You'd think that USPSA would have come up with a way to enter just classifiers per competitor rather than as a whole match by now. I'm sure this happens at plenty of other matches as well. or am I wrong?
It's not USPSA that needs to figure it out. People running squads need to be sure the shooters are starting correctly, thats all there is to it. Dave could submit the scores for those who shot the stage right, but that would require he find out every single person who shot it wrong, updating their scores with a DNF for the stage, then submitting it to USPSA, a completely impractical task since there is no way he knows who was on what squad and shot it wrong or right.
I knew I shot the classifier conservatively (and the right way) due to the high disaster factor, but was shocked when I saw just how much faster some of the times were. I'm happy to see why.
As for the classification system, I do think it's kind of ridiculous that something from many years ago can still count towards your average, but it's the system we play under, so no sense complaining about it, it works both ways at majors. It's amusing to see the last GM being beaten by legit lifetime B class shooters, and it's frustrating when you shoot against foreign competitors who shoot maybe 6 classifiers in 10 years and are still C class shooters, finishing in the top 10%. And really, who cares what class you're in, if you're a GM getting beat by A shooters, you're not a GM, you're a poser. Which is really the reason you see people leave the sport who got to a high class. It's not that they reached some pinnacle of performance, it's that they practiced the shit out of classifiers, achieved their goal so they could brag they made master or whatever, and gave it up. Those of us who have been around a long time know who achieved those levels and then quit shooting. It had nothing to do with being unable to sustain a level of performance. They quit because they were posers. They didn't win, but thought they were entitled to because they achieved some perceived great class. When they didn't, and got beat by lower class shooters week after week, their ego was hurt, they got frustrated and quit. They could shoot classifiers, that was it. Stick them on a stage that required figuring out how to shoot it, and they sucked. The true measure of your class is found at major matches, against the top shooters in the world, on any given day, on your first and only run, not on classifiers.
And prizes by raffle are always the most ridiculous and insulting way of awarding anything. You want a raffle prize? go to your church fundraiser, or play the lottery.
Prizes at a match should be awarded on achievement, not random chance, we aren't buying a lottery ticket when we enter a match. I wish more major match directors would heed this. Rob Boudrie had a survey a bunch of years back which showed the majority of shooters in this area wanted prizes based on achievement, not drawing. Sadly, the results were ignored.
and if someone wants to hate on Mike doubting he'd do well in IDPA, they've never seen him shoot a production gun. He's ridiculous good with one. I thought he should leave open a few years ago and pursue a possible sponsorship with the company who's gun he had, he was that good. I can also verify he is good at slicing a pie, or at least a cake, since I went to his house for a halloween party once.
And finally, to get back on topic, great match last week at New Bedford, I thought they were great stages, mixing accuracy with speed and requiring you to think a tiny bit on a couple of the stages.
And Dave, Thanks for saying good shooting to me, but as far as i'm concerned, it's not good enough, right now, 9x21 is the best, he's got a good amount of wins so far this year, and he wasn't at New Bedford, so the win means nothing.
And for the record, I went .396 my last year in little league, and was eliminated in the final game in a best of three series for the state championship in all stars. I didn't play T ball, so can't figure that in, but pretty sure I'd ground out a bunch if I went to the batting cages now. But I'm going to consider myself a hall of famer, cuz i quit at my peak.