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Originally Posted by not dead yet  surely these items should have been covered at club level..... how many people on here dont understand the basic principles of rounds and classifications.. bet no one hardly knows about the fita beginners badges either....
all our beginners go through an introductory night , explaining properly about scoring and rounds usually about a month after they have started shooting. |
NDY,
I don't disagree with you, but in my experience many beginners when they start out are not in the least bit interested in competitions or classifications - I know I wasn't! Sure these can be explained to them, but understandably they'll likely quickly forget the information as they'll feel it's not of relevance to them at that time.
Scoring is a different matter, as that is something that is of immediate use to them; there again there are a wide variety of rounds and in my experience some clubs tend to stick to only certain rounds (such as Portsmouth indoors) so beginners can I think be forgiven for not appreciating what different rounds exist. I include myself in that; I've been shooting since July/August last year, and I wouldn't claim to know the details of every round (or even all of the more common ones) or how they are scored (imperial v. metric). The difference perhaps is that I know where to go to find out if I need to and I'm prepared to research it myself, rather than plead ignorance.
This condition isn't always limited to scoring and rounds etc. Let's face it, there are several different forms of archery (field, target to name but two) and those coming into the sport aren't always aware of the other disciplines. You could spend an awful lot of time covering all the different forms, the rounds associated with them, the scoring of those rounds, what the target faces look like, etc. etc. What then do you include or not?
I'm pleased to say that in my experience FITA awards/badges are different; many of the juniors at the two clubs I'm a member of are quite familiar with those. Many have some awards already and both clubs actively encourage juniors to go through the award scheme. I might even do some myself!
Even beyond beginners, not every archer is interested in competitions or classifications. I know of several who are very good archers, but just don't want/need to compete, certainly not at anything other than a club level, or they only want to shoot indoors.
Back to Andrew's original query; I'm similarly curious as to what the %age split is across the different classifications. I realise it's probably not an exact thing, but someone must have some idea of the numbers.