The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation recently announced its new role as the governing body for the Progressive-Position Pistol (PPP) program, along with a national competition for the discipline scheduled for August of 2025.
To celebrate the regrowth of the PPP program, the 2025 Progressive-Position Pistol Junior National Event will take place at the Missouri Marksmanship Education Center in Columbia, Missouri, from August 1-3. This event offers youth shooters the opportunity to showcase their skills and compete on a national stage. Additionally, the Progressive-Position Pistol Junior National Event will give youth air pistol competitors a chance to experience the camaraderie and sportsmanship that make the shooting sports community so special.
As part of this program’s mission to support young athletes, the Progressive-Position Pistol serves as a feeder program for the Intercollegiate Pistol Program, making this event a key recruiting opportunity for collegiate coaches. Graduating seniors and rising stars will have the chance to showcase their talents in front of coaches while taking their first steps toward collegiate competition. Additionally, this program provides aspiring athletes with a pathway to represent Team USA on Junior or National Teams, with sights set on competing in the Olympics.
PPP is a great introduction to shooting sports, since the equipment, particularly the ammunition, is cleaner, quieter and inexpensive. Temporary ranges can be set up in any large areas, as these guns don’t require a permanent backdrop or elaborate ventilation system. The firing distance is 10 meters.
Any young person can compete in Progressive-Position Pistol events until December 31 of the year of his or her 20th birthday. In addition, there is no minimum age limit.
More about the Progressive-Position Pistol Program: “The Scholastic Sports Shooting Foundations Progressive-Position Pistol (PPP) program is intended to introduce young pistol shooters to competitive pistol target shooting and give them a natural progression into the Junior Olympic pistol competitions sponsored by USA Shooting (USAS) and the conventional pistol competitions sponsored by the Civilian Marksmanship Program and the National Rifle Association of America (NRA). The program is designed to allow athletes to participate with a minimum outlay for equipment and expense. Along the same lines, range requirements are designed with enough flexibility to enable a program to be set up almost anywhere that air pistols can be discharged safely and legally.”
The 2025 Progressive-Position Pistol rulebook is now available. This document contains the latest guidelines, standards and competition requirements for athletes, coaches and event organizers. You can read the 2025 Progressive-Position Pistol rulebook in PDF format here.
To learn more about the PPP program, contact James Hall via email at [email protected], or visit the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation website at sssfonline.org.
