[Archers] Archery bottlenecks

[Holly Gibbons]

Greetings, archers! Some thoughts on targets for St. Sebastian's and the issue of bottlenecks. . .
 
In our experience, there are different of kinds of bottlenecks. Here's just a sampling below with a bunch of examples and you all can think of many more. Everyone  of us has seen these bottlenecks at our shoots, some of which can be easily avoided by rewriting the target instructions or by physical adjustments. Usually if it's a normal shoot these things don't cause a terrible problem, but for a large shoot like St. Sebastian's, it's wise to think carefully about every one of these possibilities. Some target ideas are fantastic and clever but just will not be a good idea for St. Sebastian's.
 
The first and most common kind of bottleneck is caused by the number of archers who can shoot or retrieve at a time:
1. stations that require shooters to go one at a time or minimize the numbers of shooters at a time (like 2 at a time)
2. stations that require retrieving arrows after only one or two shooters
 
The second kind of bottleneck is a target/range design bottleneck:
3. targets that are complicated to "reset" physically
4. stations where a lot of arrows get lost
5. target designs where pulling arrows is physically difficult 
6. stations where it is physically difficult to get on and off the shooting line
7. targets with some kind of mechanical or physical failure point, like things falling off in the wind and having to be put back
8. a range where several stations share a safety zone and are ganged together
 
The third kind of bottleneck occurs because of the written target instructions: 
9. stations requiring a "target check" - - - these are usually situations where you can shoot an arrow but then need to know if the arrow has "hit" before deciding where to aim the next arrow
10. stations that require deciphering complicated instructions because everyone stands there and reads and rereads and discusses the instructions instead of shooting right away
11. timed stations where the timer is hard to operate or reset or means only half the group shoots at a time
12. complicated scoring where everyone has to count very carefully or do math, which ends in much discussion
 
Then there are other kinds of "human" bottlenecks:
13. stations that require many arrows per archer, not timed, because some folks really take their time
14. children or novices
15. line marshals who get distracted while people wait to shoot
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