re: US Biathlon

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If the South got more snow fall, the US would never lose.

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The South doesn't really have much of a competition shooting history or structure. I shot 3 position small bore from 11 through college and most people I knew had never seen a free rifle and thought my Anshutz 1907 was some sort of alien weapon. On my college team we had kids from all over the country even though the student body had a very high percentage of students from Southern states.

I compete in F-Class now (casually) and the number of competitors from the South is roughly the same as the population. Some of the very best in F-Class seem to be from the Pac NW.

While from the outside hunting and competitive shooting seem to be very similar disciplines in actually they are quite different even if the core fundamentals are the same. Two glaring examples I always see is most shooters don't have any idea how to properly use a sling and think it is primarily for carrying a rifle and watching most people shooting offhand standing it becomes clear they have no idea how to build a position and just don't understand the biomechanics supporting the rifle with muscle instead of relying on the skeletal structure.

The positive is high school shooting teams are becoming much more popular and widespread. That however doesn't do much for building high-level competitors outside of a few phenoms. It has to trickle down to early elementary ages kids just like football and baseball to give kids the early instruction and skills to develop into national and world-class shooters. If a kid is not breaking into the 1100s (in 3 position) by the time they start high school they will almost certainly never be national or world-class.