I wanted to here what everyone thinks about the youth class yardage. I shot with some kids this weekend in Rome. These kids were 12 to 14 years old.

Here's my thought:
IBO does alot for the future bowhunter class to excite them and keep them interested; medal, goody bag, calling their name out on a the PA....... Really pumping the kids up. Its great. Then you move up to the Cub class(9 to 12 year old). 25 yard max. And the to the youth classes (13 to 15 year old). 35 yard max.

There are only a few adults that have their kids ,that are under 9 years old, shooting a bow. So if a adult starts shooting IBO and brings their 9 to 14 year old child with them. Doesn't there need to be some shorter targets for them to shoot at. The two boys that shot in our group missed a target and then fell apart from there. It was all that I and the other adult could do to keep them from leaving the range. These are the future and I would rather see higher scores from the youth. So what if the top 10 shooters shoot 20, 30 or even 40 points up. The rest of them are doing there best and can't come close to breaking 300. Am I the only one that would rather have a kid score high and keep coming back? They'll have their day when the hit the adult classes that will spank their rear ends.

Get them fired up when their young and they'll keep coming.

I'm not on a soap box, I just hate to have these kids come out to shoot with us and leave, never to come back, because the course scares them away.

I agree with you. My daughter came with us and when she walked the range with us she said that she would not attempt the shots from some of the stakes she would have had to shoot from. She has only been in archery for about six months now and she is doing pretty good in our local shoots. She has a 25 yard max around here and a 30 yard max in her school shoots. Many kids can't pull a lot of heavy poundage and should not have to shoot the long shots they are expected to now. I realize that there are exceptions. I have shot with some youth that can outshoot me and I am proud of their ability. This is an exception though and not the rule. The entry level youth should have some closer stakes to give them a chance to get excited about shooting some good scores before they hit the long stakes as they get older.

We are having the same issues. Our local shoots the cubs shoot 10 yds. max (0-11) then 12-16 goes to youth at 35 yds. huge jump! I have seen the drop in attendance , we will get 5 to 10 cubs per shoot and will be lucky to see 3 youth shooters. this will be my daughters first year in youth and it has been hard, such a big jump for the kids.