Stage Planning

[JoeF]

I think my stage plans are pretty good, until the beep and I pretty much forget everything I had planned... Anyone have any tips or tricks for remembering the plan?

 

[dennishoddy]

I follow your plan.

 

[Burk Cornelius]

That is the age-old question that almost all shooters face. You will get every conceivable answer to this question but most of them will say something about trying to visualize the run as many times as you can during and after your walk-thru up until you shoot. And don't change your plan after you see the shooter right before you do it differently.

I do, however, watch better shooters in my division do their walk thru and get some ideas and talk it over with them, but after my plan is made I go over it as many times as I can in my mind and try not to change it.

That being said, one of the best ways to not forget your stage plan, is to not have one. BOOM!

 

[runawaygun762]

That being said, one of the best ways to not forget your stage plan, is to not have one. BOOM!

^^^This. Very much this^^^ I like to stand off to the side with my eyes closed and airgun a stage while another shooter is going. I look like I'm deep in thought, using positive mental visualization, but I'm actually trying to decide if I want a grilled chicken quesarito with no sour cream, add guacamole or if I want a steak XXL stuffed burrito when I hit the Taco bell after the match.

 

[Glock_21]

I think it's the beeper on the timer that makes me lose my mind. Maybe if the RO just said "Go", or "Ready, Aim, Fire"........

 

[jtischauser]

I think my stage plans are pretty good, until the beep and I pretty much forget everything I had planned... Anyone have any tips or tricks for remembering the plan?

Remembering the plan should be easy. I can remember every stage plan I make for several days after a match. That's how many times I go through them. They are committed completely to Memory so that once the buzzer goes off all that you're doing is focusing on what the sights are doing and managing problems as they occur so you can get back on that plan.

The way i remember stage plans for days is to get to match early walk every stage and get my initial plan. At a big match I'll do a video walk through talking to the camera telling myself what to do and where to do it making verbal notes of things to watch out for. That night I'll watch the videos while drinking with the boys, on the shitter, lying in bed, again when I wake up at 3am from the hangover headache, and again at 6am when I take my morning dump. When I get to the range I'll get to the stage im shooting first, second and maybe third I'll walk it as many times as possible. Then back to stage 1 and walk, walk, walk until I need to get gear ready and shoot the stage. Any time you're not resetting you should be going through the stage in your head. If you can't remember everything after all that you need medical assistance. Don't play grab ass with your buddy's until after you shoot the stage: that's why I like to shoot first. Once I'm done with my run I can turn off the mental game for a few shooters and have some fun with the guys making fun of Feegee or Wall.

Now most new shooters don't have problems remembering the actual plan but do struggle with staying calm, and on track once things stop going as planned. That's the hard part. If you're shooting skills are not good enough it's really easy to get really pissed off at yourself while you're not hitting targers as fast or as accurately as you'd like. Sometimes you get so pissed that you forget the stuff you're supposed to do (your plan) after the frustrating shooting. If that's your problem you need to hone your shooting skills by taking some classes, practicing more, and/or simply working on not freaking the eff out when elephant dung doesn't go as planned. News flash I've never shot a stage that went 100% as planned. In fact the top guys are great shots on top of being great problem solvers under pressure.

Hope that helps!

 

[Burk Cornelius]

Remembering the plan should be easy. I can remember every stage plan I make for several days after a match. That's how many times I go through them. They are committed completely to
Memory do that once the buzzer goes off all you're doing is figuring on what the sights are doing and managing problems as they occur do you can get back on that plan.

The way i remember stage plans for days is to get to match early walk every stage and get my initial plan. At a big match I'll do a video walk through talking to the camera telling myself what to do and where to do it making verbal notes of things to watch out for. That night I'll watch the videos drinking with the boys, on the shitter, lying in bed, again when I wake up at 3am from the hangover headache,and again at 6am when I take my morning dump. Then I'll get to the stage im shooting first, second and maybe third and I'll walk it as many times as possible. Then back to stage 1 and walk, walk, walk until I need to get gear ready and shoot the stage. Any time you're not resetting you should be going through the stage in your head. If you can't remember everything after all that you need medical assistance.

Now most new shooters don't have problems remembering the actual plan but do struggle with staying calm, and on track once things stop going as planned. That's the hard part. If you're shooting skills are not good enough it's really easy to get really pissed off at yourself while your not hitting targers as fast or as accurately as you'd like. Sometimes you get so pissed that you forget the stuff you're supposed to do (your plan) after the frustrating shooting. If that's your problem you need to home your skills by taking some classes, practicing more, and/or simply working on not dreaming the eff out when elephant dung doesn't go as planned. News flash I've never shot a stage that went 100% as planned. In fact the top guys are great shots on top of being great problem solvers under pressure.

Hope that helps!

You're on a roll today

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[jtischauser]

You're on a roll today

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Actually I'm on a plane with nothing to do but try to get the image of my head of the young woman breast feeding her kid with zero cover while standing at the gate counter and continuing to do so past every passenger as she and her husband border the plane. Yikes! I almost ask if I could get a sip.

