6 Jul 2026
By Bill Mackay, Scottish National Head Coach
The planned weather turned up, and it was warm and sunny all day. The schedule was well produced, with Learning having fun. It was a short day 10.00am till 2.00pm. We had 20 archers attend with lots of support from parents and families staying to watch and observe the session.
At the start of the day, we had a great warm-up with our Youth Panel taking the lead and introducing many new ways to warm up our archery muscles. Huge thanks to Kristin, Abigail, Olivia and Laura.
Moving on to the shooting with our Coaches observing and working with everyone. We had a lot of experienced coaches and archers, Iain Wilson, Maya Clayton, Mirren Yule and Gilbert Jamieson. They ensured that an enjoyable learning atmosphere lasted all day. We moved on to a game that involved shooting at a flower made from folding paper plates. This game involved aiming at different parts of the target and hitting your opponent's plate while having to shoot your own target to revive it when your teammates shot your plate.
Next was some team shooting in teams of 3, with archers having to work out what was required, how to shoot and encourage their team to be more focused on the round. This also included learning when and where to be during each end. Lots of good shooting and team building happening. Again, we had lots of help from our Youth Panel members here.
During lunch, we had a discussion on how the team round went and a recap of the morning session. This was more shooting, but also trying out some suggestions from our Coaches. All too quickly, we only had 15 minutes left. Balbardie Archers’ members were fabulous, and we overran our time, but the club welcomed us to stay and shoot if we wished to. We rounded off the day with a group task, with archers asking each other what one thing they are taking away from today. Lots of great statements from the archers. Having fun learning was a statement to remember.
A massive thanks to the Balbardie Archers for the setup and lining for team head-to-heads. Also for staying and helping out with the archers. My thanks to all the parents/panel members, and coaches who were involved. It just would not happen without you