School Archery

[The One]

I've been thinking (Yes, really!) about what we need to do to grow archery in Schools in NZ. Of course, the best way to do this is for people who have the time to take after-school archery courses that the students can do as a sport. However, a majority of coaches around the country have 9-5 jobs, so this usually isn't an option.

Recently, a school came to our club looking for a mutual arrangement. We realised that we didn't have the ability to run after-school courses on a regular basis, so instead have been trialling a system which allows them much greater flexibility and self-sufficiency. Essentially, the novices enter through the club like any other member of public. We assess the students - those who have done archery before and are competant can join up as members, those who have done very little or none go through our 4-week novice coaching course. Once the students have joined up as members, they purchase their own equipment - we have arranged a novice package deal with a dealer in Auckland for less than $300.

Thus, the students are free to train at the club whenever they want (we will organise a specific after-school time for them as a formal tranining afternoon), but can also join in the club's weekend activities and junior shoots. As members of ANZ, they can shoot in tournaments as well if they wish. A teacher from the school is quite enthusiastic about the arrangement, and has joined up as a member, is just completing a Basic Instructor coaching qualification, and will be able to run the school's after-school sessions.

We see this as a great relationship between the school and the club, and would like to pursue a similar arrangement with other near-by schools in the future. Are any other clubs doing something similar in NZ?

I will discuss school competitions in a separate thread.

[flyboy_su27]

Very good idea, sounds like you guys have a good arrangement up there. We are thinking of going in and talking to local schools (including mine) in our area. We're just waiting for some beginners gear and then we shall be all sweet. Are you guys looking at developing school teams (like actual serious shooters) or just friendly school vs school kind of novice thing?

[jtimps]

Ideally yes, we would like more to get these school archers involved with ANZ competitions. The philosophy is; that to grow the competition side of archery, we need the numbers at the novice level and once you have this, some will naturally progress to the higher level competition. The larger the base numbers the more who will progres.
We see schools as a very good way to get large numbers of people interested and by getting the schools involved through our club we can gradually introduce them to ANZ competition without any obsticals in their way.

[The One]

Are you guys looking at developing school teams (like actual serious shooters) or just friendly school vs school kind of novice thing?

I'd like to develop a serious competition. The sooner archery gets a serious inter-school competition, more students will get involved. At my old school about 70% of the people who did archery only did it because it didn't involve much physical activity or because they didn't make it into other sporting teams. Not a reputation I want to foster.

[flyboy_su27]

I'd like to develop a serious competition. The sooner archery gets a serious inter-school competition, more students will get involved. At my old school about 70% of the people who did archery only did it because it didn't involve much physical activity or because they didn't make it into other sporting teams. Not a reputation I want to foster.

Yeah, I'd be keen to try and stay away from promoting Archery as an "easy" secondary sport as well. We had a guy from my school who turned up at the club today who had seen an article in the paper and wanted to check it out, its a shame we couldn't have put on some good weather! But if we can get a few more like him who are genuinely interested in the sport then that would be great, and we could even look at setting up a school program...but without the interest then it's not worth it...we even have the perfect gym for indoor training (I'm sure that idea would go down great with the BoT).

[Jay.G]

Yes it has been a rather interesting ride so far and I'm looking forward to whats to come, there'll always be bumps and thumps but something new like this would never be a smooth ride. Guess we kinda improvised, based on a structured path, as we went along.

[mingy]

I would definitely like to get a serious inter-school running...
And I totally agree, Archery takes alot of endurance and mental ability. Well, in my opinion atleast haha.

Jay is trying to get this running already. There is a large amount of interest at my school, but the thing is, there's this one place my school takes coaching, and it's insanely costly, and I definitely feel that puts people off.

cost... TT

[Angelos]

Just wanted to mention that archery is an offical secondary school sport in christchurch. It has roughly 200 students taking part in it each term. Summer terms are run as training and winter terms are competitions. Been going on for almost 6 years in christchurch now. Grows bigger every year!

[gizzy]

Just wanted to mention that archery is an offical secondary school sport in christchurch. It has roughly 200 students taking part in it each term. Summer terms are run as training and winter terms are competitions. Been going on for almost 6 years in christchurch now. Grows bigger every year!

It would be good to get some of these students taking part in the junior postal shoots, they would have to join ANZ
There is a group of juniors from ChristChurch who are going to join into the postal shoots, they are part of aim tru archery.

[Angelos]

It would be good to get some of these students taking part in the junior postal shoots, they would have to join ANZ
There is a group of juniors from ChristChurch who are going to join into the postal shoots, they are part of aim tru archery.


