Dear Lovely Archers

As you know, we've been working hard behind the scenes to find a shooting venue for us all for the forthcoming Winter Season. We have now managed that and have agreed to use Easton and Otley Agricultural College at Easton. We recognise that this is a bit of a trek for some of our archers and we apologise for any inconvenience that may cause you.

We have agreed with them that we will shoot there on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 18:00 and Saturday afternoons from 13:30. They have accommodated our requests moved customers around a little but we have had to also make some adjustments in order to fit the timings for each partner.

The cost of the venue is several times more than what we hve been paying at Wymondham High Academy (WHA). But, We Will Not Be Passing This Cost On To Our Archers. We are working hard to ensure that the fee you pay is the fee for the year. We are running a number of Have a Go's that so many of you have suggested we do to make the club affordable. We encourage you to take part and support your club by clicking on the link at the bottom of this blog. We are still attempting to liaise with WHA but we are struggling to get a response. As ever, we will continue to be tenacious in our efforts.

And, the venue we've secured for our club means that our store can be moved over to the college and we have a future. For me as Chair, I can now sleep at night in the knowledge that we have somewhere to shoot for our Winter Season. If you would like to discuss please email me. Click Here

Wymondham Archers Have Organised A Whisky Tour At English Whisky Roudham, Norfolk 30th June 2019 From 13:30 - 14:30

THIS TOUR IS OPEN TO MEMBERS AND NON MEMBERS OF WYMONDHAM ARCHERS - FELLOW CLUB MEMBERS READING THIS, PLEASE EMAIL ME FOR DETAILS

The English Whisky Company, NR16 2QW, is pleased to offer Wymondham Archers a special group tour of the Distillery, to include Tastings as follows:

Date and Time: Sunday 30th June 1330 - 1430 All participating must be ready to start the tour at the Distillery no later than 13:10 hours, as this special tour is interleaved between the normal tours (which start on the hour), and timings are very tight. Tastings may continue beyond 1430.

Discounted Cost: £10 per head (normal charge is £12.50) which includes a £5 voucher redeemable against £30 purchase of English Whisky products.

Numbers: Numbers are limited to an absolute maximum of 24 - first come, first served. If demand exceeds this, a further tour can be run at a later date.

Booking: A sign-up sheet held by Pete Hill. He will add your name as soon as payment is received via transfer of your fee to the Wymondham Archers Account. Please pay your £10 per person; annotated EWC with your name and numbers attending for example (EWC Hill 2), this would total £20 for two people.

Please pay... Wymondham Archers 2, Account No. 40391328, Sort Code 20-45-45

Places will only be guaranteed upon prior payment.

Tastings: Tastings are part of the tour. Those intending to enjoy them should ensure they make suitable arrangements for the return drive home.

Tour Guide: Your Tour Guide will be Mark Rundle, one of our Archers.

Lunch: Lunch at the Distillery restaurant is available, but is not a part of the organised tour, and should be arranged and paid for by individuals. If enough members indicate they wish to eat at the Distillery beforehand, it may be possible to arrange reserved seating together, but Sunday is a busy lunch meal, and it is strongly advised that the meal is ordered no later than 1145, if the 1310 tour assembly time is to be achieved. Unfortunately the start of the tour cannot be delayed for latecomers.

We encourage friends and family to come along with you to enjoy this wonderful space, the whisky and an opportunity to share another experience with friends.

You may wish to view the EWC website by Clicking here.

If you would like email the Chair about this please Click Here

We look forward to receiving your bookings.

St. Georges Distillery Harling Road Roudham Norfolk NR16 2QW,

One of our newest archers approached me this week and asked about what progression systems we use, how they go about getting more support in terms of coaching and what can they do to progress in their own right. Here's the response I sent that I've added here for us all to see as it may be useful for others' also.

Achievement is what gets us up in the morning. We have so many ways that our archers can achieve. I’ll list a few here.

252 scheme - In the summer we offer the 252 scheme. It is a progression process where you shoot 3 dozen arrows at say, 20 yards (we only offer yards for this award) and as it’s 5 zone scoring, you will hit either 9,7,5,3 or 1. What you need to do is score, with a partner who verifies the scores (and the score sheets can be found on our website for you to print off), when at the end of the 36 arrows you will need to have achieved more than 252 points. The maximum you can achieve is 324. When you have hit the minimum twice on two separate days, you can claim the distance and get a 252 badge for that distance.

