Annual review 2021

In my review of the year 2020 I started with the words “What a crazy year 2020 it was ...” and I can actually describe 2021 that way. Corona-related cancellations of training evenings, competitions and championships, postponements of events and, due to the numerous changes, no chance to plan and structure the sports year sensibly. Even in the second year in which we have to live with the corona pandemic, it is just as difficult to practice the hobby or sport "air pistol shooting". Unfortunately, many marksmen have given up and stopped shooting and so it was a difficult year or, to put it mildly, another crazy year.

The remote competitions advertised by me should actually only bridge a few months of corona-related compulsory break and give the shooters from my environment a training incentive for home training. But the small bridging phase that was envisaged is now turning into two years. On the other hand, I also received a lot of positive feedback for the organization of the long-distance competitions and some athletes report that these monthly challenges have motivated them and encouraged them to persevere. I am very happy to receive such feedback, because that is exactly the goal I want to achieve with the training platform www.pistolentraining.de.

Competitions

At the beginning of 2021 I tried something completely new with the "Live-Meeting" ZOOM video conference competitions. Video conferencing was widely used in my professional environment and I wanted to try out this format in shooting sports as a substitute for live competitions. The first events were also very promising and I think the participants had fun and joy. However, the number of participants fell short of my expectations and so this format was discontinued in May 2021 after 5 events.

In the second half of 2021 - probably a few weeks too late - I announced team competitions for the second time. At the premier in 2020 I had so many registrations that I had to form two leagues and even cancel some clubs. In 2021, the registrations were only enough for one league, despite a lot of advertising for the team competitions. But it also shows that the implementation in the second half of the year is very difficult, as the number of illnesses rose with the cooler season and teams could no longer participate for this reason. In January 2022, however, the semifinals and the finals should still take place and the team season should be properly brought to an end.

The individual competitions were very well received and there are likely to be many marksmen who have participated in all 12 competitions throughout the year.

There was also a 2-person team cup which was very well received. The basic idea here was that already active remote competition participants motivate club colleagues to take part as well. Of course, this should also make the air pistol training platform even better known, and even more air pistol sport shooters join the global community. It probably wouldn't have needed that, because the number of new registrations rose steadily.

Number of participants

What a great ongoing development!
The year 2020 ended with 199 new registrations and on December 30th, 2021 there were already 366 participants or people interested in sports from 36 nations. This development surprises me and also makes me proud. At the beginning of the remote  competitions I had hoped for 100 participants, then I was happy that the 200th registration was received on January 7th, 2020 and now we are heading for the 400 - crazy! I'm not sure whether www.pistolentraining.de is the largest worldwide sport shooter is "online" training and competition community, but I haven't found a platform of this size so far.

Conclusion

The effort increases with the increasing number of participants. However, the competition format and the reporting of results via the web form has proven its worth. With a few exceptions, I was always able to send the result lists 1-2 hours after the end of the competition, and in 2021 even consistently as an age group and overall rating. The special challenges such as a 100 shot competition are very well accepted and there is a higher number of participants than in the competitions with the usual number of 40 or 60 scoring shots, so there will be 40, 60 or 100 shot competitions again in 2022.

 It's just a shame that I don't manage to motivate the young shooters, unfortunately I don't seem to be able to reach the age groups of 14-20 years or the club's youth coaches.

The stragglers and reports of results that are too late are annoying. If I have to create every evaluation over and over again because results are sent after the deadline specified in the advertisement, then that creates an effort for me that I do not want to have. That brings me to the outlook for the new year.

Outlook for 2022

There will also be remote air pistols competitions in 2022. In order to make it a little easier for the marksmen to take part in the competitions, the competitions are now being extended from an advertisement period of one week to two weeks.

I will also offer the "Air pistol edition" discipline as a trial for ages 51 and over.

There were quite a few inquiries here and I am curious whether there will be enough participants for a competition.

There will also be two team competitions, perhaps as a mixed competition (male / female).

I wish everyone a good start into 2022, stay healthy and motivated to do sports.

Axel Pralle
www.pistolentraining.de