A good stage plan is more than deciding which target to shoot first.
The goal is to find an efficient way to move through the stage while seeing every required target, minimizing unnecessary movement, placing reloads where they cost the least time, and creating shooting positions that allow you to perform the shots you need to make. Once the plan is built, the job changes: stop searching for a better solution and prepare to execute the one you selected.
Understand the stage. Find the flow. Place the reloads. Rehearse the plan. Then trust it.
That is the process I use for stage planning.
Start by Understanding the Stage
Before looking for the fastest solution, make sure you understand the problem.
Identify every target and determine where each one can be legally engaged. Look for partial targets, steel, disappearing targets, activators, hard leans, ports, vision barriers, and anything else that may affect the sequence. This is also the time to understand the start position and any requirements that restrict how the stage can be shot.
A fast plan that misses a target or violates a stage requirement is not a good plan. I want to understand what the stage requires before I begin optimizing how to shoot it.
Find the Flow
Once I understand the stage, I start looking for flow.
Flow is the way the shooting and movement connect from the start signal to the final shot. I am looking for a plan that allows me to continue progressing through the stage rather than repeatedly stopping, reversing direction, or performing actions that could have happened while I was already moving.
This is where questions about target order, shooting positions, entries, exits, and movement begin to come together. Can I eliminate a position? Can I engage a target while moving instead of stopping? Does one target order create a cleaner exit? Can I approach a position from a different angle and reduce unnecessary movement?
The best solution is not necessarily the one with the fewest steps or the shortest physical distance. It is the one that allows the entire stage to work efficiently.
Use the Fewest Practical Positions
Every additional shooting position has a cost. You have to accelerate toward it, decelerate into it, establish enough stability to shoot, and then accelerate again when you leave. If the same targets can be engaged efficiently from fewer positions, eliminating one can save significant time.
That does not mean you should force every target into the fewest possible locations. A position that requires an extreme lean, a very difficult shot, or an awkward body position may cost more than simply taking another step or using an additional location.
The question is not simply, Can I shoot it from there? The better question is, Does shooting it from there improve the stage?
Stage planning is a series of those tradeoffs.
Plan the Entry and Exit Together
A shooting position does not exist in isolation. You need to know how you will arrive, what you will shoot while you are there, and how you intend to leave. Those decisions affect one another.
An entry that gives you a fast first shot may leave you poorly positioned for the last target. A stance that works well for the array may make the exit awkward. A slightly different approach may allow you to shoot sooner, cover the entire array more comfortably, and leave in the direction you already need to travel.
That is why I think of the position as one continuous problem rather than three separate ones: How do I enter? How do I shoot it? How do I leave?
The concepts in Entries and Exits become much more useful when they are considered during the stage plan rather than after the movement has already begun.
Consider Shooting on the Move
Shooting on the move can be useful when it eliminates a stop or allows you to continue progressing through the stage while producing acceptable points. But it should not be included simply because you can do it.
If shooting while moving forces you to reduce your movement speed significantly, or makes the shots much more difficult, running farther and shooting from a more stable position may be faster overall. The decision should be based on the total stage, not on whether one technique looks faster by itself.
As discussed in Shooting on the Move, the objective is to cover the necessary distance while scoring enough points to justify the choice. Sometimes the best plan is to shoot while moving. Other times it is to run hard and shoot later.
Place Reloads Where They Cost the Least
Reloads have to happen somewhere. The goal is to place them where they interfere with the stage as little as possible.
Whenever practical, I want to reload during movement that already has to occur. If I can perform the reload while traveling between positions, much of the reload time is absorbed by movement that was already necessary. A standing reload is generally more expensive because nothing else productive is happening while it is completed.
That does not mean every moving reload is automatically better. The reload must still be reliable, and it needs to be completed before the gun is required again.
The principles from Reloads: Reliability First, Then Economy, Then Speed still apply. Stage planning simply determines where that reload fits best.
Leave Yourself Enough Ammunition
A stage plan should work when everything goes correctly, but it should not be so fragile that one makeup shot destroys it.
