Training week 1

Rider · Training week 1

There are many posts relating to the first week of training and here is another!

My first ever session with a bow and arrow and it was great. Met up at the hall with about 15 others of all ages. Firstly introduction to the bow, what the various parts are etc. Intro to the arrow and I finally learned what a notch fleck was! A bit on the health and safety then fitted up with the arm guards and measured with a piece of dowling to confirm the correct draw length. Then onto the firing.

A quick intro to the technique then split into groups of three with an instructor overseeing each group. No targets this week as this was the week for getting the technique right. Set the feet, set the arrow, elbow high, draw back using your shoulder blades, draw hand to your mouth,sight, release. Of course this was week one and no prizes for accuracy but everyone there was trying to hit the centre of the board anyway! All in all, I shot 12 arrows and they went into the target. No real difficulties but maybe I need to work on my drawer action. I tended to pull the string back instead of using my shoulder blades to draw it back. The string did catch me and not the guard on a few occasions but my bow holding hand was a bit twisted. Once this was adjusted the problem disappeared. A real good first week and I enjoyed it.

I forgot to ask this question today but is the training a requirement by law or just something the individual clubs choose to offer or not as the case may be? I personally think the training is important but after completion is there an end result? For example, affiliation to a national organisation or a certificate you have to present to any archery club if you wish to join? My guess is that it is just a training period offered by most clubs with no end result except the ability to shoot safely. That is absolutely fine by the way! I merely pose the question.

Liam

I don't think there is any legal obligation to provide training, but any responsible club will not let you loose with a bow until they are satisfied you can use it safely, the way clubs get round this is to insist you partake in training or prove your compitency before you can become a member.

Chedawan

No legal requirement, however, as Liam says if someone came to our club, there's no way on earth they're shooting unsupervised on their first few arrows... no matter how good they profess to be. This said, they wouldn't need to be the worlds best archer, they may even miss with a few, but as long as they are a safe archer they're good to go. I for example learned to shoot at university, we had a scheme there where one progressed from a white arrow archer, to a gold arrow archer, during your training (white, black, blue, red, gold) just something a committee member had invented. Once you had progressed through this, you received both your progress book (training record if you will) and a certificate. Both of which ended up at the bottom of my bow case... which as a few will know was later stolen along with all my other kit. The point being that I lost all my proof of competency, and there's no central registry or anything like that. When I went to join a club later, I could obviously still shoot, but had someone with me for the first few ends to make sure that I was safe (I'm sure this would be the case had I shown them a certificate anyway), and I think this is the way most responsible clubs act.

However, some people don't realise there's no legal certification required in archery, and on one occasion walking through Sheffield (Shanks' pony everywhere I went at Uni) with my compound in its case, and was asked by a (what I presume was a very green) Police Officer, what I was carrying, fair enough, big odd shaped bag. He then asked if I had a licence for it...

Fortunately my GNAS card placated him.

joe croatia

good to hear about your course.
to answer your questions i did get the certificate at the end of my course which by the way with me being foreign they got my name wrong

there was a case just last week in my club where a couple came back 4-5yrs after they've finished their course in the club with their own equipment and like liam and che said they had to go thru safety and knowledge assesment before they could join the club(which by the way takes about 3 wks) and start shooting
hope this helps

joe

Chedawan

I was left to shoot on the line with the competent archers when I first went to the new club, on the first evening. However, I'd imagine I was 'kept an eye on' for the next few weeks.

Dawn

From the point of view of a coach (NFAS) when an archer I dont know wants to come to our club I ask them a lot of questions about where they learned to shoot, how long ago, etc. hopefully in a way that they dont realise they are being quizzed

and go through our safety rules with them

I then watch them shoot and I shoot round a few targets with them, if they look all fine then I allow them to go round the rest of the course with another member, all fine again we let them carry on as a full member. If I suspect any problems they will only be allowed to shoot with me or one of our more experienced archers, and we would keep an eye on them.

I usually find that anyone saying they have done a training course somewhere else do seem to have picked up the basics, but not always able to shoot well, they then realise that they need help and ask for a bit of extra coaching

We dont give a certificate or anything as that would not really mean anything to another club, although in the NFAS now all new members have to have their form signed by a coach or a club official before they are allowed to go to an open shoot, again this probably wont mean very much to any other organisation they join.

Rider

Thats great, no surprises there. I am not actually a member of the club which is providing the training but I am looking into it. I'm not sure how they attract new members or if they cap the total membership. I am currently looking into this. I was quite interested in the last few posts and how clubs view potential new members. Food for thought.

joe croatia

they usually give you all the info you need to know at the end of the course probably on the last night(tackle talk night)

joe

sheep2580

When people have done the course at our club they get a certificate that says when they did the course. Its officialy recognised by GNAS so they can then potentially join any target club in the country.
Hopefully the club they join if its not ours will still make sure they are safe.
When we get people moving to our club from elsewhere we let them shoot but always have several people keeping an eye on them at all times when they first shoot.
As far as i know there has never been a problem but its for safety and all that
With GNAS a person must have completed a course to be covered by their insurance.

Chedawan

sheep2580

That could be right, I will look into this as from March I am hoping to be membership secretary so it might help to know lol.
Either way, its not law to have to have taken a course.

Chedawan

Let me know if you do find out (if you don't mind?) I'd be interested to know. Last time I was secretary for a club was at Uni (for which GNAS has a completely seperate set of rules) where I never had to prove anything about anyone, they just accepted we wouldn't let anyone too mental join up, and sent me a load of stickers and cards for everyone.

Our AGM is on thursday, and I can't make it, so I could end up being voted on for anything

so I too may end up needing to know

sheep2580

HAHA! I know that feeling, i was the only junior at the AGM 2 years back so I got stuck with "Junior Representative" which means i represent 20 something people in the club of which about 4 actually shoot/care about the club.
This is why I want something more to do, e.g. membership secretary.
I will ask when i go to the committee meeting on friday then post what i get told here

sunmouse

Myself and my partner attended our first beginners evening a couple of nights ago and it was fun! The people at the club were very friendly and more than proficient at training. We learned a lot in a short space of time, including important health and safety stuff about pulling the arrows out of the targets, something we weren't doing ourselves up in the forestry on a Saturday morning! The older chap who was in front of me didn't seem to be able to pull a match out of the ground, let alone a recurve bow and I noticed a couple of shakes in his bow arm when he was shooting. I was teased quite goodnaturedly for being too fast on the shooting (a habit I have yet to break from the longbow partner) and not getting my hand close enough to my face but I shot quite well, although I wasn't worried about hitting any golds or anything like that. My principle goal was to have fun and do the archery properly, as I've had a few hobbies in the past which haven't involved the other half and they haven't gone well, resulting in me giving them up in a year or two. This hobby, I hope, we both stick at! Heaven knows we've spent enough money on it already, but I think the other half is very enthusiastic about it. The plus side is that it is getting him out of the house and doing a physical activity and that's never a bad thing.