Attracting young shooters = less rules.........

[J-BAR #18287]

"What I do see is a lot of new shooters that end up with totally bad selections for leather, pistols, rifles, shotguns that make shooting our sport a lot less fun than it should be. Nothing frustrates a new shooter like his rifle jamming on every stage while watching others that seem never to have an issue. Guns that require a gorilla to cycle the action or open the gun. Shotguns you have to break open over their knees every stage. Caliber selections that have recoil that they can not handle physically for whatever reason."

 

+1

 

Telling new shooters that it's a good idea to buy equipment that the top shooters would not touch is doing the new shooter a disservice.

 

Top quality guns can be sold with minimal loss if the newbie decides not to continue with CAS.

[Tom Bullweed]

If a new shooter is allowed to bend the rules, when are they required to follow the rules? One match, six matches, a state match or when they start beating experienced shooters who are following the rules?

 

Other more mature, shooting sports, like trap or DCM have had rules in place for over a century. The sports remain true to themselves and do not allow numbers to drive change. Many new shooters honor that discipline. Shooters that do not honor it will never likely do so.

 

New shooters can get hooked in the game by having a new shooter day where they can handle equipment, get some guidance and see good shooters in action. More clubs could be doing this.

[Cowboy Junky]

_{I agree with many others......we started a new club in an area where SASS was non-existent.....it was all older people from 40+ that showed up. Since I started in the late 90's it's always been that way. We rarely saw young folks at matches unless they were drug their by their parents........lol. Once they got a license, a jog, went to college or the BIG one a girl friend they disappeared like a hard worker at a Sanders rally.}

 

_{Like any sport there was a big wave of people that started and that wave of people is getting older and that's why elderstatesman is the biggest category at many big shoots. But the new folks that trickle in are still in the 35 - 50 range but they do keep coming.....just not a fast as they were in 2000.}

 

_{I don't think the "rules" have anything to do with it. If you having trouble reading this........you need to come join us!}

[Korupt Karl]

Well said Deuce....and I agree with Stan that the youth is good to introduce the sport too, but most folk don't get into this sport until they are more established. Like CC said "it's an expensive sport to get into".

 

RULES: are rules and it's how they are handled. I've seen TO's handle it poorly and others that are great at working with shooters. If I have a shooter who is new and/or received a serious rule infraction I will hand the timer off and follow them to the UL table and once they are unloaded, review what happened and explain how they incurred the penalty so that it won't happen again.

 

I, in turn, remind them that most of us have made the same mistake at some time during our career and most importantly have learned from it. One of the biggest mistakes is letting penalties go by so as not to discourage someone....this is wrong....if someone screws up, they need to learn early so when they get to a bigger match they won't be shocked "because the club back home never calls it...."

[Snakebite]

From time to time I see a mindset on the wire that the rules that SASS abide by somehow turn off young shooters. I guess I can't wrap my head around this. While I am no longer considered by many to be a kid (34) I was once and started this game on my own a year out of hight school. I have never found our rules to be so restrictive that I could not have the time of my life by staying within them. In fact that has always been part of the challenge for me is doing whatever I could to make myself better by staying well within the rules. I fail to see how allowing someone to mall ninja creep across a stage while shooting their 73' is going to save the sport. Think that SASS has the exclusive on having a hard time getting youth involved, think again. Have you counted heads on a high school sideline lately or in band room? Athletics,music and performing arts are suffering year after year due to lack of participation. Youth today want it right now, thank your smart phone and Facebook for that. By in large the youth of SASS represent the best of what young men and women can be like today.

