COACHES MANUAL ENTRY LEVEL http://www.archery.org FITA Coaches Committee Coaching Manual - Entry Level Table of Content s Introduction Chapter 1 The archer’s skills Chapter 2 S teps of the Shooting Sequence Chapter 3 Safety Chapter 4 Archery Classes and Entry level Program Chapter 5 Common Problems Chapter 6 Coach’s Role Chapter 7 Teaching suggestions for the Coach Chapter 8 Tip s for your demonstration, organization and present ation Chapter 9 Tip s for practice planning Chapter 10 Some suggested Teaching exercises Chapter 11 Facilities for group instruction Chapter 12 The disabled archer Chapter 13 Games COACHING MANUAL Glossary COACHING MANUAL Dear Coaches and Friends, As President of FITA, I am very pleased with the results of the hard work of the Coaches Committee, the FITA office and all those coaches who have contributed to this valuable manual. FITA now has an updated coaching manual that will unify the basic coaching knowledge of the best coaches in the world. It is important that a uniform method be used at the basic level to give all new enthusiasts a well-tested foundation of the best archery practices. Archers will be able to go from this level to that of a recreational, national or international participant, building on this basic training with intermediate and expert coach- ing. My special thanks to Juan Carlos Holgado, Coaches Committee Chairman and Pascal Colmaire, FITA Development Director for their great effort and knowledge to write and compile this manual. Best regards, Jim Easton President COACHING MANUAL ere is the first coaching manual of the Federation Internationale de Tir àl'Arc (FITA). This particular manual His dedicated to the teaching of archery to beginners. The project was exciting to manage due to two factors. First, know- ing how valuable it would be for archery development and second- ly being able to collaborate with coaches, who were of such a high standard. My thanks to all of those coaches who made contribu- tions to the development of this manual. I may report that we never faced any significant difficulties in getting agreement, on either the technical or teaching aspects of the content of the manual. The only philosophical difference to resolve was that presented by some of our Asian colleagues. This was the practice of numerous shooting sequence simulations before the first shots were actually taken. Hence, pending the resolving of some social and ethnical principles, the contents of the manual should probably be adapted for certain scenarios. If this is so, we would very much appreciate to know how to alter the material, and for whom it may be done. Furthermore, any feedback, sug- gestions, and positive criticism towards improving this manual will be most welcome. This is cer- tainly not a perfect Coaching Manual, however, it is one that may be improved with your contri- butions. he National Archery Federations (NAF) that do not yet have this type of training tool for their coaching education are invited to use it. The same invitation to use the manual is offered to Tcoaches who are not given a specific entry level program by their NAF. Some countries that have already established a coaching program could probably amend their coaching material with some parts of the manual. This approach is also acceptable. The more that the manual is used the more will FITA be pleased, especially those people who have developed this teaching tool. We would really appreciate it if you will inform the FITA office if you make use of the manual, or intend to use it. It will help us to assess the usefulness of the manual. Thank you beforehand for you cooperation. Very few of those who have collaborated with the development of this manual have English as their mother tongue. Hence, we beg your forgiveness for the mistakes in language that may have happened. The illustrations have been made by an archer who is a former European champion, and World record holder by team (Compound Bow). He has created his own business in that field of work. Best wishes to Thomas, for his business enterprise. Congratulations on the work, you did a great job! COACHING MANUAL e have chosen a binder format for easy use by the coach, during archery classes and also Wfor an easy updating process. We hope that the system will be convenient for you. At present we (FITA) do not intend to certify archery coaches from this material. The original inten- tion was to develop a coaching education tool for our Member Associations (NAF); it is up to those NAF's to use this manual, or another, for developing their own National Coaching Certification Program. On the other hand the FITA Coaches Committee is already preparing a course for Archery Course Conductors. We have invited persons who could serve as "experts" at Olympic Solidarity Courses and FITA Development and Technical Assistance events, in the near future, to develop our sport worldwide. I would like to thank the following organizations for their support of this project: FITA, Olympic Solidarity, FITA Coaches Committee and FITA Development and Technical Assistance Committee. This was my third experience in the development of Coaching Manuals. The first experience was in France, with the development of the first two coaching manuals of the FFTA. The second experience was in Canada, with the entire revision of the FCA level 1 manual. The third was with FITA, with this manual. After each project I experienced a mixture of feelings: 'Enough!"…. "We did a better job that time!"……"We could have done better!"…….. "It really is useful!"………"I would have enjoyed a manual like this when I began coach- ing."……………"If I had spent my energy and time in coaching archers, instead of writ- ing manuals, I could have produced more elite archers."……..and, lastly, "I could have pre- sented a better contribution to this manual if I had done more writing throughout my coaching career." However, I now recognize that I am fortunate to have had all these experiences. Furthermore, these experiences have generated opportunities, on many occasions, to discuss archery and coaching with archery fanatics, both old and new. If you are one of them I look forward to chatting with you in the future. Enjoy Coaching! Pascal Colmaire FITA Development Director COACHING MANUAL Dear Friends and Fellow Archers, t is truly an honour for me to introduce this Manual both to you personally and to the Archery Community as a Iwhole. Despite all the hard work involved, I derived a great deal of pleasure from compiling and preparing the Manual. And finally here you have it, in your hands, a tool to help you develop the sport of archery in your town, city, region, country or continent. This Manual was not created to make you a better archer, but to help you on your way to becoming a better archery coach or instructor. The FITA Coaches' Committee is extremely focused in help- ing anybody and everybody who is trying to develop the sport of archery on a worldwide basis. For this reason we have tapped into the experience of most of the top-level coaches from all the continents in order to compile a useful Manual that presents a global concept of archery style, basic and safe steps, and an adequate all round technique. This Manual contains the knowledge of the best archery experts from Asia (including the Koreans), Europe, the Americas and Oceania. It was a real team effort and I am very proud, as Chairman of this Committee, to have had the collaboration of such excel- lent and energetic contributors to help us create and develop this Manual. Without these incredible contributions, we could never have converted this project into a reality. Basing our work on a Canadian Archery Manual, and after drawing up draft upon draft and incor- porating a great deal of input, we transformed this book into a very practical basic Manual for every archery coach or instructor. With the great help and constant work of Pascal Colmaire in the FITA office, this primary objective of our Coaches' Committee is now a real- ity. I cannot finish this introduction until I have expressed my heartfelt thanks to all the experts and archery friends who have helped us in compiling this Manual. Thanks for the great work done by all the contributors who are identified at the end of this manual. his is, first and foremost, a Manual that covers the basic level of archery. I would has- ten to add that this Manual does not mark the end of our labours. We now have to Tstart working on the second level, and any help will be welcome in order to make this next objective a great success and reality like this the first Manual. I hope to see you somewhere around the world and hear any feedback or suggestions that any of you might have that will help us to develop our wonderful sport of archery, simply the best there is. Best regards and good coaching! Juan Carlos Holgado Chairman The archer s skills each arrow shot. Nevertheless there are several positions and ways to open the bow and release - in Chapter #1 other words "techniques" - that can efficiently be The archer s skill used in archery, because what is important is the quality of the repetition, not the technical choices. 11 Archery consists in propelling arrows with Coaches often begin in helping the archer to devel- accuracy and consistency to the centre of op and repeat a shooting sequence. For this pur- a t arget . According a simplified physical view, pose, this manual describes the most popular tech- we can state that the archer's task is to repeat: niques used - as today - that the coaches will use to build an efficient shooting sequence.