Youth shooting disconnected to ATA or not?

According to the ATA:

Age analysis shows that despite large increases in youth membership, nearly half of the participants are between ages of 56 and 75. (from minutes)

Someone explain that. To me it shows they are getting youth members but the youth are not staying. Then getting another batch of youth members and they are not staying.

You tell me.

I report. You decide.

Merlo out

 

This seems to be a pattern of sorts over the past 15/20 years ... The lack of promotion other than by the members and little clubs all across the United States and beyond just are not holding the interest of shooters in the up coming generations ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

Well, that and the presence of other well marketed, well organized, clay target programs with NO target minimums or daily fees. Of the 3 main youth programs, AIM does less and costs more than the other 2.

 

Young shooters start out shooting alot then life gets in the way. Some come back to shooting and even ATA shooting! Its been that way for a very long time!

 

OK????? Assuming there is logic in you own mind Tshot. Then tell us if more were coming back when there were 100,000 members or are more coming back now?

 

That's been a dream but not reality.

 

When were there 100,000 active shooters? Only in your mind?

 

T shot, my kid was on 4 ATA All-American teams in the early to mid 90's. I recognize only one that returned to active shooting since then-Dave Schaeffer. We all know the rest of that story. Still dreaming?

 

Attention forum idiot

 

He's soon coming back sayeth the site idiot.

 

After much thought and deliberation several people have come to the conclusion that talking to T-Shot, Arture and a few others, you might just as well talk to the toaster ... They know everything for sure, but in fact know nothing and that is for sure .... Now, where is that damn toaster ..? WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

Lets get real if a 10 YO shoots 100/100. the game become boring.
Let the recreational shooters and the old farts to shoot the actual ATA and come out with some more challenging game for those who like challenge
A lot of ATA Jr's migrate to bunker and they get lost down the road because nobody can teach them the correct bunker technique and they give up sooner or later.
You can see where the USA bunker is today to get an idea about it.

 

Can anyone provide AIM and/or ATA Sub Jr, Junior and Jr Gold total membership numbers for 2017 target year?

 

Most kids migrate to the next, greatest, latest video game. What planet did you arrive from? Besides that, your major bunker championship is overwhelmed by 20 shooters. Not much of a success story there.

 

Don't ya just hate it when someone proves a statement? Especially with a picture!!

Now you know how john wick felt.
Hehehehehe

 

Artur,
As much as I think most of what you say is horse shit, on this subject you are a lot closer to being correct.

 

Thanks Smelly, one thing you must know more, my "horse shit" is from a race horse not a war horse

Oleo,
" Besides that, your major bunker championship is overwhelmed by 20 shooters. Not much of a success story there."

The good news is that there are more than 150 participants at each selection match but of course the scores are very poor.

The USA shooting puts that carrot (the Olympics)in front of the mule( those who believe that they will make it) and makes some good money from it.

The performances in bunker? forget that, since long time ago no male bunker medal at international stage was earned.

Well, an other " horse shit" from my part.

 

So help me understand this.

Someone on this thread claims there was at one time, 100,000 active ATA members.

TShot says no, not true.

Smithy posts an article identifying the 100,000th member (at that time which must have been in the 80’s) to join ATA since it was founded in 1900, now 118 years ago. That is like a retail business celebrating the 1 millionth customer to walk through the doors doors after the store opened 80 years ago.

Are you guys saying 100,000 members that joined during that almost century period equates to “active” even if half of them are dead by the time that article was written?

And TShot is a forum idiot? and so am I.

 

Yeah....I agree Tshot is the forum idiot.

Also....it is the ATA's numbers. Now who would doubt the ATA's honesty.

Notice the quote where "Mr 100,000" says he shot at local clubs and shot well enough to break even on expenses.
You can't do that now in the ATA.

And the original quote at the top never said "active members" but AZCO cant read and remains forum idiot #2.

 

Smithy,

Thank you for clearing that up for me. I made the wrong connection, with Trap T questioning 100,000 shooters statement first made by Union Strong, when he said “coming back to 100,000 members.” Then you and the usual suspects jumped all over Trap T after you posted the article which quite frankly I fail to see the relevance to Union Strong’s statement. Equally irrelevant is your quote in purple you made in your post directed to me.

If the article itself said the youth named became the 100,000th member then there is nothing to “come back” to. We already got there. I would suspect the ATA members count has passed 125,000 although more than half are still dead and half of that remaining number is out trying to make a living, supporting a family with food and shelter and do not have disposable income to waste on trap shooting. The fact you and others jumping all over Trap T asking a simple question to an ambiguous statement makes one question your motives for posting the article. Your insults do not help make your point. Perhaps the real reason people drop out of trapshooting is they fear that to continue will lower their IQ to your level.

 

waste on REGISTERED trap shooting.

There I fixed it for ya.

 

Flyersarebest,

Should ATA trapshooters just stay away from this website????

 

Hell no! Everyone is welcome. You are the one that posted that spending money on trap shooting was a waste.