 

[59nolimit]

Good advise above. I think doing as many stage walks as possible while air gunning the stage helps me the most. Problem can be tho during the air gun portion I try and hurry faster than I can shoot it which inbeds trying to hurry on the clock to much and things don't go as planned. So air gun the stages at a realistic pace and say boom boom in your head or out load as you are engaging targets. But engage them at a realistic pace!

 

[drmitchgibson]

The more you run a stage plan though your head the more you'll remember the shooting itself. You won't be focused on what to do next, you'll be acting, observing, and reacting. You will be surprised at how well you can describe every moment of your stage execution when you are focused on the shooting.

 

[Troy]

I get to a match early and do as many walkthroughs as possible paying more attention to the difficult stages. I try not to pay too much attention to how other shooters run a stage and run through the stages in my head (echoing Jesse there a bit). I have on occasion during my COF thought about the next target as I'm engaging the current target, I'm not sure that is a good strategy or not, but it seemed to have worked out for me. I wish I would have done that at the last match since I failed to engage a target on two stages.

 

[runawaygun762]

Remembering the plan should be easy. I can remember every stage plan I make for several days after a match. That's how many times I go through them. They are committed completely to Memory so that once the buzzer goes off all that you're doing is focusing on what the sights are doing and managing problems as they occur so you can get back on that plan.

This is the part I struggle with the most. I can tell you exactly what my plan is before and after the stage. I can look at a picture of a stage I shot a year ago and tell you what my plan was for that stage. but when the buzzer sounds, I'm lost. I'm the guy who looks around to see if I left anything up or asks the RO if I passed anything by. For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to execute a plan at the time. I've gotten advice from Jason Carillo that the walkthrough is like pressing "record" and the actual stage should be like playing back the video, but it feels like I'm working with a tape eating VCR while I'm shooting a stage.

 

[Burk Cornelius]

, but it feels like I'm working with a tape eating VCR while I'm shooting a stage.

It feels the same way for us, watching you shoot a stage

 

[runawaygun762]

Eat a donut. I would say eat a dick, but that would just be validating your life choices.

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[Burk Cornelius]

One of the funnest things to do when RO-ing Jesse is wait about 8 seconds after I say "Stand by" when he turns around to give me the stink eye, I give him the beep.

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[JoeF]

Thanks for all of the input. I find it harder to get the serious stage prep time at local matches. I only shot at the southeastern regional to be able to get a comp in with my brother and I can see where you can get that much in at one of those. The only other major I will be shooting in this year is the Nordic/Vortex tri-gun (due to work schedule) and I am definitely going to try to get some video of all the stages on Thursday night to really bone up and try to get everything locked in my head.

I think the other part of it is until I get some more experience (haven't shot competitively in ~15 years) I just need tone try to slow myself down and really get more smooth. I think a lot of it is I end up making a mistake and frustrate myself, which is when the plan dissapears.

 

[wav3rhythm]

I think stage planning and execution is one of the biggest challenges to overcome as a new shooter. Granted I've only been shooting USPSA for less than 2 years, I've developed a method that has been working better and better (many thanks to Micah for helping me through this):

1) Read the WSB (check start position, round count, how many hits per paper...).

2) Find all the targets on the stage - Make sure that I'm not missing any targets.

3) Figure out where I have to go on the stage in order to engage the targets (try to take the easiest shot possible).

4) Decide which order to go from position to position.

5) Walk the stage until I feel comfortable keeping an eye out for any issues.

6) Stand in the back and visualize the stage as many times as possible prior to executing the stage.

I try to practice this with Dry Fire. I'll set up something with 1/3rd scale targets and take 5 minutes to walk through a stage just like a match then set a reasonable par time. Based on my dry fire, I think that good stage execution beats a super awesome mega plan every time. I'm trying to avoid the good idea fairy and overthinking stages and pick a simple plan that I can execute without taking too much risk (going to 11 rounds on a Texas Star).

I learned a lot by watching really good shooters walk through stages and realized that I was wasting a bunch of time during my walk through trying to play the "what if" game.

 

[Burk Cornelius]

I think stage planning and execution is one of the biggest challenges to overcome as a new shooter. Granted I've only been shooting USPSA for less than 2 years, I've developed a method that has been working better and better (many thanks to Micah for helping me through this):

1) Read the WSB (check start position, round count, how many hits per paper...).

2) Find all the targets on the stage - Make sure that I'm not missing any targets.

3) Figure out where I have to go on the stage in order to engage the targets (try to take the easiest shot possible).

4) Decide which order to go from position to position.

5) Walk the stage until I feel comfortable keeping an eye out for any issues.

6) Stand in the back and visualize the stage as many times as possible prior to executing the stage.

I try to practice this with Dry Fire. I'll set up something with 1/3rd scale targets and take 5 minutes to walk through a stage just like a match then set a reasonable par time. Based on my dry fire, I think that good stage execution beats a super awesome mega plan every time. I'm trying to avoid the good idea fairy and overthinking stages and pick a simple plan that I can execute without taking too much risk (going to 11 rounds on a Texas Star).

I learned a lot by watching really good shooters walk through stages and realized that I was wasting a bunch of time during my walk through trying to play the "what if" game.

Great advice Josh. I can hear Micah in a lot of these comments. Good stuff