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Age based catagories


Irish Pat

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1 hour ago, Long Hunter SASS #20389L said:

Captain Burt,

A similar idea was ran by the Wild Bunch in 2003 or 04 as an Open Category. It failed then but like you, think that's not a bad idea. But............only if they would eliminate some others. B)

JT Wild trotted this idea around the room at the 2019 EOT TG meeting. I love JT, but the premise kinda fell on mostly deaf ears! :mellow:

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2 hours ago, Long Hunter SASS #20389L said:

Captain Burt,

A similar idea was ran by the Wild Bunch in 2003 or 04 as an Open Category. It failed then but like you, think that's not a bad idea. But............only if they would eliminate some others. B)

Thanks Long Hunter. I’m fine with eliminating categories. Heck they can start with mine, 49er and I’ll shoot with Wranglers, or take both out and Cowboy is fine with me.

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1 hour ago, Long Hunter SASS #20389L said:

I'm with you Burt, they can eliminate mine too.  Silver Senior..........the straw that broke the camels back for me. It's not fair a 66 year old has to compete with a 64 year old. B)

i read these comments and it always results in a confused look - first and foremost - no matter what category i shoot - im shooting against myself , i want to be better than i was last time , but then thats me wanting to have fun doing what im doing or just say to heck with it and not do it 

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Most of y'all are equating AGE to SKILL SET......those two are not directly related.

 

AGE Brackets make sense only for shooters with the same SKILL SET. 

 

A brand new shooter that is 50 years old will NEVER stand a chance in 49r here in central Florida. There were 7 49r's in the top 12 at our state match last weekend.

 

Please explain to me what is FAIR about making a new shooter that happens to be the same age as me compete in my "category".

 

Until y'all want to tackle SKILL SETS all this other stuff is irrelevant.

 

Stan

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2 hours ago, Santa Fe River Stan,36999L said:

 

Until y'all want to tackle SKILL SETS all this other stuff is irrelevant.

 

Stan


Probably.  But how would you classify folks by skill set and avoid getting  the sandbaggers;  like the 12 handicap golfers who shoot below par in a tournament?

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1 hour ago, J-BAR #18287 said:


Probably.  But how would you classify folks by skill set and avoid getting  the sandbaggers;  like the 12 handicap golfers who shoot below par in a tournament?

No system is perfect, and not sure it is even doable in our sport, but when I was involved in USPSA, there were specific "classifier stages" that local clubs would set up right down to distances and angles. Shooters would run through that stage at a monthly and the scores were submitted to USPSA. Once they had enough in the system, they were classified as D-A, Master, etc. If someone sandbagged at their next major if they did substantially better the MD will move them up a class for the purpose of scoring and USPSA will move their class officially

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4 hours ago, Santa Fe River Stan,36999L said:

Most of y'all are equating AGE to SKILL SET......those two are not directly related.

 

AGE Brackets make sense only for shooters with the same SKILL SET. 

 

A brand new shooter that is 50 years old will NEVER stand a chance in 49r here in central Florida. There were 7 49r's in the top 12 at our state match last weekend.

 

Please explain to me what is FAIR about making a new shooter that happens to be the same age as me compete in my "category".

 

Until y'all want to tackle SKILL SETS all this other stuff is irrelevant.

 

Stan

 

I always thought that SASS really missed the mark when the got rid of Modern and Traditional and created Cowboy and Wrangler.  To me it seemed that Cowboy would have been the perfect vehicle for a skill set based, open age, open shooting style, category where the best of the best could truly run and gun.  They could have even expanded it to include shooting on the move in that category, after someone qualified of course.  I remember a time when there was a qualification process required before SASS allowed folks to shoot Gunfighter, so having to qualify before someone could shoot in an OPEN category would not be completely new to the sport.  What I do know is that the LAST thing we need is to breakup the plethora of existing categories with additional skill divisions.

 

SASS could still easily achieve that by creating one new category (or two if there had to be a Ladies version), and maybe the new SASS BOD will consider making that addition.  There would not have to be skill level divisions within that OPEN category at first, if ever, and thus it would thus attract only the best of the best, or at least people that like to get consistently whooped by the best of the best.

 

All that said, I think that there is also place for the category structure we have in place now.  There could certainly be some compression within the age breaks, but SASS and the membership in general seems to be OK with how it is, and in fact there seems to be a continuing call for additional upper age breaks.  But compression needs to be done carefully so we do not alienate and lose shooters.  The 95%+ of shooters who come to a match who would never qualify to participate in the OPEN category, nor would they likely have the desire to do so, are the same 95%+ of the participants that pay for the vast majority of the match expenses.

 

Folks might dream about the possibility of shooting in the OPEN category, but the reality is the majority would likely be unhappy there.  I know as I watched some of the Man-On-Man challenge on Side Match Day at the Ides of November, I got to thinking about how much fun it would be to shoot against Delta Glenn, Bucky Buckskin, Santa Fe River Stan, or a host of others, and then I realized that you could pick any three of them and their combined time might still beat me!  No doubt it would be fun to watch, and it would require a WHOLE LOT OF SHOTGUN TARGETS, but it illustrates my point.

 

I don't go to a match to win an award, I just want to be able to shoot FC Gunfighter, against myself if no one else wants to play, and have a good time, with good people, and forget the worlds problems for a while.  It was great to have three others in my category at the Ides and frankly I was surprise I placed, but even so Mudslide Mike crushed my time with an impressive run and deservedly took first place in FCGF.  I figure that if I practice really, really, hard, for tens of thousands of rounds, for years on end, I can probably get to the point where he only beats me by 2 or 3 seconds per stage! :P

 

I anticipate that there will likely be some changes ahead for SASS as the new BOD examines and realigns priorities in the years ahead.  Covid and the multiple match cancellations have not helped the situation, but I have no doubt that there are changes coming.  Maybe, if there is enough call for it, they will add the OPEN category to the list.

 

That's my $0.02 and it won't even pay the tax on a cup of coffee these days.

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Let's call the current system what it really is.....A way for awards to be given out and make more folks happy. 

 

SASS has shown no interest in setting up a skill based system and quite frankly I don't think most folks really care.

 

I'll keep participating within the rules and wear my buckles (Wrangler and 49r) with pride......I earned them!

 

If I get a wild hair one day and drop down to Wrangler or Cowboy at EOT I don't think Matt Black or Deuce Stevens will be too worried.

 

Stan

 

 

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Really, it all gets down to the fact that it doesn't have to be fair as there are no prizes.  So shoot against yourself, shoot against you friends, shoot against others who like the same things you do. That's how you win, by having fun doing it the way you like.

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