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Mental prep before the timer.


e5young

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what's with the nod?

"Shooter ready?" NOD. :cheers:

Just so everyone has a clear understanding that you are ready to shoot. There are no "i wasn't ready" complaints afterwards.

I assume that unless I object, and state that I am NOT READY, the buzzer is going to go

off real soon after the RO says "Shooter Ready?" No complaints, so far. :cheers:

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what's with the nod?

"Shooter ready?" NOD. :cheers:

Just so everyone has a clear understanding that you are ready to shoot. There are no "i wasn't ready" complaints afterwards.

If you aren't ready, say so. If you're not ready and you don't say so and the RO says 'stand by', or the buzzer goes off, say 'i'm not ready'.

I've only had to do that myself once when I got short-beeped. I've had other people stop me at stand by a couple times. no big deal.

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I start out "preparing" as soon as the last shooter is finished, and everyone is

down range taping / setting steel.

That gives me about a minute to myself, reviewing the COF, and how I'm

going to handle it ( shoot it and reload), remove jacket if necessary, make

sure my mags are loaded and in their proper pouches, my hat is on or

backwards depending on the COF, my earmuffs are in the ready position.

At "Make Ready" , I've already reviewed the COF and I'm now ready to

make sure I have :

1.a. put my muffs on my ears.

1. turned my red dot to the correct brightness

2. load the correct mag & make sure my other mags are in the right spot

3. check a round chambered,

4. slowly and deliberately holster - make sure it doesn't fall on the ground, and I leave the holster lock off

5. review what I'm going to shoot first

6. confirm with the RO any questions about the COF - tell him which way I'm going to run

7. NOD.

^^This^^

Step to the line, load, holster, call on Jobu :goof:, nod for the beep and start blasting.

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Yes moto, you're lucky. With less than half your experience I know half a dozen shooters that really test my patience! :)

As a retired 1sgt, im sure a lot of people would test your patience haha thanks for serving and protecting my freedom to bear arms...(though obummer has ruined most of that as well as my state of CA)....

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Shooter ready? NOD? I just assumed we talking about USPSA.

Edited: I actually just read the OP. Clear to handle? Is this IDPA?

i don't think there's a rule against nodding in any practical shooting sport. some folks nod or say something, others don't.

personally, i usually just visualize getting the gun up and to the first target. Everything else should happen on autopilot. All other preparation should have been done before then.

How my local club runs it, the RO usually says "shooter give me a nod when youre ready" i shoot uspsa. is there anything wrong with that?

It's not an "official" range command. They're supposed to ask "Are you ready?", and if you don't say "Not ready" or something similar within a couple of seconds, then you are assumed to be ready.

I prefer not having to actually say or nod that I'm ready.

It's in the rule book e5. And yes your local is doing it all wrong. People who know the rules hate chatter that's not in the range commands. There are reasons for only using official range commands. Read the rule book. It's all in there.

someones gotta bring a copy of that rulebook to the range T___T oh well...surprised no one has caught that at my local club.

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what's with the nod?

"Shooter ready?" NOD. :cheers:

Just so everyone has a clear understanding that you are ready to shoot. There are no "i wasn't ready" complaints afterwards.

If you aren't ready, say so. If you're not ready and you don't say so and the RO says 'stand by', or the buzzer goes off, say 'i'm not ready'.

I've only had to do that myself once when I got short-beeped. I've had other people stop me at stand by a couple times. no big deal.

Nowadays, I'll almost always say "not ready", place my hand on my holstered gun for a few seconds as I clear my head, and then remove my hand once I'm ready.

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I tend to go back and forth on taking the time to prep, and just going for it. I have been at this for about 2 years now, and I still get nervous prepping up for the first stage at each match. (First stage jitters). That's normal, right? haha.

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As part of my mental prep for a stage my strong hand is gripping the gun so it's very obvious I'm "not ready". The next to last thing I do is raise my weak hand into the correct position for a surrender start and the last thing I do is release my grip and raise my strong hand to the correct surrender start position. Upon the "are you ready" command I always give a firm head nod as it helps me with the timing of the remaining commands since I know the "stand by" command it coming immediately after I nod .... Just something that works for me

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As part of my mental prep for a stage my strong hand is gripping the gun so it's very obvious I'm "not ready". The next to last thing I do is raise my weak hand into the correct position for a surrender start and the last thing I do is release my grip and raise my strong hand to the correct surrender start position.

many folks do this, and it makes it really easy for the RO. if you're still rehearsing the stage in your brain or whatever, just keep your hand on your gun, and I'll relax and enjoy the nice weather.

