Quote Originally Posted by bozzer View Post
"Should we not be encouraging younger flexible people in to the sport?"

Amateur sport in the UK, including major sport like cricket is seeing a very obvious trend ...

Youngsters up to the age of about 16 - 18 participate ... and then people go off to explore careers, beer and the mysteries of carnal desires.

As the enthusiasm of promotion and the dream job, and the temptations of Eve, dwindle, then a number of folk turn once again to something that satisfies the need to compete, and the comfort of comradeship ... sport.

As folk realise their bodies can no longer cope with such physical activities like football or rugby etc ... then they turn to less demanding ( so they think ) sports like golf and shooting.

So FT and HFT will always have a high percentage of middle aged to senior participants. The majority of folk that are willing to put the time in to organise such events will almost certainly be of these age groups. So even if more 'younger' folk are attracted, the rules will probably be biased towards the more mature shooters. Check out the whinging over the years, in either sport, if shooters are asked to move out of their comfort zone.

"You expect me to range the targets myself? Balderdash ... Pass me that 50x scope. My God ... Now I'm being asked to lean back a few degrees to shoot a target up a tree ... Someone invent a contraption that can be adjusted so that I can just stay in my 'easy' position, and still get the rifle on target ... Ah ... Thank you Rowan."

If FT shooters played football they'd have an engineering company design a mechanical leg that kicked the ball for them.

Target placement ... Over the years I would imagine that target placement has become more varied simply to test the best shooters and to introduce an element of added interest, rather than having all targets at the same level ... and to keep Rowan's profit margins healthy.
The good news is that despite everyone thinking they can bolt on a solution and win comps, the Grand Prix series has been won by someone with a £1000 value rig lacking any said wizardry.

As it turns out the physical shape of the top FT shooters has changed over a decade or so. While there are some bigger bodies around if you look at the top 20 their more likely to have a good BMI and quite likely to do what some would be considerable physical exercise, or have a job that keeps them in shape.