archery coaches have it easy

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Marcus26

Totally.
I have a 15yo girl student who I coached from day one (recurve). She spent the first 4 weeks on a theraband learning structure, then the next 4 weeks on blank target. etc etc.
6 months later she shot in and won the state indoor titles, would have finished 4th in open womens.
She's not shooting mid-260 Vegas rounds (530 FITA). Not bad considering she only shoots a few times a week at best.

We got it right from the start and have been able to cut back her development time greatly. She doesn't have plans to go to the olympics, just enjoys shooting with her friends at the club and competitions, but is really enjoying how well she is shooting.

This is part of where the current GNAS setup breaks down. The rules allow us 6 sessions for a beginner's course. I guess we could set it up as a 10 week course with 4 weeks of non-shooting training, but I've not seen anyone brave enough to do that yet...

[cliveanne]

I have run a few of the 10 week courses at evening classes in the Burton/Swadlincote district. They proved to be popular, but on the suggestion that we have a none shooting evening, we were told to forget it
We've come to shoot. On the whole, folks just wanted to have fun for the 10 weeks. Let's face it...how long had you been shooting before you decided that archery was for you, & was not a passing phase? After you have obtained your equipment, & you do want some serious training/coaching sessions ... I would think about 6 months down the line, then is the time to do something about it. But, as an individual archer, that is down to you.

[Marcus26]

I think t has merit from a marketing point of view.
Offer 2 courses, Come and Try and Tournament Training.
Come and Try is just that, shoot some arrows and then at the end go try the next sport.
Tournament is designed to get them ready for the next competition season and spends weeks doing drills and technique work. Have them join the club straight away.
When I played grid iron this is how it was done. We trained for 3 months before our first game and 75% of that was fitness training involving no contact.
If you give them the right expectations from day 1 then you can do anything.

Some parents it never works with, but I have found 95% are very receptive to it.

I have a Monday arvo class, 4:30-6pm.
4:30-5pm they stretch and do SPT's. This is where they draw and hold the bow to work on their technique. No shots are fired.
5-5:30 they just shoot so I can work on their execution.
5:30-6pm they do matchplay.
The archers range from 11-35 which most being in the 11-17 age group.
They love it, the matchplay at teh end goes down well and is a reward for working hard.
If one kid is struggling with things then they are busted down to a theraband.