Disappearing beginners

[geoffretired]

Taking a beginners course, for many is like trying a friend's bike. They try it and learn to ride it and get their parents to buy them one. They ride their own bike and enjoy that too. Not many are intending to be serious cyclists later on.
Some do: and some archers go on to top levels too. There are those who join with those ideas in mind. They are the ones who ask about coaching when they start the beginners course. I have seen very few of these archers but they tend to look ahead and will choose the club according to the coaching on offer.
I think there are more archers these days, joining clubs and wanting some coaching. Coaching that allows them to shoot well rather than always struggling with their technique and feeling no progress is being made. The problems are highlighted when you hear that they shot better with the club's equipment than their new bow. That is a very sensitive time and posts on this forum show that it is a concern for many. Getting their own equipment set up and shooting nicely is time consuming and very frustrating if no guidance is available.

[NoAngel]

As an idea does anyone have a club party or get together after the end of the beginners course, just as a way to introduce the beginners to the rest of the club members in a friendly social environment outside of the archery field. I was wondering if this would be a good way for everyone to meet everyone else within the club, make new friends, some laughs, jokes and a few drinks?

What are people’s thoughts on this, does anyone do this type of thing?

[Capt Danger]

My beginners course started in June, and since then there has been quite a steady number of beginners on the club nights and weekends. More so than the original members

Coaching hasn't been too much of a problem as we have a coach available on club nights (although everyone would like to have sole use of him!!)

We had out club championships yesterday however and only a few members turned up (old and new) which was a shame as it was a good event and was something that I hadn't experienced before. It did highlight to me that there was the world of competition out there to experience.

I'm not sure that more courses are the answer - everyone is doing their archery at their own pace- but a stepped 'improvement' scheme would keep the momentum going. Something that develops technique and knowledge and is simple to issue out by the clubs.

[GeoffT]

Originally Posted by NoAngel

This year as a bid to encourage our beginners I got the committee to agree that the club will pay for classification badges for all members, achieving from 3rd class to Bowman. We have now handed these out to some of the members, but still it only seems to scratch the surface and give them a mild interest.

We have done the same thing, but to no avail. I sometimes think that beginners expect it to be easy and very quickly get put of when they realise that a lot of hard work is required to get to even county level.

[NoAngel]

Originally Posted by GeoffT

We have done the same thing, but to no avail. I sometimes think that beginners expect it to be easy and very quickly get put of when they realise that a lot of hard work is required to get to even county level.

I think you are right for some cases, but you also get the beginners who just look for personal improvement. We have a married couple in our club who have been shooting for some 5-6years, they are only just reach the level of first class. Other archers achieved this within their first 2 years of archery.

So why do they keep coming back, they will never be at county level, but they have always been encouraged, and they are there to support each other, and they are still very active club members.

[geoffretired]

We had a club competition which coincided with the end of the beginners course. It was a team event with all ages in each team and beginners were invited to watch and join in if they wanted to. Two of them shot and others came to watch. We had already found out who would want to help beginners through the next stage and introduced them to each other. It does seem to help.

[NoAngel]

Originally Posted by ruthmc

1. Winning stuff Getting the ocasional medal / trophy / chocolate bar / colour prize is very encouraging for beginners.

I am not sure how many of you read this, but in a recent issue of the GNAS Archery UK magazine they were talking about the beginners award scheme put in place by FITA, where you can work to achieving FITA Feather and FITA Arrow awards. You have to complete a number of tasks where you are assessed on your skills and abilities.

http://www.archery.org/clients/fita/...9?OpenDocument

I feel not only does it give the beginners something to work towards, but it’s also a very good way of getting the clubs to teach their beginners very basic skills which seems to have been forgotten in a lot of clubs these days, such as how to measure your bracing height and what it actually is, to even how to serve a string.

I put this idea to my clubs committee and I was met with quite negative views, such as it means a lot of work (who is going to do the coaching, who is going to do the assessment, who will fill in the paper work, blah blah blah). No one said, wow that would be great for the beginners, they could learn so much, that’s a great idea. It was more, it’s going to be work, so lets not do that.

