Improving Shooter Turnout For AZ Palma Championship Team Match

[RCurtis]

Shooters, in light of the continual low turnout for the team match at our yearly palma championship I have begun to entertain a new idea on when to hold it, so I would value your input. Currently the team match is fired in this manner; after the individual match on Friday the teams move forward and shoot the 800 yard portion of the team match. On Saturday they shoot the 900 and Sunday the 1000. Obviously this makes for three long days and puts folks traveling on Sunday way behind. Also pertinent to this discussion is the fact that every year the range is open on the Thursday proceeding the match, for practice.

Now the idea, which I can claim no credit in coming up with is this, why not shoot the team match on Thursday and still allow those who just want to practice shoot along with us. Obviously doing this adds a day but in my mind shooting the complete team means shorter days and most importantly people who need to be home Sunday could get a much earlier start. So the question, for those who most likely plan to attend next years match is this; Would you be more or less inclined to shoot the team match if it was held entirely on the Thursday before the individual matches?

Thanks for your time,
Rick

 

[Scott Harris]

Great idea Rick. The long days is one reason I was not too keen on the team match this year. I bet you'd get a lot more attendance....I'm sure the boys wouldn't mind taking a Thursday off of school.

 

[markgrabowski]

Rick, if I recall correctly, in years past, we migrated to only shooting the 900 on Friday and the 1000 on Saturday.... we didn't shoot any part of team match on Sunday, in light of travel arrangements (the TSA lines at PHX can be brutal on a Sunday night). While the idea of shooting the entire team stage on Thursday has merit, often times those of us who are flying in from cold climates haven't shot in 2 months or more, so a day of practice without the pressure of disappointing the team has it's positives as well. Also, there are a fair amount of shooters who arrive Thursday night (due to time off work, etc.) I guess it all depends on one's perspective...if you are more local, can take an extra day off work, etc. it's not as big a deal... if you are flying in, most folks, I'd suspect, want to shoot as many rounds as possible in the least amount of days... neither is right or wrong. From my perspective, I fall into the latter category...more rounds each day!

Regardless, I applaud your efforts to look for alternatives which maximize the amount of rounds going downrange....

Regards,
Mark Grabowski

 

[rminut]

Rick,
I think that both courses of fire have merit. As a shooter that has to drive over 10 hours to attend shooting 45 shots for record feels like a half day of shooting for me. If you change the team to Thursday maybe add a 20 shot string at 1k after the Palma 1k strings on Friday and Saturday. Make it a separate 400 point match, maybe a any/any match. That way people can shoot if they want or not, it's a separate match. I think we finished the Palma course around 1:30 everyday this year so adding another 20 makes it a full day for us people that don't get to go home locally. Just a thought.

R,
Robert