GNAS madness

[maxwell9699]

Last week I assisted at my club's beginners course, something I have not done for several years. The newbies are now onto their second session and I was appalled to discover that the new way for beginners to start archery is to be taught to string walk (three fingers below the arrow) and sight along the arrow shaft. The nock of the arrow is right by the eye. During this second session they were now being taught to anchor below the chin with one finger above and two below the arrow. When the inevitable happened and a mis nocked arrow flew up onto one girls face it was only chance that this had not happened the week before injuring if not blinding her. Mis nocking is a common occurance with beginners either due to lack of skill or the varying quality of club equipment and the usual mix and match of bows and arrows.
After making enquiries I was told that the coaching of archery this way is an instruction from GNAS. can anyone confirm this and explain why they are being taught to shoot in such a dangerous fashion?.

[its my party and]

The principal behind this process is to allow the new beginners to concentrate on getting their draw arm higher and making it easier to engage their back muscles to facilitate the shot. I have just finished teaching a beginners course where for the first week and part of the second we had no targets and no sights the beginners were asked to concentrate completely on stance front hand position and learning and getting the feeling of back tension. The lack of targets was to allow them to concentrate on technique only. So after getting them proficient at Point of Aim shooting we then transfered to freestyle. For the transfer to freestyle we used rubber stretchy bands and the beginners had to prove style before going back to the bows.
So in answer to your question. We had no accidents they were all taught each style before attempting the shot routines and then supervised correctly on the line. If we or infact they were not happy they would come down on instruction as taught. So does it work?
Yes it does! We had 10 beginners who as a group progressed far better than any other group we have had through in the last 2 years (and there are lots of abilities). They are all consistant and if they start doing something different any member at the club who helped out can remind them of the 3 main principals and it takes them seconds to get back to good back tension with nice relaxed open hands. One thing no one at the club has had to correct yet though is the beginners stance! As a group we worked hard on this and the other two items reinforcing it at every session and this above all became ingrained completely in each and everyone of them. The problem we have had in years gone past is freestyle has been too much for beginners to cope with all in one go. Along with a target and sight as well. Starting with a blank boss and the 3 main elements of a shot routine and then introducing other elements of the shot gradually it seems to have worked very well and Im proud of the results shown so far by the new batch of beginners.
BTW we have had so far an 80% retention from this group, with 2 others waiting to get paid at the end of the month!

I should also add our equipment was checked prior to the course starting and visually checked at each session. Faulty equipment should not be used for anyone especially week one beginners!

[Tony_zelah]

I have taught beginner's in this new GNAS style and taken part in internal assessment of archers studying for their level 1 exam. On more than one occasion the future archer being instructed has brought the nock up toward their eye, and have been told to "come down" this has followed with an explanation of why drawing the arrow toward the eye could be dangerous, and they were shown the recommended way of doing it

[napolienne]

Just a small point that may be entirely obvious - if they're having to stringwalk to such a degree that the nock is just below their eye then either the bows are too heavy for beginners (poundage wise), the nocking points are way off, or the thing they are aiming at is too low/too close. We're talking at least two inches of stringwalk for adults before the arrow comes up that high, which shouldn't be necessary for a sub-20 pound bow and beginner arrows.

[Bald Eagle]

The first week of our beginners course always starts off with the boss on the grass leaning against the stand and the student drawing the arrow to their designated eye with three fingers under the arrow, or string walking!. If it was dangerous, top field archers wouldn't be using this method of shooting! These people have never drawn a bow in their lives and are using muscles that they thought they never had! Also they usually hit what they see and that's a bonus for them. The second week,(the first was a freebie) we introduce them to platform tabs, bracers and sights and they put their bows up on their own with guidance. I've just finished a second week tonight and the feedback from 8 newbies was positive all the way

[TJ Mason]

The GNAS way is NOT string walking - it's barebow shooting. The fingers should be placed on the string at a consistent position. If your club's coaches are teaching string walking, they're doing it at their own decision, not following any recommendation.

[SVL]

Originally Posted by TJ Mason

The GNAS way is NOT string walking - it's barebow shooting. The fingers should be placed on the string at a consistent position. If your club's coaches are teaching string walking, they're doing it at their own decision, not following any recommendation.

I was taught to teach the barebow method with the fingers just below the arrow and drawing to the side of the mouth. The idea being that finding the side of your mouth being easy to achieve.

[felixity]

being a newbie myself i thought i might have something to add to the debate.

the beginner course that i am on went straight to shooting with a sight etc which was fine for me...i took to it immediately and have progressed quickly....having said that i had had a barebow session as a have a go.

there are people that are struggling to link everything together and maybe making things a little simpler would help them overcome this more quickly? its across all ages but probably much more significant in the little kids (they take people from age 7)

the other thing that i think is not helping people is that some people are moving up distances quite quickly and therefore some of the more er....competetive people feel that they should be too even where they arent shooting so well (ie shooting at 30yrds but missing the boss a lot). i think it would be much better if there was some sort of criteria for moving up either the size of grouping or a minimum score maybe...do other clubs have this?

[Thunk]

Like many clubs we have to share our field, and the biggest bone of contention between ourselves and the football club who own the field is of course 'lost' arrows.

As a result, we have just started to institute a system whereby all members have to be 'qualified' at each and every distance; that is, be recorded as shooting 3 dozen arrows and not missing the boss. Until qualified, members will not be able to shoot a distance except on a designated practice boss set up away from the football area.

This might sound draconian, and it's one solution to a particular problem, but it might also help with the problem that Felixity is raising. It would probably be more acceptable to new archers than to those who have been shooting for a while. It could also be presented as a sort of 'achievement ladder'.

[Tony_zelah]

Originally Posted by Thunk

Like many clubs we have to share our field, and the biggest bone of contention between ourselves and the football club who own the field is of course 'lost' arrows.

As a result, we have just started to institute a system whereby all members have to be 'qualified' at each and every distance; that is, be recorded as shooting 3 dozen arrows and not missing the boss. Until qualified, members will not be able to shoot a distance except on a designated practice boss set up away from the football area.

This might sound draconian, and it's one solution to a particular problem, but it might also help with the problem that Felixity is raising. It would probably be more acceptable to new archers than to those who have been shooting for a while. It could also be presented as a sort of 'achievement ladder'.

My guess with that rule you don't have any longbow archers shooting any of the longer distances, that or their good.