nys rep

Knowing Keith personally, his organial post certainly wasn't an attemptto descredit any of jmarley7's thoughts. I feel it is his way of showing some humor, and having some fun with us all. As far as I'm concerned their isn't a more stand up guy out there supporting the IBO locally and at the National shoots. Take the time to walk with him through the vendors area and the amount of shooters that stop and talk with him is incrediable, the man knows everybody! When he is having a good day shooting his bow nobody can touch him, when he's not, he will be the first to tell you that " I'm just a dumb a_ _ from Kentucky!! The reason that I became a State Rep is because I thought that I might be able to serve the IBO a little like Keith. Regards!!

fasstfletch

nys rep,
Your assesment of Keith is probaly one hundred percent correct and this was not the subject of the original post. I have sent Keith a PM so as to better statemy position and explain any misunderstanding he may have. I too am a State Rep and support all members of the IBO including jmarley.

nys rep

Fasstfletch, I do agree that jmarley7 does deserve some answers to his questions, and that we as reps need to do more to get that local bowhunter to join the IBO. But with all that is happening in our world today, some humor sometimes is the answer. Instead of us all trying to start something with each other, lets ask the questions to our National leaders as to why have nearly 2000 of our armed forces havedied in Iraq? Why can they find a cow in Texas with mad cow, but we can't find bin laden? Why are we paying nearly $3.00 for a gallon of gas, and when was the last time our leaders pulled up to the pump and paided for it themselves? Why are medical insurance preminums so high that our seniors can't afford to have medical insurance?
I could go on and on, but I think we know this should end.
By the way I want to shoot the over forty, left-handed, wears glasses, big front stablizer class, causewe all know that when they set ranges they never think of the left handed shooter. When you righties are failing off the mountain face first, we lefties are failing over backwards. Maybe thats what happened to me! I must have hit my head !!

Uncle Paul

I read the reply the same way as Fastfletch. I'm not sure how jmarley recieved it, he's not responded. He asked a simple question of us of what we thought of his suggestions. I personally don't know if his suggestions would help or not. I do know one thing, and that is participation at all the archery events are down. Local and National, and we need to keep coming up with new ideas to keep peoples interest in the sport. The old ways of doing things sometimes need new ideas to keep them useful. Sometimes change is good.

ohiobohntr

hey if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it !

jmarley7

First, I would like to thank FASTFLETCH and NYSREP for there thoughtfulness in there reply to this thread. And as far as how I responded to Keiths response, well I took it as a slap in the face, and I viewed it as childish and close minded.
My thinking is to maybe to look at other popular recreational sports such as softball, they use classes and it works very well, there are A,B,C,D classes and maybe more (its been a while since I participated). If your a "D" class team you are not going to travel around your state or region playing in "A" class tournaments getting wacked 30-0, and then on your drive home saying to your buddies "boy that was alot of fun, I can't wait to go back and do that again next weekend". That is why you play tournaments or leagues in your class tournaments, it makes for a more enjoyable and rewarding experience.
Or maybe we should look at Bowling leagues, they usually use some type of handicap formula to make it more competitive and thus you return for the next week of league play. The same can be said for Golf leagues and so on. Most Indoor Archery leagues use some form of handicap, so the elite does not dominate.
I personally think that it is human nature to be competitve and people like to be rewarded for there efforts and also have an enjoyable experience. If you give people goals they respond, such as moving up in classes. And there is also going to be the person who does not have the desire to excel at archery (which is perfectly fine), but some of these people may be interested in shooting more if there are truly attainable goals. Most people know that they are not going to be the "ELITE PROS" but that does not mean that does not mean that they don't like a pat on the back, good job, atta boy, congradulations just as much.
I am not an advocator of increasing the amount of class "styles", in fact this might be a way at streamlining some of the classes. I to believe there are to many classes!