[clickerati]

Originally Posted by NoAngel

As an idea does anyone have a club party or get together after the end of the beginners course, just as a way to introduce the beginners to the rest of the club members in a friendly social environment outside of the archery field. I was wondering if this would be a good way for everyone to meet everyone else within the club, make new friends, some laughs, jokes and a few drinks?

What are people’s thoughts on this, does anyone do this type of thing?

I wasn't a "beginner" when I joined my club and that's more difficult than when you're transitioning from beginner's course to club. Unless you already have friends in the club, it can be terribly isolating. I think a "new members" get together might solve both problems, or at least have someone whose responsibility it is to introduce people around and make sure they settle in.

[phillc]

In the past couple of years we have run on average two courses per year for five of those courses almost all joined, however the last course of the 12 participants only 5 joined and it turned out that some had been on the waiting list for more than a year and probably would only have wanted a taster session rather than a course. we tell all of the beginners that coaching is available to all of them weather they want to shoot competitions or just for relaxation.

we are looking at having a club squad system to give the people as much support as they want.

Running two improvers courses per year spring and autumn to do equipment maint tuning and video work to help with form and technique should find out at club agm if the membership want this.

We still have a wiating list of 36 but have given 17 of them a taster session to see if they are still interested and they all still want the course.

As we try to get the begineers to use club kit for six months to work them up in bow wieght to save them buying a bow that needs to be replaced quickly. its only sensible to run two per year

[Thunk]

The scenario outlined in NA's opening post is, I think, pretty typical. At my club we run a beginners course twice a year with a maximum of twelve participants each time. That's twenty-four potential new members in a year. Bearing in mind that the club's membership is only about fifty, it's not hard to see how things could change radically if even half those who take the course joined the club.

Actually, about half of them do. But, as NA has discovered, most of those are not around at the end of the season. I have thought long and hard about this - see my posts in other threads re coaching etc - and have come to the conclusion that the main reasons are:

1) Archery is easy - isn't it? Well, no it isn't! But after finishing the beginners course, it is pretty easy to make a big improvement. Most things are like this - for example, it is easy to learn to play guitar in a basic way, and strum along to something. But there's a 'wall', beyond which point improvement takes some dedication and hard work. That's why the world is full of strummers, and the likes of Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck are few and far between...

2) The seasons. People who do a beginners course in the spring have the summer in front of them to enjoy shooting. But at our club there isn't any real indoor shooting (we have the use of a local hall on Wednesday evenings, but it's a maximum of twelve and the range is only about twelve yards). So we shoot Portsmouths and Frostbites outdoor throughout the winter, which puts some people off. Will they return with the birds in the spring? Or will something else have caught their fancy in the meanwhile? Watch this space!

3) Where's the structure? This is the killer - there isn't one! Yes, I'm back on my hobbyhorse again, but don't wait for an apology 'cos you're not getting one. People do a more or less well-structured beginners course which introduces them to the sport and gets them off and started. Following on, the club probably lays targets on club days so that those who have been shooting at 10 yards on the course now have a 20 to have a go at - but there's no continuation training. Suddenly these people are shooting on their own, not sure if that miss was due to wind or something they're doing wrong - and the people who could help are at the other end of the line wacking arrows into the gold at 80 or 100 yards. A few weeks of this uncertainty, and feeling they're not getting anywhere is enough to discourage anybody.

Meddler has posted some interesting stuff in the coaching thread regarding a five-stage training system where the beginners course is just stage one. I look forward to it, but can't help wondering why it isn't there already - after all, it's not rocket science is it? (I have a sneaking suspicion that the answer to this is that suddenly there is government money up for grabs if GNAS can be seen to be doing what they should have been doing in the first place!)
But - this is the most important thing that beginners want and need in my opinion; a clearly laid out structure so that they can see how they get from the 10-yard target to a point where they are at the other end of the shooting line, squinting at the gold on the 100-yard boss wondering if that's their arrow. If we don't have a structure - if they can't see the road from A to B to C...how do we expect to hold their interest?