Training Philosophy

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Training Philosophy

Why should we train? Well, we believe the philosophy behind having training and tournaments comes can be summed up by the following four basic reasons;

1. To make our members more proficient with specialised instruction and practice.

2. To give focus to our group events and to give our members goals to work towards.

3. To chart our achievements and take pride in them.

4. Because competition and continued learning can be fun.

Defining the Skills of Our Archers

There are a number of definitive skills our archers have subconsciously learned. We've tried to break them down and define them so that specific training and games can be devised to hone these skills. At this early stage we've called these as Accuracy, Speed, Teamwork, Intensity and Assurance (although we’re sure there are probably more areas that can be identified).

Accuracy

This is an obvious skill and one that everyone strives to hone whenever they pick up a longbow. This skill can be affected by all the other skills multiplied by a factor of a million!

Speed

Speed isn't just restricted to trying to shoot the minimum of 12 arrows in 1 minute, but also ties in the with correct speed to shoot normally. Too quickly and you have no time to aim, too slowly and you muscles tire and aim is lost.

Teamwork

This covers most of our really fun activities and is fairly self explanatory. Teamwork really comes into play when we attempt massed & rolling volleys.

Intensity - Finesse shooting/"power" shooting are taught on the Advanced Course

This covers the more advanced skills of V-draw with slashing release as well as finesse shooting. The V-draw takes a major amount of time and effort to learn, but finesse shooting can be picked up in a matter of minutes.

Finesse shooting is a skill learnt to enable an archer to hunt small bird game such as pheasant and turkey.

The idea is that you want to 'kill' the bird but you don't want to skewer the bird so badly that it's innards contaminate the good meat. You'll be closer to the target (4 metres ~ 12 feet) and you won't be going for a full draw. When done on a boss the idea is not only to hit a specific area for a kill but also to hit softly enough for a 'roaster' rather than a messy 'stew'. A good 'roaster' shot has the arrow just barely sticking in the target. We’ve also devised some targets that hopefully model the damage that can be done to a game bird from a too powerful shot. We’ll be using these whenever possible.

Assurance

For want of a better word we've called this skill Assurance and what the concept basically is can be defined by cool, confidence, composure and the ability to handle pressure.

There's a story about a master archer who was challenged to make an easy shot by a Zen monk. He accepted and of course completed the shot with ease. The Zen monk then took him to a fallen tree which had been placed over a deep chasm and challenged him to stand in the middle of the log and repeat the shot. The master archer failed the easy shot. Why? Because he was thinking more about the chasm than the shot.

Pressure can be good fun. We experience it whenever we play team games; when we're the one who has to shoot gold to win. Doesn't matter that you shot ten bullseyes yesterday in your back garden. The pressure is on you now to shoot the gold and as a consequence your Accuracy will always be effected.

This is the hardest 'skill' to learn and pretty much like archery itself, can only be learnt by doing it over and over again. The more we're exposed to this sort of pressure the more we get used to it and handle it.

And for those who go down the re-enactment route, there can be no bigger pressure than a couple of hundred people wondering if you’re going to complete a shot that they’ve seen done with ease at the cinema!