 

Some may take my view as being inflexible with to desire to see change NOT happen. SASS and CAS has changed vastly since I started. Most of which I have welcomed with open arms, some of which I wish had never happened. But there is one thing that has not changed that I think truly separates us from everyone else...reverence. Reverence for the way the game is played and reverence for the people we play it with. It's so much more than throwing lead downrange. If that is all it holds for you fine, but you won't stay. Reverence is what sells our game. It's not broke folks, in fact it's actively working every weekend.You cannot blame some people not reaching out and grabbing it on the game itself. SASS is a "every mans" game but it not for everyone, and I'm 100% ok with that. My son will soon start shooting with me and my daughter will be following after that. I hope that he can learn reverence for the game, because as it did for me it will go a long way in shaping him as a young man. Maybe I'm going too deep on this, I don't know. But I'm sure folks will let me know LOL. Just wanted to shine some light on what is RIGHT with SASS.

[Snakebite]

Excellent Deuce!

[Jed I. Knight, SASS #36423]

From time to time I see a mindset on the wire that the rules that SASS abide by somehow turn off young shooters. I guess I can't wrap my head around this. While I am no longer considered by many to be a kid (34) I was once and started this game on my own a year out of hight school. I have never found our rules to be so restrictive that I could not have the time of my life by staying within them. In fact that has always been part of the challenge for me is doing whatever I could to make myself better by staying well within the rules. I fail to see how allowing someone to mall ninja creep across a stage while shooting their 73' is going to save the sport. Think that SASS has the exclusive on having a hard time getting youth involved, think again. Have you counted heads on a high school sideline lately or in band room? Athletics,music and performing arts are suffering year after year due to lack of participation. Youth today want it right now, thank your smart phone and Facebook for that. By in large the youth of SASS represent the best of what young men and women can be like today.

 

Some may take my view as being inflexible with to desire to see change NOT happen. SASS and CAS has changed vastly since I started. Most of which I have welcomed with open arms, some of which I wish had never happened. But there is one thing that has not changed that I think truly separates us from everyone else...reverence. Reverence for the way the game is played and reverence for the people we play it with. It's so much more than throwing lead downrange. If that is all it holds for you fine, but you won't stay. Reverence is what sells our game. It's not broke folks, in fact it's actively working every weekend.You cannot blame some people not reaching out and grabbing it on the game itself. SASS is a "every mans" game but it not for everyone, and I'm 100% ok with that. My son will soon start shooting with me and my daughter will be following after that. I hope that he can learn reverence for the game, because as it did for me it will go a long way in shaping him as a young man. Maybe I'm going too deep on this, I don't know. But I'm sure folks will let me know LOL. Just wanted to shine some light on what is RIGHT with SASS.

 

Well said Mr. Stevens. One of my girls grew up in this sport and I believe she is all the better for it. The people she has meet in this sport have helped shape her into the wonderful young lady she is today.

 

Plus I know right where she is every weekend. ;-)

[Ya Big Tree]

I agree with most here. It's not the rules.

 

ITS THE PENALTYS !!

They hurt my feelings and self-esteem, and quite frankly it offends me to have three spotters tell me I had a miss.

Besides that, my suspenders keep pulling up my pants.

 

[Short Term Emory]

I agree with most here. It's not the rules.

 

ITS THE PENALTYS !!

They hurt my feelings and self-esteem, and quite frankly it offends me to have three spotters tell me I had a miss.

Besides that, my suspenders keep pulling up my pants.

 

 

Ya had to go bringin feelins and self-whatever ya call it into it didn'tcha? And then on top of that ya figure they needs to have their britches pulled up when they shoot. I just don't know what to say bout all that nonsense.

[Major BS Walker Regulator]

Maybe that's why you missed, your pants are pulled up too tight

[Possum Skinner, SASS#60697]

What I hate to see is someone's barrel pulled up too high!

[Ya Big Tree]

Ya had to go bringin feelins and self-whatever ya call it into it didn'tcha? And then on top of that ya figure they needs to have their britches pulled up when they shoot. I just don't know what to say bout all that nonsense.

 

You guys at the Pass just have too high of expectations.

 

 

Maybe that's why you missed, your pants are pulled up too tight

 

Maybe, Ya gotta be able to breath don't ya know.

 

 

What I hate to see is someone's barrel pulled up too high!

 

Maybe they just like ya.