That is one of the great things about USPSA, it's freestyle! If you want to shoot the stages without a walk through, you can, that is your choice.
I don't care for gratitious movement, memory stages or COF's that don't flow (Like Area 5). I don't mind movement and like to shoot on the move but turning the COF into a foot race...well, it's usually done by a COF designer to play to his own strengths.
Stages that will not discourage lower class shooters and challenge higher classed shooters
moving while shooting
options
speed shoots that have risk vs reward
stages that present targets from different angles, not exactly a memory stage, but something you have to get a plan, not just the old 8, 8, 8, 8
Everyone should be offering to draw up some stages for their local matches, offering to come set it up.
MD's sometime can get stuck in the same "rhythm" of stages, or just use the same pattern of fault line, walls and move targets around, where you end up feeling like you have shot this before....
trying to plan out 8-9 matches for the year is having to come up with 40-50 stages.
I just like to shoot things!
Oh, I forgot: fixed time courses of fire suck a**. Yeah, they're a great challenge for the highly skilled shooters, but most of them are really frustrating for people like me when we don't get half of the shots fired, much less misses.
As a green competitor, I'd say club levels should be fun. No gotchas, etc.
And you could certainly make a blind CoF as long as it's simple and doesn't have targets that are easily missed I would think. Or you have a "no backup, forward motion only" rule? (missed it? Tough take the miss and move on) or is that asking too much?
and could you make one set of targets random as a compromise between totally blind and totally known CoF? For example:
Three targets behind the cover of a barrel wall and one no shoot, with the no shoot moved (or not) in front of one of the three random targets. Only the paster knows where it will be for the next shooter. You get to the last set of targets, and don't know where the no shoot is until you stick your head around the obstruction due to how the wall is placed relative to the rest of the course.
As a green competitor, I'd say club levels should be fun. No gotchas, etc.
And you could certainly make a blind CoF as long as it's simple and doesn't have targets that are easily missed I would think. Or you have a "no backup, forward motion only" rule? (missed it? Tough take the miss and move on) or is that asking too much?
and could you make one set of targets random as a compromise between totally blind and totally known CoF? For example:
Three targets behind the cover of a barrel wall and one no shoot, with the no shoot moved (or not) in front of one of the three random targets. Only the paster knows where it will be for the next shooter. You get to the last set of targets, and don't know where the no shoot is until you stick your head around the obstruction due to how the wall is placed relative to the rest of the course.
That sort of thing actually wouldn't be without precedent, surprisingly enough. The 1993 World shoot did it.
World Shoot X 1993 - YouTube
As a green competitor, I'd say club levels should be fun. No gotchas, etc.
And you could certainly make a blind CoF as long as it's simple and doesn't have targets that are easily missed I would think. Or you have a "no backup, forward motion only" rule? (missed it? Tough take the miss and move on) or is that asking too much?
and could you make one set of targets random as a compromise between totally blind and totally known CoF? For example:
Three targets behind the cover of a barrel wall and one no shoot, with the no shoot moved (or not) in front of one of the three random targets. Only the paster knows where it will be for the next shooter. You get to the last set of targets, and don't know where the no shoot is until you stick your head around the obstruction due to how the wall is placed relative to the rest of the course.
I don't get it. You start off nay-saying "Gotcha" stages, then you dream up moving target arrays around between shooters. Total 180 bipolar stuff going on right there.
If you want to understand the sport, I suggest you sign up for a RO class. That will help you interpret the rules, stage design, RO and Shooter expectations, etc...
Simmer down; you missed my point. There is a difference between a gotcha, and a known, blind target configured within a specific set of parameters. In my mind, a gotcha is as one person stated... multiple swingers, insane targets, etc. Something designed to drive down scores on purpose and make it harder than it needs to be.
The problem stated with blind targets (RVB's first point in Post 11) is that its hard to keep them truly blind due to those that have seen it and may spill the beans. I was just spitballing a way to keep a portion of the CoF truly blind to make it interesting, without being too hard to pull off. You know at one point you are going to have three targets, one will be partially obscured by a no shoot. But which one? Without knowing EXACTLY how the targets are laid out you cant completely visualize what you are going to do as you lean around that cover. its not a gotcha if you know its coming and in and of itself is not difficult.
And relax. I'm not trying to completely understand stage design... just throwing out ideas as a novice as prefaced in my post. Sometimes the best ideas come from someone who through ignorance, thinks outside the box on accident because they dont know where the sides of the box are.
Or did I miss the OP's caveat that comments were only welcome from experts who have attended a RO class and completely understand the sport in every possible way?
Or did I miss the OP's caveat that comments were only welcome from experts who have attended a RO class and completely understand the sport in every possible way?