Southern Chester USPSA Match Video: Analysis Paralysis

Analysis Paralysis was a product of my imagination. I’ve never been a big fan of memory stages (primarily because I struggle to remember which targets have been shot and which require my attention), but I wanted to create one of my own. The objective was to position targets in such a way that shooters would see them from multiple positions, but never be able to shoot an entire array from one position.

To throw a wrench into each shooter’s plan, I required that everyone begin the stage with their guns unloaded and placed on a barrel. This eliminated the luxury of limited-capacity shooters having a fully loaded magazine plus one round in the chamber.

The Plan:

Like a typical memory stage, my plan was to find a few key locations where I wanted to engage targets. I would then create target arrays based on what could be seen / shot from those key locations. Sometimes this leads to large transitions that eat up time, but on the positive side I find it easier to keep track of targets.

In the case of Analysis Paralysis, I would be shooting from three separate zones. I’m calling them zones because I didn’t plant my feet and shoot my entire array from one static location. Instead, I picked a spot and moved around within a couple of feet of that spot.

After The Buzzer:

When the buzzer sounded, I picked up my gun and got myself into position to begin engaging targets from my first zone. I engaged four paper targets and one steel popper (9 rounds of the 10 in my gun). The steel popper activated a swinger on the far side of the couse, which I would engage later.

I then positioned myself infront of a port. Here I engaged three low targets and two further downrange (10 rounds of the 11 in my gun). I reloaded on the move and set myself up to begin shooting from my third, and final, zone. From this position I engaged the swinger, four static targets, and a steel popper. I used all of rounds in my gun and went to slide lock (I planned for this and it was important that I didn’t miss anything, otherwise a standing reload would have been required)

The Results:

After shooing this stage, I was given a good tip from Steve Lockwood. Steve pointed out that I began the stage with my hips oriented towards my gun. If I had oriented them towards the first target, I could have saved a little time while getting into position.

As a whole, I felt good with my performance on this stage. I placed 1st out of 18 shooters in Production Division. I scored 23 A’s, 6 C’s, and 1 D, earning me 134 out of a possible 150 points. My accuracy percentage was 89% and I had a time of 26.07 seconds. My Hit Factor was 5.1400.