NickBlasta's Training and Match Journal

[Garmil]

I shot the match today. Made some very fun stages, good job!

[NickBlasta]

1/31/2016

Match

Backstory: I always hear from lots of my shooter-buddies around the country that clubs throw matches on the 5th weekend, particularly doing crazy stuff that they don't usually do. Up here, nobody does ANY shooting events on the 5th week. So I kinda lost my mind and said 'gimme your action bays and I'll give you a match'. My good buddy agreed to co-MD with me and whipped up stages of her own and made some edits to mine that I liked. She has a good eye for stages. I had a TON of help from the club staff and shooter volunteers on setup, much thanks to them.

I had several goals in mind with my stage design.

1. The primary guiding concept was giving the shooter multiple choices with how to shoot the stage, choices that could be made based on risk and reward, the shooter's confidence or level of skill, level of physicality, and division or magazine capacity.

2. The second goal was to challenge shooters without having it be punishing. I kind of understand that people don't like to be forced to do difficult things, but I wanted to test skills that aren't usually tested in our matches. Hard leans, possibly single handed shots, kneeling or prone, uprange movement, precise footwork, lots of movement. I decided to make a lot of these things 'optional' where if the shooter did what I wanted it might save them time.

3. Third was to really test shooter's stage planning. The stages are large and complex, and I decided if possible I would try and present the 'hard' or 'risky' choice as the obvious one, so that they'd have to make a plan and stick to it to shoot more safely. I would also include things like wide open hosing targets and then switch to partials or long shots to force speed or distance change-ups, or combine a run with precise footwork. There were also a pair of 35-round stages, forcing the low-cap shooters to plan to possibly use an additional magazine and the high-cap shooters to be a little more careful.

4. Fourth was beta-testing match management. I plan to start a club in my neck of the woods and this showed me exactly how running a match would look.


Stage 1:


This was 'my' stage, one that survived basically unedited from my initial concept. It has the greatest amount of shooter choice and freestyle in the whole match, I think. The first thing I wanted to do was introduce a variable start position. I was pleased to see that the shooters were almost evenly divided between the three, basically choosing whichever they were most comfortable with or thought was the fastest. Next was changing the stage breakdown by having the magazines on the barrel, so that either people could reload off it while moving downrange or grab and stuff their belt. Open guys could do it in one mag. My concept for the front-middle of the stage was to have the shooter do a pretty hard/awkward lean out to get the target on the side of the wall, but also able to possibly grab the partial NS targets. I was surprised when most people did strong hand/weak hand for this rather than lean. The last choice was to either get the last four targets with a hard lean out to the side, or to run around the wall to the last bit of shooting area. There was a LOT of variation in how shooters ran this stage.

Stage 2:


The initial concept for this stage I admit I borrowed, but I wanted a very narrow shooting area to create a movement-based challenge. I ended up making a 4" wide plank out of a pair of 2x4s down the length of the stage. The rest of the stage changed around it. The poppers at the end were to activate two props, a swinger and a clamshell. I wanted the clamshell to make shooters remember not to shoot that popper from the shooting area, and I had to eliminate the clamshell because it wasn't cooperating on the morning setup, but my concerns were unfounded as far as I saw almost nobody took the poppers from the initial shooting area. The start position with the slant encouraged the shooter to draw to and engage the target while retreating, have four wide open targets to hose, and then force a speed/precision change-up moving to a tight shooting area with partials presenting through ports only. They then had to decide to move the minimum distance up the plank to engage the last array or to go all the way for an easier shot on the difficult targets at the end of the bay.

Stage 3:


The only concept of mine that survived in this stage was a kneeling position available at the end, my co-MD designed all the rest of it. I like what she did creating some interesting uprange movement challenges, turns to negotiate including one created by the facing uprange start, and the targets alternately available through ports and on the move, creating a lot of division and skill-based choice. The position at the end was mine. I wanted people to kneel or crouch, so all the targets at the end were available through the port. But if a shooter didn't want to go into that position, the targets were available but only around each side of the wall, as there was a blocking wall in the center. I saw some unexpected choice in this stage, as to whether shooters ended in the port, or ended in the second uprange-movement portion, as that was possibly a more awkward position to get out of than a crouch.

