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Progressive Skill Awards for Camp Rifle Programs
Skill awards are an essential part of any developmental sports program. Motivating campers to work to achieve established skill levels and recognizing their achievements are important. Skill awards do much more, however. A well-designed awards program helps the instructor track the progress of each camper. Having something to take home to show parents and friends how they did in the camp riflery program is critical and it does a lot to remind campers of the fun they had long after camp is over. The ultimate value, however, is that they focus participant attention on the results of their own personal efforts - not on how they do in competition with other campers.
The new CMP Camp Rifle Skill Awards are available in three target shooting
disciplines - BB Gun, Air Rifle and .22 Smallbore Rifle. The
recognition award is a handsome gold medallion with a red, white and blue neck
ribbon that can be presented to a camper just like an Olympic medal. The
face of the medal is the same for all disciplines; it shows an Olympic style
rifle and a target. In an innovative departure from most awards of this
type, the reverse side of the medal is designed so that the camp riflery
instructor can personalize each camper's medallion to show the discipline and
performance levels achieved by the camper. One medallion can be used to
recognize any of the three shooting disciplines and all levels of
accomplishment. This greatly reduces the cost and the number of items a
camp has to stock.
Program administration is facilitated and simplified by a four-page progress
record. The progress record details the criteria for each award level and
has spaces where the instructor can record when a requirement is met. There are 12 skill award levels starting with an entry level
that any interested camper may achieve. Skill levels gradually increase in
difficulty. The highest skill level requires the camper to demonstrate
mastery of all the fundamentals of position shooting.
At the end of each training
session, campers place their fired targets in the progress record which the
instructor can grade after campers depart the range. This allows the
instructor to give his or her full attention to instruction and running the
range while campers are present. After the first day, the progress records
with the graded targets are passed out to the campers at the start of each range
period. Campers know
where they stand on the skill
awards ladder and what they need to work on next. The skill awards program
is coordinated with the instructional package for each rifle discipline.
Group size rather than score is the best indicator of entry-level skill development in rifle target sports. All but four skill levels are determined by group size. Targets can be quickly and accurately graded using an acetate template to determine if a target qualifies for posting in the progress record. Grading templates are part of the program package.
The highest award level for each shooting position (prone, standing, kneeling) is based on score and requires the shooter to demonstrate both skill and the ability to adjust sights to center a shot group in the bull's-eye. The final awards level requires that the camper achieve an established minimum score in a 30-shot three-position course of fire where the maximum score is 300 points.
Colored recognition certificates
can be downloaded from the CMP web site and printed locally. The name and
location of the camp and the name of the camper can be added to the certificates
that are printed and awarded to campers.
CMP Skill Awards Order Form. Click here to view and download a form to order CMP Skill Awards Program materials. A camp must be affiliated with the CMP to order program materials.
