At what age does performance start declining?

[Jadeslade]

Age is just one variable. Family needs, financial needs, job issues, injury, and other assorted issues have impact as well. Probably 40, except for mutant aliens. Wesquire, at age 24 you should have four wives, be able to stay up for 72 hours at a time, need only one pizza a day, 4 beers, and be shooting lights out. Fuggetaboutit.

[GunBugBit]

Age is just one variable.

Absolutely. Some of the other variables are more impactful. If you can still stand, see, lift a gun, not get knocked back too far by recoil, you are still in the fight and can do a lot.

[g.willikers]

♫ When I was 21, it was a very good year ♫

And it's been all downhill ever since.

The real trick to staying in the fray as we get older is being able to outrun Mother Nature.

She's merciless.

[mike4045]

Pushing close to 20 yrs shooting matches. The vision is starting to drop off. I find it harder to want to shoot the more physical 3 gun matches. I vote with my dollars and avoid the matches that want to make the matches more physical. I will be shooting fewer matches and mostly pistol next year.

[tptplayer]

Looking at National USPSA Open results from this year, you can see that for Seniors, #1- 79.558%, #2- 72.208%, and #3- 70.551%. For Super Seniors, #1- 63.972%, #2- 58.809% and #3- 56.949%. As a 4th year Super Senior who started in my middle 50's, I like to believe that I can continue to improve with more practice and more focused practice. But to ignore the effects of time on performance would be illusory. In National USPSA Limited results the Super Senior percentages are even lower though Ronald Avery is an Outlier in Senior results.

[rowdyb]

28

[fishhunter3]

at age 59 I had a heart attack, prior to that I was placing high in local matches even winning a few, but after I have had a hard time staying above 50% even being in a lot better shape than I was before, I still enjoy the sport, and the conscious mind wants to compete the sub conches mind wont let me,

I think that age is not the major factor, physical health and mindset play a more important role in this sport.

[Onepocket]

My joints are loosening up and I seem to be getting faster the older I get. By 60 I should make GM.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Onepocket

[sigsauerfan]

i'm 52 and in top shape.

while it help for the long courses , something who doesn't is the decline of the vision which started at age 48 for me. whatever the corrective solution i tried, fact is a bad vision doesn't help at all . the extra time spent on the front sight is lost lolll.

while it is a set back for me, i think guys who shoot matches since early age aren't penalized by such fact as much as me who started much later in this sport . experience may fill the void left by the decline of the body in many aspects like stance,grip, and precision. running fast isn't so crucial, while fast and accurate shots are..

[Chris iliff]

I think it would be interesting to know the average age of the National champs in each division over the entire recorded history of Nationals.

You'd have an idea then.

In my case I really felt a drop off in my late 30's.

[kevin c]

59 soon, and have been shooting USPSA matches without a break for 21 years.

I've actually never been competitive, in terms of both personality and performance (likely the two are linked), but I have loved shooting all this time, and the honest truth is, by applying myself more, I have been very slowly but measurably getting better from year to year. I am now shooting more consistently at an A level, whereas before, I had my A card but usually shot at a B level.

Oh, yes, I can't see as well, there are more aches and pains, my endurance is less so that I find a long match more tiring, and I definitely get curmudgeonly on occasion (dratted young kids don't know anything...). It takes more effort to get the same results, as far as training goes, and I still don't train much. But I am better than before, and my classifier performances show it.

This is, I think, both a physical skill thing partly, and a mental thing mostly. I still wish I could make progress faster like so many others I have seen that have gone from novice to Master in what seems to be a blink of the eye to me, while I just keep bumbling on, but by worrying about that less, and enjoying the shooting more, I find I actually have been doing better.

The irony of it is that of the guys I know who were athletes when young, which I never was, who were trained to competition and who wanted to be the best, which I never strived for, many have left the sport. When they hit master or grand master, some of them ran out of goals to shoot for. When some of them started losing the edge that made it possible to compete and win at a high level, they gave it up, apparently not liking their not winning. The love of shooting, regardless of outcome, wasn't enough to sustain them. For me, the middle of the pack shooter who was never a threat to their position at the top, the love of shooting was all it ever was about, though it took me a long time to realize it. And now, I am actually shooting better. Who knows, may be I'll actually make Master some day.

I hope that I will be shooting until the day I leave this world. And if I don't, I may regret not being to continue, but will always remember with a smile how much fun it was.