I want enough ammunition available that I can respond to an unexpected miss, steel that does not fall, or another problem without immediately forcing an unplanned reload. How much margin you need depends on the stage, the division, your equipment, and the difficulty of the shots.
The principle is simple: do not create a plan that depends on perfection when the cost of a small error is disproportionately high. A slightly less aggressive ammunition plan may create a much more resilient stage plan.
Target Order Matters
Target order can affect much more than transition distance. The order may determine how your body rotates, whether your feet need to move, which direction you leave the position, and whether the gun is already moving toward the next part of the stage.
Sometimes shooting targets in the visually obvious order is efficient. Other times a different order creates a better exit or prevents the gun from having to reverse direction.
Look at the entire array rather than evaluating each transition separately. The goal is to create a sequence that keeps the gun, eyes, and body moving naturally through the position.
Do Not Add Movement That Produces Nothing
One of the principles I return to repeatedly is minimizing time that does not produce points. That applies directly to stage planning.
An extra step, an unnecessary position, a standing reload, or a movement path that doubles back across ground you already covered may all add time without creating an additional scoring opportunity. The objective is not to eliminate every movement because movement is often necessary. The objective is to eliminate unnecessary movement.
This is the same principle behind Minimize Time You Are Not Shooting: when you are not producing points, the action should be moving you toward the next opportunity to produce them.
Choose a Plan You Can Actually Execute
The theoretically fastest plan is not always the best plan for you.
A solution may require a difficult one handed shot, an aggressive lean, shooting while moving at the edge of your current ability, or a precise entry that leaves very little margin for error. If you can execute those skills reliably, the plan may make sense. If you cannot, a slightly more conservative plan may produce a better result.
That does not mean avoiding difficult skills forever. Practice is where you expand what you can execute. But the match is where you should select a plan that reflects what you can currently perform with reasonable confidence.
A good stage plan is not simply fast on paper. It is executable.
Finalize the Plan as Early as Practical
The walkthrough is not just time to analyze the stage. It is also your best opportunity to rehearse the plan under the same visual conditions you will see when you shoot.
I want to understand the stage and select my plan as early in the walkthrough as practical. The earlier the major decisions are settled, the more of the remaining walkthrough can be used to rehearse rather than continuing to analyze.
That becomes especially important if you are the first shooter. You may have little or no useful rehearsal time after the walkthrough ends, so you cannot depend on having several additional minutes to get the plan into your head.
Identify the shooting positions, target order, movement, reloads, entries, exits, and major visual cues. Compare the reasonable alternatives, make the decision, and move on to rehearsal.
There is a point where additional analysis stops providing useful value. In fact, the harder it is to choose between two reasonable plans, the less likely there is a meaningful difference between them. If one solution were clearly better, the decision would usually be easier.
The objective is not to discover a theoretically perfect plan. It is to identify a sound plan early enough that you have time to make it familiar.
Solve the stage early. Spend the remaining time learning the plan.
Use Consistent Visual Cues
Stage plans are easier to execute when they are attached to things you can actually see. Instead of relying only on a verbal sequence in your head, identify useful visual references within the stage.
A fault line corner may tell you where to decelerate. The edge of a vision barrier may tell you when a target becomes available. A particular target may cue the reload that follows it, while the final target in a position may cue the direction of the exit.
These references connect actions to the stage itself rather than requiring you to remember an abstract list of instructions. They also give you concrete information to include in your mental rehearsal.
Rehearse Before the Walkthrough Ends
I want to rehearse the stage at least 20 times, and whenever possible I want most or all of those repetitions completed before the walkthrough is over.
The purpose is not simply to memorize a list of targets. Rehearsal turns the plan from a conscious sequence of instructions into something I can execute without continually thinking about what comes next.
I mentally move through the entire stage: the start, first target, movement, entry, target order, reload, next position, visual cues, and final shot. Each repetition should reinforce the same sequence until the plan becomes familiar enough that I can devote my attention to seeing and shooting rather than remembering what comes next.
