Feedback on retention shooting stage
My local club just had a match that included a stage that required shooting from retention. The target was a normal IDPA that had the center circle removed and it was assumed if there were no holes in the target you got a down zero. You started one yard away with a bucket in your strong side hand and there one target on either side of the center that had to be engaged while moving backwards with each target requiring 2 shots. I helped set up (not design) that stage and I was aware of discussion of this thread so I just kind of stayed back to see how that stage would go. Here are the highlights of how it went from my perspective:
There was no mention of what retention shooting was during the normal pre-match safety/break into squads meeting.
My squad was the first squad on the bay. When we go to read the stage description some mentions that the target is too high and we might shoot over the berm. The SO said ok so the target was lowered. The guy that mentioned it was probably 5'6 while I am 6'4.
The first shooter up is an Expert class shooter and when he goes to fire from retention keeps the gun too close his body and the gun fails to cycle causing him to do a Tap/Rack/Bang. The second shooter sees what happens so when he goes to shoot he draws the gun and pushes it forward from the hip like the old school point and shoot method. After this shooter the SO gives a quick demo on what retention shooting should look like.
Overall, that stage was a small part of the overall match and the scores were pretty much even across all of the classes. It doesn't appear the anyone was given a procedural but you could see the potential for that if it was a major match. If this became a recurring feature in matches you would need to establish some sort criteria about the height of the target as well as min/max distance from the target. Without those criteria it would be impossible to practice it for consistent results.