Archery Development

reproduced by kind permission of John Willson

Is your club thriving? How often do you have new members? Are you looking to develop your club? If you would like to be part of this new initiative being set up to promote sports in specialised colleges in the U K then here is the opportunity to do so.

As part of the governments sports development programme sixty colleges have been given sports status. This means that they have agreed to meet a drawn up and agreed syllabus where they will be monitored to meet those targets. As archery is a minor sport, but has the advantage of being assessable to all people to compete on equal terms, it is one that is put high on the list for development.

Large amounts of funding are being made available and all of the colleges are keen to make it happen. No you will not have to sell them the idea that has already been done. For the past Three years Rayleigh Town Archery Club have been working along side the colleges preparing the way, developing the schemes of work. At the same time S.C.A.S has been preparing their own development plan, which supports this programme, and views it as a way forward for the future of archery. Discussions are also taking place with G.N.A.S on the best ways to launch, and manage the project.

It therefore is important that the launch of this project be well documented, organised, and promoted, to ensure that our sport is taken to these colleges in a professional manner. It will mean a lot of hard work, but the rewards will be great. Time required will vary, two sessions for Juniors and one Adult, all out of school hours, in return club shooting facilities will be offered Free. The main focus being, sport is promoted into the community, which is the objective of this project, and it is this, the sports council will be monitoring very closely.

This is what has happened to our club, Rayleigh Town Archery Club, during the last 3 years along the route.

The club has gone from strength to strength and has supported the school at various events.

· School open days, when the school is open for parents to view the facilities, before making a decision to send their child to the school.

· School holiday clubs, during the summer holidays we support by giving lessons to children over a three-day period.

· P.T.A. days, parents come and participate in all the sports the school provides.

· Festival of Sport days, year six children from local feeder school visit the school prior to joining, and sample the sports they will be taught.

· Sport for all days, year 7 are given the opportunity to come and have a go, this is a great recruiting opportunity

· At special inspection days, when local council officers, education inspectors, or even the sports minister come to inspect the progress of the scheme.

Recruitment

This is supported by the school teaching staff, who visit local schools and tell them of the sports opportunities at the school, archery is included, Children come on a ten week course and if they enjoy it, they can enrol on a more permanent basis.

· We now have a junior group which numbers over 60 children, and run five separate classes a week.

· Thirty of these have wanted to know more, and joined the club.

· The adult classes have grown, parents are wishing to compete with their children, and have come also for training.

· We have developed an archery squad, and are teaching them nutrition, healthy eating and advanced archery techniques, to add to their skills.

· The school is supporting us by purchasing various new equipment. which is urgently required for the large numbers new pupils.

· We have a waiting list of children wanting to come and join the sessions.

· We have organised for the past 2 years, a 24hour "Shoot Over". This was for two purposes,

1. Create interest,

2. Fun,

3. Raise money.

· The school supports us with the loan of the mini bus; this enables us to take the children to various competitions.

· The club has used the school for its own archery tournament, this has been held for two years and has attracted over 200 archers from around the county.

· The county archery association has also used the venue to host an Inter County Indoor Tournament.

· We have run an Archery leaders sports award course, for The Grand National Archery Association, Twelve people attended, and twelve people passed the examination. Five of which came from our club. We need these people to train the large numbers of people attending the session

This chart demonstrates the growth of the Rayleigh Town Archery Club over the past 6 years, and the % of recruitment generated from The Deanes Sports College.

Performance levels

These are rising, and we have achieved.

· 1999 3rd place British Schools Indoor Championships.

· 1999 winners of the Don Stamp Memorial Trophy. This trophy is awarded to the school who has gained the most number of A.S.S proficiency badges in one year.

· 2000 winners British Schools Indoor Championships

· 2000 winners of the Don Stamp Memorial Trophy

· 2001 winners British Schools Indoor Championships

· 2001 winners of the Don Stamp Memorial Trophy.

John Willson  - Coach

If you would like to be considered to be selected as one of the chosen clubs,

to promote this venture would you please submit a completed application form.

right click below and Save Target As to your desktop.

(Clicking on the link will open your Acrobat Reader and open the file - not always ideal !)

Archery development in Sports Colleges PDF Format application form

Any problems then please  email me