10 November 2011 - From the second day of the World Archery Coaching Seminar

From the second day of the World Archery Coaching Seminar London (GBR) – 10 November 2011  Tim SWANE, Archery BG Coaches Committee started the second day of the 5th World Archery Coaching Seminar taking place in London with an overview of Coach Education in Archery GB. A U.K. government initiative is in place to develop coach education, based on principles of long term athlete development (LTAD), in order to facilitate the transfer for coaches to different sports. He described the progress made by Archery GB to date, revising old courses which had become outdated.   Helen GEORGE, Archery GB Senior Coach, gave a short presentation to raise awareness of the impact of visual impairment (VI). She covered the different VI classifications, common eye defects and practical issues. Simulation spectacles were available for people to try. In addition to Helen’s presentation, instructions for settling up a tactile sight will be available on the World Archery website soon.   The third presentation was given by Tim HAZELL, Archery GB Para-Olympic Head Coach assisted by Helen GEORGE, Archery GB Senior Coach and Pippa BRITTON, Elite Para Archer. They talked about the disabled archery compared to able archers’ techniques. The personal testimony from Pippa BRITTON who is also a Para-Olympic medallist, made it exceptionally interesting. The ultimate message was that coaches need to think outside the box and adapt their techniques, equipment and training to suit the capability of archers with varieties of disability. A forthcoming publication on Archery GB Paralympic archers’ experiences will be available soon by Archery GB.   In the afternoon, Chris JONES and Mike HOUGHTON from Merlin Archery did a great double act on the compound bow design process, the history of archery and the complexity of a compound bow.   The day ended with the presentations of Ruddy FARQUHARSON and Olivier LOGAN from the English Institute of Sport. FARQUHARSON (photo) spoke about the fitness and conditioning for archery. He works with Archery GB national team, designing individual strength and conditioning programmes in co-operation with the archers and their coaches, in order to get the best performance for them. Olivier presented the biomechanics of archery with a selection of photos and video clips. His topic linked well with the presentations given by Ken BEARMAN and Llyod BROWN on the previous day.   Overall this was another very informative day for the participants. Photos   Carol BYDE, Archery GB Senior Coach World Archery Development Department