4 Sept 2024
By Duncan McEwan, Coach on Level 3 Course
Reflection of weekend
Saturday 31st August
The weekend opened with a short classroom session (which was the only “non range” activity of the weekend). Introductions from Lloyd Brown and Duncan Busby (who was there for the compound side). Introductions and overview from each coach present and then Lloyd gave an overview of the weekend.
In the sports hall (range) we started working with our archers and for recurve, Lloyd stressed the importance of good form and mentioned that you almost had to redo everything in order to make sure that an archer had no bad form habits. We had some discussion on the use of stretch bands as part of the drills and skills and relocated to the dance studio next door, so that the archers could be coached – and also see themselves in the mirrors. This method highlighted some form issues that had been pointed out to one of the archers – being able to see for themselves put a totally different perspective on it, rather than just having a coach say something.
Afterwards, we used a projector with a camera pointing at the archer, with a large sheet of paper tacked to a target boss as a screen. This meant that the archer could see themselves on the “screen” and could see effects of various coaching advice in real time. Crucially, this also allowed archers to execute their shot and see that in real time, despite it being strange because it was like you were shooting at yourself!!
The next part that Lloyd did a demo of was using a compound wrist release with a recurve. One of the recurve archers was having difficulty with a clean release, with the release hand kept tight to the face/neck on the way back. The archer put on the wrist release and it was clipped onto the string and the archer was told to draw to anchor (no hand on the string – only the release id hook). The archer was aske to focus on the aim and expansion part and then Lloyd triggered the release and the archers draw hand shot back, following the neck line perfectly. This was shown multiple times and importantly, the archer could feel what a “good release” would be like and then they could transition this to their normal shooting.
The afternoon (for me) was more focussed on compound as we had some archers in for those sessions. Duncan Busby did some work with two archers - one of them had bad timing issues on their bow and Duncan explained the process of how to adjust that and why we would adjust in a particular way. We had an opportunity to see for ourselves that the bow timing was perfect after adjustment. The other archer had some adjustments to make to their release aid, which gave good exposure to myself and the other compound coaches on how to optimise a resistance style release aid. I was then able to work with one of my archers to resolve some form issues, which were firstly linked to their draw length being too short. We increased the draw length by 0.5” and then worked on the transition from draw, to anchor, to preparing to execute the shot, to execute the shot, as initially the process was quite slow and often seemed a struggle. After the adjustment to draw length, the process seemed that little bit easier.
Sunday 1st September
On Sunday, most of the day was spent focussing on compound, with some shorter sessions with Lloyd going over various points that applied to compound as well as recurve.
Again, I was able to work with one of my archers and having review prior video shots taken, I realised that his form was quite bad (draw shoulder was a lot out of alignment and there was no straight lines over both shoulders. Similar to the previous archer I worked with, this one had their draw length increased from 27” to 28.3”. This massively improved the archer’s form, allowing the draw elbow to rotate much further round and bring the shoulders into a much straight alignment. Work was also done to move the archer from a wrist release to a Resistance release. Lastly, it was noted that the archer also seemed to have “semi floating” contact with the release hand and the face. This issue was remediated by shortening the archer’s d-loop from 20mm to 16.5mm. This was enough to bring in the face contact to an acceptable.
The afternoon gave the opportunity to work with another compound archer, who again needed timing adjustments on this bow.
The remainder of the session was spent discussing compound specific details, including having a chat about what areas to see in the equipment sessions planned for September 21st / 22nd .
Key points
A great weekend with very useful coaching tips for both recurve and compound.
Good confidence booster when we were working with our archers and could see improvements already with our coaching advice taken on board.
Using the wrist release aid on the recurve bow was particularly awesome. I will be adding that to my coaches “bag of tricks”!
Gained an understanding that with recurve, it is very form based. Basic first step is to make the form right
With compound, the first thing to get right is the equipment – as (for example) a bow with the wrong draw length set can hugely impact an archer’s form. When the kit basics are right, then you can review other things.
Looking forward to the equipment session towards the end of September.
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Thanks Duncan McEwan for putting this detailed and interesting report together - it sounds like lots of learning and discussions took place and all round a great weekend.
Scottish Archery would like to thank the volunteers from The Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers who supported with the venue, set up and tidy up over the weekend and to all the archers who gave up their time to come along to support the development of coaches. We also appreciate Bill Mackay one of our more experienced Coach Developers was their observing the weekend and enhancing his own learning. Also thanks to ArcheryGB team of Lloyd Brown and Duncan Busby who came up to deliver this weekend in Scotland and look forward to having them return on 21st & 22nd September for Equipment Weekend.
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