I just inserted the registered part. The THOUSANDS that don't bother going to that place in IL. for what was once the biggest event of the year proved that.

 

I posted spending money on trapshooting was a waste? Where?

 

"We already got there. I would suspect the ATA members count has passed 125,000 although more than half are still dead and half of that remaining number is out trying to make a living, supporting a family with food and shelter and do not have disposable income to waste on trap shooting."

I would have made the" waste on trap shooting" words bigger but the system won't let me. Is it big enough for you to see it?

 

SCTP and ATA cut a deal that SCTP members had to have ATA cards. Increases youth membership but does not guarantee youth participating in ATA shoots . The kids shoot mainly SCTP shoots not ATA registered. Kids move on from high school and maybe they no longer participate in ATA. Also some youth teams decided to move to AIM instead of staying with SCTP/ATA.

 

Only SCTP shooters competing in their State SCTP championship and/or a few other shoots are required to join the ATA. If your team requires their members to join that's a team decision, not an SCTP requirement.

AIM is associated with the ATA.

 

F.A.B.

You are misunderstanding my meaning of that wording. Trap shooting is an expensive hobby or sport. When a young couple is going starting careers paying for tuition debt, buying a home, having kids, they are not always going to have disposable income to trap shoot. I have witnessed that first hand from people I shot with over my trapshooting life of almost 50 years. The reason the makeup of trapshooters as stated above, is the young either the parents are paying the trapshooting costs or young adults who have the money to spend, are not burdened with raising family, housing and all the other things I mentioned. Once a person reaches 55 and over, the kids have left Home, the house is paid for, and these people have more disposable income they can spend in what some might think is a waste,of money when it is desperately needed for housing, food, shelter, clothing, transportation and education.

 

Your fantasy is not based on reality. Many of today's kids make more money than we ever dreamed of earning, were trapshooters at one time but haven't been seen in decades. Many of the older trapshooters were bird hunters in their youth so trapshooting made the transition from fewer wing shooting opportunities to clay target shooting attractive. Those opportunities are long gone in most areas.

Shooting trap is fun on daddy's dime. What kid doesn't enjoy collecting various expensive trinkets but ultimately, most kids grow up and the trinkets get thrown into a box in the far corner of the attic in their former home. Their wife who probably has little if any exposure to shooting games would toss 'em in the trash at the first opportunity.

As children get older they gravitate toward relationships with others who share their same values and aspirations. Real competition is gone while sports on TV take it's place. Although many have left college years ago those friendships remain and get togethers over dinners and parties still take precedence over shooting. It's far easier to plug in a video game and compete with a friend many miles away and cheaper if you so desire.

I competed with plenty of real good young trapshooters in the 60's and 70's and most are long gone and haven't returned. Since many are pushing 70 yo like me when do you expect their return? My 40 yo #1 son competed on 4 ATA All-American teams in the early to mid-90's with some fine sub and junior shooters and almost none have returned to active Trapshooting. Belt buckle, shell bag and flashlight trophies may be interesting to some aging, overweight un-athletic wannabe trapshooter but have little interest to a former 40 yo plus shooter. So from my limited 53 years of active trapshooting I can speak from experience-don't wait for their return-it ain't happening!

 

Oleo the ATA suit you like a glove , you old fart, but not the new generation. It is boring and is no glory to it!
The ATA just keep you busy b/c you have nothing better to do, but getting 20 yo people is a waste of time.
Capisci?

 

Trapshooting may be boring to some but based on attendance bunker moves as fast as a Giant Sloth or not at all. No one obviously cares about winning cheap tin coated medals while competing with a few ATA trap washouts.

 

I did not says that ATA should embrace bunker, but the actual ATA format is what it is.
Can be made more challenging and attractive for young people.
Talking about bunker, it is not for Americans. It is too hard and difficult to understand it.
The entire world shoots bunker and don't want to hear about "baby trap" aka ATA.
It's matter of culture.

 

Well, let's see. The mini-grand in NY this past weekend had 243 shooters shooting the Singles championship. The average score was app. 186/200 or a 93% average. I suppose what that means is everyone is sufficiently challenged by your so called "baby trap". No endless shootoffs or 100 straights by 11 yo old females either. As usual Artur, you're talking silly.

 

The "big guys" were in vacation , I guess.
However ATA must change to bring more people in!

 

Oleolliedawg,

I go to every shoot I can and enjoy myself. I don’t live in or for the good ole days. Life is too short, I am in my 70’s too, in another 10 years, I may not be able to shoot and won’t care if anybody is taking it up or not. If you want to worry for me, be my guest.


Artur Cordea,

You too, knock yourself out yammering about BS and waste your time over things you will never live long enough to see happen. ATA will outlive you too and can do so without your harebrained ideas. Start your own damn shooting association if you don’t like what ATA is doing.

 

Why do you open a discussion here about on how to grow the trap participation and membership if you can't except new ideas.

Anyone with new Ideas should start his own association? How stupid is that?

