nasty618

Ah good catch. Is that true even if the (tux) target is wholly available from another position?

You 'could' design a stage with barrels obstructing a target(s) from view and forcing the shooter to move to another shooting position (at considerable distance) in order to see that target clearly. You could then declare barrels to be soft cover in WSB, letting shooters gamble and shoot through barrels in order to hit the target behind them and save time. Maybe make it a partial or a tuxedo target if the "risk vs reward" ratio is not appropriate.

I would break down match demographics and target each audience with a slightly different focus. You have experienced shooters, new shooters... then among them, you may have relevant categories like women and LE. Each one may warrant a separate approach. For example, ladies - they tend to be reserved in their participation in shooting sports and often feel overrun by the "know-it-all-been-doing-it-for-20-years-NRA-instructor" types. They will be much more open to joining an intro class given by another woman - but you should make sure she can actually shoot and knows the sport well. Cops generally dont shoot well at all, so approaching local PDs and informing them of a way to get better may actually generate some interest. Some of them will never come back after getting their egos crushed at their first match, but some will stick with it and will want to get better. Experienced shooters want a good, well run match with fun and challenging stages, with Practiscore registration, match scores uploaded promptly and fees paid on time. In general, l would consider doing the following: Have a solid social media presence (IG and FB for sure) with regular updates and prompt responses. Target the specific audiences. Offer an Intro to USPSA class for newer shooters, maybe offer a regular training night on a weekday Last, but not least... design interesting and challenging stages that will attract shooters with a higher level of skill. Attracting better and more experienced shooters will help spread the word.

This is not a valid point. Time is a general concept, HF is not a common concept and i am fairly sure is unique to IPSC/USPSA. And it's not "already" - it's been that way since the inception of those drills, which date back to the 70s, Col. Cooper and Bill Wilson (who also developed the 5x5 dill that IDPA uses). Those drills have been around forever and are shot in just about every discipline by timmies and gaymers alike. Narrow bands at the top are narrow for every class underneath. If I am not happy with B class - I will work harder to make A, M, GM. I will disassociate my match placement percentage from my classification percentage. I will understand that classification system is designed for a much larger pool of people, not just for the 10% that go to major matches and certainly not for the top 3-5% of those who actually have a chance of winning those matches. But I will use both metrics to gauge my progression as a shooter. Classification system is not broken. Change my mind.

I think recognizing the top National level shooters with a separate class is warranted. A class that you cannot get on a classifier, but have to earn at a handful of matches. Perhaps same matches that are used for the World Shoot Team selection process. I think this will address a lot of "classification is broken" concerns, highlighting the purpose of the system that was designed to classify a large number of participants from a common database. I think it might address the "paper GM" BS as well, but who knows.

You think IDPA may have been onto something with their Distinguished Master class?

Definitely! They make the best coasters ever I think Breakthrough Marksmanship is a little "too simple" for the less experienced shooter. The way it sounds it probably doesnt make sense ... but if he just started shooting, he will be better off with Stoeger's "Reloaded" ones or with the Anderson's "Repetition". Once he gets to B or A class level or at least knows 'how' to train and self analyze, then Breakthrough Marksmanship would be good. Oh yeah, another vote for PSTG as an awesome learning resource - buy him a membership there and tell him to watch the Training Class Video dumps - those alone are worth the price of admission

I misunderstood - thought it was another "I'm in B class, but paper GMs get crushed at matches, so i dont want to be one" type comment, my apologies I agree 100%. I think shooting sports absolutely IS a martial art. The approach to training, time and dedication it takes to achieve any meaningful results and the ranking system are very similar, with belts to GM, then dans after that. Having said all that, i dont think it's bad to remind ourselves on occasion that at the end of the day, all this stuff means absolutely nothing to anybody besides maybe you, your buddies and your poor wife who has to listen to you day after day talk about your shooting... especially if she trains and competes too LOL

From a forum member who likes to do match data analysis - hopefully he'll chime in with some details when he has a chance.

