Youth Programs from Shooting Sports Industry & Beyond Create USA Shooting’s
EXCELLENCE PATHWAYTO
AS OUR READERS WITNESSED IN 2012, the depth and quality of target shooters entering the elite ranks for USA Shooting, quite simply, hasn’t been stronger. We need not look far for proper attribution when handing out handshakes and thank you’s.
Given the limited funding and
staffi ng available for most orga- nizations in the Olympic Move- ment, grassroots development and the nurturing of the pipeline that feeds elite athlete suc- cess is often dependent on the support and maintenance of out- side entities. The sports that get that right demonstrate what that backing provides every four years during the Olympic Games. “Too often folks in the sport
world overlook the fact that Olympians don’t just appear, but rather are developed and main-
tained in the sport pipeline by youth and developmental coach- es who kept them in the game and developed skills and an en- joyment of sport at an early age,” said USOC Chief of Sport Perfor- mance Alan Ashley in the Winter 2012 edition of Olympic Coach newsletter. “At the USOC, we rec- ognize that Olympians need nur- turing, not only in preparation for elite competition, but also when they are young and looking to enjoy what they do.” USA Shooting is blessed with the tremendous backing of the
I t takes a long time to
bring excellence to maturity.” – PUBLILIUS SYRUS
entire shooting sports industry and organizations that help fund and feed this pathway to excellence. Sure, you could argue that
picking up a rifl e, pistol or shot- gun is likely the result of a fam- ily hobby, a rite of passage if you will, and of course you’d be right for the majority of athletes that are competing today. But turn- ing an interest, hobby or passion into a pathway for excellence, well that’s where the industry support provided to USA Shoot- ing for youth development plays
an irreplaceable role. A 2010 report put out by the
National Sporting Goods Asso- ciation (NSGA) estimated that there were nearly six million tar- get shooters between the ages of 7 and 24, making up approxi- mately 29 percent of all target shooters. Funneling them into appropriate activities and pro- grams that captures their interest and motivates them for a lifetime of shooting recreation takes the collaborative effort of the entire industry. Turning that 29 percent into the relative few qualifi ed