 

Oregon has a very active, state wide program of High School trap shooting, seems there are about 500 enrolled this year. Three clubs in this NE corner or Oregon have a total of about 60 young folks shooting each week for 6 (?) weeks and then in June have a state shoot near Portland. Great kids, some really good shooters too. As with everything we attempt to "give" our children all we can do is offer and hope some portion will grab the opportunity and take it into the future with them. Some will, some won't, we just have to keep on trying...... Larry

 

I can accept new ideas, but ideas must be within the realm of reason to be good ideas. Absolute nonsense to allow a non member to participate in a membership held event. How does your idea increase membership if you don’t remember participants to be a member? That is oxymoronic. Why would there be any reason for the existence of the organization to allow non members be non members?

My idea tells you what you need to do to increase membership in a reasonable manner. The earliest, fastest way to increase membership is an ATA member to buy a membership for a potential new shooter. The ATA website offers gift memberships. My idea can be put into practice immediately and does not take years to develop, does not require passage by the BOD.

 

I meant to say in above post,

How does your idea increase membership if you don’t require participants to be a member? That is oxymoronic. Why would there be any reason for the existence of the organization to allow non members be non members?

How did you get to post on this website without becoming a member to it?

.

 

"Absolute nonsense to allow a non member to participate in a membership held event." I got me wrong!

I said, get rid of registered and let people to compete based on a membership card.
The membership fees without to require registered targets will bring much more revenue to the ATA
Find a classification that will allow to any member to be classified based on his skill at the time of the tournament.
No penalties, registered and other BS!
Why is so complicated ?

 

Ohhhhhhhh, ok, I finally got it. Sorry I am so thick headed about it. Submit your membership today and get started. You can shoot at ATA events and you do not have to worry about registered targets. Your classification will be handled each and every time you sign up. Make sure you play all the options while you are at it.

 

I don't want to be classified based on the ATA actual criteria!

Do not put me in a class before I shoot or I start the tournament.

Let my scores to classify me and not any somebody else.

I shot a better score than a AAA guy, then put me in a superior class.

I am a AAA shooter and I shot a C score at a particular tournament then put me in the C class.

Of cause you need to work on getting a just and fair classification based on this idea.

It is possible and very simple.

 

Simple minds make everything simple.

 

So, let me get this straight. Classify based on that day's scores. So let's say I'm a AA shooter. I miss a couple early and know it's going to take a 99 or 100 (small shoot) to win. So I maybe miss a couple more and end up with a 96. According to the ATA structure that would put me in A class and since everyone with a 97 or higher will be in AA I'll win, or at least tie, for top in A.

WTF???

 

No ATA BS on the new classification!

The "class classification" is replaced with the "level of performance"

You shot 96 you are below 97,and the "level of performance" depends on your score and the NR of entries.

Oleo,. "Simple" is more enjoyable than "complicated"!!

 

This system you want already exists, you sign up, pay your entry fees, then play a high gun purse. You win with the high score. If there is 2 or three payouts, then the purse is split amongst the two or three top shooters. If you do not want to maintain an average card, you do not have to. Your scores are recorded, averaged without your participation. Just throw your money into hi gun purses and we will love you.

 

So for what is the " registered targets" BS for?

 

To keep people like you out ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

It is an organized discipline. The purpose is to set guidelines and standards for target settings, guns, and ammunition. All organized sports, amateur or pro have limits and standards on equipment, I.e. bats, balls, clubs, rackets, weights, engine sizes. Some people want their targets recorded and registered, it’s as simple as that. You are hung up over a very small issue of ATA shooting which is preventing you from having a good time.

A great many of the people who post here are terrified of “sandbaggers” which they would accuse you of being if you had your way about it. The classes do not determine winners in a contest, it is the participant and his ability to win the day with uniform guidelines for everyone. Problem as I see it is some want less rules, some want more rules or help or prevent some people doing their best. I work within the rules set and enjoy being outside, breaking targets.

 

Again
Sounds like this?

Rules

1. 
   125 bird event.
   
   The targets will be 55-57 yards.
   
   All shooters will shoot ammo provided by shoot management.
   
   Ammo will be given at the firing line.
   
   Ammo will be one ounce 1200 fps or a little slower.
   
   No failures to fire allowances. A bird not shot that is whole is a loss.
   
   There are no illegal targets.
   
   Shoot at a broken target and the results will be scored.
   
   Handicapping as follows.
   Everyone shoots the first 25 targets from 25 yards. Handicapping goes to number of birds you broke. Minimum yardage 20. The next 100 targets will be shot at the handicap yardage.
   
   There will be a re-squad after the first 25.
   
   Target Setting
   
   Targets will be set at wider than the straightaway from stations 1 and 5.
   
   Expect targets to be over 55 yards long.
   

 

I get what the championship thing is all about. I've stated my opinion on the results as well.

Arthur references 'class' so I was considering his idea to apply singles. Especially since that's about all he's babbled about.