Poorly Run Competitions

[TheBelly]

So, what to do if the competition is run poorly? What would YOU do?

theres a local match here that has pistol, carbine, and precision rifle as the weapon systems. During the precision rifle only stage, I noticed the following:

1. If other shooters, using their naked eye, are telling the RO that the shooter got a hit (on 400m steel), then maybe they did. The RO claims the hits are from other stages, but the other stages aren't shooting the same steel, are they? The RO was also the spotter. this required the shooter to tell the RO where they were going to shoot. Maybe use a separate spotters so the shooters can focus on the shooting and not trying to get the spotter on, which wastes time.


2. If there is going to be a par time, then that should be part of the brief, either at the stage or at the shooters meeting prior to the start. Finding out when the buzzer goes off is not the time to find out these things.


3. RO starting stages before the shooter is ready. More specifically, the shooter saying, "I have questions." And the RO starting the stage anyway. When the shooter asks questions, the RO just says, "You're eating into your time."

On the first stage I noticed:

4. Other shooters taping the targets before the scorer can make it around and before the shooter can review. When asked by other shooters why the taping started, the response was, "You got the hits, what does it matter?" It matters because people want to see where they hit. I certainly do.

On the third stage I noticed:

5. The ROs were messing with people's equipment in between shooters. While I was off taking a leak, the RO was handling and touching my carbine. I was told this by other shooters. When asked if it was true, the RO answered that he had and that it was no big deal. Stop finger-banging my rifle, clown!

after three stages, I asked to talk to the match director. He again told me about how much work goes into putting on this match and that it took several weeks to set up. Nowhere in there was he interested in helping the shooters figure out why the ROs are doing what they're doing. Oh, and Hosers matches at PWSA are more complicated than this to set up, so I wonder why he's crying about getting it set up. He had 13 people helping him.

Never again will I attend a match run by that frittata.

[rtr]

Sounds like quite a circus.

[TheBelly]

Several ROs and the MD decided that clown shoes were the footwear of the day.

[Delfuego]

You ready to move home Belly???

[TheBelly]

You ready to move home Belly???

Trying. Uncle Sugar says, "Not only NO, but....."

[Tim K]

Oh, quit your whining!




Honestly, if they are that bad I'd start worrying about safety.

[Big Wall]

No. You can't have Hoser. He's ours.

[CHA-LEE]

We have well run matches here in Colorado due to all of the different clubs and competition between clubs trying to make their match better than the other guy. I have attended some pretty horribly run matches in my travels outside of Colorado. Every time I do I try to communicate my findings with the Match Director and thank the stars that those issues don't happen back home.

If you have already communicated your issues to the Match Director and it is falling on deaf ears, then all you can do is show your displeasure by not attending again. Voting with your feet seems to be the best idea in those kind of scenarios.

[MarkCO]

A clustermess might be okay once, but the second time it better get better. Three choices (IMHO), tell the MD (works sometimes), offer to be the MD/RM, run a competing match and do it right. In your situation, do #3 or find someone else who runs good matches down there.

With the number of people, especially in TX, that KNOW how to run a good match, running a bad one is probably an indication of a personality with other issues. I don't care who it is, I ask my customers, and staff for feedback...build on the good and fix the bad. No such thing as perfect, but it is worth trying to get closer every time.

[TheBelly]

I emailed the match director. We'll see what happens.