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We hear this all the time. Players wishing that the interactive light-up shooting target system Snipe Lights was around back when they were learning how to shoot. So, we decided to pull a few strings and rent a time machine, grab some Snipe Lights, and travel back through history to see just how far back this lack of Snipe Lights regret could run.
First Stop: The Stone Age
It wasn’t easy, but we managed to track down the first recorded sniper, caveman Wayne McGrogsky. When we found him, he was shooting flat rocks at a 4 x 6-foot cave entrance with a woolly mammoth tusk.
We hooked Snipe Lights up to the rocky makeshift goal and let Wayne take a few shots. He was blown away, grunting with delight after every shot. Then we showed him the app, and something sparked in his brain. He quickly gathered some dry brush and two sharp rocks and started the world’s first man-made fire by striking the rocks against each other.
As we took a break, warming ourselves by the fire, we pointed out that the curve on McGrogsky’s tusk would be illegal in today’s NHL, which immediately made him angry, so we quickly hopped in the time machine and moved on.
Medieval Times
What a gloriously dramatic age. The plague wasn’t fun, but there were knights on horseback all over the place. We searched far and wide for Sir Scores-A-Lot, a knight with a reputation for shooting a cylindrical copper disk with a modified longsword faster than anyone in the land.
We came upon Sir Scores-A-Lot in a castle taking shots at an ornate goal with metal chain nets with a makeshift goalie trying in vain to make saves. We were surprised to discover that Jacques Plante was not the first goalie to wear a mask. It was Sir Self-Preservation, protecting the goal in a suit of armor, with full face protection from his helmet. Although he was awful on low shots, lacking the ability to kick either leg out sideways in the armor.
We attached Snipe Lights to the goal and gave an exhausted and heavily dented Sir Self-Preservation a break. Sir Scores-A-Lot insisted that the sheer power of his shot would destroy the futuristic contraptions, but we told him to try his best.
An hour later Scores-A-Lot was reveling in the newly discovered joy of shooting on Snipe Lights. We told him we needed to move on, and he thanked us profusely but insisted on buying us a goblet of ale before we left. It’s a good thing the time machine was self-driving because that was some potent ale!
The Renaissance
We took one look around in the Renaissance and realized it was much too fancy a place for hockey. We decided to go somewhere more rugged.
Riding Into the Old West
The Old West seemed like a much better place to find legendary shooters, and it didn’t take long for us to come across Wild Bill Hat Trick, the best shot in the west. Bill was tough as nails and a dangerous man with a stick. His weapon of choice was a wood stick carved from California White Oak. He shot cans of beans at a wooden goal with fish netting (and at any scoundrels who dared cross him).
Wild Bill Hat Trick was a real crack shot. He told us that sometimes he would nail tin plates to the wood posts as targets, but he would always knock them off within a shot or two. His eyes lit up when we rigged Snipe Lights up to the goal.
Boy, did Bill earn his Hat Trick nickname. He was hitting lit-up targets from the get-go and keeping the app busier than a squirrel with a barrel of acorns keeping up with his scores.
Around sundown, Bill had finally tuckered himself out, and at this point we were convinced that everyone regrets missing out on Snipe Lights, no matter the era in history, and decided to hit the old dusty trail to return the time machine before getting charged for any extra time traveled.
We thanked Bill for his hospitality, made the trip home, and were grateful to live in a day and age where Snipe Lights is available to anyone.
Related Links:
Gamification Accelerates Ice Hockey Skills Development
Snipe Lights Exclusive Interview Series with NHL Shooting and Scoring Coach Tim Turk