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Summers can be a special time for junior shooters. Without the time demands of school, summers offer more time for extra training as well as the travel necessary to compete in the most important championships of the year. The 2004 and 2005 summer issues of On the Mark reviewed shooting opportunities that were available to junior shooters during the summer. This year, The First Shot looks at the many shooting opportunities that can make this summer a special time for junior shooters.
Summers can be a time when juniors do extra training to improve their skills to be better prepared for the upcoming fall-winter shooting season. Summers are also a time to participate in one or more of the many junior or open national championships that offer prestigious junior titles. As you read about special summer shooting opportunities that might interest you and your juniors, use the Guide to 2006 Summer Shooting Opportunities for Junior Shooters to obtain dates and sources of more information about those activities. Note that many activities like the CMP Junior Rifle Camps and NRA National Junior Smallbore Camp always fill early and that some competitions have qualifying competitions that took place in the winter and spring months. In those cases, you need to add those events to your list of activities to plan for in 2007.
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Juniors can compete for national championship honors! At the 2005 National Trophy Rifle Matches, Steven Skowronek of Irwin, PA became the first junior to win the John C. Garand Match with a record breaking score of 292-8X. He poses here with his Garand Rifle.
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NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Top junior shooters’ usually focus their goals and annual training plans on national championships that take place during the summer. National championships attract the best junior and senior shooters. They determine who the best shooters in the country are in competitions for prestigious trophies and titles that usually have fascinating histories and traditions. Almost every national shooting championship offers junior championship titles as well. Some juniors go to these championships striving to make winning performances in competitions for open and junior national champion titles. Many others attend these championships because the best shooters are there and there is much to learn from them. Still others go because competing in national championships is always a great experience. Many of these championships offer reduced entry fees for juniors and have other program features designed to encourage more juniors to attend. Championships taking place in the summer that are of particular interest to junior shooters are:
USA Shooting National Championship. This is the national championship for Olympic and world championship shooting events in rifle, pistol, shotgun and running target. Every event offers both open or senior titles that juniors can and sometimes do win, plus junior titles that only juniors can win. The Olympic events include three-position and prone smallbore rifle, air rifle standing, air pistol, free and rapid fire pistol, running target and skeet, trap and double trap. Members of the U. S. National Team and U. S. National Development Team (national junior team) are selected at this championship. This is a must-attend championship for juniors who want to shoot in college or who dream of some day making an Olympic team.
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The most sought-after individual junior honor at the National Trophy Matches is winning a place on the National Junior Rifle Team as one of the overall top six junior shooters in the Colonel Bill Deneke Trophy Match. The 2005 National Junior Team pictured above from left to right were John Volk, National Coach, Heidi Bickel, Team Captain, James Fox, Julie Coggshall, Kevin Trickett, Justin Utley, Jake Quamme, and Christopher Atkins.
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CMP National Trophy Rifle Matches. Juniors who compete in service rifle matches or who are interested in trying highpower rifle shooting will find plenty of reasons to attend these competitions at Camp Perry, Ohio. National Trophy Rifle week is the biggest week in the National Matches with nearly 3,000 total competitors and almost 400 juniors. These matches offer opportunities for brand new highpower shooters as well as the best junior highpower shooters in the country. Experienced junior highpower shooters start the week by attending the popular USMC Junior Highpower Service Rifle Clinic. Junior shooters with no highpower competition experience begin their week at Camp Perry by attending the Rifle Small Arms Firing School taught by the U. S. Army Rifle Team.
National Trophy service rifle competitions include the President’s Match, the National Trophy Individual Rifle Match, the Whistler Boy Junior Team Match, the National Trophy Team Match and the unique National Trophy Infantry Team Match. Many state rifle and pistol associations train junior highpower teams to compete in the Whistler Boy Junior Highpower Trophy for two-person teams, in the Minuteman Trophy Team Match for six-person junior teams and in the National Trophy Infantry Team Match, also for six-person teams. The most sought-after individual junior honor is to earn a place on the National Junior Team as one of the overall top six junior shooters in the Colonel Bill Deneke Trophy Match.
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The top six overall junior shooters in the National Trophy Rifle Matches at Camp Perry are named to the National Junior Team and have their names engraved on the prestigious Deneke Trophy.
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The CMP has a popular support program that junior highpower rifle shooters who are attending their first or second National Matches can use to help offset travel and entry fee expenses. Regulations and application form for the CMP Junior Highpower Support Program are on the CMP web site at http://www.odcmp.com/NM/JrHPSupport.htm.
