Does winning matter? The short answer is yes. The long answer is no.
First, some background on the kind of competition shooting I do. I've been shooting competitively for 10 years now with the North-South Skirmish Association. I've been team captain of my team for like 3 years now.
In the N-SSA, we have "individual" competition, where individual shooters shoot at paper targets for score. For Musket, Carbine, and Breech Loader, shooters compete at 50 and 100 yards. For Revolver and Smoothbore, they compete at 25 and 50 yards. Single Shot Pistol is 12.5 and 25 yards. At our Regional competitions (skirmishes), you can re-enter as many times as you like for $1 a target. Your best score is kept.
We then have "team" competitions, where teams of shooters (3-man Revolver, 4-man Smoothbore, 5-man Musket and Carbine) shoot 3-5 courses of fire at breakable targets. These are timed events (90 seconds for revolver, 3 minutes for Smoothbore, 5 minutes for Musket and Carbine).
At the Spring and Fall National event, as well as some of the larger Regional skirmishes, there is a classification system in place:
(1)---EXPERT [Top 10%]
(2)---SHARPSHOOTER [Next 15%]
(3)---MARKSMAN [Next 25%]
(4)---STRIKER [Next 50%]
If you have never shot before, you are unclassified, and will be considered Expert class. After your first shoot you will be classified into the appropriate skill level depending on your score. Both individual and teams are ranked this way.
This system makes it so that people shoot against people with similar ability, so that it's more competitive for all.
Unfortunately, at our Deep South Regional skirmishes, we only have perhaps 40 or so shooters turn out these days, and so it's not really feasible to shoot on a classification system. This does tend to mean that the same set of folks tend to win medals every skirmish. But not always!
So, about winning.
I have had shooters quit before because they were not shooting well. There is no doubt that winning a medal is a huge thrill and it does inspire people to keep coming out and trying again and again. And I have watched shooters who do not do well become disappointed and demoralized and quit. This is something I strive to squash on my team explicitly. As a team captain, what we are supposed to do is keep individual statistics, and when choosing your shooters for your teams you should pick your top shooters, so that your team has the best chance to win a medal. We do keep individual statistics, but I quit using them for picking shooters for our team(s) years ago.
The reason is, if I used our stats sheet to pick the shooters for our team (or teams, if we have enough to field more than one team), the same teammates would get to shoot every time, and the same teammates would not get to shoot every time (or they would be farmed out to other teams that need shooters, if there are any). This is hugely demoralizing if you are not a great shooter. I see my goal as team captain to make sure that everyone has a good time, so that they continue to be members and continue to come out and shoot. This is a priority that comes above scoring well. Now, if we had an excess of shooters to go to the
Nationals, I would probably pick my best shooters for a National competition team. But we are lucky to have enough people to go to the Nationals to field a full team at all, so its not an issue for us.
So, the way I pick shooters for our team(s) is we literally draw straws. If I need 5 shooters for a Musket team and I have 8, we all draw straws and the 3 who don't make the cut will be farmed out to other teams as "pick ups" if there are spots available. This way
everyone gets a chance to shoot and have fun, and nobody ends up feeling like the kid who gets picked last in dodgeball.
The other thing this does is our team is generally strong enough to win a medal in
something at a Regional skirmish and so even if our stronger shooters carry some of the weaker shooters it's a big thrill and moral boost for everyone who got to shoot as everyone gets a medal to take home if they shot on a winning team.
So, yeah, winning matters. It builds morale when you win, and it wears on morale if you don't. Yes, it's supposed to be about having fun, and it is, but there is no denying that winning matters, and I've seen first-hand of people quitting because they weren't doing well. And let's be honest - if it were really just about shooting against yourself you can do that at home at your home range. No need to go to a competition at all.
So, about not winning.
I have commented (and even written an article) before that N-SSA competition is the least competitive sport I know of. In most sports, you know at all times if you are winning or losing. But in N-SSA competition, especially during individuals, you'd have to go out of your way to know how other shooters are doing. All you know is how
you did. Now, everyone knows that in order to be in a running for a medal you need to hit a certain score for certain guns, so you might have an idea of whether you are in the running or not. But you never know until the scores are posted.
Same goes for team competitions. While you can sometimes look at the target frames after a course of fire to see which teams cleared their frames and which did not, if they are all cleared or mostly cleared even this does not give you a firm picture.
So
during the actual competition, really you're just shooting against yourself, doing the best you can do, and I find there is little pressure to measure against others.
Our team is also big on camaraderie. We all set up near each other in our own special part of the firing line at our Regional shoots. We are always chatting and cutting up and having fun all weekend long in each others' company. Very often a subset of us will go out to dinner after the day's shooting on Saturday. Or if the host team provides a meal we will hang out together there. Many of us camp together at our skirmish site. This is a big part of what keeps us together and going as a team.
So no, winning doesn't matter. You can't even tell if you've won until it's all over and they hand out the medals. And there is a lot more to having fun at a competition than winning medals or even shooting a gun!
Of course, the real answer is that what matters is having fun. If you can have fun while winning medals, great! If you can have fun not winning medals, great! But if you are in a position of influence or authority in your sport, you have a huge obligation to make sure that the people in your sport are having fun. Because if they aren't, then they will leave.
This is important now more than ever. At a Regional skirmish last year we took an informal polling of ages. The average age was 62. But 3/4 of the membership was over 70. The average life expectancy for a man in the USA is about 78 years old. That means that within a decade or less, we could potentially lose 3/4 of our region's shooters, either due to death or just poor health. We need a massive influx of new shooters - say 20 to 30 - within the next 5 years or there is a very high likelihood that there simply won't be a Deep South Region anymore. Today, we typically field six 5-man musket or carbine teams. So, roughly 35 shooters. If we lose 75% of them that leaves us with 8 shooters. That's enough for one single team.
So, if you're interested in shooting black powder firearms of the era of the American Civil War, check us out at:
http://www.deepsouthnssa.com/
