10m AR, age, programs, mentoring, facilities

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durant7
Posts: 69
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2004 12:01 am
Location: New Hampshire
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10m AR, age, programs, mentoring, facilities

Post by durant7 »

3 years ago I stuggled to start a youth 10m AR/AP program going. I had kids, with work I could get money. The biggest challenge was finding a facility. We found one and the program is still going! Yea!

Ok, I moved around a bit. Now I have a facility but I have to find the kids and find the money again. I mull over the issues while I read some of the recent posts re USAS, age descrimination, programs etc. It has always frustrated me that there is such a clear path for kids playing baseball or soccer or football. But shooting, it is VERY unorganized if not splintered.

Honestly, I am not a serious AR shooter. I can't mention my discipline but I have a 10m rifle and sights and I struggled to get to 505 at a weekly match....where I was the ONLY AR. It was an AP event. I never bought a full shooting jacket.

Now, if other folks showed up with rifles, I would stay at it. If kids had shown up, I would keep at it. That is what stumps me. We have no grass roots programs to get kids involved. And, since old farts can't compete, the very people who have the time, resources, organizational skills to sponsor PTOs don't. They do other stuff that is not olympic or have any real path for youth.

So, what if we had age groups? Something to create greater involvement? Should I just go through the process to get a PTO on the map? My core discipline has kids and old folks. It gets people involved, interested in precision shooting. I don't see that in the 10m game. Any reasons? I just don't see how we can get kids into the game if we don't have older generations playing too.

Does this make any sense? Just wanted to get some feed back as I consider how I can get a youth program going while also engaging the membership. Kids need to see roll models.

Thoughts?
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