Why doesn't the NRA Basic Rifle training program today include shooting from all 4 the basic positions on the range as well as being in the book now, and nothing about using a sling in the range exercises?
With all due respect, there’s an awful lot wrong with what you’ve stated above, simply because you don’t understand what program you were in, nor do you understand the current programs which you’ve chosen to slight.
What you went through as a youth was not the NRA Basics of Rifle Shooting Program, it would have been one of the handful of “youth marksmanship coaching programs,” often offered through partnerships between the NRA and 4H or BSA. The NRA Basics of Rifle Shooting (BoRS) course is a 1 day class, which ends with a certificate and occasionally a patch (instructor discretion). The youth programs typically follow (and have followed) the NRA/Winchester Marksmanship Qualification Program (aka “the Patch Program,” a fantastic self-paced, self-assessment standards program). Your description, including 4 positions, continued coaching program design, and bars for qualification achievements confirms you were shooting in the NRA/Win MQP 4 Position Rifle Qualification standards in a Youth Program, not the BoRS course.
The NRA/Win 4 Position Marksmanship Qualification program used as the “yardstick” and incentivization for these youth programs remains to include, as to be expected, 4 position shooting requirements. The marksmanship standards aren’t an instruction guide, but the coaching programs and instructor qualification courses to be able to offer the joint youth programs under an NRA banner DO require 5 position training (not just 4 - Bench, prone, sitting, kneeling, and standing), and the Qualification standards, patches and bars, still require courses of fire from 4 positions.
You’re also mistaken (or unfortunately misguided) that the current BoRS course, the 1 day class and it’s corresponding Guide book indeed include instruction for 5 shooting positions - not just 4 - and do include shooting with a sling support. Pages 79-102, with extensive photos - including demonstrations of sling use. The current Guidebook even includes an 3 page appendix for “Using the sling,” - fully illustrated with narrative and photographic guides for the use of both the loop sling and hasty sling. If you’ve taken a BoPS course which did not include instruction in at least 4 positions; benchrest, prone, sitting OR kneeling, and Standing, then your instructor didn’t follow the lesson plan as required by NRA Training HQ.
Unfortunately, participation in the NRA BoRS classes, and these loosely associated youth programs has shrunk considerably. Many 4H and BSA clubs which used to host continued youth coaching programs and even small bore postal matches and have reduced their marksmanship training down to singular “workshops” or “classes,” usually only gun safety focused, or eliminated firearms marksmanship entirely. BoRS is exceptionally unpopular, as it’s incredibly difficult for instructors to commit enough students to fill a class under the NRA’s minimum standards - and enough filled classes to warrant the expense and hassle of sustaining the certification (which unlike the basics of Pistol Shooting, the BoRS class doesn’t serve as a standard for any concealed carry or similar licensure). The Shotgun and Metallic Reloading classes are admittedly more difficult, but a guy can usually fill a basics of Pistol Shooting class, while getting 5 students in a rifle shooting class is a high challenge. The BoRS class is - as described in the title - quite basic, and naturally, it lacks the flash and fanfare of some of the other tactical or defensive shooting classes available (which typically do not have any national standard for instruction quality or content). So it’s waning.
But the content you’ve claimed is no longer included... well, frankly, IS.