All of our sessions are supported by one or more coaches who are trained in to help you make the most of your archery sessions. Whether you want a bit of general advice about your technique, guidance on equipment tuning or are after something more specific, our coaches are ready and willing to help.
If you are not sure who is a coach, speak to the Field Captain who will be able to identify someone who can support you.
If you require some more formal intervention, speak to Dan or Steph who will be able to give you more information about how to access this support.
We run regular adult only and junior only coaching sessions to work on technique, shot routines and offer advice as well as offering a range of workshops throughout the year.
Our Current Active Coaches are:
Head Adult Coach Dan Gill
Head Junior Coach – Steph Gill
County Coaches – Andy Cramb
Level 2 Coaches – Roger Crang, Vanessa Crang, Dan Gill, Steph Gill, Peter Pawley & Graham Peters.
Level 1 Coaches – Caroline A’Bear, Christine Anderton, Anthony Booth, Michelle Denning, Julian Kellett, Graham Kent, Martin McKay, Kieran Macey, Jim Rowley, Peter Sisson, Tony Summers, Bob Worcester, Kevin Macey, Emily Summers. We also have others waiting to complete the training programme.
We also engage coaches from other club’s when running county workshops for juniors and other special events.
The level of commitment of our coaches is so high that many people believe they must be being paid for the services they provide to club members. In fact, as a consequence of the time they commit to the club, they are all probably well out of pocket. None of them even claim legitimate expenses!
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Are you interested in becoming a coach?
We generally host at least one Level 1 Coaching Course every year. We support our perspective coaches with much of the course costs either direct from the coaching budget or through external funding/grants. We also support coach development costs and help towards coaching kit.
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Coach Development
As a club we are committed to supporting the development of all our volunteers. We run numerous development workshops, subsidise further training, contribute financially towards kit, have regular coach team meetings and most importantly run many events to practice coaching. We are not talking opportunities for a few hours per week, often in excess of 20 hours per week. Mentoring, group and individual, recreational, beginners, improvers, performance etc.
There are some fundamental principles that influence the basis of the manner in which the club supports coach development;
- All members that are seeking to develop to their full potential, regardless of what level that potential is, should be supported to do so.
- Coaching is about the whole individual not just about technical excellence.
- Our coaches are volunteers and we should respect the levels of commitment and their areas of coaching interest, they are able to commit to any given time.
- ‘Hands on experience’ is crucial to the development of any coach, as a big club and with such a high number of practice sessions, this has to be a real bonus for the development of our coaches!
- Engaging parents in the coaching process from the first day of a beginners course is essential.
- All ages and bow types should be supported.
- If we do not have the required expertise/capacity, we should find it and find the most cost effective way to access it.
- The club should seek to provide appropriate workshops, training sessions, CPD programmes etc and where possible fund those programmes.
- Where a coaching requirement exists that we cannot support in house we should actively seek to find the best provider and signpost the solution to the individual.
- We should ensure our coaching practices are consistent with those being taught by Archery GB.
- We should recognize that we have a role to play in the wider Archery Community and where appropriate seek to do so.
- Where the opportunities exist we should actively seek to apply for grants and to gain recognition for the fantastic work our coaches do.
- We should conduct a ‘Coaching Satisfaction Survey’ of members on an annual basis.