PREECEVILE — The coaches from Sturgis Archery Club hosted an Introduction to Archery Workshop at the Endeavour archery range. There were two classes, each 90 minutes long; one in the morning and one after lunch. A total of six children and one adult attended.
Although the Sept. 30 workshop was advertised through the club’s Facebook page, posters, and online messenger, people heard about it mainly through word of mouth. One family stated that they heard about it from a past season’s club member.
Most of the members are from Preeceville, Sturgis, and Endeavour areas. Some are from Norquay, Hyas, and Stenen.
“This year they have members joining from as far as Kelvington, Hudson Bay, and Pelly. Archery is a sport that is once again growing in popularity,” stated Linda Westermann, one of the coaches.
The workshop started with figuring out each archer’s eye dominance and understanding how important it is to aim with the dominant eye.
Coach Westermann admitted, “It is especially challenging for those who are left eye dominant and shoot right handed. These archers who shoot ‘cross dominant’ have to learn to close their non-shooting eye. Adult archers sometimes have to wear an eye patch in order to get good aim. When starting out, I try to encourage them to learn to shoot according to eye dominance rather than hand dominance. Some times it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” said Westermann.
Once they get the eye dominance figured out; with bows in hands, fortified with arm protectors and finger gloves, they headed out onto the range. They were then given the rundown on rules. The three main rules of archery are: number one, safety; number two, have fun, and number three, safety.
Westermann stated that: “Our first focus is safety. This time around, the most challenging rule to follow was no running on the range. The second hardest rule was to always point the arrow in a safe direction down range. Some kids have a harder time remembering and following the rules than others, but all of them soon picked it up. It is encouraging to see that they remind each other of the rules.”
Then came warm-ups and techniques of archery. “I am constantly learning better methods of teaching,” said Westermann. “On a suggestion from my coach mentor, we used stretch bands to go through the points of archery. Most of the 11 basic points of archery can be practiced with a stretch band and without a bow in hand. The 11 points of archery are: stance, knock the arrow, finger placement, bow hand placement, raise the bow, draw, anchor, hold, aim, release and follow through. The more consistently repeated each of the points are, the more accurate the arrow flies. The trainees tried shooting the stretch bands toward the targets and for 15 minutes, with proper archery technique, they tried getting those bands to fly farther and farther each time.
“We reminded them of the rules and the whistle prompts and let them pick up the bows,” continued Westermann. On the signal of two whistle blasts, they stepped up to the shooting line to get ready. Once they heard the single whistle blast, the eager young archers were finally allowed to load the arrows onto the bows and shoot them toward the targets. On the first flight, almost every arrow missed the target. By the last flight, some arrows were more on target than others but most hit or nearly hit the target buttrices.”
At the end of workshop, when shooters were asked if they liked archery, there was a resounding “yes.” When asked if they want to come back, there was an even more enthusiastic “yes.” The question from most of the archers was, “How soon can we start weekly archery?”
On reflection, Westermann said, “We like the intro workshops because we get to know the archers and their parents. We have more time with the archers and learn about them, their ability and skill level. The children and adults get to try the sport with no expectation of commitment. Archery is not for everyone or sometimes it is not the right time for archery for that person. I respect that and I commend both youth and adults for trying something new. “
Regular weekly archery is held in Sturgis School on Monday evenings beginning Oct. 16 or in the Endeavour former Curling Rink on Saturdays beginning Oct. 14, and ends in April in both locations. Westermann is looking forward to “coaching a great group of kids and shooting with a great group of adults.”
