What dictates the number of "slots" at an Area match?

[Jay870]

As I understand it all Area matches are open registration, and actual participation may vary based on a number of factors... but what determines the maximum number of shooters at an Area match?

For example... Area 6 has 338 squadded competitors. Area 7 has only 158 and there is already a wait list. Is there a formula for it, or is a judgement call of the match director based on the facilities and stages?

[Alan Meek]

As I understand it all Area matches are open registration, and actual participation may vary based on a number of factors... but what determines the maximum number of shooters at an Area match?

For example... Area 6 has 338 squadded competitors. Area 7 has only 158 and there is already a wait list. Is there a formula for it, or is a judgement call of the match director based on the facilities and stages?

Four things,

Number of days match is to held over, Number of stages, Clearance time of the squad on the stage, and staffing levels.

[Flexmoney]

Just some extra math.

We usually can turn a shooter in 3 minutes. But, we always scheduled 4 minutes per shooter. If you have 10 shooters on a squad, that is 40 minutes of shooting time. Add in a 5 minutes walk-thru and another 5 minutes for squads to transit from one stage to another, and you are looking at about 50 minutes for a squad of 10.

10 stages is 8 hrs. and 20 min.

Add in a lunch and you have a pretty full day.

Some ranges may have 8 shooting bays, some might have room for more.

Some matches like to get all the shooting done in one day. Some have the competitors shoot over multiple days.

[Rob Boudrie]

Area 7 has only 158 and there is already a wait list.

I'll answer this for Area 7.

It depends on the host organization. The match director for the Area 7 Championship told me his staff could handle 9 squads per day, one shoot time per day, Sat and Sun plus ROs & sponsors on Friday. The RO & Sponsor limit is not absolute and any competitor who understands Friday may not go as quickly (we'll start "sometime after 9:30 in the morning" rather than "9:30 sharp") is welcome to shoot with us on Friday.

[JThompson]

Thanks Flex... something I knew little about...

[Jay870]

Makes sense & answers the question.

I guess the question really boils down to whether it was policy based or logistics based and it sounds like the latter.

[Flexmoney]

I don't like to schedule squads with less than 8 shooter.

You'll have one person shooting, one on deck, and one that just finished. That puts you down to 5 for stage reset. One of those might be off fixing their broken 1911, trying to find a battery for their red-dot, DQ'ed from the match, or off to the port-a-pot...so you might have 4 people doing stage resetting. And, nobody wants to be on their feet all day long... It's nice to have a few extra bodies on the squad to reset the stages.

8 on a squad is my minimum. 12 per squad would be about the max I would do for a one day match, and that is with me looking REAL hard at the stage design with a mind on keeping the stages flowing. 10 per squad is about right though.

We always finish early.

Elaborate stages (lots of movers to reset or break), pouring down rain all day, too much sun and heat, goofy stage procedures (that take extra explaining/demonstrations), running out of supplies...lots of stuff can slow a match down.

I actually consult the Farmer's Almanac to see what the weather is likely to be (as well as how much daylight we will get). I like the self-squadding feature that USPSA has available now, but there are advantages to having control of that too. When I squad the match, I won't fill a squad full of super-seniors wearing 4XL shirts, for example.

(Rob, I'll bet you guys would be just as well off by allowing one or two more on those squads...unless you see trouble ahead.)

[Paul Santiago]

One of those might be off fixing their broken 1911, trying to find a battery for their red-dot

Subtle......

Thanks for the math also. Good to know!!

Edited April 18, 2008 by pas44

[John Heiter]

Our cap per squad is determined pretty much the same way Flex does his. I like 10 on a squad and no more than 12 unless they're a proven squad of movers (people who shoot together enough that I know they will move fast and not hold things up).

I determine our squad capacity by counting our "places to go". By places to go, I mean all my stages, chrono if there is one, and an off period (break). Ideally, I would like to give my RO's a break and have more places to go than squads. This means that, if you rotate it right, some RO's get a "break" when they don't have competitors on top of them.

To get more shooters in, I can eliminate that RO break, but that means I need to have three RO's per stage instead of two so that they can rotate out and give each other a break during the day. You're adding ten more shooters in the extra squad but you have to add ten+ RO's to get them in. Some extra headache there but hey, it's 20 more shooters in the match so that's all good. After that, if we wanted to expand, we would have two options. We could have more squads on break at the same time but no one wants to come to a match to stand around NOT shooting so that's no good. That's probably why you're seeing more and more matches go to option two, the half day format. It makes the match longer, but it effectively doubles the number of places to go so you can get more shooters in.

[Jaxshooter]

Most of the 4 XL Seniors and Super Seniors are a lot faster than the prima dona hot shots. They don't spend all day loading thier guns and checking the barrel 5 times to make sure there is a round chambered or grip thier gun 10 times or move magazines around on the belt etc. Just defending us old folks.

Thanks

2XL SENOIR