CMP National Rimfire Sporter Match. This competition, which will take place at Camp Perry, Ohio, during the National Matches on 23 July, offers juniors and adults an opportunity to compete with sporter-class smallbore rifles that can weigh no more than 7 ½ pounds in a fun-filled, less formal atmosphere. Members of 4-H Shooting Sports Clubs who shoot in a Rimfire Sporter Match at either their state 4-H championship or the 4-H National Invitational will have their entry fees waived for this match.
NRA National Smallbore Rifle Championships. The NRA National Smallbore Rifle Position and Prone Championships are always popular competitions for juniors. As many as 40 percent of the 350 or so competitors who attend these traditional smallbore competitions are juniors. NRA smallbore championships offer juniors several daily events with junior competitors divided into classifications. Newer or less skilled competitors compete for awards in the Marksman, Sharpshooter and Expert classes. A major appeal of these competitions is that they are part of the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio. Camp Perry is located in an enjoyable vacation area and features a commercial row lined with shooting equipment suppliers.
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Heather Depp of San Antonio, TX won the CMP’s Junior Pistol Trophy during the 2005 National Trophy Pistol Matches. Depp was also the high Junior in the President’s Pistol Match and was a member of the winning National Pistol Team Trophy team. This summer, Heather will be competing in the World Shooting Championship at Zagreb, Croatia, as a member of the USA Shooting Team.
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CMP & NRA National Matches for Pistol. The three big summer competitions for junior pistol shooters are the USA Shooting National Championships, with competition in the Olympic pistol events, the NRA National Pistol Championship and the CMP National Trophy Pistol Matches. Juniors who shoot in the 2006 NRA National Pistol Championship have the option of firing the entire 2700 aggregate in a “Made-in-America Junior Championship Program” where junior pistol shooters must fire .22 caliber “made in America” pistols. CMP junior competitors fire .22 caliber pistols in the President’s Match, National Trophy Individual and National Trophy Team Matches. The Junior Team event is a two-person event. Juniors who compete in these events can fire any .22 caliber standard or sport pistol.
JUNIOR SHOOTING CAMPS
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CMP Junior Rifle Camps take place during the months of June and July. CMP camps host up to 50 juniors in training experiences that feature expert instruction and intensive practice with lots of individual hands-on coaching.
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One of the best ways for junior shooters to improve their competition scores is to attend a junior shooting camp. The CMP, NRA and USA Shooting all sponsor outstanding shooting camps led by instructors with impressive teaching and competition credentials. In addition, there are many regional and local camps that offer opportunities to learn and improve skills. Shooting camps typically last three to five days and let campers learn new or advanced shooting techniques from expert instructors and spend lots of time on the range practicing. Camps typically have counselors or coaches who are accomplished competitors and who provide lots of hands-on coaching during range-firing sessions. Almost all juniors who attend camps report significant improvements in their shooting scores.
CMP Junior Rifle Camps focus on three-position air rifle shooting. The camp director and chief instructor for the 2006 camps is U. S. Olympian and former National Rifle Coach Dan Durben. He will be joined by assistant camp director Sommer Wood and a staff of nine counselors who are all current college rifle team members. CMP camps always fill early.
The NRA conducts or sanctions a wide variety of camps that are organized or sanctioned by the NRA Education and Training Division. The NRA features National Camps in rifle, pistol and shotgun that offer advanced instruction and intensive training. The NRA National Junior Smallbore Camp, which takes place each summer at Camp Perry, is another camp that always fills early. Over the years, it has introduced hundreds of juniors to smallbore competition and the National Matches smallbore events.
There are also prestigious National Junior Olympic Camps in rifle, shotgun and sometimes in pistol that top juniors aspire to attend. USA Shooting, as the Olympic national governing body, is the lead organization in these camps that take place at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, but the NRA also plays a supportive role in helping to organize these camps.
This year, the CMP is cooperating with USA Shooting to offer an Advanced Camp at Fort Benning, Georgia, on 12-17 June during the USA Shooting National Championship. 10 junior shooters who attended previous CMP Junior Rifle Camps were invited to attend this camp. Also this year, the U. S. Army Marksmanship Unit is offering a Junior Smallbore Camp on 14-18 August at Fort Benning, GA. The USAMU camp will be led by the coach and members of the Army International Rifle Team. It is designed for juniors between the ages of 13-20 who have at least a couple of years of competitive experience.
NATIONAL JUNIOR INVITATIONAL COMPETITIONS
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Micaela Jochum of Beatrice, Nebraska won the sporter class individual title at the 2005 American Legion National Junior Air Rifle Championship. On the road to winning the Championship Jochum set a new National Sporter Open record when she fired a 571 on the first day of the competition.