Stage 4:
99-34, Ported View. We picked it because we hadn't ever shot it before. Surprisingly interesting because while it's not obvious, the start position and the port position creates a pretty awkward hunched shooting posture that most people had some difficulty with, particularly with nailing their reload. But it's just a classifier sooo...

Stage 5:


The design concept for this stage was an arrangement of walls that allowed the shooter to take all the targets from the uprange side of the bay, possibly saving time but making the shots more difficult, or to run up to them and shoot them with almost no distance at all. I saw a lot of variation in whether shooters used the ports, how many ports, where they shot targets from, all based on individual preference, which is what I wanted.

Stage 6:


This was entirely my co-MD's stage with little input from me. The choice mostly invested in which targets you took from which positions, since many were available in multiple places and a lot of the time-saving shots were tighter ones. We originally wanted the swinger to only present the C-D zone from the right-side port, and the A zone from the right wall-lean, but at some point after setup the swinger was moved into a position where you could see the A-zone from the right port, meaning nobody went for the lean as there was no point. Just another thing to learn from the beta-test. This was a challenging stage where many shooters forgot to engage certain targets. It also had my co-MD's signature move, a hidden b-steel only visible from the far left position.


As to how it went, well, it kind of exceeded my expectations. A LOT of people came out, we almost topped 70 shooters which is about double the usual attendance for the off-season. Every shooter came up to us to give positive comments. I did hear some grumbling about targets being close to the 180, but less than I expected using such difficult shots. We only had two DQs so I didn't feel like it was too risky.

1. I was afraid that despite the choice, many shooters would copy the shooter before them no matter what choices were available. Completely unfounded, goal 1 was a clear success as nearly every shooter chose a plan that suited them, based on the reasons that I was shooting for. On some stages every shooter in my squad picked a different plan, which is completely unprecedented. The shooters loved the choices available too and it was one of their favorite things.

2. I had unanimous praise for the level of difficulty present in the match. Instead of 'ugh that was so hard I hate this' I heard a lot of people saying 'man I leaned out so far and I sucked at it, but it sure was fun!' which for me, is perfect. I think that having the choice not to do a thing, but choosing to do it anyway and failing at it, a lot of shooters liked over being forced to do a thing and failing at it.

3. While more intangible of a goal, I thought I had decent success at forcing shooters to really plan their runs. I saw hesitation in people blowing past ports (like 'should I stop here, no stick to the plan') and things like that. The shooters particularly liked the movement-based challenges, as often here stages do not have a lot of movement or footwork-related problems.

4. The beta-test provided me with some valuable data. Don't set up a super-complicated match unless you have a lot of volunteers. Have some pre-made targets to debug stages with. We did no stage debugging before the morning of the match due to time, and thankfully, the shooters walking the stages came up to us to help us. "I like this stage and I think I see what you want us to do, but, did you want us to be able to shoot the whole stage from the start box if we lean a little?" :v: One of my awesome helpers ran out and threw up a lot of vision barriers and for the most part, I thought the stages were pretty airtight. I don't MIND people gaming stages, for I merely present the stage as a problem for you to solve, but we want them to present an interesting challenge all the same.

[NickBlasta]

Useless without video... it's really clear to see the difference in stage breakdown among the shooters.

Mine, an M-class Open shooter. Maybe I'm a good example of choice because I thought I'd have fun and take all the risky ones. I fall over pretty early on.

My M-class Open buddy who beat me, and also took a 360-degree video,

Production GM,

Limited GM,

Production M,

Hope you enjoy my effortpost. Thanks!

