Thought the trend away from awards in shooting competitions worthy of discussion. The usual reason cited for not having awards relates to expense, but I'm not 'buying' that! With this post I hope to overcome that excuse.
Always a believer in COMPETITION performance rewards (as additional incentive and something tangible to 'shoot for'), it seems there is a contagious allergy to awards sweeping the competition-shooting landscape.
Reading between the lines of some conversations I've had with shooting club Powers That Be, some think awards might actually drive away shooters vulnerable to performance anxiety by increasing performance pressure! ? REALLY? ? This attitude may actually rival the silliness of 'participation awards'.
Which brings us to the fact awards need not be extravagant or expensive to be rewarding; just some tangible confirmation of fine COMPETITION performance beyond 'braggin' rights'; which seem to have become anathema these PC days to actually exercise, and is precisely why I don't hesitate to exercise braggin' rights! In fact I sometimes take them to extremes for the sake of making a point- if braggin' rights are all the reward available in competition, why on Earth should anyone be coy about bragging?
My secondary reason for BRAGGIN', that no-one might believe true, is providing incentive for those put off by bragging to KICK MY ASS at the next (and every) opportunity! Don't know how effective that incentive is, since it so seldom happens...
SEE! Doesn't that incentivize you? Well, it should.
If nothing else, tangible awards might remove the incentive for braggarts like me to get the most from braggin' rights. Now I'll explain how to provide tangible awards with minimal expense and effort.
As clubs stopped giving awards years ago, I sometimes took it on myself to commemorate more memorable performances by assembling certificates on the computer. When mounted in an attractive frame, they can actually be nicer looking than (some) State and National Champion wall plaques. After finding good-looking wooden frames for $4 each at the dollar store and realizing framed certificates cost little more than the frame itself, I've gone to provided them (gratis) for Match Winners in two classes in monthly Bench-Rest Silhouette competitions at my local club. Most of those shooters being of long competition experience, they appreciate awards, and (now) don't have to endure my bragging.
I usually customize the certificates with the shooters' name, score and match date, and deliver the framed AWARD at the next match. As for expense, worst case scenario (if I don't win either class) is it costs me about nine bucks a month to add another level of incentive/motivation/excitement/REWARD to the competitions; a real bargain in my opinion. Providing the framed awards also helps create the illusion I'm a nice guy. ?
A long-time competitive shooter, the Match Director also awards little Match Winner and ten-in-a-row pins at these BRS matches. Not being much of a hat wearer, I've found the pins nicely complement framed certificates.
Am I the only competitor that laments the endangered species status of competition AWARDS?
At Airgunners of Ariozona we give out pins that are colored Gold, Silver, and Copper (bronze looks too much like gold) that are in the shape of AZ and have the club logo printed on them. They only cost a couple bucks apiece and the winners enjoy "collecting" them. They seem to create a desire to obtain them and display them on their shoot caps.
For our AZ state championships, we have medals made up from a local trophy shop that offers engraving. So we have the club logo on the front of the medal and the class and placement engraved on the back. Again, these do not cost that much and even that is built in to the match fees for that particular match.
The awards are not expensive, nor are they dust collectors, but just something simple and they seem to be appreciated.
I like the idea of a paper certificate, but if you are lacking on wall space (as in my house) it may be counterproductive unless accumulated into a loose leaf binder.
Mark
As usual, you make several good points Mark. Kudos to AoA for (still) giving awards at their competitions; three-deep, no less! Awesome. Apparently the awards-allergy and competition-anxiety epidemics haven't reached Arizona yet. Must be the dry air... ?
Believe it or not, and I find it downright laughable, I've heard of someone who believed MDs make a financial killing putting on FT matches. ? Used that as an excuse to not help out at matches; in fact demeaning carpool-mates who did help.
Reminds me of that Tony Joe White song, Polk Salad Annie- "Her daddy was lazy and no count; CLAIMED he had a bad back." ?
Keep up the good work, Marco.
BTW, an alternative to putting award certificates in a binder for lack of wall space is simply adding a(nother) man-cave! ?
Awards has been an issue for the over 30 years I have run matches and I have tried a lot of different things. There are a lot of different views. The PC position with competition today seems to be that everyone is a winner. While that may be true at some level it does NOT mean that everyone's performance is equal. The people that perform the best deserve some reward although awards can just be more work for MDs. Our solution is to give awards out to third place in each class providing that the numbers warrant it(no award for one or two shooters in a class/division as it would be meaningless). We give a small amount of cash for first place only in each class/division(no cash for second and third because they did not win!). We do also have nice club pins though for first second and third places in each division/class. We also give out an annual award for first, second and third club champions based on a persons aggregate score for the year. This is kind of nice because you don't necessarily need to be the best shot but you pretty much have to shoot every match. We have been giving a club belt buckle, a T shirt, and a hat for those awards.
This all seems to be working okay.
Rick Bassett
FTRPA
Why does that say rimfire division? Sorry if there is an obvious answer here but I have seen similar on other certificates and find it a little "Silly"
As for the point of your thread..Sure there is a need for some form of trophy. A nice one that gets a new name etched into it every year and is kept in at the clubhouse is a great way to spend nice money once for a trophy that wouldn't make sense to produce every year. The airgun program at my club is all but dead as the older shooters resist PCP fall by the wayside. Our shooters are younger and younger and seem to have more interest in what we call fun shoots. There are still prizes and lunch to be had usually.
The way "Field Target" is organized make it pretty much impractical to hand out awards at local matches. We have 3 classes then subdivide those 3 into PCP and Springer making a total of 6 classes and some clubs add even more like Unlimited, then lets add High Senior, High Junior, High Women, High Veteran and on and on. And it is apparently it is not PC to recognize an overall match high score anymore. This means providing 12 or more awards at a match. Most matches I participate in are are considered well attended compared to most local matches around the country and still only have about 20 competitors. It would end up like pee wee little league that gives everyone an award that can walk, pretty meaningless.
The original purpose of my post was an appeal for SOME kind of award incentives in shooting competitions, even if not necessarily elaborate, and even if only one-deep per match, class or division. Good to hear there are still some (a few?) clubs giving awards at monthly/club matches; even three-deep when participation warrants, and annual (Grand Prix-type) awards. Good on ya' Rich! I think your healthy program speaks volumes about the value of a dedicated and experienced Match Director. Makes me wonder how much the awards have to do with keeping enthusiasm and attendance up.
The (apparently) not so obvious answer as to why the certificate pictured reads "Rimfire division" is because we have Rimfire and Airgun divisions at these 60-100 yard BRS matches, we award Match Winner certificates for each division, and this particular (Rimfire) framed certificate well-illustrates my point about Match Winner and ten-in-a-row pins jazzing up the wood-framed certificates quite nicely. Sorry; in my superhuman powers of insight I sometimes forget 'superhuman' means exactly that. ?
TVP makes a good point that too many awards too closely approaches the PC concept of 'participation' awards. That is why we only award Match Winner certificates for the two divisions at the BRS matches, and only if there are enough shooters in the division to warrant it (at least 3). Agreed Terry, over-dilution of anything (herbicides, liquor, awards, for instance) makes little sense, and can actually be counter-productive.
