Hey Match Directors and Crew!

[JThompson]

How much time do you get to settle down after setup to actually prepare to shoot? I had a issue with going from settting up stages to new shooter orientation, to shooting the match and getting "Palm" questions all the time. It was hard to concentrate on shooting thats for sure.

Like I said, there are those that choose to help and they are, to some degree, giving up some shooting prowess to do it. This may not be the case for some, but for most of us mortals it is so. Yesterday for example... I went into the club at 11:30 I mowed the grass for three hours. Then I went over and setup stage 3, I got that pretty much done and went over and setup stage 2. Nobody else was there... I went out for a break and some Gatorade and a couple people dribbled and and they setup 1.

Before I fired the first shot I had been working 7 hrs. When I walked out the door it was 9hrs. You put in that kind of time and you will not shoot to you potential. I have flexible hours and I get tired of shooting stuff that is thrown up in 10 minutes, so I choose to put in the time. I know there are others that could get there earlier and help, a lot of them can't but the ones that can should.

We can take some of the pressure off the core group, we just have to give-up some of our time to do it. There are always going to be reasons for NOT getting in early. Do you really think your reasons are any better than the guy that is taking the time away from his schedule to be there?

Anyway, those are my thoughts on it.

Best,

JT

[Flexmoney]

The thing that hurts my shooting is expectations.

Sometimes...it is (my) expectation on what others should do and how they should act.

Two philosophizes that have helped me are:

- As Match Director, acccept the possibility that you may have to setup, run and tear down the match all by your lonesome. (Of course you don't, but having that thought to fall back on can be handy sometimes.)

- Just like a goofy prop is a distraction from the shooting, so is working the match. I like to consider it as being "practical". In the real world...we might be running on no sleep and have had to walk home in a storm...or whatever.

I will also put this out there...if you aren't getting help, then look in the mirror and ask yourself what you might do better to recruit/keep people working with you. Chances are, there is room for improvement for all of us.

[dcarter]

The thing that hurts my shooting is expectations.

Sometimes...it is (my) expectation on what others should do and how they should act.

Two philosophizes that have helped me are:

- As Match Director, acccept the possibility that you may have to setup, run and tear down the match all by your lonesome. (Of course you don't, but having that thought to fall back on can be handy sometimes.)

- Just like a goofy prop is a distraction from the shooting, so is working the match. I like to consider it as being "practical". In the real world...we might be running on no sleep and have had to walk home in a storm...or whatever.

I will also put this out there...if you aren't getting help, then look in the mirror and ask yourself what you might do better to recruit/keep people working with you. Chances are, there is room for improvement for all of us.

Maybe for you but I'm PERFECT.

[JThompson]

The thing that hurts my shooting is expectations.

Sometimes...it is (my) expectation on what others should do and how they should act.

Two philosophizes that have helped me are:

- As Match Director, acccept the possibility that you may have to setup, run and tear down the match all by your lonesome. (Of course you don't, but having that thought to fall back on can be handy sometimes.)

- Just like a goofy prop is a distraction from the shooting, so is working the match. I like to consider it as being "practical". In the real world...we might be running on no sleep and have had to walk home in a storm...or whatever.

I will also put this out there...if you aren't getting help, then look in the mirror and ask yourself what you might do better to recruit/keep people working with you. Chances are, there is room for improvement for all of us.

Maybe for you but I'm PERFECT.

Edited June 25, 2010 by JThompson

[98sr20ve]

How much time do you get to settle down after setup to actually prepare to shoot? I had a issue with going from settting up stages to new shooter orientation, to shooting the match and getting "Palm" questions all the time. It was hard to concentrate on shooting thats for sure.

Like I said, there are those that choose to help and they are, to some degree, giving up some shooting prowess to do it. This may not be the case for some, but for most of us mortals it is so. Yesterday for example... I went into the club at 11:30 I mowed the grass for three hours. Then I went over and setup stage 3, I got that pretty much done and went over and setup stage 2. Nobody else was there... I went out for a break and some Gatorade and a couple people dribbled and and they setup 1.

Before I fired the first shot I had been working 7 hrs. When I walked out the door it was 9hrs. You put in that kind of time and you will not shoot to you potential. I have flexible hours and I get tired of shooting stuff that is thrown up in 10 minutes, so I choose to put in the time. I know there are others that could get there earlier and help, a lot of them can't but the ones that can should.

