I hope you are all enjoying the summer. Traditionally, reports are written for AGM’s, but
as some of you already know, I’m not a fan of following tradition blindly, so I’m writing
this ‘mid-term report’ now, partly to let you all know what’s happening, and partly to ask
for your help and advice.
Competition
Earlier this year I ran an indoor “Inter-Club Challenge” along similar lines to various other
postal leagues. I got a lot of good feedback from those who took part, but I would love to
know what could be done to improve it for next indoor season, and for those who didn’t
take part: why not? (Wrong format, bad timing, poor communication, etc.)
As I write this, the Pentangle has just completed. For those that don’t know about it, this
is an annual outdoor competition between the three Scottish Areas, and the two
northernmost English Areas, that rotates location, and this year is in Glasgow. We were
able to send full Recurve teams, both Ladies & Gents, plus partial Longbow and
Compound teams, and in the words of the Team Captain (Joan Smith) “the East Area did
very well at what turned out to be a Triangle rather than a Pentangle”. There are various
photos on Facebook, and a note of the results as we know them – congratulations to all,
if only for surviving the mud!
I know that there are loads of competitive archers out there, so would love to know how
we can improve participation next year. I have broad shoulders (metaphorically speaking)
so don’t worry about whether your feedback is positive or not! You can follow the
activities of the area on Facebook (and send direct messages if you want) and/or email
me directly on eastofscotland.president@gmail.com or anything for the committee as a
whole should be sent to: eastofscotlandarchery@gmail.com
Archers from the Area have also attended a number of high-profile events this summer. I
don’t have official results for everything, and don’t want to miss anyone out, so I will just
say well done to all of you.
For a little while now, the Area has had an official polo-neck shirt. These are good quality,
but fairly expensive, and have quite a long delivery time, which makes it difficult for the
committee to organise. Therefore for the Pentangle we are trialling a much cheaper Tshirt from a quicker alternative supplier – we would welcome any comments on this, and
particularly any suggestions for a future supplier, (particularly those that do a ‘Print on
demand’ service) from any clubs who have looked into custom clothing recently. If you
look on Facebook you should be able to find a post showing three of the Pentangle team
modelling these T-Shirts.
Coaching
When I took on this job, I rather expected to be inundated with opinions about coaching,
but instead the silence has been deafening. Everyone in archery needs a little coaching
from time to time, though everyone has different needs. Maybe the silence is because
everyone is happy, but if not get in touch and let us know what you would like the Area
to provide – we have rather limited funds, but whatever level you are at, we are here to
help.
We are also able to help if you wish to learn more about coaching, as a ‘Leader’, as a
Level One Coach, or above.
Squads
On a very similar note, we would like to get back to having a semi-permanent squad of
archers (both Junior and Adult) who are ready, able and willing to compete in events like
the Pentangle and the AGB County Team Champs. It would also be good if someone
would be willing to step forward and act as Manager, whether that is someone within
the squad, a non-shooting partner, or best of all a coach.
Two of the three biggest problems with running a squad in the past has been the cost of
hall-hire; and travel difficulties. To that end we would like to investigate the possibility of
running things a little differently, with more emphasis on making use of ‘normal’ club
sessions, and a ‘mobile’ coaching team, so again we would welcome as many comments
as you can write.
Coaching Pt.2
My entire committee attended a conference with SAA recently, in which coaching was
discussed, (amongst many other things,) and while nothing concrete has been agreed,
we would love to hear from any coaches who would be willing to visit clubs in their local
area (or beyond) to carry out ‘coaching for hire’.
Regards,
Mike Brockington
President, East of Scotland Archery – “The Eastern Area”
eastofscotland.president@gmail.com
