Adam
Active member
According to the lastest posting on the GNAS website, the demands on archers hoping to participate in GB teams appear to have just grown exponentially.
Given the appointment of a new GB head coach, change was to be expected and I don't know many archers who won't welcome at least a degree of change for the (sometimes seemingly haphazard) system that has applied to date.
What worries me slightly is that the new structure appears to require around 90 full days of either squad training or competition during the coming year. i.e. almost one day in four to be spent either in training or competition.
This may be feasible for WCPP funded archers, or TASS sponsored juniors, but for those of us that have to work for a living it looks like a pretty tall order, especially as many of these days (around 2/3rds) are week days.
That said, the first trick is to get selected for the squad, and this is getting tricky, especially as the say on who's in and who's not rests, in part, with the head coach. The same applies to team seclection: it used to be that the top three in the selection shoot got in, but now it's the top 2 plus one other at the head coach's discretion. This will, I feel, inevitably mean that an older guy (like me) finishing third will lose out to a lower placed, younger archer.
Now, I'm certainly not "age-ist" in way, and I'm all in favour of encouraging and rewarding young archers, but I'd be prepared to wager that this is just the start. I suspect it's only a matter of time before all selections are made at the discretion of the head coach: whilst this may be good-practise and even preferable where the olympic disciplines are concerned, I'm far from convinced that's it's the right process for us compound archers who are in the game for fun.
Well, that's my take on it. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of others.
Adam
Given the appointment of a new GB head coach, change was to be expected and I don't know many archers who won't welcome at least a degree of change for the (sometimes seemingly haphazard) system that has applied to date.
What worries me slightly is that the new structure appears to require around 90 full days of either squad training or competition during the coming year. i.e. almost one day in four to be spent either in training or competition.
This may be feasible for WCPP funded archers, or TASS sponsored juniors, but for those of us that have to work for a living it looks like a pretty tall order, especially as many of these days (around 2/3rds) are week days.
That said, the first trick is to get selected for the squad, and this is getting tricky, especially as the say on who's in and who's not rests, in part, with the head coach. The same applies to team seclection: it used to be that the top three in the selection shoot got in, but now it's the top 2 plus one other at the head coach's discretion. This will, I feel, inevitably mean that an older guy (like me) finishing third will lose out to a lower placed, younger archer.
Now, I'm certainly not "age-ist" in way, and I'm all in favour of encouraging and rewarding young archers, but I'd be prepared to wager that this is just the start. I suspect it's only a matter of time before all selections are made at the discretion of the head coach: whilst this may be good-practise and even preferable where the olympic disciplines are concerned, I'm far from convinced that's it's the right process for us compound archers who are in the game for fun.
Well, that's my take on it. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of others.
Adam