What happens to your recent beginners?

[wingate_52]

We were left to join in once we had paid our subs. Existing members were told not to approach or help unless asked specifically.Turn up and shoot was the order of the day. being old and ignorant I asked people lots of questions, relentlessly. Turned up at each shoot and gradually improved, winning 9 club trophies and 7 montly medals. Is'nt it awful when a junior beats you in a handicap shoot because after 3 years he is on a 71 handicap and you are in the top 40's. Practice washed out tonight. Thunder and lightning. Have just driven back from Timperley through flooded roads. Glad I am not holding carbon alloys in the middle of a flooded field tonight!

[Bald Eagle]

After the beginners course, if they join, we tell them that their training starts now! You can only teach so much in 6 weeks.

[whisky]

Interesting that many of you say that new members ask more experienced members for advice. We are under fear of having our bow strings cut and are supposed to refer them to a club coach. We are told not to help as we are not coaches. Yer right coz most of the coaches are as much use as a chocolate teapot. Some can identify a recurve from a compound bow though

Wingate, high I managed to get out to shoot early this afternoon so missed the heavy rain - though heard the hale in Macclesfield over the telephone!

[geoffretired]

Whisky, thanks for your input. Sorry to hear the coaches want to keep the coaching to themselves.That really is sad, in my opinion. Are there so many of them that they don't need help from others or do you think it's to do with not trusting the unqualified?

[Micky]

Ours go it alone - we don't push anyone who asks for help away, but we don't structure support either.

Except the beginner who is winding me up - I might take a special interest in HIS development...

[whisky]

Originally Posted by geoffretired

Whisky, thanks for your input. Sorry to hear the coaches want to keep the coaching to themselves.That really is sad, in my opinion. Are there so many of them that they don't need help from others or do you think it's to do with not trusting the unqualified?

In our club it's a power thing. The coaches all have various roles on the committee and have not shot competitively for years and have no or little knowledge about modern equipment, thinking etc. They are ok for supervising the beginners courses but little else. They'd be the last people I'd go to for coaching (though saying that I'm probably the last member they'd want to coach!). Funny thing is they have dual standards because we have an exceptional compound archer in the club and if you ask a coach anything about compound shooting they do refer people on to him - and he doesn't have a coaching certificate.

I do believe in a formal teaching/vetting process but it's a bit like exams - so long as you can regurgitate the info at the assessment your ok. Doesn't prove you are a good coach. You can then bumble through to the reappraisal.

Don't get me wrong there are good qualified coaches out there (just not at my club!) and there are also good unqualified archers willing to help. I think you just need to be lucky to be at a club that has some top level archers shooting your chosen discipline?

[JohnK]

Our juniors get ongoing support from two or three club members (myself included). The sole GNAS coach occasionally helps adult members, but only on a casual basis.

A lot of our adult members - nearly all, in fact - come from the courses run by Centreshot Archery at a local school on Wednesday night. They usually go back to Jan and Dave for help if they need it.

[geoffretired]

Whisky, your post is very interesting. So are the others.The coach/ not coach has been discussed before but Whisky's issue is slightly different.
I have e-mailed GNAS more than once regarding the coach/not coach issue with no response. Some aspects are in hand so that coaches can't simply qualify then sit back.My feeling is that coaches/not coaches should work together-there aren't so many that we can waste this resource. How difficult is it, for those who want to help newer archers, to get together and go through some of the good ideas from both sides, and agree some common ground? Total agreement is not necessary so long as the differences are in the open and the students are given both sides. Perhaps this is in the wrong place and should be moved.

[Radar_UK]

We have a coaching night every Tuesday which is open to everyone but the club leaves it to the individual archer to ask for assistance and the coaches don't usually offer it without being asked.

So you sometimes get begineers who may be too worried to ask in case they come across as stupid so end up plugging away unaided.

[MrT]

On our beginners courses we have one archer per target instructing, with a coach in overall supervision. Each week we mix up who helps on which target, so that by the end of the course the beginners know at least half a dozen archers that they are used to asking for assistance, plus the coach.

This approach doesn't leave novices abandoned on the line if they join the club, there is always someone there that they know who will help.