Steve Koski wrote:

The cover calls were sometimes painful too. Cindy, Travis, and I agreed ahead of time to not award PE's for a couple inches out of cover, but half of your foot - yes. This sounds easy to manage, but what about 1/3 of someone's foot? Damn. We did our best to call it the same for everyone, but I'm sure there was a little slop where someone got away with something that was essentially the same as what someone else got dinged for.

I was pretty disgusted with myself one afternoon when I found myself watching a shooter SHOOT, instead of watching his feet in the doorway that I was supposed to be monitoring. That guy might have been 16" out of cover but I just flat wasn't paying attention to his legs/feet. Fail.


Sorry to pick on you Mr. Koski.  But in one post you just summed up everything that is wrong in IDPA.  While I agree that one shouldn't be penalized if half a pinky toe nail is not behind cover, you just admitted that three SO's decided to use their own criteria for penalties instead of the one that is clearly defined in the rule book.  At a national championship match!!!!!   This is the major problem in the sport.  There should be no room for subjective decision making on the part of the SO.  Cover calls will be different from club to club, bay to bay and SO to SO.  And this is certainly what is happening. 

If people haven't noticed, a large number of top shooters are gravitating toward the other sport.  Not that it is better but that the rules are concise and clear.  Either you are over the line or you are not.  How frustrating is it for a shooter to spend their hard earned money and valuable time going to a match only to lose because of a procedural from an overzealous SO who makes a snap judgement call based on his/her perceived view of what a cover call should or should not be.  At the top level, 3 seconds makes a huge difference.  How many of us have lost by less than three seconds.  

Lets take a look at the current cover rule, 100% of the lower body and 50% of the upper body.  A good shooter shooting .2 second splits can hit a shooting position, fire 2 shots and move on in well under a second.  I would like to meet the person who can precisely measure whether 50% of the shooters upper body is behind cover in that time. Hell, even be 100% sure that both feet are 100% behind cover.  The SO is probably still moving into position.  Now factor in multiple targets where the shooter needs to move out step by step.  Its easy if the shooter is way behind cover or way out but what if they are right on the edge?  Going as fast as a good master or DM shooter?  It is a judgement call.      

Mr Koski, I just measured my size 10 shoes.  They are 4.75 inches wide at the widest point.  That would make half of my foot 2.375 inches.  You stated that 2 inches was OK but half the foot was a procedural.  That is a difference of 0.375 inches.  You can make that determination in a dynamic event such as IDPA?   

Finally, you are supposed to be watching the shooter shoot.  Your focus is on the gun, not feet.  I have never seen a foot shoot someone.  If this sport becomes one where an SO's job is to stare at people's feet then something has gone horribly wrong.


Dave