Edited October 16, 2015 by kevin c

[motosapiens]

Peyton Manning, 38, more desire than ever, a body not able to execute at the level his brain knows is needed.

meh, he has always been an underachiever when it really matters (like steve young). great stats, average results.

fwiw, i think it should be obvious that the answer to the original question will vary depending on the individual and particularly on the sport. since shooting is more focused on mental skills than physical skills, the age where a typical shooter might peak is probably significantly later than for a football player, or mma fighter.

In bicycle racing, I found I got continuously better until i was about 38 or 40, after that I could still perform at a very high level, but I had reached a plateau, and since I wasnt improving, it became more difficult to find motivation to train at that level.

I cant think of many shooters who need to worry about this issue, since most of us are not performing anywhere near the peak of our abilities, regardless of age.

[Front Man]

Lots of professional Motocross riders are done by 26/28 years of age.

Radically more physical but it does kind of make a point.

[motosapiens]

Lots of professional Motocross riders are done by 26/28 years of age.

Radically more physical but it does kind of make a point.

yep. and the point it makes is that in sports like mx or football where the body takes a serious beating, your 'peak' has more to do with minimizing the long-term effects of injuries and impacts. OTOH, with shooting, which is a skill and mental oriented totally non-contact, non-aerobic sport, like golf, or chess, or homebrewing, you can continue to get get gooder for much longerer without having to worry about the cumulative effects of serious injuries.

[twodownzero]

Peyton Manning, 38, more desire than ever, a body not able to execute at the level his brain knows is needed.

Yes, but football is so competitive that one has to play at world-class levels to even be in the running. The same is not true of our sport. A 60 year old man could definitely win the USPSA nationals. That's one thing that is so great about our sport--it has a long way to go before one has to execute everything perfectly to win. Just look at the world shoot last year. I don't think there was a single person in the top 10 without any penalties....

[Phil Dunlop]

I'm 50 now and I spend a lot of time blaming vision issues on blurred intent, but when I get it right I feel like I'm better than ever.

Its been a while since I cared, and that helps, there's definitely an inverse relationship between desire and achievement.

Physically, I'm heavier than ever, but I play soccer and touch rugby weekly, and still score plenty of tries against much younger opponents.

I think doing more and thinking less is a good policy.

P.D.

[JeffWard]

Depends on your fitness level...

I'm 45, in the best shape of my life. Just started competing in bodybuilding. My joint injuries heal slower, but I'm also a lot smarter. I'm a Personal Trainer for a living, including shooting clients. Many of my 50-something shooters are faster today than they were before training with me. Faster than they were in their 30s.

My eyesight is the only thing dropping off, and that's correctable.

Jeff

[JD45]

Whatever age u say," I'm too old to keep up, so I'll so IDPA and just have fun" lol.

I shoot with a friend over 70. He says this crap. Never dryfires, and never hardly practices. He wonders why he can't improve.

I'm a nobody, but I could help bump a lot of these older guys way up in matches if I could convince them to do something besides shoot a match.

[GunBugBit]

I see a couple of older guys out-shoot the majority of younger guys on a weekly basis. A lot of the young'ns need to practice, too.

[e5gator]

when Jerry and Rob start falling way behind, that'll be your answer hahaha

[GunBugBit]

Yeah, Jerry is 61 and I don't know when he'll fall way behind. From what I gather, he can still walk onto any 3-gun match and be a very realistic threat to win it no matter who else is there.

[BSeevers]

For me it's a training vs time/money issue. I just turned 53 and feel I am as or more competitive as I was in my 20's. Yes I have the unique perspective as to have been there done that. Last year I didn't have the money but next year I see the perfect storm of money/time/desire coming together. At this point in my career physical training vs shooting training is as or more important. Yea I "lost a step" in my 30's but never been called a slow poke.

I think some people don't realize how much effort/time/money/training/luck it takes to win. Yea I know there is the occasional guy who shoots very little and wins. Usually he is 28 yrs old and a former athlete. Everything counts after a while and he doesn't win after a while unless he gets on the training train.

Excuses are the easiest form of training. They work.

[Nimitz]

what matters is how bad do you really want it? Age is just another in a long line of excuses people use who simple don't train hard enough to win ....

.... I'm too old, I'm too fat, I have bad vision, I'm too ugly (ok, that one really is a problem ....) ... none of that matters

[9x45]

Simple, if winning is everything, then give up your life to shooting. That's it. No excuses.

[Wesquire]

JJ is 35 I think, and from what I can tell... he's been improving the last couple years. I'm going to be interested how old him and grauffel (also 35 I think) can stay elite. Matt Mink is almost 40. He is still fast as hell.