We can take some of the pressure off the core group, we just have to give-up some of our time to do it. There are always going to be reasons for NOT getting in early. Do you really think your reasons are any better than the guy that is taking the time away from his schedule to be there?

Anyway, those are my thoughts on it.

Best,

JT

In the end you have to decide how you are going to set limits on yourself and others. Your doing what you want to do. Here is the problem as I see it from a more general perspective (not related to you in particular, we don't know eachother at all). Too many Match Directors/Club Presidents run the club till they burn out. Then they say "screw it" and dump it on others. Thats not good for anyone. At some level you have to keep the pressure on those who enjoy the service of the club to help with the club. If your the leader who just does everything then no one else feels the pressure to get things done. I wasn't here at the time but we had a local club which had a stage that basically said "Pick up stapler and staple target to lath, back up and shoot the stage". People need to know that they should help staple targets, set them up, tear them down etc. I watched a IDPA club close from lack of help. It's not good for anyone. I am very much a helper. But I am not always going to be the first person to say "I'll do it". Sometimes you have to let others feel the discomfort of things not getting done. Thats just better for everyone.

[MarkCO]

Having ranged from ROing majors, to Match Director to Range master to RO to shooter over the years, I'll offer the same advice I did to a newer shooter who recently got on the board and did his first official MD a few months back. It is a series of questions that should help you prioritize.

1. If you could only shoot or run the match, not both, which would you do?

2. How many matches are available monthly?

3. Does the extra time steal you from your family/work/balance of other life issues?

4. To be right, do you have to do it yourself, or can you delegate?

5. Is a good shooting performance needed for your enjoyment, or is it icing on the cake?

6. Do you have quality ROs, CROs that can independantly set up and proof a stage?

7. Does you club have a good pool of ready labor to set up stages?

Q1 is the lynchpin. If you really enjoy shooting but are the right kind of person that also desires to give back, you will likely be the most frustrated. If you are one of thsoe who gets as much enjoyment from designing a good stage and running a clean efficient match, then Q2 is the lynchpin. If you can work one match and shoot 1, 2, or 3, others, then that may be the best option. You can also shoot a different division when you are RM or MD and therefore still shoot, but not foul your "primary" division with poor performance. If you are overstressed and overwokred, then you are shortening your life and stealing time from your family...frankly, that can't be good for anyone who cares about you. If you are a control freak or OCD (as many shooters are) learn to let go and delegate. If top performance shooting is the goal, sorry, you can not MD, or RM even a local match. I think you lose 10 to 25% of your score when you have to run the match. Even ROing at majors, this happens. The rest follows. Evaluate your goals and make sure your efforts reflect what your goals are.

Edited June 26, 2010 by MarkCO

[Steven Cline]

How much time do you get to settle down after setup to actually prepare to shoot? I had a issue with going from settting up stages to new shooter orientation, to shooting the match and getting "Palm" questions all the time. It was hard to concentrate on shooting thats for sure.

When I match direct it flows like this:

By two weeks out I require all stage submissions in writing.

By one week out all stages are finalized/approved and assigned a bay. (If you submit, you build.)

The night before we set up the stages except hanging targets. (If you build, you shoot for free.)

The morning of we hang targets, paint steel.

I assign responsibilitiy for registration and squadding to someone else. (this person shoots for free)

At 10 til 10:00 am I hold the shooters meeting (welcome, orient to range, match overview (X stages, XXX round count, classifier is...), safety, squad announcement and starting bay).

By doing everything major the night before and delegating I retain my sanity and can focus. Delegation is the key.

(The only thing that gets in the way is ROing a whole squad of new shooters.)

Edited June 28, 2010 by Steven Cline

[joecichlid]

I have been at this for about seven years, MD for a weekly two stage match with the odd three or four stage night in there thanks to classifiers and all I can say is that it isn't easy at all. Our club shoots on Friday nights so at the end of a long week I am able to get to the range around 4:30 or 5:00pm and get one of the two bays set up, thankfully I have a hand full of guys willing to set up on the other bay although there have been times I set up on both bays. I do my best to make sure both bays are ready to start shooting by 6:00-6:30 with two or three nice stages running 20 to 32 rounds each and I usually get it pulled together.

