How Hard Should Club Level Matches Be?

[uod]

If you only have easy stages, the new/beginner shooters will never have an opportunity to grow. No matter how hard you make a stage, a beginner shooter can always take it slow and steady and get it done. That's what I tell anyone starting out who is intimidated by a stage. Go slow. Take 2 minutes to shoot it if you have to. Speed with come with time. I have honestly never seen a shooter stop shooting the sport because stages were too hard.

Now -- we do need to make a differentiation between hard to shoot, and hard to shoot safely. Those are two different things, and the latter has caused me to lose a few shooters. Designing a stage where a new shooter has to run backwards, reload while running towards the direction of their weak hand, transition around objects, etc could cause a newbie to get DQ'd for breaking the 180. If you have a stage that incorporates these things, it's always good to pull the new shooters aside and let them know what to be careful of.

[Whoops!]

I wish club level stages were always harder than area matches, I'd go more often. I think no matter how easy or hard a stage is, a new shooter will sometimes get discouraged because the GM always shoots it in a third or less of their required time. It doesn't matter if you put a 6 inch steel at 50 yards, a lot of GMs out there are going to put it down in less than a second while new shooters are missing it consistently at 10 yards.

Now -- we do need to make a differentiation between hard to shoot, and hard to shoot safely. Those are two different things, and the latter has caused me to lose a few shooters. Designing a stage where a new shooter has to run backwards, reload while running towards the direction of their weak hand, transition around objects, etc could cause a newbie to get DQ'd for breaking the 180. If you have a stage that incorporates these things, it's always good to pull the new shooters aside and let them know what to be careful of.

I agree with this.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Whoops!

[mag17]

The stage designs have to be challenging and as to the aspect of safety, new shooters should understand the importance of "walk throughs" and asking questions.... I still remember getting "finger" word on reloads (Keep that finger out of the trigger guard while reloading) - yeap, broke that bad habit in a hurry.... At our local club on practice nights, we remind all shooters to shoot at their OWN pace and do it SAFELY (period) - speed will come.

[stickboy44]

i try to make some of my stages somewhat hard and throw in a hoser stage here and there

[bofe954]

I think you should be able to look at your match results and have no DQ's, and the C shooters should have a mike or two per match. With 6 stages maybe more.

[newmexicocrawler]

I think all local matches should be state match level