Marksmanship Competition
Why make a decision to become involved in marksmanship practice and competition? It’s a question I am asked repeatedly. I can only imagine how much more often my female fellow marksmen get that same question!
Why are people puzzled by my participation? It may well be a lack of understanding of what’s involved in marksmanship. It’s not just about shooting and accuracy although that is certainly an important part of it.
Marksmanship also involves working as a group. Scores are tabulated summing the scores of the individual team members for a group total. Members are judged on speed in shooting and proficiency in handling your weapon.
Skilled marksmen can shoot with a variety of range weapons including: rifles, handguns, and air guns. It also requires you learn shooting disciplines like rifle shooting, skeet shooting. Even paintball shooting could be considered a shooting discipline.
Shooting different types of stationery and moving targets of various sizes and at different distances. Marksmanship also involves the competitor shooting from high, medium and low stances and shooting while moving.
When you’re involved in marksmanship competitions shooting categories include types of equipment, shooting distance, types of targets, speed, accuracy and even the smoothness of your movements.
It might also have something to do with my age. You see, I just turned eighty. When many of my buddies were taking up pickle ball, I was hitting the firing range. For those of us getting a little long in the tooth, the fact that we can still keep up with the young shooters and contribute to our group’s team score is very fulfilling.
When you think about it, the two hobbies are not so very dissimilar. Both involve working as part of a team. Both involve competing against others. Both are about fine-tuning a physical skill. For both sports, exercise and stamina and endurance are required. Both activities keep your mental and physical acuity sharp.
So why did I opt for marksmanship when the rest of my social group chose pickle ball? Well, with marksmanship you can use those skills in places other than the shooting range. My pickle ball friends seldom have use for those court skills anywhere but the pickle ball court.
I am not discounting the good things that come from playing pickle ball. It builds eye-hand co-ordination. Pickle ball players have greater lung capacity and muscle tone than non-players. Pickle ball is a great social pastime. More than one senior has met a new life partner while playing pickle ball or engaging in after-game activities.
For me, marksmanship grew from practice on the shooting range. Like a tall youngster who discovers he has a natural talent for basketball, I discovered I had the eye-hand co-ordination for shooting accurately. It didn’t start that way for all marksmen but for many it did.
I chose to continue in marksmanship competitions because I like being part of a long tradition. Worried about poor marksmanship during the Civil War, veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate decided to start an American branch of the National Rifle Association of America. That was way back in 1871. Marksmanship competitions have been happening ever since. It’s rewarding to think I am part of a tradition.
