National Strategy for Junior Olympic Para shooting

[bdutton]

I thought I'd start a discussion on how can we get a National Paralympic Junior Shooting program.

As it is now, you have to get certified as a paralympic shooter and that is very difficult given the limited numbers of people that can certify an individual as a particular category of para shooter.

What I could recommend is USAS set a provisional certification process which would provide detailed guidelines to local coaches/directors to allow a shooter to compete in a local junior olympic qualifier as a paralympic shooter. Based on the results of nationwide provisional results of the local para shooters, a limited number of para shooters, lets say the top 10 for each gender/para type, receive invitations to compete in the nationals.

Once at nationals, the para shooter would receive the official para category certification. If any shooter fails to receive the certification in the category they were invited for, would be allowed to shoot for score only and would not receive a future invite under the same category again.

Thoughts? Challenges?

ETA: The thought process here is to grow the paralympic sport by increasing the grass roots support for local para shooters.

[Tom-C]

Agreed, I have juniors that have not been able to get classified in the last 4 years. The majority of shooters can be easily classified
Tom-C

[dschaller]

Considering they (USA Shooting) can't even seem to get a Paralympic coach for more than short periods, who at USA Shooting would be responsible for implementing this? I agree something needs to be done, as I work with a para junior that has not been able to get certified in years.

[bdutton]

I sent an email to Alex regarding this and he said they are accepting scores for non certified para juniors.

From the email...

Hello Bill,


We do actually have a Para category that we will be using this year so you can go ahead and send his scores in and the entry fee if he would like to be eligible for the National JO’s.


Thank You,

 

Alex Szablewski

Sr Manager of High Performance

USA Shooting

[Tom-C]

Bill,
Do we have dates for the Junior Paralympics?
Tom

[bdutton]

Bill,
Do we have dates for the Junior Paralympics?
Tom

National Junior and Para are shot side by side. Not sure what the dates for Nationals is.

[dschaller]

Tom,
In the past, Para was shot at the same time as Pistol due to the lower number of pistol shooters compared to rifle. As far as I know, nothing has been announced for dates or location for the National JO matches. Shirts for Winter Air had a calendar that said JO Rifle in May at Hillsdale College. Note lack of dates, and nothing about Pistol....

I received an email stating that JO Invites should go out first week of April. I would assume at that point they will have dates and locations, since they will ask the invitees to respond if they will attend. Hard to commit to coming when you don't know where or when....