[VHFcontesting] grid circling leads to bad soccor moms

[frank bechdoldt]

I have 9 year old twins who competed in youth soccor this fall. Its their third season. Every game we played involved the players staying in their zones. IE defenders did not cross the center line.  This was a 6 person team, 3 forwards, 2 defenders ans a goalie.  One day the Rainer team showed up and played all their positions as forwards with the exception of the goalie.  The forwards outnumbered the defenders of our team.  Our team fell behind and someone complained to the coach.  
“hey they are playing 5 forwards and theyu are kicking our butts” a parent exclaimed.
The coach said at this age we work on the techniques and we don’t require the kids to stay in their zones.
Another parent asked the coach to change her style and play 5 forwards as well since it was not a rule.
The coach then told them that while it makes it impossible for the team to win when another team exploits the lack of a rule, the kids benefit much more by playing by the spirit of the rules they will have to follow at the next level. Her focus was for it to be fun and educational.
There is a lot of ways you can walk away from this analogy.  Just have fun could be one. But if its pure fun why keep score. Well that’s because that’s how we measure ourselves.  
The difference in the trover classes is that we are not 9 year olds. The people exploiting the rules are not beginers.  What they are doing is against the spirit of working everyone reasonably possible and making comunication over a meaningful distance.  Most people acknowlege that working great distances and many people is the basis of the scoring sytem before roving existed. Only roving allowed this quirk to happen.  Grid circling needs to be contained into one opperating  category or eliminated.  
In essesnce what the people who support grid circling are saying is  the ARRl intended to create and continues endorse this controvesy when they created roving.  Perhaps its better to let them keep working it out until they get it right.
The arrl has bent over backwards to be all inclusive with good intentions. The latest comprimise was spat on by the grid circlers.
I do not think the creators of the contest envisioned the top contendors only working themselves  across farmers fields for 98 percent of their qsos and all their multipliers to win 3 catagories.
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