[bodybuilder]

I shoot at a small club that would like to start a summer league. I don't know how, Can someone give me some ideas? There would probably be about 20 shooters. Do you have teams and compete against each other as teams? any advice would help! Thanks

 

[Big Al 29]

Bowling average. First 2 weeks gets your average then you shoot against your average.

Its easy and it gets people out. Why whats to shoot in a league that puts you against a AA shooter? Shoot against yourself. Every two weeks your average is compounded to give you a new average.

Have fun.

Jeff

 

[spitter]

We've done it with averages and gave birds, but now we use a simpler "Lewis" Method... based upon actual birds shot. Basically we take the High or High + RU (depending upon the actual number of entries) out of the mix and then split the remaining bodies among a series of classes (4-5... AA,A,B,C,D).

If there is a tie at a class break point, we'll adjust as necessary.

Been using it for the past few years for 16, doubles and handicap. We've shot teams, but more recently we've stayed with individual events.

When we had teams, we used a draft system among the named captains... I gave a value based upon the suspected class of the shooter (4/A, 3/B, 2/C, 1/D) and the captains could pick anyone they wanted on their team. After each round, the lowest value team got first pick in the next round. Had the names projected on a wall, announced the teams and gave the captains a time limit - ala the NBA/NFL - was a lot of fun doing that in and of itself!

Hope some of the above helped!

regards to all,

Jay

 

[Frank C]

Greater Lowell Trap League has about 350 shooters from about 10 clubs, it has been going for MANY years so there are no sandbaggers, 6 divisions, 18 weeks, 8 man teams, 250 birds /match per team....cookout and "refreshments" afterwards, hosted by the home team. Of course in ANti gun Mass, there are many small one and two trap clubs that have a number of teams....check out the website....

www.gltl.org opening night was tonight in the rain for me!

 

[bodybuilder]

You guys are trying to help me I know but it's going over my head. What about taking the best shooters and teaming them up with an average shooter for paratity and then having all teams shoot 100 targets a month and keep track of the winning teams and losing teams records on a chart sort of like the ball teams do it, Then at the end of the summer giving the winning team with the best won lost record some kind of prize? Would this work?

 

[washandwear]

Hi

The handicap technique gives parity to team scores and then you don't have to manage who is on what team. This lets buddies shoot on same team. With 20 shooters you could have 6 or 7 3 person teams or 5 4 person teams and toss out the lowest score each week or month however you structure it. You can setup so a team shoots against a specific opponent each league night with highest targets broken plus handicap team winning. Winner gets 3 points, loser gets 1 point and tie gets 2 points. Or just keep track of team targets broke plus handicap each week and team with most points at the end of the season wins.

Handicap can be calculated by taking the first two weeks scores for each shooter and subtracting from 48 or 49 or 50. You need to decide which you are going to use 48, 49, or 50 since this determines how much value you place on raw scores of 25 straight. Most clubs use either 48 or 49 since only raw score of 25 straight should get the maximum. So if first two weeks you break say 23 and 24 your total would be 47. Subtract this value 47 from either 48, 49 or 50 and divide by two giving for example .5 handicap if 48 is used as handicap set point. Typically a minimum and maximum with handicap is established. We use 15 as minimum and 24 as maximum score with handicap saving the 25 for the "perfect" score. So week one this shooter would have a raw score of 23 plus .5 handicap for a total score week one 23.5. Week two a raw score of 24 plus zero handicap since max score is 24. Week three you would take week two score of 24 add to week 3 score lets say 21 for total of 45. Subtract 45 from 48 and divide by two you would get 1.5 handicap for week 3. So raw score of 21 plus 1.5 handicap would give you 22.5 with handicap for week 3 and so on.

PM me if you want to discuss.

Regards

W&W

 

[spitter]

We actually did that... if you'll recall the method above, we had a draft. Every team ended up having A, B, C & D shooters. We had a handicap system in place for the individual team members.

If you shot 23+, you shot scratch. As you shot less, you got more birds based upon your average. Every team "played" everyone else over a "season" with the won/loss record recorded.

If you send me an email, I'll try and dig up what I had and send it back over to you. This way, you can make it your own.

regards to all,

Jay

 

[Country Squire]

targetmaster, We have 6 clubs involved in a traveling league. We shoot at a differant club every week. We shoot 16 wks with a winner of the first half (8wks) and a winner of 2nd half. total targets broken. If the winners of each half are differant we shoot off for the championship. You may shoot as many shooters as you have,but we only count the top 12 scores per team.We shoot 25 singles targets then 25 handicap at the yardage you broke at singles. No one shoots closer than 22yds. so the range would be from 22to 25 yds. That keeps you from having to resquad.If someone feels that 3 yds is unsafe they may stand farther back if they wish to.Hope this helps George

 

[halfmile]

Email me, I have an explanatory document including rules for a team vs team, head to head league.

I'll send it to you. Best system in our state, many imitators since it started.

HM

 

[AveragEd]

All that handicapping and awarding free targets is good for the warm-and-fuzzy factor but it doesn't encourage shooters to improve and that's what we all should be doing. I ran a league in south-central Pennsylvania for 13 years and after seven or eight years of watching shooters check their handicap for the day's shoot and say, "I can miss seven targets today and still get my 49," I went to scratch scores with shooters classified at season's end for a money shoot. The league grew to five clubs and 140 shooters.

Then a club dropped out. I asked the other clubs to choose a replacement from a couple of interested ones so our shooter count could rise from the then-current 95 back to the level it was previously. Two of the clubs insisted that if I went back to handicapped scoring, we would get the shooters we wanted and the four clubs would each make more money. Against my better judgement, I honored their wishes and we lost 10 shooters. After that season, I folded the league's tent.

The league was restarted by other people and uses handicapped scoring. The shooter count is about 80 and I still hear conversations at clubs about improving one's handicap, not one's score.

Don't listen to the people who will tell you that handicapping keeps things closer and encourages new shooters. Remember, anything that makes it harder to fall back makes it just as hard to catch up. And if you handicap to 49 (which seems to work best), it takes a perfect score to make a difference in the team scoring. How does that encourage new shooters?

If you want to do something to level the playing field, try 25 singles and 25 handicap or 50 and 50. Do anything that encourages breaking more targets, not working a system.

Ed

 

[bodybuilder]

Thanks guys it is starting to make sense to me now!

 

[wolfram]

The team competition seems to get the best response for league participation. You want to have the league run long enough to provide opportunities to improve standings but short enough to keep the interest. Five of six shooting dates is usually about right.

Keep the course of fire simple say 50 singles followed by 50 handicap targets. The handicap distance for the team should be base on the singles score. We divide the aggergate singles score by 10 and add 3 to get that HC yardage. Example; the team singles agg is 236 divided by 10 = 23.6 add 3 = 26.6 rounded up makes the 27 yard line.

To further level the playing field, we review the standings after 2 shoot dates and if a team is more than 15 birds ahead of the second place team, they must shoot their singles from the 20 yard line, after the third shoot if they are still more than 15 birds in the lead they shoot singles from the 24 yard line, and after the fourth shoot date they may be moved all the way back to the 27 for singles if the 15+ bird lead continues.

As you get more and more participation, expand the award package accordingly, We give an award to the high shooter each week and to the winning teams at the end of the league. We also have an A league and a B league so everyone has a decent chance to shine. The important thing is to keep it fun and fair.