bhanley

I believe the reason that most Basic fliers move up in "less than one season" is rooted in the reasons given earlier in this thread. It is unforturnate that they do because you then have the situation in Sportsman that you described for your Basic approach of several years ago, ie, guys who are still wrestling with "Basic" skills who then must compete with highly skilled fliers with 35-40% equipment.

My opinion is that a fully included/vested Basic class is preferable to pushing people ahead too quickly into Sportsman simply because they want to feel like full members of the group. As for the problem you cite (guys hanging in a lower class to simply win....). I believe that peer pressure could do a lot to force those "skilled" fliers to move up to a more appropriate class and leave Basic for what it is properly intended to be - namely an intro group to encourage new participation in IMAC.

Having just completed a full year in Basic and having gotton much benefit from it, I would offer the following suggestions:
- Have an experienced guy in the region assigned as a mentor/contact for the newbie the first time the newbie enters a contest.
- Include Basic in the regional championships and in the Nats
- About mid way through the season start giving Basic an Unknown. Make it very simple, eg, just reorder the sequence slightly
- Make sure that in the conduct of the weekend that Basic doesn't get pushed aside in preference to other classes (I didn't experience this in the Northwest but reading seems to indicate that it does occur...)
- And a detail - change the name of the class - not a lot of guys want to talk about being in elementary school whatever the activity....

Yes - I am moving up. Hope this is helpful....
Bruce