21 replies to this topic

[CAB33]

As a shooter/competitor do you prefer on-line self squadding or do you prefer making your squad requests on you match application?

[Corey]

i really like th online squadding. Its easy to move yourself around to shoot with friends and also be able to squad yourself with certain shooters that you may want to see shoot and get advice from, even if you dont know them personally. (maybe that falls under stalking, haha). seems like it would be easier on the MD as well as they dont have to worry about shuffling people around on all sorts of different squads. just let the shooters pick their own squads as they wish.

[wgnoyes]

As a shooter/competitor do you prefer on-line self squadding or do you prefer making your squad requests on you match application?

Well, you do both, though. You give a place on the registration form for the competitor to specify a shoot-with squadding preference, and then when you add people to self-service squadding, you initially squad people together as they want. We wouldn't ever, EVER, just slap 30 people out there at a time as unsquadded and then hope they squad themselves; that's a recipe for disaster. Missing or bad email addresses, people's spam filters trapping the notification emails from uspsa, etc; I should guess fully half would never get squadded.

Self-serve squadding just gives you flexibility to control how many people on a squad and when to close off squads, at the same time as letting people move themselves around under your restrictions, such as they want to start on this stage v. that stage; they move themselves to the squad that starts on that stage. Or a group of people send in their entries and get initially squadded. They then see a few weeks later that so-and-so is now on some other squad and they really want to shoot with this person, so they move themselves over. It just gives competitors flexibility to determine with whom they wish to shoot. It does NOT mean the match director never has to squad anybody!

[ormondopen]

on-line squadding for me.

[JakeMartens]

on line squadding is the way to go

[BritinUSA]

I agree that on-line is the better method as long as there is a provision for Super Squads to be locked in.

[bbbean]

Even if I'm not trying to shoot with anybody in particular (I enjoy making new friends at matches), I like to shoot in a squad that is primarily my division and has a mix of shooters at my level and up. Whenever possible, I want to shoot with at least one M or better shooter, but it's also nice not to be the only sub-A shooter.

[wgnoyes]

I agree that on-line is the better method as long as there is a provision for Super Squads to be locked in.

And there is. You can lock out an entire squad from being selected, and you can lock GM's and other stratosphere-breathers into a squad so they can't be moved without MD override.

[sperman]

As I said in another thread, I think on-line squadding should be mandatory for USPSA nationals. After a year or two that should be changed to any Sanctioned level 2 match.

[wgnoyes]

As I said in another thread, I think on-line squadding should be mandatory for USPSA nationals. After a year or two that should be changed to any Sanctioned level 2 match.

Level 2 or higher. I agree.

[Jim Norman]

Online squading can work and it can be a complete disaster. I think be that an initial MD squadded match followed up with online might be the best. "We" sign up, ask to squadded as a group and we are. With pure online, we all send in, then over a day or so we start to move ourselves onto one squad and people we don't know or worse don't want to know squad themselves on 'our' squad. If we are lucky, there is a squad we can all move to so that our group can be together, sometimes yes, sometimes no. When I travel to an away match without my regular group, I enjoy meeting new people and shooting with them. I don't mind and do enjoy having new people on 'our' squad, I just want to get our group all together first.

So in closing, there needs to be a third option on the poll, "BOTH"

[Charles Bond]

From the poll results it looks like a couple of responders voted not to use the do it yourself squad method. Does anyone know why anyone would not want to use online squadding as I can not think of any reason not to do so?

[wgnoyes]

Online squading can work and it can be a complete disaster. I think be that an initial MD squadded match followed up with online might be the best....

Is there an echo in here? #3

[Pro2AInPA]

Online. As a competitor, there is nothing about the other option that is better than the online method.

[Rotwang]

From the poll results it looks like a couple of responders voted not to use the do it yourself squad method. Does anyone know why anyone would not want to use online squadding as I can not think of any reason not to do so?

How about a group of six shooters that want to shoot together on Saturday but none of the online squads have six openings? Maybe they should have signed up earlier but maybe most of them did but one guy was late. Easy to do with a squadding request but not with online squadding.

[Joe4d]

snooze you loose, This is an adult sport. I dont get the mentality that MD's should be expected to jump through hoops to group certain people together, Especially when it turns into large groups, If the MD gets you the day and time slot you requested I think thats great. But trying to get 6 or more shooters grouped together might be expecting a little much, especially if they dont send in applications together or at the same time.

[Skydiver]

snooze you loose, This is an adult sport. I dont get the mentality that MD's should be expected to jump through hoops to group certain people together, Especially when it turns into large groups, If the MD gets you the day and time slot you requested I think thats great. But trying to get 6 or more shooters grouped together might be expecting a little much, especially if they dont send in applications together or at the same time.

But MDs do jump through hoops for to form and lock super squads... Some people are more equal than others?

[maineshootah]

online..
Collecting paper apps and mailing them all together is so 1990's..

[Rotwang]

snooze you loose, This is an adult sport. I dont get the mentality that MD's should be expected to jump through hoops to group certain people together,

We've never had to jump through hoops to keep a large group together by doing the squadding by hand. Same goes for someone asking if he can be squadded with some A class production shooters or building a squad of Revolver shooters. I think of it as customer service.

[Joe4d]

nothing wrong with jumping through hoops, I said, "expected to jump through hoops" MD's probably look at super squads as a marketing issue or attracting spectators and media.

[Zerwas]

As for me and my thoughts, On line self squadding is the best way. Just get you apps in early and set yourself (and your friends) up.

snooze you loose, This is an adult sport. I dont get the mentality that MD's should be expected to jump through hoops to group certain people together, Especially when it turns into large groups, If the MD gets you the day and time slot you requested I think thats great. But trying to get 6 or more shooters grouped together might be expecting a little much, especially if they dont send in applications together or at the same time.

But MDs do jump through hoops for to form and lock super squads... Some people are more equal than others?

True statement, sir (bottom entry).

[IL-SIG]

I certainly understand the concept and why our sport uses "Super Squads". However, in my opinion, one of the cool aspects of our sport is the opportunity to sometimes shoot with the best in the game. What other sport gives you this same opportunity? If the Big Dogs only ever squad with each other in Super Squads, one of the great parts of our sport will go away. They should keep in mind, that for the most part, they didnt start as GMs, but rather worked their way up the ladder like many others are trying to do.

Respectively submitted...