Stress relief, yes, but mostly time to talk
You’ve done the company golf tournament, pig roast, clam bake, cocktail party, camping trip and community service day. You had fun. Maybe you didn’t. But there’s one corporate outing you may not have tried: sporting clays.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
“It’s golf with a shotgun,” says Jack O’Brien, manager at Addieville East Farm in Burrillville, where 25 to 30 companies per year bring employees to shoot sporting clays. “Everybody’s sick of golf,” he said. “They want to smoke cigars and break clays.”
How does it work? With two mechanical “throwers” positioned downrange, shooters stand in a station. When the shooter says “pull,” the remote-controlled thrower launches a clay disk into the air at varying angles and speeds. If your shotgun blast shatters the disk to smithereens, you call this “breaking clays.”
Sporting clays is different from skeet shooting in that its throwers can be moved around, creating more scenarios that closely resemble hunting birds.
“When you have a stressful job, [sporting clays] is an outlet,” said Thomas Mrva, president and CEO of Lighthouse Computer Services in Lincoln.
Mrva has hosted employees and clients at Addieville East Farm for five years, in groups of four to 40. He admits his attraction to sporting clays stems somewhat from a loathing of golf.
“When I golf, I try to hit the ball so hard that I’m hoping for it to circle the moon and come back,” Mrva said in an interview. “Because I hit [the ball] so hard, it goes two feet; everybody laughs – so it’s torture.”
In between breaking clays, the sport leaves ample time for conversation with clients and employees. “For me, you get to know your customers better. You get to communicate with them,” Mrva said. “When I bring employees, they’re really appreciative.… It’s a great way to talk about their job and how they are doing.”
Another factor is time. While a typical round at a company golf outing takes about five hours, you could spend less than an hour firing away at clays. And it doesn’t take very long to get the hang of it. “Generally, within five shots,” Mrva said, “a good instructor can get you to hit a target.”
Addieville East Farm is widely regarded as the most popular sporting clays venue in Rhode Island (frequented by unnamed members of the New England Patriots). It features two courses with 16 different stations, and its corporate functions have included from 10 to 300 people, said Sally Hayter, another manager.
“I think it’s been more popular [for company outings] over the past six years,” said Hayter, who declined to disclose the names of her corporate clients. “It seems to be popular because it is something different than your average golf outing.”
Guest lists aren’t limited to cigar-toting male executives, either. As novices, women are generally more accurate shooters than their male cohorts, Mrva noted.
“I find that female shooters are better, initially,” he said. “The people that I find have a difficult time are the males who have been in the military.”
In fact, teenage girls are the fastest-growing market in sport shooting, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the shooting, hunting and firearms industries.
But others believe shooting is not for everyone.
“I think you have to have like-minded people to a certain extent,” said F. Steven DiMasi, president of Technical Industries Inc. in South Kingstown, who uses sporting clays to entertain business associates, clients and employees. He also chairs the Rhode Island chapter of Ducks Unlimited, a national waterfowl hunters’ group.
Besides Addieville, there are few sporting clay venues that can accommodate large groups of novices for corporate outings. Another is Peace Dale Sporting Clays in South Kingstown, which has a smaller sporting clay course yet also provides instruction and necessary equipment – ear plugs, safety glasses, shotguns and shells.
“The good thing about shooting sporting clays for a corporate event is you get out and break stuff,” O’Brien said. “You get to smash stuff.”
