I was fairly ambivalent about the whole barrel thing (or "TSB" as Karissa calls them). I wasn’t happy about the introduction of another random obstacle (I heard a lot of flack about the hoops), but I didn’t pay it much attention since I thought we wouldn’t see them until 2014.
I was wrong.
It wasn’t hard to make Porter go around it. I mean, let’s
face it, it’s fairly straight forward. But I just don’t like surprises.
It wasn’t 2014, and yet here was a barrel. I knew we could start seeing them earlier, but only if it was advertised in the premium beforehand. And it wasn’t!
Or was it?
Well, I went back & looked…
Yep, right there:
It wasn’t 2014, and yet here was a barrel. I knew we could start seeing them earlier, but only if it was advertised in the premium beforehand. And it wasn’t!
Or was it?
Well, I went back & looked…
Yep, right there:
Luckily, I already knew from one of Karissa’s posts that it
was useless to argue about it. So I didn’t make that big of a fool of myself :)
One of my students (jokingly) told me that he would like a refund because I hadn’t taught him all the obstacles he would see. Fair enough.
But now I am going to have even more trouble getting people to try NADAC. It’s fairly easy to introduce new people to the venue. But because of hoops, non-staked weave poles, lack of a teeter, low jump heights, non-slatted contacts, and now this god-forsaken barrel, I’m going to have a hell of a time getting seasoned competitors to give it a try.
I just hate to see our relatively few NADAC trials fail. And these barrels aren't going to help!
Oh well.
One of my students (jokingly) told me that he would like a refund because I hadn’t taught him all the obstacles he would see. Fair enough.
But now I am going to have even more trouble getting people to try NADAC. It’s fairly easy to introduce new people to the venue. But because of hoops, non-staked weave poles, lack of a teeter, low jump heights, non-slatted contacts, and now this god-forsaken barrel, I’m going to have a hell of a time getting seasoned competitors to give it a try.
I just hate to see our relatively few NADAC trials fail. And these barrels aren't going to help!
Oh well.
Oh yes, I read every NADAC premium closely to see what will be there! Not that it seems to make a difference to Mother NADAC what the premium actually says when she picks out courses...
ReplyDeleteYou will have an easier time growing brand new competitors than trying to draw from the established crowd. NADAC distances itself further from the rest of agility land each year.
I don't really see the point in the barrel. Why does NADAC try to always distance itself (haha, distance..get it? anyway....) from the other agility venues by being so different? I like NADAC and all, and I enjoy going to the local trials to get some training in for LaMesa, but it is hard for those of us who try to support the local trials, but aren't full time NADAC competitors to really want to try to quickly introduce a random obstacle that we won't use at AKC/CPE trials.
ReplyDeleteThe hoops I kind-of get--I guess because I have a small dog and I see the point in still using your handling skills for them, but a barrel? I guess it'd be like a flip around, or maybe like a backside jump...
Oh, dear. Straight forward to most, but a tequila swigging Chihuahua? Maya says, "No way, José!"
ReplyDeleteFollowing the death of the dog in the tunnel that just occurred at the European Junior Open (or whatever big event that was), I almost expected to see NADAC do away with tunnels completely... So far there hasn't really even been any buzz about it on the forum. I was surprised. :-P
ReplyDeleteIf we have to see barrels, I at least hope to see their use become more interesting and creative. So far they are boring. Yawn.
I'm interested to see if they show up in our courses again this weekend. I just pulled up the premium and this club doesn't even list equipment at all. I want to say this judge has done some EGC in the past, so she's likely a barrel fan. Again, I just hope they get more interesting.