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…
Unless we are dealing with a classifier, or a stage that is being shopped as a potential classifier as we have done the past couple seasons; a stage design really is more about concept and making that concept work with the bay we have available, the props (walls, activators, poppers, whatever) we have at our disposal, and the time and manpower we have available to get it set up. Especially for small, local matches without a plethora of props at hand, using a stage design from elsewhere becomes something of an exercise in compromise. “Well, I think we can cram that into Bay 4” type things. Or maybe they want to put your stage and another in the same bay and so everything is going to get a bit squished up. Maybe we ran out of full size poppers, okay, substitute in minis or vice-versa. We don’t have enough IPSC targets on hand so substitute in USPSA targets (for the entire stage…no mixing within a stage); or, in the case of a double stage in a bay the MD might want to differentiate the target types to help define stages. And so on.
SCSA Note: The published SCSA stage designs are static. They need to be set up as drawn to be a legal SCSA stage. There is a very small variance in height that is allowed. You cannot scale SCSA stages to fit a bay and still call it an SCSA stage. You can still shoot it at your match as an “other” stage but not one you can claim credit for in terms of classification.
All too often, stage designers get so wrapped up in the details of their design that they forget that out in the real world, where the bay walls aren’t perfectly square, the bay floor is likely only a suggestion of “level”, and, unlike in SketchUp or PractiSim Designer, there are not unlimited props available. Setup time at the match is generally limited as well so a very complex design may need to be simplified for expedience.
It isn’t uncommon to see a stage come with a page, or more, of setup instructions getting down and dirty with the miniscule details. That’s nice, but following all those instructions is going to take a lot of effort and time and, honestly, most clubs, even Major matches, aren’t really going to follow them. TLDR anyone?
If you show up for setup for a Major match, you are likely going to be handed a picture of the stage, maybe a full stage description form, maybe a equipment list, and maybe a draft WSB. If you are lucky, you will get an overhead view of the stage. Any setup notes are going to be limited to things like “edge to perf for overlaps” and things of that nature. After that, it is make it work in the bay. Get your distances down, set the steel as far against the berms and as deep as you can and build back from there (it so massively sucks to have everything nailed down only to find out that you are a couple feet short on minimum distance to steel). Then the walls, fault lines, and other barriers go in. And finally, the target stands and sticks go in. Then you set the targets on the sticks so you have safe amounts of backstop behind the target, adjusting for the vertical disparity we see in shooter heights. And so on.
All those lovely setup notes you made probably never made it off the printer.
Don’t get me wrong; I used to do it too. And there are still times where a picture of how a target array is set can be useful. Providing an overhead view is going to do far more good for the stage review staff, NROI Review (if that is happening for that match) and for setup.
All this plays into the thing we always hear at matches from newer shooters: “This stage doesn’t look anything like the diagram that was published!” Yep, welcome to reality.