Our 1st Snooker Super Q - RACE Agility USDAA Trial - Video
15 Mar 2010
For a while I consistently screwed up Meeker’s Snooker runs with my indecisive handling (I got to 0 for 7 in Starters Snooker). Then I came up with a new strategy, “Plan, walk the plan and execute the plan”. In other words don’t over think the possible ways you can fail - execute your plan as if there were numbers by each obstacle. Now that we are in Masters and (ultimately) going for Meeker’s ADCH title, that means we need three Snooker Super Qs.
The Super Q was something I had heard about but to which I never paid much attention. The USDAA rules have all the details, but the crux of a Super Q is the top 15% of the scores in a height class (points then time and there are groupings of heights when there are too few dogs) get a Super Q. This forces teams seeking Super Qs to be more aggressive in their plans in attempts to get more points. There are stories of some teams going years without getting that one elusive Super Q they need for their ADCH. So Masters Snooker can get a little tense when people are close to their ADCH.
The judge was Peggy Hammond and here was the course layout:
I’m not good at bringing Meeker past obstacles, he loves to take them as he goes by, so I saw a way to run the outside of the ring. I started with the 7 combination then the 4 tunnel, the 6 combination and the 7 combination again. The nice thing about ending the opening with the 7 combination was it put you right at the start of the closing sequence. Here is my opening showing the obstacle order in large blue numbers:
Steve's Opening Plan
I’ve annotated the video with some comments on my execution:
You can see I was pretty happy to have executed (mostly) correctly and I was pretty sure I had enough points for a Super Q too. Some folks thought I had earned a big title or something :^) Turns out we earned 2nd place and the second Super Q and the final Super Q earned a really nice agility lady, Sue, the qualifying score she needed to get their ADCH! So there were some happy Snookerers on Sunday.
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