The Inter Secondary School archery is run by AimTru Archery aswell. But the juniors who are joinining are from the Junior competion league, which is kinda seperate. I'm not sure ANZ could handle 200+ Students joining the postal league all in one shot!

[gizzy]

The Inter Secondary School archery is run by AimTru Archery aswell. But the juniors who are joinining are from the Junior competion league, which is kinda seperate. I'm not sure ANZ could handle 200+ Students joining the postal league all in one shot!
I think we could handle it, it would give the junior a better focus there are certificates and pin scores to aim for and they would be shooting against juniors from their age groups.

[The One]

The Inter Secondary School archery is run by AimTru Archery aswell. But the juniors who are joinining are from the Junior competion league, which is kinda seperate. I'm not sure ANZ could handle 200+ Students joining the postal league all in one shot!

Sure they can! Great to know this is happening. One of the schools we are working with in Auckland have been shooting in the JAMA events as part of their training.

[gizzy]

The Inter Secondary School archery is run by AimTru Archery aswell. But the juniors who are joinining are from the Junior competion league, which is kinda seperate. I'm not sure ANZ could handle 200+ Students joining the postal league all in one shot!

Do any of the juniors from the schools move on to shoot at club level with the Christchurch archery club?

[Angelos]

Do any of the juniors from the schools move on to shoot at club level with the Christchurch archery club?

1 has, a second, a left handed shooter (and a very good left handed shooter) tried, but they tried to make him shoot Right Handed which was extremly detrimental to his shooting so he gave up on that idea.

Lets just say that there would be the possiblity for more to do so, but Christchurch Archery Club hasn't been very open minded about partnering with Aimtru so unless something changes there that is unlikely to happen.

[gizzy]

1 has, a second, a left handed shooter (and a very good left handed shooter) tried, but they tried to make him shoot Right Handed which was extremly detrimental to his shooting so he gave up on that idea.

Lets just say that there would be the possiblity for more to do so, but Christchurch Archery Club hasn't been very open minded about partnering with Aimtru so unless something changes there that is unlikely to happen.

Thats a real shame, it would be good to give these archers the opportunity to move up and shoot at club and tournament level.

[Angelos]

It would be good to do so. But luckily the christchurch archery club isn't the only way to do that! Will be interisting to see where things go in regards to the many "unaffiliated" archers within christchurch in the next few years.

[gizzy]

It would be good to do so. But luckily the christchurch archery club isn't the only way to do that! Will be interisting to see where things go in regards to the many "unaffiliated" archers within christchurch in the next few years.
Unfortunately unless someone else runs tournaments etc for them they will loose interest and drift away from the sport

[Angelos]

Unfortunately unless someone else runs tournaments etc for them they will loose interest and drift away from the sport

But there are tournaments that they take part in. Not national, but it's still comeptition and it is the competition that keeps them interisted. I must say it is sad that they do not yet have the oppertunities to compete internationally etc. But in all actuality they probably compete in competitions more regularly than most club members do... just not the same ANZ run comps.

[gizzy]

But there are tournaments that they take part in. Not national, but it's still comeptition and it is the competition that keeps them interisted. I must say it is sad that they do not yet have the oppertunities to compete internationally etc. But in all actuality they probably compete in competitions more regularly than most club members do... just not the same ANZ run comps.
We compete against England in postal shoots evan our unaffiliated archers, however your archers still would benefit from the competition of coming up against the juniors from around the country from the same age group, that way they can gauge how they are shooting, it also gives them the opportunity to qualify for NZ teams such as the Trans tasman

[Angelos]

I totally agree it would be a benifit to them, and in an ideal world they would all be ANZ affiliated and shooting in club compitions. Sadly ideals and reality don't measure up in this world, it would be nice if they did!

[gizzy]

I totally agree it would be a benifit to them, and in an ideal world they would all be ANZ affiliated and shooting in club compitions. Sadly ideals and reality don't measure up in this world, it would be nice if they did!

Sounds like you have had trouble with ANZ in the past.

[Angelos]

ANZ no... only the representation in christchurch. I actually have nothing but great things to say about the ANZ representation in other places (Espically in the shore, Randwick and southland.. all brilliant clubs)

[gizzy]

ANZ no... only the representation in christchurch. I actually have nothing but great things to say about the ANZ representation in other places (Espically in the shore, Randwick and southland.. all brilliant clubs)

Things change in clubs I know a couple who moved from Auckland to Christchurch at the end of last year, they have both been involved in archery for a long time they are now both in the Christchurch club.
You could start a new club, Christchurch would be big enough for two clubs, five years ago there were two clubs in Gisborne one club catered for the juniors and one didn't guess which club is still going.

