New GNAS Coach Grades

[Little Miss Purple]

I think it's great!! As a selfish archer, I have no wish to coach at this moment in time. I think it is important that there is a standard structure across the country so that you know what you are getting as far as coaching goes.

The showing of continuing development reflects what we have to do in nursing, it stops you from going stale! I'm sure trends are repeated in cycles but I'm sure new techniques appear from time to time too.

Good luck to all taking / already on the coaching train

[Thunk]

I have voiced my concerns about coaching more than once on this forum; they centre round the fact that I would like to work with a coach to improve my archery. When I contacted Surrey County Archery Society asking about 'improvers' courses, I was told that no such thing existed in Surrey, and perhaps I should apply to Quicks 'where one of the staff may be able to give you a few pointers'. Pretty pathetic, in my opinion.

I have subsequently discovered that:

a) the Surrey Coaches Guild is pretty much inactive, with very few members.

b) it has declared itself 'independent' of the SCAS, and the two don't talk much.

So I look at the structure that Meddler has laid out, and it looks very good - one only wonders why it wasn't there in the first place. But it doesn't appear to contain anything which might induce good archers to become coaches, thereby addressing the shortfall. (And I do accept that the shortfall is probably regional rather than national). One answer might be to take the coaching structure right out of the county set-up, which would mean that a coach could work in counties other than his/her own.

One other point from someone who is merely on the sidelines (me!) - I have often heard the view that coaching takes up so much time that the coach gets little time for shooting himself, and his archery suffers as a consequence. It should be remembered that any coach was an archer before he became a coach, and it is unlikely he intended to swap the one status for the other! Therefore, any minimum coaching requirements in this diary should take into consideration that the person involved probably wants to be an archer first and a coach second. If that condition is made clear and widely accepted, maybe more competent archers will consider taking a coaching course.

[Trunkles]

Originally Posted by Thunk

One other point from someone who is merely on the sidelines (me!) - I have often heard the view that coaching takes up so much time that the coach gets little time for shooting himself, and his archery suffers as a consequence.

It certainly seems to have taken out almost all my club shooting over the last few weeks. However as a club we are working on how to organise the beginners classes so that each of our new level-1 trainees (4 seniors including me and 2 juniors) can both shoot and coach. We can see how it has affected our chairman/coach as he has only shot about 6 times in the last year or so!!

I suspect you need to have a group of people "volunteer" to spread the load of the beginners' courses. Still won't have a club level-2 coach at this stage though although the new structure does mean that we have access to the mentors from far and wide (given that Yorkshire is a VERY large county).

So start twisting arms and get a group of volunteers rather than one victim.

[Meddler]

Originally Posted by Trunkles

It certainly seems to have taken out almost all my club shooting over the last few weeks. However as a club we are working on how to organise the beginners classes so that each of our new level-1 trainees (4 seniors including me and 2 juniors) can both shoot and coach.

I suspect you need to have a group of people "volunteer" to spread the load of the beginners' courses.

The willing workhorses, eh? Been there seen that, have the t-shirts...

OK, here's a thought... If you are in the luxurious situation of having more than one Coach in the club, appoint a "Duty Coach" for a particular evening.

When I was down South, the club I was in had a rule - Tuesday night was Coaching night, when any of the Coaches who were there coached. Any Coaches who turned up, did so with the expectation of Coaching rather than shooting. If someone wanted Coaching on another night, it was a direct contract between archer and Coach.

Some other Coaches have adopted a Coaching "uniform" (ie if I'm wearing my Coaching hat I will Coach on demand, if not leave me to shoot a few arrows). I even suggested this to a colleague in Germany, who thought this a rather wizard wheeze (she kept getting talked into coaching to the detriment of her own shooting, and she was pretty good...).

[Meddler]

Originally Posted by Thunk

I look at the structure that Meddler has laid out, and it looks very good - one only wonders why it wasn't there in the first place.

In theory it is, in practice... well, you see what the problems are.

Originally Posted by Thunk

But it doesn't appear to contain anything which might induce good archers to become coaches, thereby addressing the shortfall. (And I do accept that the shortfall is probably regional rather than national). One answer might be to take the coaching structure right out of the county set-up, which would mean that a coach could work in counties other than his/her own.

The coverage of Coaches in the UK is patchy. The GNAS Strategic Development Plan says we want to have at least one Level 1 Coach in every Club. I would like to see that as well.

On a philosophical basis, I would expect Level 1 and 2 Coaches to work in their own, and if requested, other clubs, Level 3 Coaches to work in their own Counties and other Counties, and Level 4 & 5 Coaches to be willing to work in their own and other Regions (ie over the whole country), and all Coaches to be given appropriate expenses.

Originally Posted by Thunk

Therefore, any minimum coaching requirements in this diary should take into consideration that the person involved probably wants to be an archer first and a coach second. If that condition is made clear and widely accepted, maybe more competent archers will consider taking a coaching course.

Reasons why people come into Coaching are many and varied... The only one I do not tolerate is "to improve my shooting...." Most if not all of us want to get some shooting practice. I do, on a regular basis (on average once every three months). The Coach is the one who decides how much or how little (s)he is willing to do. And pressuring the Coach to coach and not allowing him/her to shoot is unfair on the Coach.

One of the requirements of the old Coach course was to attend a SportsCoach UK talk entitled "The Coach in Action". In which two questions were asked :
1) What made you decide to get started in Coaching?
2) What would make you stop Coaching?

Surprising how many times the answer to 2) came down to "if it was taking too much time away from my shooting" and "if I get too much aggravation".

[cliveanne]

Originally Posted by busylizzee

Is that the only time you can pull and score?

Hey! I'm a married man, do you mind?

[busylizzee]

Oops -sorry

[Murray]

Originally Posted by Meddler

OK, here's a thought... If you are in the luxurious situation of having more than one Coach in the club, appoint a "Duty Coach" for a particular evening.

Yep, works well, unless, of course, like many clubs, every coach has a different opinion of how to coach and what to "fix" - resulting in a confused beginner . In such cases a beginner's handbook to be looked at, and filled in by each coach during each session is a good idea... we tried it, but most didn't fill it in!

Originally Posted by Meddler

Some other Coaches have adopted a Coaching "uniform" (ie if I'm wearing my Coaching hat I will Coach on demand

Yeah - it's the bright yellow caps given out at one of the GNAS coaching conferences work well for that - you'd never wear it any other time

[cliveanne]

Originally Posted by Murray

Yep, works well, unless, of course, like many clubs, every coach has a different opinion of how to coach and what to "fix" - resulting in a confused beginner . In such cases a beginner's handbook to be looked at, and filled in by each coach during each session is a good idea... we tried it, but most didn't fill it in!

We are fortunate in having 7 coaches, or should that be unfortunate We all have our own way so to speak & this is not realy a good thing for the archer, exept to say that there are perhaps several "methods " that can be chosen from by the poor confused person. I would say work one to one, & when no further progression can be made move onto the coach "Who can" Perhaps many coaches are OK for general archery but I still think "Archer beware"
Should we have a sign on our backs...
Caution, Coaching in progress

[JohnRA]

The Chairman of Coaches says that under the new system, he being a master bowman has got the credits to enable him to become a coach without taking an exam. Is that right?