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As part of my mental prep for a stage my strong hand is gripping the gun so it's very obvious I'm "not ready". The next to last thing I do is raise my weak hand into the correct position for a surrender start and the last thing I do is release my grip and raise my strong hand to the correct surrender start position.

many folks do this, and it makes it really easy for the RO. if you're still rehearsing the stage in your brain or whatever, just keep your hand on your gun, and I'll relax and enjoy the nice weather.

...IF the RO has been around the block a few times.

A couple of matches ago, I had a hands up start position. I had my left hand up and my right hand on my gun trying to get my head in the game. All I heard was a newish RO from another squad going "Both hands up. HEY! BOTH HANDS."

Edited by FTDMFR
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I've learned to tune out the entire world except for the RO and literally would never hear anyone else saying anything ... Let them flap their gums all day long. Having said that, at the Mississippi State Steel Challenge this year they had a bunch of new ROs since this was their 1st state championship ... Another part of my mental stage prep is to dry fire the stage once after turning on my dot. The new RO didn't see that I had yet to insert a mag in the gun so there was no way I could be ready, yet as soon as he saw me point the gun at the rimfire flag marker he starts to give the "are you ready" command & before the experienced RO on the stage could say anything I simply said "Not ready" & continued with my mental prep routine while the CRO explained to the RO that I hadn't loaded yet, etc, etc .... Never even skipped a beat ....

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I don't really mind anyone's prep I have been around. With that in mind if it is causing a squad to fall behind I will say something. Yes you paid your fees and its your time but so did the three squads behind you.They should not be held up do to your mental prep because you changed your COF at the last second or you were not using your walk through time effectively. I like major matches to run smooth. If it's a small club match not nearly as big of a deal.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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I've never been one to take too much time after the make ready command. I do try and repeat the same loading process every time so I don't end up failing to load a round or barnying in divisions that might need that. Sometimes if there is something out of the ordinary in the stage I may repeat it in my mind a few times right before are you ready command. For example if there is a door close that I need to open and I need to reload during that same time, I may drop the mag while reaching for the door handle and then after the door is open grab the magazine and finish the reload, I picture exactly that so I don't default to a normal reload. Reloading off a table might be another one I remind myself a few times about right before, otherwise my hand might go to the empty mag carrier on my belt. Stuff like that.

We do have one guy locally who I shoot with that takes forever to get ready. We all bust his chops about it afterwards and he takes it well. I think our ribbing him is probably limiting him from taking even longer. Realistically though I don't see it causing any real problems. We mostly just like to poke fun at him.

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I don't really mind anyone's prep I have been around. With that in mind if it is causing a squad to fall behind I will say something. Yes you paid your fees and its your time but so did the three squads behind you.They should not be held up do to your mental prep because you changed your COF at the last second or you were not using your walk through time effectively. I like major matches to run smooth. If it's a small club match not nearly as big of a deal.

I think everyone likes major matches to run smoothly, but again, with 3 or 4 big majors and a few section matches under my belt, it is very rare that a shooter's make ready routine is responsible for going slowly. I have yet to see one that caused a problem. What makes matches run slowly are things like:

  • RO's that don't have a plan for scoring targets, so they don't always go in the same order, so they miss a target and have to reshoot.
  • RO's that don't stay on top of the equipment, so there are malfunctions, and reshoots.
  • squads that aren't paying attention and forget to paste a target, so there are reshoots, or delays.
  • Stage designers and MD's that put too much fragile complicated stuff in a big stage, so reset takes forever, and if RO's aren't setting all the movers, then malfunctions and reshoots.
  • MD's that put two supposedly short stages in the same bay.
  • and lots of other stuff that I haven't thought of.

the last match I worked or shot that didn't run smoothly from my perspective was 2012 nationals. There may have been bottlenecks at 13 or 14 or one of the area matches, but for whatever reason my stage stayed on time and we finished the day on time.

Edited by motosapiens
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I bet you could graph time taken during make ready against match performance and you'd get some pretty telling results. There's a reason that the best shooters in the world take their time here. I don't take anywhere near a minute, but I'm certainly not going to be rushed by some impatient range officer that thinks I'm taking too much time. The more complex the stage is, the more time I'm going to take during make ready.

There are less skilled shooters that take longer to shoot the stage than I do to prep it in my head and shoot it, should we start rushing them as well? We should also berate people who have targets pulled for the RM to double check, since that takes more than a minute and we can't have people holding the match up.

Edited by Jake Di Vita
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I bet you could graph time taken during make ready against match performance and you'd get some pretty telling results. There's a reason that the best shooters in the world take their time here.