[Angelos]

the one catering for juniors? They are after all our future and no sport survives without them (besides there the ones that make kickass archers when they hit adulthood). And yeah i totally agree that clubs do change, totally beliving that the CHCH club will get there one day (and it is bit by bit, it's a slow process though)

As for the second archery club in christchurch, the idea has definitly been thrown around, just not sure on how to go about doing that though.

[gizzy]

the one catering for juniors? They are after all our future and no sport survives without them (besides there the ones that make kickass archers when they hit adulthood). And yeah i totally agree that clubs do change, totally beliving that the CHCH club will get there one day (and it is bit by bit, it's a slow process though)

As for the second archery club in christchurch, the idea has definitly been thrown around, just not sure on how to go about doing that though.
If you go into the ANZ website and look up the contacts and contact Dennis McCloud from the Mercury bay club he will be able to help you he has recently started a new club or contact the secretary of ANZ and she may be able to help you.
We are part of the Eastcoast bay of plenty archery association and run postal shoots against the south island archers it is for adults and juniors you dont have to be affiliated to anz but you do have to be affiliated to your regional body so in your case it would be SIDAA

[Angelos]

thanks for the info. Might be worth looking into a little more.

[DerekTheWonderFerret]

Of course, the best way to do this is for people who have the time to take after-school archery courses that the students can do as a sport. However, a majority of coaches around the country have 9-5 jobs, so this usually isn't an option.


Just wanted to mention that archery is an offical secondary school sport in christchurch. It has roughly 200 students taking part in it each term.

It would seem that the best way to make it all work is to get as many TEACHERS enthusiastic about high quality archery as possible, thereby providing the means to take advantage of what is clearly a great oportunity. I don't know of any schools in Australia (certainly not South Australa anyway) where there is that accessibiliity to kids as part of the legitimate sports education system. The danger obviously is that it becomes just a token soft sports option for those children who don't like running, and that the schools aren't well prepared in terms of coaching experience.

If you don't have people able to spare the time to go into schools during lesson times I'd be offering the teachers involved in the school programs free coaching, club memberships, coaching training etc. to encourage them to promote the sport through their own enthusiasm, and to grow a wider, stronger base of junior archers.

Well done on getting it this far. I can only imagine how much work, promotion and lobbying you have had to do to get it to this point.

[Pianochick]

My school only has archery as an optional part of the PE class. By optional it means that we only do it if enough kids in the class vote for it. I seem to get stuck in the classes that never want to do archery...

But you only get about 3 shots in a lesson each because they spend so long taking out the targets, the arrows are crap and the bows even more so.

I'd love it if our school had a better archery program, but they don't.

The good thing is that we now have 4 archers from my school doing it at AAC, and next year my sister and someone else's brother are going to be at my school as well.

I don't think it will change anything though.

[The One]

It would seem that the best way to make it all work is to get as many TEACHERS enthusiastic about high quality archery as possible,

Yes, this is very important.

[Angelos]

It would seem that the best way to make it all work is to get as many TEACHERS enthusiastic about high quality archery as possible, thereby providing the means to take advantage of what is clearly a great oportunity.

THat is true, teacher support is definitely an asset. But you know what the greatest asset is? Finding a few kids from the schools (or parents) who are totally sold on archery and who will go and lobby the school to get it to be a school activity. Most of the growth in secondary school archery in christchurch has been as a result of that. The parents and Kids who are passionate about archery are invaluable for your cause, and they are the ones that are going have the greatest effect on getting the school to make the archery i schools happen.

[Rachel Coghlan]

I don't know of any schools in Australia (certainly not South Australa anyway) where there is that accessibiliity to kids as part of the legitimate sports education system.

Sorry to tell you this isn't true. The school I work at Investigator College, Goolwa South Australia is an archery specialist school.

Pat goes in and helps coach the year 12 PE students as a part of their YEAR 12 marks. A good 90% of them get A's for that section because .... hell ... they've got Pat "The Animal" Coghlan coaching them with his coach (Pete Daish) teaching them.

I also keep telling people, if other school's have programs, I'm sure someone would be very happy in organising an interschool competition!

[Coghlan]

Peter Daish is the Head of PE at Investigator College Goolwa. As far as I know this is considered a Specialist Archery School, within South Australia. Archery is taught from year 7 up, and yes they have excellent results in the Yr 12 programme. They have a full indoor facilty 9 Targets DANAGE, and 3 outdoor Targets where they can shoot up to 90m. Pete puts in lots of time here teaching students and staff. I put in time when I can which has not been that much over the last year, I wish I could dedicate more time to them. Yes he (Peter) has also assisted me as my coach for many years and is an excellent motivator and a great friend, he also supports my family whilst I am away for which I am considerably greatful.