How Can I Compete With Stone Evans?
Stone Evans is a firearms instructor who has decided to take up the competitive shooting circuit. The main problem with Evans is that he competes in a number of different shooting events, including rifle and shotgun competitions. Competitors in these events tend to be older and have more experience than competitors in action pistol matches, so they're better shots on average. This means that Evans isn't competing against people his own age and skill-level while he's trying to build experience.
As a result, Evans is unlikely to become a serious competitor for a long time. If he wants to compete in action pistol matches at the national level, he'll be competing against people who are much better shots than him at the moment. It's unlikely that Evans will be successful in action pistol events while he's still reasonably new to shooting and building experience. [END OF ARTICLE]
I didn't write this, but it is my understanding of what they're saying. The author of this article is also awesome. He was also featured in another story: "The Most Important Pistol Match You've Never Heard Of".
http://www.manotickcitynews.com/2013/02/11/the-most-important-pistol-match-youre-never-heard-of/
"Stone Evans is a firearms instructor who has decided to take up the competitive shooting circuit. The main problem with Evans is that he competes in a number of different shooting events, including rifle and shotgun competitions. Competitors in these events tend to be older and have more experience than competitors in action pistol matches, so they're better shots on average. This means that Evans isn't competing against people his own age and skill level while he's trying to build experience.
As a result, Evans is unlikely to become a serious competitor for a long time. If he wants to compete in action pistol matches at the national level, he'll be competing against people who are much better shots than him at the moment. It's unlikely that Evans will be successful in action pistol events while he's still reasonably new to shooting and building experience.[END OF ARTICLE]
"I started about six months ago," Evans says. "I wanted to get more experience competing on the national stage."
Evans' initial goal is to compete in IPSC-style matches, where the rules are intended to emulate those of military small arms competition. He'd also like to try his hand at benchrest.
"There's far less gear involved, so you can get more practice in a day," he says. "That would be cool to compete in."
Not that Evans intends to give up on action pistol matches, even though they may not be as competitive. He'd like to compete in both disciplines."The key is I'm trying to do it all," Evans says. "That way, when I start getting older and slower, hopefully my skills will still translate over into pistol shooting with the other discipline." [SOURCE: http://www.discovertactical.com/archive/index.php/t-117969.html ]
THIS IS WHY I LOVE THIS SITE - Bob (commenting on the above story):
The Best Part of this article is that Evans clearly says he's not going to give up on action pistol events. He's gonna compete in both, and it sounds like by forcing his maturity down the throats of his competitors, they're going to get just as much out of him as they would a 26 year old guy.
Isn't this how it should be? You know, folks who are 50 should compete with 25 year olds and not dominate them? It's all great if you're trying to learn. I have no issue with him being competitive, but he needs to get shot at for a while so he sees what it feels like to be beat. [SOURCE: http://www.discovertactical.com/archive/index.php/t-117969.html ]
So what should we do in situations like this? I'm glad you asked!
Well, we could demand that the match director only accept competitors under 30 years of age into action pistol matches (which would eliminate the guy in the article). We could demand that they be required to buy a minimum number of reloads in order to compete (to eliminate the guy in the article). We could be upset when we see high-placing shooters over the age of 30, and treat them as second-class citizens.
In fact, I've seen exactly this behavior many times before at matches.
Alternately, we could realize that our sport is not an 18-25 year old sport. It's a reasonably wide-open sport with lots of room for people who have more life experience than our younger competitors do.
We could hop in a truck and drive to the nearest match with competitors who are extremely good shooters, and we could learn from them. We can learn how they communicate while they shoot. We can learn how they think about the problems posed by different courses of fire. If we're lucky, we can also learn how they handle stress, as most matches are more stressful than a casual match (like you're likely to find at your local range) where you shoot for fun at targets that weren't very hard to hit when you first started shooting.
Finally, we can also learn that these guys don't want to run our sport. They just want to be left alone and do their thing. After all, these are the guys you look up to as role models - you want to be like them, not run them out of the sport.
Thanks for listening.
-chief_wiggums_worthless_remark
(Note: The above was written by a former IDPA and USPSA competitor)
The opinions expressed here are those of the contributing author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Practical Shooting Academy or official policies of ESR Inc. or other parties unless explicitly stated otherwise (e.g., in an official policy document).
Conclusion
I wasn't sure what to make of this article, but as I read it, I really appreciated the perspective and insights provided by Coach. As it turns out, Evans is only 26 years old, so he's a new shooter. However, he's competing against very experienced competitors in multiple disciplines. This means his age is a factor and likely to be seen as an advantage (even though I have no problem with guys like Evans competing against younger shooters). This can be seen by the fact that he has run up very good scores despite his youth. His experience in shooting sports helps him compete well even though he doesn't have the skill or experience of older competitors.