Joe Marley

bullmoose38

I just happend to stumble across this thread. I think having different classes would help the sport of archery. I shoot in a local 3-d league every Sunday with my wife and we love it. We would love to shoot in some tournaments but we both know we would get smoked. I shoot in the bowhunter class and my average is probably in the mid 260's.So I am definitely not a threat of winning anything. I know I would love to travel around and shoot with people at my level. But with the current classes I save myself the aggravation and do not shoot them. Thats just my 2 cents.

fasstfletch

These are some of the suggestions and comments that we need to make it interesting. Another suggestion would be a handicap system that would give everyone a chance. I have developed such a handicap system and have tried it a few times. What would be wrong with having a scratch award for each class and a Handicap award for the overall handicap scores.
This game is not that old that there is no improvements left to be made, if it is than who are we leaving out and how many?

keith meador

jmarley, sorry you took my humor as an insult. this topic has been discussed very often on other forums, not onlyabout the ibo, but other organizations as well. my response was not an attempt to slight your idea in the least, and if you took it as an true slap in the face my apologies.

imho, the lewis class system, or handicap isnt what is wanted by the bulk of the shooters, in the class i shoot. flighting means what? with 400 shooters every 20th place gets a first place win? who really won?

having an a,b,c,d, would help for a while, but what happens when shooters start loosing in those classes? does the organization break it down further? i am all for making shooters happy, and retaining shooters as well as recruiting new ones.

my question is this. how much is our sport really like others? folks will spend 25000 dollars on a bass boat, to fish on saturday and sunday. i have no idea what a set of golf clubs cost, but know that shooting a bow is much cheaper to participate in on sunday. green fees can cost up to 75 dollars, and you are not competing for anything.

why can we not get folks to shoot a bow with that same mindset?shooters at the club level would be fine,but what happens when they decide to shoot a nationallevel shoot?just shoot for the fun of it. the ibo tried, and with huge success started the hunter class, and money hunter class. in the hunter class, it has become more competitive than the open classes. i know i couldnt drop down to that class and shoot the scores being posted there....for a new shooter, seeing the shirts with every kind of sponsor in the world on them could be intimidating. very few shooters who participate in the national level shoots do so without some kind of sponsors, even if it is a local shop or club.

where does the ibo draw the line between a national shooting organization, and taking care of shooters who only want to shoot for fun? maybe the ibo could take away all the money, everyone shoot for fun in the amature classes, and give away door prizes at the end of the weekend? go back to trophies for all amatures? amature trophy and amature money class?

breaking classes down will draw shooters from other classes, but at what cost to the classes they draw from? i know the open class used to be larger, as was the mbr.

i am all for making things better, but coming up with a viable solution would be tough at this point. how would the ibo keep up with shooters scores shot locally to enable them to accurately place people into a class equal to the ability of that shooter and others? how do you stop sandbagging? a person wishing to shoot a national event would have to start in a more competitive class until data in collected, then moved to the appropriate class. if that shooter feels they are in over thier head, will they come back? what if the new shooter was put into an open d class, and beat by 60 points as we see happening in other classes designed for new shooters? will they come back?

least of all i am closed minded. i think of ways to improve our sport daily. there is no magic solution, no easy answer, no cure all....when you have as many folks participating as does in the ibo, you cannot make them all happy. possibly a poll of all shooters, with a comments section for recomendations would help identify a trend as to the direction the participants would like, as the ibo did a few years ago with the additional 10 dollars added to the shoot fee to assist in paybacks at the shoots....

ewolf

Here is my opinion on the classes in IBO. 1st thing I would do is this. If you shoot in the HC, or the HF class and you shoot a 400 or higher, next year you have to move to a more competitive class. Why can a guy that can shoot a 400 not shoot 45 yards? Then the hunter class is going to be a more novice class of shooters. People that don't want the long stabilizers can go to the MHC. If not go to MBR, or MBF. The problem is fixed. It spreads shooters from the HC to MHC, and MBR. Then it keeps the targets from getting a hole in the 11 ring.

I like to shoot 11's as much as the other guys, but come on. Whats next a 25 yard class that the winning score is 434?