When they banned pistol shooting I had a quite considerable sum of money to spend on behalf of the Student Union at the university I worked in so spoke to Quicks and ordered 12 bows, 4 bosses, stands etc and a load of other stuff that you need to begin archery. I also bought a book called "Archery- steps to success" and set about roping in some more ex-pistol shooters to give it a go before the start of a new academic year. Within 3 sessions we were scoring around 480 for a Portsmouth so I couldnt disagree more that you need 100 hours of instruction before you can be considered capable and allowed to play on your own. Such a lengthy induction would put off most, coaching, improving, bow tuning etc are all progressions when a beginners course should be about getting someone to know the basics and join in with others in a safe manner. I dont particularly care if a beginner misses the target as long as they do so safely and by having some sort of technique that is appropriate and understand why they are missing it.
The main thing that needs drumming into a beginner is safety, their own as well as others. Now for a university club it really is a conveyor belt as far as freshers sports induction goes but we managed it. I was helped enormously by another member of staff who was a longbow shooter and after a short time we were able to hand over everything to the students themselves and they formally created the club as an entity rather than just being a section of the rifle club.
I took up archery 14 year later and the club I joined asked me about previous experience so I told them and I was instructed to put up a boss string a bow and kit myself out and was observed shooting a couple of dozen arrows at 20 yds. they decided that I was capable enough to join the club and participate without the necessity of doing a beginners course.
100 hours induction? I had set 5 county records by the time I has clocked up that many hours and they were in a discipline I had only tried nce before my first record.
The real question about how long should a beginners coaching course be is what goes into it and what doesnt. My county has some peculiar ideas about teaching barebow but none of the people who are part fo the county coaching scheme will say a word to the organiser of the programmes for coaching qualification because that individual would throw a wobbly and take his ball home and no-one esle wants the drama or the work.
sSo there you ahve another problem, who is going to put in the hours to teach peopel fro that length of time?
The main thing that needs drumming into a beginner is safety, their own as well as others. Now for a university club it really is a conveyor belt as far as freshers sports induction goes but we managed it. I was helped enormously by another member of staff who was a longbow shooter and after a short time we were able to hand over everything to the students themselves and they formally created the club as an entity rather than just being a section of the rifle club.
I took up archery 14 year later and the club I joined asked me about previous experience so I told them and I was instructed to put up a boss string a bow and kit myself out and was observed shooting a couple of dozen arrows at 20 yds. they decided that I was capable enough to join the club and participate without the necessity of doing a beginners course.
100 hours induction? I had set 5 county records by the time I has clocked up that many hours and they were in a discipline I had only tried nce before my first record.
The real question about how long should a beginners coaching course be is what goes into it and what doesnt. My county has some peculiar ideas about teaching barebow but none of the people who are part fo the county coaching scheme will say a word to the organiser of the programmes for coaching qualification because that individual would throw a wobbly and take his ball home and no-one esle wants the drama or the work.
sSo there you ahve another problem, who is going to put in the hours to teach peopel fro that length of time?