Information No. 5 from FITA Judges and Coaches Committees

Information No. 5 from FITA Judges and Coaches Committees Lausanne – 19 August 2010   Information to Coaches In 2009 there were many competitions where archers were either confused or just did not know the rules or regulations currently in place. This resulted in many delays being encountered during competitions which caused frustration to the competitors and organisers alike. Because of this the FITA Judges and Coaches Committees have agreed it would be useful to introduce some  "drops" on issues concerning coaches, procedures and rules, and make judges procedures understandable to them, and not least, so the coaches know what to expect from the judges. Ken BEARMAN, FITA Coaches Committee Chairman   We hereby intend to start a series of small inputs in order to be helpful to coaches and enhance their knowledge on rules and procedures to avoid extraordinary stress on their archers. We are of course also open to questions that might be asked. Morten B. WILMANN, FITA Judges Committee Chairman   5. Illegal Shooting Techniques Over the last two years many archers have been told to change their pulling technique due to safety. Mostly it concerns compound archers, for two main reasons. Some of them have bows that are too hard for them to pull over the peak weight, so much so, that they use too much energy to be able to concentrate on the direction of the arrow. This heavy peak weight may cause them some injury. Secondly, if the release "goes off" the shot cannot be stopped and the arrow may travel a great distance and land in an area that is dangerous to other people or animals etcetera.   The coaches have a responsibility to see that the bows are pulled so that, if the release activates, the arrow will not fly any higher than the top of the target. This is a technique that has to be trained from the very beginning not at a championship tournament. This may require the peak weight to be set so that is comfortable and manageable by the archer.   The judges will of course look at the direction of the arrow when the full energy is in the bow, and they are not concerned about the direction of the arrow before that point. I.e. many archers lift their bow arm before pulling the bow in order to put their bow arm shoulder correctly into place.   Sometimes archers/coaches may refer to other events where they have not been told to adjust their pulling angle, but that might be because the judges are considering the total possibility of danger, and that may vary due to the background of the targets.   Another issue is the bows that have a built in brace on the bow hand side of the riser, some of them very close to the bow hand due to the archer’s shooting technique. One should be aware that the bow hand cannot regularly touch this brace, and thus give a kind of "stabilisation against torque". The judges will study this carefully during shooting, and will judge according to their opinion.   The same goes for compound bows that are fitted with split cables, i.e. shoot through cables. These cables must not regularly touch the bow arm although fewer archers are using this type of set-up nowadays.   From a coaching point of view it is essential to create a shooting technique that is safe and never needs to be adjusted, especially when it is least convenient, such as at world championship tournaments.   World Archery Communication