amateurish match administration

[Ross Chevalier]

This is an interesting thread.  So I am not a real hot shooter, and compared to some of you folks, am very new to competition, and yes am an NROI RO.  I work long hours and spend lots of time away from my family.  So why bother to run matches?

I really enjoy this sport.  Whether I'm great or not is less relevant to me than having the pleasure of shooting, particularly with other shooters.  When I took the IPSC Black Badge course, I had two instructors. First day, first guy was a complete dick.  A consumate professional at driving people out of the sport.  Second day, a person who was genuinely interested in having another member of the competitive community, being safe and having fun.  I decided at that time that I had a choice to either be a positive face to the sport, or some arrogant bozo.  I picked positive, but a whole whack of others take it as a power trip.  

I get great satisfaction out of seeing new shooters come off a course and say "man that was tough but it was fun", or seasoned pros come off a course and say that "that was cool, it wasn't the same old hose and go.  You had to think the course through"  I design courses and RO matches because I get personal satisfaction out of watching the other shooters have fun.  Some days I shoot well, others not.  But even on a bad day, having someone on one of the squads really enjoy it is very fulfilling.

As a confessed non-expert, I get damn tired of the rule interpretation lawyers and the "the fault line isn't bolted down with 42 foot lag bolts and could move and that wouldn't be fair"  waawaa artists.  Last I checked this was a sport, ie game.  If you want to be a lawyer go practice law.  If you want to whine about life's inherent unfairness, go read James Gleick's book on Chaos Theory and then be under the 5pm train.  it ain't fair, it ain't equal and it cannot be.  Ever.

Or, go out, shoot, meet some nice people, talk about mutual interests, have fun.  We're all a long time dead, why make strife?  Encourage a new shooter or recognize an exceptional performance.  You really do get back what you put out.

Of course wtf do I know, I'm one of those darn Match guys.....

[38supPat]

O.k. bear in mind we're not trying to paint all match directors/officials/RO's with the same brush.

I have met some of the besy people who are working the matches. With almost no exception every RO at the Nationals is a consummate pro. Ross' courses of fire are excellent as are a couple of others at his club. Patricia Legere from Watervliet (AWARE) is probably the BEST match director I have ever run across as are her staff. (too bad they're no longer doing it, here's to hoping she starts a new match soon and runs it as well!)

This thread is more directed at the officials who time after time put up poor courses of fire and then make up rules/excuses as to why they couldn't be bothered doing it right. If a match director/RO is new, we should take or time to calmly explain the problem with the stage and how to fix/remedy the prob, not hop up and down/squeal/cry/whine etc.

Pat

[Ross Chevalier]

Thanks Pat, for the compliment.  (And mr. harrison is one of those shooters from whom a compliment is value highly).

Your points are well taken.  There is no excuse for a job done poorly when the capacity is there to do it well.

[HeadHunter]

I find being a Match Director to be a lot of fun; I don't try to be a jerk, but I largely approach it from the "my way or the highway" perspective.

Fortunately, my courses don't appeal much to wankers so few of them show up and almost none come back. I like it that way.

http://www.hunting-pictures.com/members/HeadHunter/

BTW, I really enjoy the high quality of discussion on this Forum. Glad I found it.

(Edited by HeadHunter at 10:41 pm on July 2, 2001)

[ErikW]

Oh yeah, I can game those stages big-time.