Passion

Posted On: 06-15-2026

Many people work with youth in Missouri I am but one.  I must believe though we all see youth with passion in the shooting sports.  As I have said to many why would you choose a sport that requires perfection so the only reason I can guess is passion. 

Passion as defined by AI might read like this: 

Passion is an intense, driving emotion characterized by overwhelming enthusiasm, devotion, or strong feelings toward a person, activity, or cause. While commonly associated with romance or hobbies, its original Latin root, passio, actually means “to suffer” or “to endure,” reflecting a deep willingness to sacrifice for what matters most.

So, to all of those youth shooters that meet this definition I applaud you and realize there is nothing easy about suffering to endure something youth love to do.  Years ago, I was listening to Larry Potterfield speak about youth shooting and he simply said, “they like to pull the trigger.”  I have to agree 100%, youth with passion associate it with lots of shooting and do so most often by choice not by obligation. 

Each summer I along with several other instructors I get the opportunity to work with youth and see first-hand just how much this sport means to them personally.  Of course, passion needs parents to support the effort, but overall, the fact those shooters come out for a full day of instruction, over two days, shoot over 7,000 rounds of ammunition and endure through the heat, sunburns, and instruction overload makes me feel pretty sure they love the sport. 

For coaches it is so important to ensure and encourage the passion needed to become outstanding competitors.  Pats on the back, words of support, positive phrases of encouragement, and an overall effort to have each youth shooter leave the range with nothing more than a desire to get right back to the range and shoot more. 

When I see passion, I see youth shooters that are attentive to instruction, trying new ideas and ways to improve, pushing themselves outside their comfort zone and a willingness or a want to win.  Thinking in those terms creating an image of what the return is for passion goes a long way. 

Another thought on passion is simply that it is not inherent in a person but instead has to be cultivated and grown.  I got a call one evening from a young shooter that wanted to take their shooting to another level competitively.  I asked what had happened to make them want more and their response was they had just hit 97/100 targets.   In my mind I thought what a great accomplishment, but what he did not say was he was averaging 97/100 across multiple rounds.  He wanted more competition to feed his passion and desire to continue shooting based on target success.  I would argue though he might have said, “I just love being at the range and shooting as often as possible” to me that is also passion with little obvious goal setting for hitting 100/100 targets.  Maybe best put, To each his or her own. 

Watch for passion and nurture it perhaps differently than others on the squad.  While it would be awesome to have a squad full of passion, take whatever you can get.