On average I am out of town three to five Friday nights a year but I would safely say I have set up well over 300 stages and I will agree it has affected my shooting, a LOT. If I were to count the number of matches I have shot where I didn't set up I think I could count it on one hand and I would have a few fingers left over.

Lately I been going into set up with a much better attitude and using it to clear my head and forget about anything that happened during the week. Put on my ear muffs with some music playing through them, tune out the world then set up the stage and it is helping. Because we don't shoot on squads I am able to go cool off and get some cold water to drink for half an hour or so and just work on getting into my zone. My shooting seems to be smoother, more relaxed and it shows on the score sheet.

As others have stated, get others to help out as much as you can, it will save your shooting and save your sanity. Earlier this year I was feeling pretty burnt out but two weeks away (cruising through Northern Europe) put me back into a good state of mind.

Joe W.

[Joe4d]

Seth did the slow handoff from the last MD, But Frederickburg's monthlies have more in common with a section or area match than a typical club match, VA, despite all the gun owners is a huge USPSA Blackhole, the match is generally over a hundred with big chunks of the shooters over 2 hours away. So if you blow of this match to MD you basically dont shoot that month. Its really gonna be tough to get people to how up on Staurday setup when they are hours away, And over the years your match has been Friday and Sat setup so most shooters arnt expecting to do much setup Sunday, Not sure what to tell you gonna have to decide to work or shoot, A couple things that might help,

Fault lines, almost every stage has complete 2x2 fault lines nailed down for the entire shooting area, since most stages have their own bay you could probably tweak the stages to eliminate a lot of fault lines.

Accurate to scale stage drawings, with measurements printed, these take longer to draw up but save alot of time on the range, basically any one can grab props and build stage without much direct supervision.

Look around on setup day, is your help standing around ? The quickest way to loose help is for people to show up and spend a bunch of the time standing around while they wait on the one guy to show up that knows what is going on.

all these are suggestions, that you may already be doing, but to answer your question you probably wont be able to MD and shoot ur best.

[VegasOPM]

I know this sounds defeatist, but I have pretty much written off my performance as a shooter since becoming MD. I do try to do well, and typically finish pretty well- but that is not why I'm there. I agreed to design, setup and manage the matches and deal with all of the chaos that goes with it. I would love to have the match set up the night before, but I am at work until Midnight on Saturday nights. My Asst MD sometimes goes out the night before with some shooters and presets a couple of stages. Barring that I show up 2 hrs prior to start time and set up stages with whoever else can make it.

I agree that delegation is key, as is having a core group of volunteers that help do the hard work. I would love to offer workers to shoot for free, but the parent club will not allow that. Of course right now I am unable to shoot or setup due to a detached bicep tendon that happened while tearing down a match while severely short handed- so I am more than a little bitter about the whole MD thing. I was trying to lift something that one person shouldn't have lifted alone- but nobody else was available to help so here I am in a brace for the next 8-10 weeks.

[Aristotle]

The hard answer is, you probably never really will, at least not to your true potential in your own match. I am essentially "taking one for the team", but it bothers me less when we get volunteers to continue to come out to help with set up. I have my "faithful 7" that are there for me through snow, sleet or rain, and for them, I am eternally grateful. I have one a couple of my matches, but I still do okay once you get into "the groove".

During months of bad weather, I anticipate less help and I set up less prop driven stages, maybe even plan a classifier match. I'll probably do that closer to the end of the season as well. During the summer months when people are more willing to come out and socialize, I'll put together bigger matches 7-8 stages, higher round count and more props. The key is making it easier on my volunteers by getting better props, easier to deploy walls, etc. Also, you should always squad up, it should still be fun for you, the day it is no longer fun for me, is probably the day I begin planning my exit.

[joecichlid]

This last week for me was absolute proof of how much it can affect your shooting. Next week will be better, I just know it.

Joe W.

[okc icore]

i run steel challenge and icore twice a month and have had the same problem . what i did to solve this problem is who ever is the ro for that squad has the final decision on any scoring. this way i can squad with a group and shoot and game stages with others and my shooting time doesnt suffer from walking up and shooting a stage. this works awesome and have not had any problems in two years.