Working with 4-H This Year

Using the Knowledge Vault as a Training Tool

We will be at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo Junior Shoot-Out at the national headquarters this year showing the Knowledge Vault. They have agreed to use the KV as the training tool for their coaches and recommend it to all their athletes.

This is another program that will parallel the DNR program that we will be developing soon. Four states have signed on and we expect 25 -40 more to sign up at the International Hunter Education Association convention this year in Iowa. They will give us a “range day” to showcase the KV and we will be using HE specialists from the first four states to not only show the methods but talk about the successes that each state program has experienced.

Steve Hall, president of IHEA, has already endorsed our OSP methods and the KV concept. So things are really going to be happening in the next two years.

We are developing a program for beginner, intermediate and advanced shooters to help with the overwhelming size of the KV and make it more user-friendly. The DNR project has its own separate part of the KV and so will 4-H, FFA, and a few other organizations. Each of these will have its own forum as well as specific videos for each organization and its own Coaching Hour to talk about special problems.

Without exception, every youth program we have shared the KV with has flourished – and in record time.

A Testimonial From a Youth Coach

Check this out from Chuck Griffith:

“I continue to be amazed at how quickly these kids (some of whom are very inexperienced) are breaking targets so quickly. I would like to say it’s the instructor (LOL), but in fact, what I’m teaching them is 99% of what I’ve learned from you and Vicki and all your years of trial and error in teaching.

To me, this proves your OSP methodology and the Knowledge Vault works well when applied, especially to beginning students, which is the future of this sport we love so much.

One of the 4-H group leaders from the Lufkin area is a retired District Attorney who has been working with 4-H kids for 15+ years. This group primarily focuses on shotgunning and hunting skills with a low emphasis on competing. They generally get new incoming kids in September after school starts and then they shoot all winter and spring.

He told me last month that after just six weeks of teaching your OSP methodology these kids are already CONSISTENTLY breaking more targets than they have historically by late Spring. In his mind, this has shortened their learning cycle by MONTHS. And more importantly, the kids are having a blast because they are getting the thrill of seeing the targets break so much quicker. It’s amazing what it’s done to their self-esteem.

Previously, the leaders had them shooting just trap and skeet which are on lighted fields (they shoot two Monday nights a month). Our 5-stand is also lit, but the 4-H leaders didn’t really know how to run the program, so the kids just saw skeet and trap targets.

After the second night with them, I told the Facilities Manager what type of targets I wanted on the 5-stand (rabbit, an easy incomer, a teal, and a crosser) for the next training session. I then put the kids in the five stations started with the rabbit and then went two or three cycles down the line with the five shooters shooting the same target. The improvement from the first cycle to the third cycle was amazing.

Then they did the same with the incomer for two to three cycles and then to the teal. In the fourth round, I then let them pick any of the three we had been working on and really got them involved since they were choosing their targets.

I’m not sure who had the most fun, the kids, the parents, or our group leaders. The look in the kids’ eyes when they start breaking targets is priceless as you both have experienced for 30 years and no doubt is what keeps you driving forward with new ways and experiences to help your students. I’m now doing the same 5-stand drills with the Nacogdoches 4-H group as well.

I deeply appreciate the time you and Vicki have spent with me over the last couple of years as I’ve learned and gotten hooked on this sport. But using this experience and knowledge gained from you allows me to give back to the kids, which is the richest reward of all.

Take care,
Chuck”

Thanks, Chuck, for sharing this with us.