accelerated level 1 courses

[WhitehartFB]

Sorry everyone I was wrong.

Some crossed wires at our end (Perris Archery) this is a Leaders Course not Level 1 Coaching course the minimum time to achieve level 1 is 9 months.

However I would question why in the commercial world the Leaders Course appears to have more currency than Level 1 in Sports Centres Organisations such as ATC & Scouts.

Say to a Sports Centre you have a Leaders award and no problem say you have GNAS Level 1 and they look at you quizically especially when it comes to insurance ???????

[Cimbian]

Originally Posted by Whitehart

However I would question why in the commercial world the Leaders Course appears to have more currency than Level 1 in Sports Centres Organisations such as ATC & Scouts.

Say to a Sports Centre you have a Leaders award and no problem say you have GNAS Level 1 and they look at you quizically especially when it comes to insurance ???????

Now THAT is a very good question!

[rohenwto]

Originally Posted by Whitehart

However I would question why in the commercial world the Leaders Course appears to have more currency than Level 1 in Sports Centres Organisations such as ATC & Scouts.

Say to a Sports Centre you have a Leaders award and no problem say you have GNAS Level 1 and they look at you quizically especially when it comes to insurance ???????

Proberly because the Leader's course has been around since 1998,

[grimsby archer]

Strange really when the UKCC Level1 is the minimum qualification for being employed as a "coach" by a local authority under the (sportengland/government) community coaches scheme (CSC).

[Meddler]

The Leader qualification is not a Coaching qualification that is recognised within GNAS. It is a "Community Sports Leader award in archery". This qualification is recognised for use in sports centres and voluntary organisations (Scouts Guides etc), as a minimum qualification.

The Level 1 course is for use within GNAS, and is the starter level of a Coaching qualification, within the UKCC qualification. The time taken to get the Level 1 is longer than other sports, because we are a more technical and technique oriented sport, with a lot of potential for damage if you get it wrong. You need to know best practice before you can teach beginners effectively. And a Level 1 Coach should be working hand in hand with a more experienced Coach.

It does not equip someone to go out and Coach an archer to MB level, as it is out of the box. It is meant to be used to give new archers a safe introduction to the sport. It is roughly equivalent to the old Assistant Coach award.

It is however based around on-the-job training with real archers - as opposed to pretending that your colleagues on the course are beginners. There is a lot of stuff to learn on the course which is there for a reason.

If you don't believe the qualification is worth it, don't go for it.

If you go through the course and ignore everything you learn on that course, it demeans everything that I, all the people on the NSG who are developing the Level 1-5 courses and my Coaching colleagues stand for.

[TJ Mason]

The standard length for a level 1 course is six days. There have been an awful lot of complaints about the accelerated four-day level 1 courses, since the time savings are being made on the practical content. People have been coming off these courses feeling that they haven't had enough practice at performing the demonstrations and observing people shooting. It's nearly all sit-down-and-listen stuff.

Avoid four-day courses - go for the six-day courses.

[WhitehartFB]

Originally Posted by Meddler

The Level 1 course is for use within GNAS, and is the starter level of a Coaching qualification, within the UKCC qualification. The time taken to get the Level 1 is longer than other sports, because we are a more technical and technique oriented sport, with a lot of potential for damage if you get it wrong. You need to know best practice before you can teach beginners effectively. And a Level 1 Coach should be working hand in hand with a more experienced Coach.

It does not equip someone to go out and Coach an archer to MB level, as it is out of the box. It is meant to be used to give new archers a safe introduction to the sport. It is roughly equivalent to the old Assistant Coach award.

It is however based around on-the-job training with real archers - as opposed to pretending that your colleagues on the course are beginners. There is a lot of stuff to learn on the course which is there for a reason.

If you don't believe the qualification is worth it, don't go for it.

If you go through the course and ignore everything you learn on that course, it demeans everything that I, all the people on the NSG who are developing the Level 1-5 courses and my Coaching colleagues stand for.

I agree with Murray about all the comments above.

