Beginners course duration

[tel]

Does anyone know if it is possible to do an accelerated beginners course, or is it always in the 'one lesson a week' format?

cheers

tel

[Jimster71]

I would have thought it was the hours of archery time, rather than how they are scheduled. A lot of people wouldn't be able to make multiple lessons in one week, so take-up could be a bit slow.

[tel]

I was asking more as a one-off. A guy I know is dead keen and has time on his hands, but all the local courses have either stopped for the summer or are full - and in every case so far they follow the six week format, mainly due to availability of coaches.

[SVL]

Have a chat with your local coaches.
I know I have on occasion taken somebody on a one to one basis for an accelerated course with the sessions being in parallel with the normal club sessions. So instead of taking four weeks everything is covered in four sessions over two weeks. I have also considered the idea of doing a two day session with lunch breaks during the summer holidays....... but that will have to wait until my children are a bit older.

[dtalbot]

Seem to remember being told at the start of my 6 weeker that there was a certain number of hours the club wanted to see you for as well as reaching the basic levels of safe archery before they would let you pass the course. A couple of people missed more than one lesson and they booked extra slots outside the normal schedule.
I guess it comes down to people being available to run the course, migth be worth asking at some of the shops that also offer coaching.

[tel]

Originally Posted by ruthmc

For GNAS to be satisfied you have to have done 6 hours under direct coach supervision, then you are considered trained enough to join a club and shoot without direct supervision.

It's normally broken down into several sessions because a) You can only retain so much new info at once and there's a lot of potential for getting overloaded and confused and b) If you haven't shot before you are going to be very very sore after 6 hours of shooting non-stop!

Ruth

Hi Ruth,

I think what he has in mind is six lessons over one or two weeks, rather than six.

tel

[Barndoor]

Coincidentally we booked the archery range for a weekend in Sept last night where it will be run over 2 days. Followed by an assessment later (to check it sank in). It would not work for all but I am confident the target group can handle it and the prep is easier.

[bkupris]

Interestingly, beginners courses are not a GNAS requirement. GNAS insurance does cover non members for 6 hours of beginners course lessons though. It's up to the club whether or not they want to require prospective members to do a beginners course and the length of it before persons join their club.

[napolienne]

I ran an accelerated course the other day - in one day, in fact. Certainly it's feasible to do a course in two three hour sessions, provided your beginner has the stamina. Make sure they warm up and cool down properly though.
Having a written reference (just a couple of sides of A4) may also be useful, given that it is quite a lot to absorb in a relatively short period of time.

[Tony_zelah]

I know of a case where a county coach (now a senior coach) taught one person for their beginner's course over about eight hours plus break times. Eight hours one to one with a coach is a lot more than 99% of us got when we all started.