Bootcamp? Well, if you have visions of running five miles with a full size popper on each shoulder or overhead pressing wall sections, …wrong type of bootcamp. A few years ago NROI started field testing a new concept for the Level 2, Chief Range Officer course called a Bootcamp. This was the brain child of Instructor Ray Hirst and it entirely changed the way we do the CRO class now. Years ago, the CRO course was more about stage design, mostly in the classroom or by correspondence, and less about running a stage efficiently. That left us with a problem finding people that actually knew how to run stages at major matches. The Bootcamp format of the class changed all that.
The prerequisites for the Level 2 CRO course remain a full year as a certified RO, or significant work experience. We will be judging work experience based on your NROI Work Record so be sure you keep that up to date. Significant experience generally means working at Level II and higher matches as an RO or higher.
The CRO course is still a two day seminar, and there is still a lecture component, but we have a lot more hands on work. When you sign up for a Level 2 Bootcamp you will get a link to the NROI Learning Management System (LMS) where you will take a pre-test, download the student guide, download the arbitrations for the in-class exercise, and can submit your required stage design if you wish; you can also just bring your stage design to class. Everyone SHOULD bring their stage design to the class on paper but submitting them early allows the instructor to look them over and give you some feedback about your design (this will probably happen at class or after class…why will become clear shortly).
Saturday will start in the classroom. The lecture portion generally takes about five hours. This is NOT a rehash of the Level 1 RO course. You already passed that course and are already staying up to date on rules changes…right?
Once we finish the lecture it is on to the Arbitration Exercise. You will be broken up in to teams and be given an Arbitration (remember those things you downloaded?) to work through as an arbitration committee. Arbitrations are infrequent enough that it is valuable to spend some time working folks through these. In my years as an instructor I’ve only ever had a handful of students that had actually been on an arbitration committee.
Following the Arbitration exercise you will work with your team to determine which of your stages you will set up for the Range exercise. Yep, you are building stages and you will get a chance to shoot them. If we have time/daylight and permission we will begin the build Saturday. Otherwise that will happen Sunday.
As a class, we will walk all the stages and look for trouble spots, talk about how to fix those (and fix them), discuss enhancements that might make the stage more freestyle, more challenging, etc., talk about various things that might happen on the stage and so on. Once we are all satisfied that the stages are ready to go we will shoot them and talk about squad dynamics, how to keep the match flowing, efficiencies in running shooters and stage reset and so on.
Our goal with the Range Exercise portion of the class is to simulate what happens at a major match when you, as the CRO, are handed a stage to go and run. They often are not proofed and if you are lucky they are kind of setup but as setup they may not be legal. Setup crews often are just following a picture and may not be worrying about the rules or anything else other than getting done with setup.
You will be challenged to get everyone through as quickly as possible while still doing scoring and reset. It’s about efficiency and economy of movement. As the instructor notes anything that can be improved he/she will stop everyone and discuss the possible changes with you and then the shooting can resume.
Our goal is to get everyone the tools they need to work as effectively and as efficiently as possible as a CRO at a major match. A by-product of this is increasing everyone’s confidence in how to do the job correctly.
Sound like fun? If you have the prerequisites then sign up for a Level 2 Bootcamp near you and come join us for a educational and fun weekend on the range!