The problem as I see it is that far too many archers take the level 1 course for the wrong reasons and because it's the ONLY choice. This means that we have a lot of Level 1 coaches that do not really fill the role the course was intended for, which leads to this mistrust of coaches within our sport.

Many archers sign up because they have been nominated by their club to run beginners courses and want to do it the right way, the only way to get this information is to embark on the Level 1 course regardless of the fact that they have no aspirations to take their coaching development any higher - in this case I believe that the Leaders Course or a very cut down Level 1 course is more relevant.

Others sign up because they think it will improve their own shooting.

And worst of all - the ones that think it is just a way to get credibility in the sport and wear the badge as if to say I am better and by definition I must know more than you " I am a coach".

Embarking on the coaching journey is a big commitment and personally I would only start if I intended to get as higher a qualification as my ability allowed and was prepared to use it. In most cases this would mean that my own shooting would suffer.So I am more likely to take it when I am not shooting seriously, later in life, another added benefit of this, would be all the experience I would have to back up the qualifications.

[TJ Mason]

Originally Posted by Whitehart

Many archers sign up because they have been nominated by their club to run beginners courses and want to do it the right way, the only way to get this information is to embark on the Level 1 course regardless of the fact that they have no aspirations to take their coaching development any higher - in this case I believe that the Leaders Course or a very cut down Level 1 course is more relevant.

Very cut down? In practice, what's being cut on these 4-day Level 1 courses is the practical element, which is the part I found most useful when I did my Level 1 course.

If you're a GNAS member, you shouldn't be looking at the Leaders course. This is provided by the GNAS but is intended for non-GNAS people. The minimum level for GNAS members is Level 1. My understanding is that at some point all of this will have an effect on a club's insurance cover when running beginners courses.

If you want to know about the coaching structure, the Yorkshire website has a piece by Kath Fitzpatrick:
Yorkshire Archery Association - coaching

[WhitehartFB]

Originally Posted by TJ Mason

Very cut down? In practice, what's being cut on these 4-day Level 1 courses is the practical element, which is the part I found most useful when I did my Level 1 course.

If you're a GNAS member, you shouldn't be looking at the Leaders course. This is provided by the GNAS but is intended for non-GNAS people. The minimum level for GNAS members is Level 1. My understanding is that at some point all of this will have an effect on a club's insurance cover when running beginners courses.

If you want to know about the coaching structure, the Yorkshire website has a piece by Kath Fitzpatrick:
Yorkshire Archery Association - coaching

A minimum of 9 months training just to teach beginners and get them on the road to shooting, which is what most club coaches end up doing. My club does not have any coaches but a membership of over 80 archers we run more beginners courses than most clubs and by everyone working together we have a good solid base of archers of all experiences enjoying the sport and progressing, everyone who wants it, gets help and the right help (maybe we are unique with the archers we have in the club to achieve this I doubt it). Which is more than can be said of some clubs with loads of level 1 coaches. At this point in time none of us are prepared to put in a minimum of 9 months work just to keep doing what we do now, we enjoy shooting too much. So you are saying that in the future GNAS will stop us running courses and growing the sport without a level 1 coach yet every Scout ATC Guide troop sports centre Centre Parcs etal can continue with just their leaders qualifications.

Cut out all the archers that do the level 1 course for the wrong reasons as stated before then you will have a quality coaching organisation all pulling in the same direction and adding value to our sport. But IMO GNAS coaching should also recognise the need of clubs and members who do not want to be coaches but want to put beginners on the right path ready for the real coaches to take over at some point.

[TJ Mason]

Phrasing it as 9 months' effort is misleading. A Level 1 course takes 6 days spread over 3 to 6 months - typically one day a month for 6 months.

The main point I'm making is that four-day Level 1 courses are proving to be unsatisfactory to those doing the courses, judging by the level of complaints about them. A Leader course consists of roughly two days theoretical and two days practical, so fits nicely into four days. A Level 1 course consists of roughly four days theoretical and two days practical, so should be done over 6 days. The attempts to do Level 1 courses in four days are failing the attendees, because the practical element is being cut. Anyone who wants to train as a Level 1 coach (for whatever reason) should ignore the four-day courses available and do a six-day course.