First, I would like to thank FASTFLETCH and NYSREP for there thoughtfulness in there reply to this thread. And as far as how I responded to Keiths response, well I took it as a slap in the face, and I viewed it as childish and close minded.
My thinking is to maybe to look at other popular recreational sports such as softball, they use classes and it works very well, there are A,B,C,D classes and maybe more (its been a while since I participated). If your a "D" class team you are not going to travel around your state or region playing in "A" class tournaments getting wacked 30-0, and then on your drive home saying to your buddies "boy that was alot of fun, I can't wait to go back and do that again next weekend". That is why you play tournaments or leagues in your class tournaments, it makes for a more enjoyable and rewarding experience.
Or maybe we should look at Bowling leagues, they usually use some type of handicap formula to make it more competitive and thus you return for the next week of league play. The same can be said for Golf leagues and so on. Most Indoor Archery leagues use some form of handicap, so the elite does not dominate.
I personally think that it is human nature to be competitve and people like to be rewarded for there efforts and also have an enjoyable experience. If you give people goals they respond, such as moving up in classes. And there is also going to be the person who does not have the desire to excel at archery (which is perfectly fine), but some of these people may be interested in shooting more if there are truly attainable goals. Most people know that they are not going to be the "ELITE PROS" but that does not mean that does not mean that they don't like a pat on the back, good job, atta boy, congradulations just as much.
I am not an advocator of increasing the amount of class "styles", in fact this might be a way at streamlining some of the classes. I to believe there are to many classes!


Joe Marley