In my experience, the best shooters in the world don't take any more time than any other serious shooter, and they are far less likely to be unprepared when it is their turn. The supersquad runs through a stage smooth like buttah.

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I bet you could graph time taken during make ready against match performance and you'd get some pretty telling results. There's a reason that the best shooters in the world take their time here.

In my experience, the best shooters in the world don't take any more time than any other serious shooter, and they are far less likely to be unprepared when it is their turn. The supersquad runs through a stage smooth like buttah.

From my experience of shooting with them on more occasions than I can remember and speaking with them, I disagree. I've also RO'd major matches and seen a noticeable difference in time. Good shooters don't take their time during make ready because they are unprepared, that could be true with lower skilled shooters, but certainly not with the supersquad. This is especially true on more complex stages. Sure they might not take any more time than joe blow on el prez, but get them on a field course with movers and tricky sequencing and you'll see a gargantuan difference in time taken.

Edited by Jake Di Vita
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I bet you could graph time taken during make ready against match performance and you'd get some pretty telling results. There's a reason that the best shooters in the world take their time here.

In my experience, the best shooters in the world don't take any more time than any other serious shooter, and they are far less likely to be unprepared when it is their turn. The supersquad runs through a stage smooth like buttah.

From my experience of shooting with them on more occasions than I can remember and speaking with them, I disagree. I've also RO'd major matches and seen a noticeable difference in time. Good shooters don't take their time during make ready because they are unprepared, that could be true with lower skilled shooters, but certainly not with the supersquad. This is especially true on more complex stages. Sure they might not take any more time than joe blow on el prez, but get them on a field course with movers and tricky sequencing and you'll see a gargantuan difference in time taken.

hmm. interesting. I have only worked long field courses (with movers) at big matches. I have no explanation for why your experience is so much different from mine. in my experience, the supersquad guys take the same amount of time to make ready as the average A or M shooter.

regardless, my point was that it's not the make ready routine that slows matches down, but a bunch of other stuff.

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Well a possible explanation is that shooters of lower classification are taking longer during make ready than they were 7-10ish years ago when most of my experience from the supersquad is (although I didn't see that at any matches I shot this year). Another possible explanation is the particular stages you may be working aren't considered super complex by those guys.

I do completely agree that what happens between make ready and if clear is not what slows a match down. And likewise, giving squads 3 minutes instead of 5 for a walk through is a terrible idea in my opinion for the same reason. Stage reset is almost always going to be the largest chunk of time in a match.

You only need one backlogged stage to screw an entire match up. I remember walking up to a stage at a very big match years ago and having 4 goddamn squads in front of mine. Spent almost 5 hours on that bay.

Edited by Jake Di Vita
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Well a possible explanation is that shooters of lower classification are taking longer during make ready than they were 7-10ish years ago when most of my experience from the supersquad is (although I didn't see that at any matches I shot this year). Another possible explanation is the particular stages you may be working aren't considered super complex by those guys.

reasonable points. for sure, the first nationals stage I worked really only had 1 way to shoot it, even with the bobber. the other ones were more interesting. Still, those guys have all spent a couple days looking at the stages and strategizing during the staff match, so even a complicated stage should be pretty well dissected and understood I think.

But note that I'm not saying that *all* shooters take as much time, just the more serious ones, whether they are super squad guys or garden variety gm's, or just A and M shooters that are trying to get better (and emulating the super squad guys). Certainly there are plenty of shooters that just walk up to the line, and are immediately ready to go.

Otherwise it sounds like we are in total agreement and ready to sit down and have a homebrew and watch some football. woohoo!

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I agree, but one thing I'd like to add on this:

Still, those guys have all spent a couple days looking at the stages and strategizing during the staff match, so even a complicated stage should be pretty well dissected and understood I think.

The purpose of why I take my time during make ready isn't because the stage isn't well dissected or understood. It is the very last moment I have to deeply visualize what I am about to do. I've tested it enough to know for a fact my scores are better when I visualize one last time after make ready than if I don't.

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Personally, I can't stand it when people take forever between "make ready" and assuming the start position. After the make ready command is not the time to be practicing your draw and reloads 10 times and closing your eyes and pantomiming the stage including leans and stuff.

If every person takes just 1 minute to get ready, it can add well over an hour to my local match just in watching people stand there and waste time.

Seriously. Once I get to the range and get started I can't wait to leave, why is everyone taking so long. :roflol:

Make ready is make ready. If it takes the shooter 10 seconds or a minute to make ready to shoot the stage, doesn't matter, it's their time. You're just there to say the next range command when they assume the start position. :)

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