Information No. 12 from FITA Judges and Coaches Committees

Information No. 12 from FITA Judges and Coaches Committees Lausanne – 10 October 2011   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   12. What to do if the timing display is wrong? At the World Championships in Turin in July 2011 there was a problem where the wrong timing was set for a team shoot-off. The Director of Shooting set 40 seconds which is the time for an individual one-arrow shoot-off instead of 60 seconds for a team shoot-off.       World Archery will of course enhance its procedures and do the maximum to prevent such occurrences to happen again but human error is possible. In this particular case, the matter went to the Jury of Appeal and the Jury decided to organise another shoot-off based on the facts of this particular case. Some people think this was a fair decision and some people disagree. This is however irrelevant since such decision is final and cannot be appealed and, more importantly, cannot be used as jurisprudence for other cases.   While World Archery hopes that you and your athletes are never in such a situation, it is important that you and your athletes know what to do if there is problem with the timing system.   First of all, it is good practice for a coach, the day before the event, to repeat to the athletes the basic rules and to make clear the applicable time limits, including if there is a shoot-off.   As coach it also makes sense to see, as soon as the first athlete has crossed the line, what the time is on the clock which, of course, should be close to the time limit that was intended for that situation. So, if in a team round shoot-off, you should see that there is less than 50 seconds on the clock when the first athlete is on the line, you know something is wrong and you should react.   What should an athlete/coach/team do when there is something wrong with the timing?   a)   If the time setting is wrong:   The athlete/team should stop shooting and immediately inform the judge. The judges will give the athlete/team the relevant time to shoot the arrows that have not been shot.   b)   If the timing display disappears or breaks down:   The athlete/team may stop shooting (and the arrows not shot will be handled as above) or the athlete / team may just finish shooting in their normal rhythm. If there is a stop shooting signal (at the correct time), arrows not shot will be given adequate time to be shot because there was no indication given on timing.   World Archery Communication