TargetTalk

Here is the USA Shooting press release:
http://www.usashooting.org/news/2013/2/ ... or-of-some

This should give some people some things to discuss as the finals were very interesting and followed the "new" format. I'm not sure my thoughts yet, I understand both sides of the coin.

A little more food for thought - will National Junior Team Members be selected the same way with the "new" format in 2014? If a shooter 20 points behind (given the top 8 shouldn't have a 20 point spread), goes into a finals and wins, is that the person to be selected or should it be the person who shows higher average consistency? Just something I was chewing on on my drive home as we all get used to the new rules.

Congrats to all the competitors at the RMRC and the hard workers at the OTC. As a spectator I really enjoyed the qualifications and finals.

Dave Johnson was mentioning that all of the shooting federations were having the same questions on how to factor in the new SFZ (Start From Zero) and elimination finals.
For note ... only the Gold and Silver medalists fire all the shots in the final.
Germany has some interesting ideas and more may come out of the European Airgun champs in a few weeks.

I thought the new match qualification formats in rifle were interesting and less "boring" (if you will) with their shorter timelines ... well, the 40x60x40 Mens 3-P/Prone was long ... 3Hrs-2min.

The SFZ finals, whether you like the concept or not, along with the elimination stages made for much more audience "excitement". (well .... shooters too)
Exactly as they were meant to do.

It's going to be tough for some of the shooters to get used to giving way the leads they had in qualification, but I think (and this is after only one match) that this is much better match modification to the finals than when the finals were first conceived and brought into the sport ... specifically to increase audience "watch-ability".

What I got out of the match & the finals (ESPECIALLY 3-P) was the importance of practicing this format BEFORE you shoot an actual final for real ... if you go in cold without ever doing one, you are at a severe disadvantage. The separate sighter/changeover periods of the 3-P final are pretty unforgiving to one who does not have a "script" to follow during those changeovers.
We held practice finals for the shooters (AND officials) on Day1 of the events that really helped those who participated. The AMU shooters who have been practicing these were very willing to share their tips & tricks with the other shooters.

The final is made as much by the announcer as by the shooters. The announcer can keep the shooters and audience appraised of the positions and scores, as well as, in the elimination stages, know who is "on the bubble". Michael McPhail (USAMU) did a particularly great job announcing the Air Finals on the last day ... as well as injecting just the right amount of humor into the process.