Of course. But if you were to take a look at the series of pictures capturing those moments i think you would see that there was more than 1/1000 of a sec for some of these. Yes, one of ROs duties is to assist all competitors in their attempts to accomplish their goals without any undue harassment and authoritarian behavior. Since we agree on that, than we would also agree that RO's job is much broader than just that... I would hope that we should also agree that a good RO would know and expect every possible infraction at any moment and be knowledgeable enough to handle any one of them, even if all that involves is calling the CRO or the RM In any case, i dont disagree - I think everyone has made valid points. But seems that we're nitpicking just a bit. I am not sure it's worth taking this any further, since, unless i totally misunderstood it, the original topic of the thread was "questionable" pictures being posted or published by the organization.

Well, the RO does not get to view any pictures, period. And perhaps you're right, there are not always things to be learned... But in this particular case, if some of those pics DO show a DQ and the photographer WAS able to see it with his lens... then shouldn't we be curious to know why the back up ROs were not in the appropriate spot where they could have seen it easily?

True... I easily forgot how nice those 10 rd Mec-Gars for Tanfo and CZ are compared to Glock 10 rd mags

Game theory would probably dictate using 10 round magazines for competition - the risk of making the mistake of loading more than the Division capacity is too high and the cost of making that mistake is not acceptable. How many have seen that guy who takes a make up shot on 4 paper/2 steel array and doesnt have to rack the slide after the reload? There is always one Although you 'could' put a positive spin on this - like winning Open at the Production Nationals For training this is not an issue, but for competitions - 10 round mags only for me. I'll trade some of my standard cap mags for 10-rounders .

What is your classification sir, and how many 95% classifiers have you shot? From what i heard - yes. The 2018 changes to the HHF halved the number of people making it into higher classifications in 2019.

Correction - anything i can afford (which is not that much) i do shoot primarily in NY though... What i meant by "same boat" is that we (OP and I) seem to be at the similar levels of skill and participation in the Prod and CO divisions. But the primary point was how attractive that Major PF was in my very limited experience with the SS

. I am in the same exact boat. I did shoot one classifier match in SS (and it was a Taurus 1911 in 45 ACP ) but that Major PF is so attractive - hitting 80+% with a gun i haven't shot before was criminally easy... If i ever step into SS in any serious manner, i doubt i would choose a Minor gun.

Does it really matter to most people though? I dont think it does TBH.... or any other division champion status. Because most people (like 99% of us) are not in the running for that position, not at the national or area levels. I think CO is growing because most dudes' eyes are getting older and they are finding that getting a slide milled and putting a red dot on the same exact gun and using the same exact gear is an easy and inexpensive way to keep enjoying their weekend warrior participation levels.

i tried to remove most identifiable details, but anyone who wants to know can easily find these pics online in their full form... and when they do, be shocked at the level of performers But i think you all have seen more than a few of these "RO missed DQ" pics and videos posted by the USPSA on their social media. I mean if it wasnt called at the match, at this point who cares? Maybe some remedial training for the ROs, otherwise - just peer shaming? Personally, I would want to know for myself if i were doing it - so that i could fix a critical error like this and avoid being called on it in the future.

Ok, so then we've established that it has changed in the last 11 years. In fact, as I said, it's been completely redesigned and a ton of new features added. Cool. So what exactly is "pretty sucky" about the current version of the site? Can you point out any specific issues and make suggestions for improvement? Or is just "i don't like it"?

I saw a few interesting shots in the USPSA Facebook LoCap Nats photo album... here are a couple.

i may have met that fuddy boc type a few times at various places I guess i was trying to see the rational reason in this particular call... like maybe another sign of his lack of knowledge. Which in itself is a very fixable thing... but not with the attitude like that - you cant change his mind even if you open the book on the relevant rule and show it to him.

Even if he was correct on the fault line set up and the foot fault was legal... why per shot? Where was the significant advantage gained? I just dont see that being possible from the attached pic...

well... ultimately, none of this stuff really means anything to anyone... other than the people who are really invested and dedicate A LOT of time to it. But trust me, to someone who is stuck in C class and is putting in 30 minutes a day for 6 months getting that B means a lot.

I would say don't hate on people who think that buying a new expensive gun will move them up in class. There are way more of those. Let them remain ignorant and keep putting in work - you do what needs to be done and the results will come.