Attracting People To The Game

[redmist10]

Those M and GM shooters are at the matches to compete, just like everybody else.  Chances are, they have worked hard to get where that are...why not just let them compete?  They don't pay thier money to shoot so that they can put on a clinic, do they?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry - this got rather lengthy: It really isn't a rant. Hope it doesn't come off that way.

I've tried six times to compose a reply that didn't sound nasty. It always reads like this is an issue for me when I could care less. Personally, it doesn't bother me in the least if there are super squads. I'm just trying to answer "the question" as an IDPA guy converted to USPSA.

True, they are indeed there to compete just like everyone else…but removing the top level to an isolated position negates the very definition of “like everyone else”…they are no longer shooting just like everybody else. Their match isn’t like everyone else’s…there actually might be pitfalls in a match that they can’t control. That is part of everyone else’s experience why not the top M and GM shooters?

I don't think a M or GM in the squad is there to do anything other than the rest of the squad - compete. Simply by observing a high caliber shooter you pick up things. Every good shooting "how to" book will tell you to shoot with someone of higher ability to learn good habits....if it works in practice why can't you do the same thing in a major match?

I know a few GM's (no, really ) that have yet to win majors and they say it is because they lack major match experience. Until they reach 98-100% rankings do you really think they will be on a super squad? Doubtful but it could happen. When they get to the SS what will they be doing??? Watching and learning - you might call it - a clinic. Will you offer to pay for their match fees when you make it so that you don't feel guilty watching and mingling?

A lower GM or M can learn from the super squad shooters as much as the D-A list folks learn from M to GM. Trouble is....the D-A folks won't have the opportunity for many years by which point they may give up. Personally, watching better shooters at a club match or major I pick up one or two tiny things every time. It may take me a year or two to put it to good use but the knowledge is there and I can work to perfect it. I don't think I've screwed up too many club matches for Flex or SA by observing those guys (hopefully not, anyway)...now if you get some "how should I shoot this one?" and "this one?" for ten stages then the GM would have every right to tell a guy to get lost. Most shooters get that point and will give a guy room to shoot his match and simply watch. If a guy can't handle the "pressure" of C-M class shooters watching him then they should take up bowling.

If none of us shared "how'd we do that" not many of us would advance. If becoming as good as Jerry Miculek I don't act as cordial and respectfully as he did on the mixed squad I witnessed at the 2005 IDPA Nationals then I don't ever want to be as good as JM.

Conversely, a friend of mine went to a major IDPA match with me last year. A super duper squad member was going to be in our midst, actually on our squad. I was excited as this guy was a big time USPSA shooter and I was thinking of beginning my evil IPSC transformation - my friend pontificated (for hours!) on the way to the match that the guy would be just like all the other A-holes he remembered from the 80's when he last shot IPSC. We had money on it...I lost five bucks. The guy was a first rate A-hole, argued every damn call, didn’t listen to procedures, never pasted or moved his sorry ass out from the shade...I was totally bummed. It was a clinic...how not to be when you reach that level. I don't think we spoke three words to him in two days...it sucked. I was totally flustered. It was a missed opportunity for him as well as for the guys he influenced.

I didn’t let him deter me from enjoying USPSA; however my friend never tires of telling all our IDPA buddies how he took my money because some A-hole acted just like the A-holes from twenty years ago…. and I can’t drag him to a USPSA match. So we’re still losing money.

[LChico]

I can't speak for the folks who set up the Nationals, but at other matches, sometimes the "super squads" exist because those guys requested to shoot together. I do not use the on-line squadding option, because I prefer at honor individual squad requests. I do not require shooters to send applications in the same envelope.

At matches I have worked in the past (Area 6, Summer Blast, SC, TN & NC), I always honor individual requests. JJ, Chis and Max request to shoot together & I honor their requests in the same way I honor those of any other shooter in the match.

Phil Strader sends in his entire squad together. I will also have entire squads of c & D production shooters, or squads where everybody is from the same local club. When you pay that much money to shoot a major match, you should have some choice in who is on your squad.

Linda Chico

Columbia SC

[redmist10]

  When you pay that much money to shoot a major match, you should have some choice in who is on your squad.

Linda Chico

Columbia SC

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very true, but from a marketing standpoint, USPSA is making it mandatory that some folks shoot in the Super Squads.

Do they charge admission for spectators? Super Squads might make sense if they did....

[shred]

Honestly, I think what a C or D shooter can learn by watching a GM shoot a stage in 'real time' is more limited in value than it appears. Sure you'll learn the best path through a stage.. for a GM with that GM's skills, and no doubt the 'smooth is fast' mantra will be hammered home, but.. compare, say, Max and Eric. One tries to shoot set up in one position as much as possible, while the other shoots non-stop on the move. What you learn from that depends greatly on where you are along the skill and experience curves.

ObSuperSquads: These guys ask and expect to be squadded together. They do it almost every weekend, they know each other, most of them get along. Random other shooters are an unknown quantity. Minimizing the unknown is usually a good thing for top performance. Sucks for the rest of us, but it's true.

[George]

From another competitors standpoint, I like supersquads keeping the super GM's in one basket. When I am shooting a major match, I like to see a few of them shoot if possible and you do not always have the time to wait for them to come up if they were spread around. Keep them all together and as long as the squad is shooting, I don't have to wait to see a big dawg shoot.

Yes, this is spectator selfish, but what the customers want is what it is all about here (mostly). Typically, we want to shoot as well as we can and watch others do the same, especially if they are better than we are. JACO (just another customers opinion).

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Regards,

[Jake Di Vita]

The problem is people are thinking of GMs like they are something other than a competitor.

Replace GM with C for all I care...the only difference is skill. Do I want to shoot with the top guys as much as possible? Yes...but if I don't get squadded with them it isn't going to affect my performance.

I just want to shoot.