Classifications - Outdoors. If you do a series of registered ‘Rounds’ again with a co scorer, you can get to be recognised with a classification. These are Archery GB classifications rather than club and are awarded at the end of the season for outdoors. The classifications are 3rd, 2nd and 1st class bowman (sexist I know). And then if you really up your game you can get classifications of Bowman, Master Bowman and Grand Master Bowman.

Classifications - Indoors. We have a similar scheme for the indoors but you receive a letter. For example I am a C classed archer indoors, we have a number of all the letters but nobody currently has an A classification.

Tournaments - Summer and Winter. These are great fun and I encourage you to take part. They can be hilarious, serious and all the senses in between. Your gauge on improvement is simply the increasing averages of scores over the years.

Portsmouth Badges - Indoors. A regular ‘Round’ completed indoors is the Portsmouth Round. We could, if we were awesome, score 600 points on this round. The world record I understand is something like 600 but an Olympic archer would like to achieve a 595-600. The rest of us mere mortals are happy with anything from 300 to 580. We have members in our club that have scored up to the higher numbers. Again, the scores tell the tale. But the whole process can be incredibly repetitive and sometimes even boring. But, if you persevere you will gain the upper hand on the averages.

Averages - Always. Some of our archers are very good at collecting scores all the time. It is quite good practice, if you are able to take the bad days as well as the good. One or two of our ladies in particular are really good at this and as I take a light but keen interest in the overall performance of our archers, I can verify that it seems to be working. As I said during your initial beginners course, it really is a marathon, rather than a sprint.

Vince Lombardi is attributed to saying, "It isn't practice that makes perfect, it's perfect practice that makes perfect. One of the not so recognised blessings in archery is that we are, pretty much all the time, navel gazing. We care a lot about how we are performing. But the target, the gold, plays very little part in you getting great scores, or performing particularly well. It just collects the arrows for you, if you're lucky enough to hit it. But, what works well, is consistent practice; focusing on the little things, things like your grip of the bow (don't grip the bow - get those fingers out of the way... find a way to do this). Getting inside the bow, you will have heard me say this so many times. And it's a strange term because if you got inside the bow, it would smart a bit when you released the string. No, getting inside the bow is about alignment. From the hand that is in contact with the bow, there should be good (straight-ish) alignment through the wrist, the front shoulder, the back and the string arm. The whole forms a neat triangle once the rear elbow is taken into account along with the forearm of the string hand that links back to the string. Triangles are very stable structures, so if you can make one with your body you will provide the platform for a strong shot. And then we have to add the position of your head in trying to ensure that it remains level each time you bring the string back to it. There are heaps of issues that archers have and we can support you through the entire process.

Getting Social More than anything else in the sport, there is opportunity to talk things over with fellow archers. As you have found out, we are very sociable and we recognise that our archers come to the club for more reasons that simply to shoot their bows.

Coaching Styles When we talked over etiquette you will have noticed that there is some emphasis on leaving the archer alone to do what they wish to. This can get in the way for a coach sometimes as we don’t really want to butt in to something you are doing. So, we generally stay back once you are trained. However, we do encourage you to ask. Ask about yoru bow, your form, your arrows, Tournaments; whatever you you need - it'll help your shooting no end. We have found that for those who ask, a better future in archery is found. So, please continue to ask.

Getting clarification and how we work together as coaches We can offer you direction, but sometimes that direction may seem a little confusing - if you need clarification, again, please ask. Also, we work hard to find consensus amongst our coaches and the direction we offer. If you find contradictions please inform the coach and anyone on the coaching team. We are quite resilient and not at all prissy about what we know. As far as I’m concerned (yes, me Pete), I’m an idiot, who works hard at trying to get things right. We ask other coaches, We confer and we listen to you, the archer.

I haven’t talked about bow set up here. There’s heaps to learn about this also.

As I say... Keep asking.

We have a heap of Have a Go's coming up for the benefit of the club. Please take a look at the link here and let me know you would like to take part. We need you very much to support the club. Only through doing these have a go's can we actually afford to make the club work for us. They are great fun too and you will directly be helping your leisure time, your recreation and your sport succeed. Please help us. Click here to view the dates then email us by Clicking Here

Cheers and Happy Shooting.

Pete,