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Corona Virus and Youth Shooting Sports Part 1
Posted by Junior Shooters
Junior Shooters practice. 1o-year-old shooting a Mossberg .22 RL off-hand. The RO MUST be nest to the shooter!
By Andy Fink
This subject is very high on my priority window. What many of you might not know, is that Junior Shooters magazine has its own shooting team, the Junior Shooters Shooting Club. This team tests firearms, writes articles, learns how to shoot all types of firearms, and participates in a wide variety of shooting sports such as: Steel Challenge, Rimfire Challenge, USPSA, IDPA, Airgun events, CMP, 3-Gun, Trap, Skeet, Sporting Clays, Hunting, and more.
Here in Idaho, we teach the sport of 3-Gun starting with .22s and juniors as young as eight years-of-age and moving up from there; even into college. We emphasize SAFETY and more SAFTEY along with responsibility and technique. The objective being, that if a youth goes through our program and learns how to shoot 3-Gun safely, responsibly, and with the right techniques, they can compete against experienced adults in almost any shooting sport and be safer than the majority of shooters at those events.
Okay, now comes the Corona 19 virus. What to do? Well, the shooting sports are not that much different than other sports and I suggest doing some research such as reading this interview from Sports Illustrated:
https://www.si.com/sports-illustrated/2020/03/13/youth-sports-safety-coronavirus
Our team canceled all practices after having only one practice the first weekend in March. I am convinced that was the right thing to do. Now, we are talking about starting again the end of May. Planning for it, but not set in stone by any means. So, planning for it means what? Use recommended procedures for sure, but a lot of other things come to mind.
Here are some ideas and things we have come up with to date. We are working our way through this prior to our first practices. Please let me know your thoughts by emailing me at publisher@juniorshooters.net.
- How many juniors, parents, coaches, will attend?
- How do you keep groups apart from other groups (a group is a family)? Groups, and individuals not part of a group, must maintain a minimum of a 6-foot distance.
- Should they take their temperature in the morning before leaving their house? Yes, if it is above normal that family cannot attend.
- Should their temperature be taken at the range when they get there? Yes
- How many bays are there to spread them out in?
- How many ROs are there?
- Does everyone need to wear a mask? The shooter and the RO? Definitely! The RO can NOT maintain a 6-foot distance therefore, both the shooter and the RO must wear a mask.
Kryptek has some awesome faceshields though a N95 mask is suggested they are not always available. You can also make a home made mask and add lining.
- Everyone else? Yes, they should, but all persons on, or about the firing line, even if they are just target resetters must.
- Anti-bacterial wipes should be available.
- Youth and parents should bring their own masks, but we must have some available if someone forgets.
- Should gloves be worn? Thinking on this. Suggest everyone bring their own? Proper training on the use of gloves must be provided.
Many more thoughts to come…
The title of this article has a Part 1 at the end so be ready for more of these to appear in both the print magazine, on our web site, and in our Facebook page.
Check out the laser training video on our facebook page and leave a comment (made last year prior to the Corona virus):
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