design were a bunch of templates for MS Office products like Word and Excel. This was a HUGE step up from the green plastic stage design template many had been using for years or freehand drawing. Some were using Corel Draw as well but that required a Corel license (or at least a bootleg copy of Corel) and “laptops” were under powered and over heavy so portable stage designing wasn’t a thing. Things have come a long way since those days.
[Read more…] about The Evolution of Stage Design ToolsFreestanding No-Shoots. Good Idea or Bad?
One of the things we discuss in the Level I Range Officer and Level II Chief Range Officer seminars is how certain practices of using no-shoots can cause problems for ROs during the match. To be clear, we are not discouraging the use of no-shoots as a penalty target. In fact, we strongly endorse using no-shoots when used in conjunction with a scoring target where they are stapled together and in direct contact with one another (9.1.5.1.1). This is completely legit and the most problem-free use of a no-shoot.
[Read more…] about Freestanding No-Shoots. Good Idea or Bad?Stage Design – Details…details…details
Most of us have some particular features we put into the stage during the design process that we want to be there for whatever reason. Be it the design of target arrays, arrangement of targets around the bay, or just about anything else. We designed it a particular way and we want it set up that way mostly because it is “ours”. But what REALLY happens and, maybe more importantly, what SHOULD happen during the transfer from the paper design to reality? Let’s dive in…
[Read more…] about Stage Design – Details…details…detailsVertical equity
Everyone talks about competitive equity when it comes to things like moving targets, the angle of the sun, or even the weather (stupid rain bags). The first one is something range staff can manage and hopefully prevent. The last two, well most of us shoot outdoors and have to deal with the weather variation. When designing and building stages there is one thing that occasionally gets forgotten and that is we have quite the range of competitor heights in our sport and we need to make sure to keep that in mind.
[Read more…] about Vertical equity