Are Kids Really The Future Of Archery??

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Random_guy

We have very good links with London Archers, our local club. We shoot with them at their field in the summer, and many of us join as student associate members to get more practice in outside of term time or before a competition (as they have different indoor nights). This large proportion of students are now responsible for voting the club champs to be a gents and ladies FITA instead of a york/ hereford for the first time in the clubs history! and the chairman, treasurer and secretary all shot as student.

Glad to hear you like us...
The 'shot as students' thing has been true for several years, I believe. It's the overall proportion of club members in that category which has a big influence. It's not generally enough to have a chunk of 'student members' pushing for something, you also need a backing of less 'transient' support. The number of former students, who have stayed with the club is key there...

Kids are the future. On the face of it, that's a no-brainer. Digging into it a bit more... How long does it take to bring someone up to international level? 10 years of focussed development? In that sense, you need to start someone out as a kid, to get them to high level competition at their physical peak. There are exceptions to that, of course.

But is that the point? International competition is a very minor part of shooting overall, though some would argue it is the point of shooting in the first place... For everyday development of the sport in general, you need to bring adults into it. That's where the money and the other skills needed for the sport lie.

[li33ie]

Hi
I have been shooting for 3 and a half years (ish) now and have just started to shoot competitively with the Staffordshire junior squad.(I joined my club before the minimum age was 11 - so i was the youngest for a very long time!!!)
For the first few years i just shot every saturday with my friend who i met on the beginners course.
I think some juniors may just want to do it then lose interest but i was hooked!!
Elizabeth
x

[Bald Eagle]

I think a lot of juniors get "hooked" into archery and why not, it's a fantastic sport that you can come into at any age. However, we do seem to lose a lot of our younger archers when school exams come around and they discover "the opposite sex" and peer pressure dictates that f******l is the only game to play. Juniors are our future and they should be encouraged to study for exams and to come back to archery when they are ready to do so. We should welcome them back into the club and continue coaching them to a high standard. You only get one chance in education, archery will always be there!

[tracy137]

Caravanning took the same approach - aim itself at the older market; appeal to the older generation. Unfortunately it is now dying on its feet ,almost literally; the problem is the market they targeted is now giving it up due to old age, or basically they die. We've given it up as I'm sick to death of going to caravan sites and being regarded as some sort of social pariah purely because I have a child.

The thing is, to put it bluntly, the older generation die; they might be good for a few years, but that's all folks. You do not want to end up with a sport that is the same as caravanning - full of a class of people that treat anyone not like them as outsiders encroaching on 'their' territory.

With a sport like archery it's also just as likely a 50 or 60 odd year old will be inclined to give up as much a 9 year old. How many people of that age group will be any more likely than a kid to stand in the rain, to persevere when they seem rubbish? None - the thing is the older generation are just like children, I speak as the daughter in law of an 82 and 84 year old and they make my 8 year old seem like a sage on occasion. She for one has never had a tantrum, shame the same can't be said for them! It's not even like I can ground them or threaten to deny PC and tv privledges like I can her.

I am 40 years old and had been wanting to take up archery since I was a kid, but money was my only constraint. it is not a cheap hobby to start out on, I don't even want to know what it's cost my very supportive husband to get me kitted out to start up. Just basics, no bells and whistles as I don't like them.

My 8 year old daughter wants to do it now and so we have bought her a very basic complete recurve with a couple of arrows and told her if she perseveres and learns well, then we'll think about getting her a better kit. Until then practice and I'll help her if she wants, or she can watch me and ask for help as and when. She'll either join the sport or get a new hobby to use in the garden; either way, she's outside and away from the telly more so I think it's a win/win situation for all of us.

If we want a medal winning team in any olympics then we need to put the effort in now with youngsters rather than say "kids? why bother with them?" and rely on OAP United to get us a gold. Neither scenario is guaranteed to pay off, but at least the kids have a longer run up.

If 1 kid out of 4 or 5 on a course becomes a permanent member then so what? That's one more kid than you had before - and if someone doesn't like teaching them then find someone like me that would, that way everyone's happy.

One other thing to bear in mind - be nice to children, it's likely they'll decide what pensioners home you end up in.

[Marcus26]

Since our club gagged all the old people who said the same thing "juniors are a waste of time" and started developing our juniors we have
• Produced a number of Australian junior champions
• Increased our junior participation level from zero to the highest in the state
• This has led to a number of parents joining up and shooting as well (seeing as they are there all the time)
• Our overall club feel and quality has increased out of sight.

Clubs that do not have junior development programs in place should be deregistered by the governing body (as they are not developing archery) and will die out anyway.
You will find it far easier to market to a parent who kid wants to shoot than to that 40yo age group alone.

[Flandyman]

Originally Posted by Macbow

Thanks for the input so far - basically our club is looking towards the future and where our resources are allocated so all opinions aprreciated. Our club coaches give heart and soul to the junior beginner program and often take it personally when they see kids with the potential to be good jack it in. Very demoralising. We also have a sizeable body of older archers who would probably quit themselves if our course was overrun with kids being kids (noisy & excitable as they should be).
I think archery as a sport isn't cool and never will be. But as adults we are past caring what is or isn't deemed cool. Lots of good things aren't cool in the eyes of young people.

We had similar with a number of juniors / cubs starting and the evening shoot got overrun and a number of adult stalwarts stopped coming - was not doing the juniors much good as well as we were not able to put quality time in when we wanted to shoot as well - solution - we now have a juniors club on a Saturday morning - we can focus on them and limit the number to each session of 1 hr ( we have two sessions ) this is long enought to keep them interested but not so long as to tire them out and lose focus - we get to shoot in the evenings and they get quality coaching - we now have circa 16 new members ages from 8 to 15 - boys and girls. It is a bit of a commitment getting people in every week but with a rota it should be one week in three for two adult instructors for two hrs on a Saturday morning. We manage the Child protection side by insisting that adults stay or they give us a letter saying Billy can come with Freds parent - max ration 1 adult with 3 kids - we sell coffee and tea and as it is only 1 hr they dont mind, we think we will get a few of them in as well ! win - win for all. As a further win we do this in the local Guides Hut and we pay them to use it so they get money for the hut that would otherwise be empty at that time!

[Tuck]

Like all clubs we have a problem with juniors - we love them and hate them!

We love them for the enthusiasm, energy and freshness they bring to the sport, but they are high maintenance and this eats into the shooting of senior members.

We cannot escape that they are the future, so we should maximise the end result:

not lose too many by keeping interest up - this requires regular input and structured goals, with fun events and plenty of short term rewards.

Lower input will lose them, but if they are involved then results will blossom.

We have just had an 11 year old Junior make the county team - reward enough!

Tuck