That is another reason to settle the plan early. Every minute spent debating two nearly equivalent options is a minute that could have been spent rehearsing the plan you will actually shoot.
If I make a meaningful change, I rehearse the new plan again. I do not want to make a last minute change and then assume I will remember it under pressure. The new version needs to replace the old one in my mental rehearsal.
Finalize it early. Rehearse it repeatedly. Then trust it.
By the End of the Walkthrough, the Planning Is Done
By the time the walkthrough ends, I want the stage plan settled and familiar.
If I am the first shooter, I should be ready to shoot it immediately. If I am later in the order, the additional time is useful for reinforcing the plan, but I should not need that time to finish building it.
Watching other shooters may occasionally reveal something important enough to justify a change. If I make that change, however, I need to rehearse the revised plan enough times that I am no longer mentally switching between two versions. Otherwise, additional analysis can create more uncertainty than advantage.
When I reach the start position, the job is no longer to solve the stage. The job is to execute a known plan while responding appropriately to what I actually see.
Plan early. Rehearse often. Execute what you rehearsed.
Do Not Try to Shoot the Plan Faster
Once the stage begins, I do not want to consciously force the plan to happen quickly.
I want to move aggressively where movement is required and shoot as fast as I can obtain an acceptable sight picture for each shot. That distinction matters. Trying to make the stage feel fast can cause you to leave positions early, enter out of control, rush difficult shots, or fire before you have enough visual information.
The objective is not to slow down. It is to remove unnecessary delay while still seeing what each shot requires.
Move as fast as the movement allows. Shoot as fast as you can obtain an acceptable sight picture.
The stage time is the result of executing those actions well.
Evaluate the Stage, Then Create a Positive Imprint
After the stage, evaluate what happened, but do not simply build a list of mistakes.
First recognize what went well. Maybe the entry worked exactly as planned, the reload disappeared into the movement, or you trusted your visual information on a difficult target. Those are performances you want to reinforce.
If something did not work, identify it only long enough to determine the solution. Was the target order awkward? Did the reload finish too late? Was the entry poorly planned, or did you simply execute it differently than you rehearsed? Then decide what the correct action should have been.
Lanny Bassham describes a mental reload in With Winning in Mind: after a poor performance, mentally replace it with the performance you wanted. I apply that same idea to a stage. If something went poorly, I rehearse the stage again correctly so the final mental picture is the execution I want to repeat rather than the mistake.
That creates a positive imprint while still preserving the lesson. The goal of evaluation is not to dwell on what went wrong. It is to reinforce what worked, identify the solution to what needs improvement, and leave with a clear picture of better execution.
Those lessons can then become part of your Shooting Knowledge Base, while the broader approach to reinforcing successful performance is discussed in Positive Imprints.
Build Better Plans Through Experience
Stage planning improves as your experience grows. The more entries, exits, movement patterns, target arrays, reload opportunities, and unusual positions you have tested, the more solutions you have available when walking a new stage.
That is one reason deliberate practice matters so much. You are not only improving individual shooting skills; you are learning what those skills allow you to do during a stage.
Eventually, many decisions become easier because you have already solved similar problems. You know how early you can shoot entering a position, whether a particular moving shot is worthwhile, how much distance you need to finish a reload, and which target order makes the exit easier.
That accumulated experience is what makes stage planning faster and more reliable.
Build the Plan, Then Trust It
A good stage plan connects the shooting, movement, reloads, entries, exits, and target order into one continuous solution.
Understand the stage first. Find the flow. Use practical shooting positions. Put reloads where they cost the least. Leave enough ammunition margin. Finalize the plan early and rehearse it repeatedly until it is familiar.
Then stop planning.
When the buzzer sounds, trust the work you already did. See what each shot requires, execute the plan you rehearsed, and respond to what actually happens.
Build the plan before the stage. Rehearse it until it is familiar. Execute it during the stage. Evaluate it afterward.
That is how stage planning becomes another skill you can deliberately improve.