Place Obsession

This is a rant about human nature and our obsession with the past.  Our ability to try new things or novel things is many times limited by our obsession with what we have done in the past.  The biggest hurdle to trying something new is the "can't" factor as in "You can't do that."

I was trying to come up with new and novel format for a jackpot bracket shoot.  I thought, well, what if we paid 5 places in three brackets or a total of 15 shooters. We could divide the pot into 20  equal parts.  Each of the top five would get 5% of the pot for being one of the top five shooters in the bracket. Then, since we love winners, we give the winner in each bracket an additional 5% for winning the bracket. And again, since we love winners, we shoot the bracket winners off to get an overall winner and he or she gets an additional 5%.  The ultimate split works out to be 20%, 10%, 10% and then 12 5% winners.  Makes sense to me, since a shooter's ultimate overall place has more to do with the luck of the draw than with how he is shooting, except maybe for that one shooter that goes all the way without a lose in the shoot-offs.

I pitched this to some of the board and club members and was hit with the "can't" factor.  The pointed question I could not answer at the time was "Who is in fourth place?"  Now, I can answer.  There is no overall fourth place.  There is just 15 shooters that shot well, three shooters that shot a little bit better, and one shooter that shot the best getting through the shoot-offs without a loss.  He or she is the Overall Champion.  I proposed Top Fifteen Medallions and little money to each of the top fifteen shooters, and then a little bit more money to the bracket winners and a little more money to the Overall Champion.

I don't suppose this will ever fly because of place obsession.  We got to be able to pull our suspenders and say "I was fourth" to the other lower placing shooters even though one's draws may have been the easiest of the lot.

More rant.

We shoot in the summer heat, sometimes 115, and may have between 40 to 70 shooters on 6 lanes.  It is not fun to wait an hour between rounds. I propose the Arizona Five to move the shoot along.  We would only use it in no X contests like our bracket shoots before the shoot offs.

Arizona Five:  Shooters shoot five rounds with the shooter with the most winning shots winning the match.  If there is a tie 2-2, then both shooters get a win because both are hitting between 40% and 80%.  If there is a tie 0-0 or 1-1, then both shooters get a X because both shooters are shooting 40% or less.  

This has also been met with the "can't" factor.  "You got to have a winner."  No, you don't, you can have a winner, or two winners, or two losers in a match.  This would be used only when there is no elimination factor involved, we are only shooting seeding rounds, trying to sort out who is shooting the best this particular day.  If two shooters can't hit the target more the once in five shots they ought to sit down, and let's get on with the sorting.

If you can't tell, I am a little frustrated by the "can't" faction. To get this little shoot off of the ground I need a little boost from positive comments, I get plenty negativism from the "can't" faction, that is human nature.

The old Vaquero was giving some advice to the young Vaquero saying, "Remember, you are a Mexican, not a Mexican't."  A native American shop owner was lamenting the state of today's youth saying, "Unfortunately, our young people are all pull start, not push button start, like those from India."