[NickBlasta]

2/9/2016

Match

Open Div - 2nd of 4 - 89.85%
Overall - 2nd of 21 - 89.85%
176 of 190 available points - 24A 14C - 92.63% (No penalties)

Fun lil' indoor match, haven't hit it up in awhile so I decided to drive up. Thought I did ok, about 90% of the GM is good for me. Messed up the reload on the last stage but it was like 20 match points so who cares.

[NickBlasta]

2/14/2016

Match

Open Div - 4th of 10 - 82%
Overall - 6th of 50 - 82%
683 of 740 available points - 119A 21C 7D 1M - 92.29% (94.32% without penalties)

I learned from this match as I've been pushing speed, my SOTM has gotten sloppy, particularly with steel. I'm focusing on that in DF now, along with seeing my stupid dot on the steel before I pull the trigger. Remarkably hard thing to do. Kind of disappointed, I came in like 3rd master which is stupid. I need to get more better.

[NickBlasta]

A bit off topic but that looks like a match with great stages!

Thank you.

2/21/2016

Match

Open Div - 3rd of 13 - 84.19%

Overall - 3rd of 73 - 84.17%

Classifier 13-01 "Disaster Factor" (8A 2C 1D 1M 6.69s) - 5.9791 HF - 53.11%

646 of 685 available points - 118A 15C 3D 1M - 94.30% (95.76% without penalties)

I shot good points this match and 85% of the two GMs, so I suppose it was... decent. I did suffer my first unintentional fall shooting USPSA. Note to self, take a minute and collect yourself even if you feel fine, I was like 'no I'm good' and shot right after that and shot like crap. The strong hand stuff I could have nailed shot for shot any other time. Lesson learned.

Edited March 3, 2016 by NickBlasta

[NickBlasta]

3/20/2016

Been light on updates, I've been practicing a lot. Feel like my level of skill is improving, if fitfully. You know, over all. As a trend.

But I had a good match so I decided I'd post it.

Open Div - 4th of 20 - 87.797%
Overall - 4th of 73 - 87.797%
Classifier 09-09 "Lightning and Thunder" (8A 9C 1NPM) - 76 HF - 84.44%%
686 of 745 available points - 114A 3B 27C 3D 1M 1NPM - 92.08% (93.42% without penalties)

I think I can see improvements in my shooting and transitions and my movement. When I mess up (which I do) I think it's less of an impact than before. I can keep chasing this!

After this I shot Berry's Steel. I'll post that up in a bit.

Edited April 16, 2016 by NickBlasta

[NickBlasta]

4/9/2016

Combined
Open Div - 8th of 62 - 80.06%
-
Steel Challenge
Open Division - 8th of 62
Overall - 23rd of 220
-
TNS (Time Plus)
Open Division - 9th of 62
Overall - 10th of 220
-
Par Time
Open Division - 11th of 62
Overall - 17th of 220

Berry's Steel Open! I gotta say this was probably the funnest match I've ever shot, and man, unexpectedly difficult. From what video I've seen and from shooter anecdotes they really cranked up the difficulty this year. Like, you can't even see targets in the videos. Because there were a bunch of 2x4" rams, 2x3" chickens, 2x2" dixie cups out at distance. Wicked.

Like this, what the heck.

Anyway, I think having an optic was a huge bonus, it seemed like many of the irons shooters were frustrated at the difficulty. I think an ability to go as close to 1 for 1 on the steel as possible would help though, and retaining the proper mindset between changing modes from par time to time plus.

I managed 8th and 80% of Kincaid so I was pretty pleased. My lack of interest in steel challenge definitely brought me down but I was consistently decent at the par time stages and gained ground on the time plus stages.

I'd go again.

[CZinZA]

Looks tough.

Might be easier to aim for the stands instead of the tiny targets on them

Sent by Jedi mind control

[NickBlasta]

I've been pretty busy working and getting gooder so I felt like posting an update.

 

 

I made GM! Barely.

 

But I was doing up some videos and finished a couple that I think really show how my work has paid off. I worked particularly on aggression in my shooting, taking less time to enter and exit, and blending my shooting into moving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2017 by NickBlasta