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The summer shooting season is when most national junior invitationals have final competitions. All but one of these championships have qualifying competitions in the winter and spring so it is important to plan well ahead to make it possible for your juniors to take advantage of the unique experiences these competitions offer. The one competition that is open to all interested juniors is the Daisy Air Gun Invitational. Junior air rifle and air pistol shooters who are still looking for an exciting competition challenge for this summer should consider this competition that takes place this summer at Bowling Green, Kentucky.
National Guard Bureau Junior Air Rifle Tournament. The National Guard runs a major postal competition during the months of January through March with sporter-class three-position air rifle and precision-class standing air rifle events. The top teams in both classes are invited to a national competition, which this year will take place at Bowling Green, Kentucky in late June.
National 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational. The 2006 4-H Invitational will take place in
Rapid City, South Dakota, in late June. It is open to 4-H Shooting Sports Clubs. Individual 4-H juniors are limited to participating in this national event for two years only. The Invitational features a variety of shooting sports events that are practiced by 4-H clubs including archery, silhouette rifle, air rifle, pistol and shotgun. One of the smallbore events on the 2006 program is the CMP Rimfire Sporter event.
Daisy/U. S. Jaycees International BB Gun Championship. For 4-H and other junior programs that offer BB gun shooting, this is their national championship. Teams must qualify in state competitions. The BB gun championship is for youth 15 and younger and often includes juniors as young as nine or ten. The competition includes a 100-point educational test and a 4x10 5-meter BB gun course of fire.
The 2006 championship will be at Bowling Green, Kentucky in July.
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The top three 4-H, Jaycee or other BB gun teams in each state are eligible to compete in the Annual International BB Gun Championship sponsored by Daisy Manufacturing and the U. S. Jaycees.
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Daisy National Air Gun Open Championship. The Daisy air gun competition is the oldest youth air gun championship in the country. It is open to any school-age junior and has both team and individual events in sporter and precision air rifle, air pistol and air rifle running target. Many juniors got their first taste of national competition by entering this popular event.
The 2006 championship will be at Bowling Green, Kentucky in July.
National Junior Olympic Air Rifle Championship. USA Shooting and the National Three-Position Air Rifle Council sponsor this competition. It is the major national competition in three-position air rifle. Teams and individuals must qualify in Junior Olympic state championships in the winter or early spring. Competing teams must be either scholastic teams representing a single school or club teams where team members are regular participants in that club’s program. All-star teams are not permitted. Sporter and precision class team and individual titles won at this competition have become especially prestigious because almost all of the top junior shooters now try to qualify for this event. The 2006 championship will be at Bowling Green, Kentucky in July.
NRA Junior Air Gun Championship. The NRA also sponsors a major national air gun championship that includes both three-position air rifle and air pistol. Teams that enter this competition may be all-star teams where team members are selected from different clubs or schools. This year’s competition will take place at Redmond, Oregon in July.
American Legion Junior Air Rifle Championship. The last major junior competition of the summer is the American Legion National Air Rifle Championship that takes place every year in early August at Colorado Springs. A two-stage postal competition, which begins in the fall, is used to qualify the 30 individual juniors who participate in sporter or precision class three-position air rifle.
OTHER SUMMER ACTIVITIES
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The summer months can be a great time to do the extra training that makes the difference in a young shooter’s rise to the top.
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Summer is a Time for Extra Practice. During the school year, when schoolwork and school activities take precedence and the time available for shooting practice is often limited, it is difficult to do enough training to accomplish especially challenging shooting goals. Even juniors who work in a full or part-time job typically have more time available to train during the summer. Some JROTC units and club teams make their ranges available for team members to train even after school is out. Juniors who own their own air rifles can easily set up a 10-meter range in a basement, garage or utility room. All that is required is a minimum clear distance of 40-45 feet in a location where outside entrance can be restricted. With a range at home, young shooters can train as much as they want. Devoting two to five hours a day to improving firing positions and techniques can pay huge dividends when the shooting season starts again in the fall.
Sometimes Summer is a Time for Taking a Break from Shooting. Anyone familiar with the principles of athletic training knows that rest is part of a sound sports training program. For most junior shooters, the shooting season begins in the fall shortly after school starts. If the fall, winter or spring was filled with lots of competitions and regular practice, a break might be beneficial. The best way to decide whether juniors are ready for more shooting during the summer is to evaluate their motivation to shoot. Are they eager to get back to the range and do more shooting? Are they excited about going to a big match? The answers to those questions will tell you whether your junior shooters are ready for a break this summer or are ready to take advantage of the many summer shooting opportunities available to them.
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