Information No. 6 from FITA Judges and Coaches Committees

Lausanne – 23 August 2010

Information to Coaches

In 2009 there were many competitions where archers were either confused or just did not know the rules or regulations currently in place. This resulted in many delays being encountered during competitions which caused frustration to the competitors and organisers alike. Because of this the FITA Judges and Coaches Committees have agreed it would be useful to introduce some  “drops” on issues concerning coaches, procedures and rules, and make judges procedures understandable to them, and not least, so the coaches know what to expect from the judges.

Ken BEARMAN, FITA Coaches Committee Chairman

We hereby intend to start a series of small inputs in order to be helpful to coaches and enhance their knowledge on rules and procedures to avoid extraordinary stress on their archers. We are of course also open to questions that might be asked.

Morten B. WILMANN, FITA Judges Committee Chairman

6. Archer’s Equipment

When introducing new equipment to an archer, the coach has a certain responsibility regarding the legality of such equipment, as it could be quite disastrous for an archer if they have to correct their equipment at an event.

It could also be a huge disadvantage for the archer if they need to change their technique to abide by the rules of shooting.

First of all, you must be aware that equipment “for sale on the open market” is not necessarily legal in FITA archery events. What is legal is explained in the FITA rules. It is worthwhile to note some of the more common rules that seem to cause most confusion are mentioned below:

a)    Equipment specified as being legal is explained in the rules; any other equipment is consequently not legal.

b)    The archer is responsible for ensuring their equipment is legal.

The rules also state that if an archer is in doubt of the legality of their equipment, they should ask a judge for clarification. The judge will certainly help, but the legality question is still the responsibility of the archer (a judge making a mistake does not change the rules, etc). To be quite sure of the legality of the equipment being used, a request for interpretation, or clarification, should be sent to the FITA office in Lausanne, Switzerland by the national federation.

Legality of the bows in the compound category is actually the easiest to confirm, as most “items” are legal. The limitation is basically the following: the bow can have a maximum peak weight of 60 lbs (be aware of varying tolerances on specific weigh scales, the archers cannot claim a weight more than 60.0 lbs). The “overdraw” cannot exceed 6cm, there shall be no electrics or electronics on the equipment and there cannot be more than one aiming point.

It is advisable to set the peak weight of the bow a little less than the maximum permitted to avoid a need for this to be adjusted at a tournament.

For recurve (and barebow, instinctive and longbow) the rules are more specific and have to be studied carefully).

For field or 3D tournaments the equipment must not be modified in any way that would give any aid in estimating distances. This rule also applies to the compound bow category.

If the archer uses illegal equipment, there are basically three courses of action that the officials can take:

a)    The archer will be asked to adjust their equipment to make it legal, but no further action is taken because it is not considered to have given any advantage (so far).

b)    The archer’s scores may be disqualified up to the point of the equipment adjustment, but they may continue to shoot and record a score from the point of the equipment correction.

c)    The archer’s scores may be disqualified completely (this action may be used if the archer is considered to be knowingly cheating).

World Archery Communication (http://www.archery.org/)

– 23 August 2010

Information to Coaches

In 2009 there were many competitions where archers were either confused or just did not know the rules or regulations currently in place. This resulted in many delays being encountered during competitions which caused frustration to the competitors and organisers alike. Because of this the FITA Judges and Coaches Committees have agreed it would be useful to introduce some  “drops” on issues concerning coaches, procedures and rules, and make judges procedures understandable to them, and not least, so the coaches know what to expect from the judges.

Ken BEARMAN, FITA Coaches Committee Chairman

We hereby intend to start a series of small inputs in order to be helpful to coaches and enhance their knowledge on rules and procedures to avoid extraordinary stress on their archers. We are of course also open to questions that might be asked.

Morten B. WILMANN, FITA Judges Committee Chairman

6. Archer’s Equipment

When introducing new equipment to an archer, the coach has a certain responsibility regarding the legality of such equipment, as it could be quite disastrous for an archer if they have to correct their equipment at an event.

It could also be a huge disadvantage for the archer if they need to change their technique to abide by the rules of shooting.

First of all, you must be aware that equipment “for sale on the open market” is not necessarily legal in FITA archery events. What is legal is explained in the FITA rules. It is worthwhile to note some of the more common rules that seem to cause most confusion are mentioned below:

a) Equipment specified as being legal is explained in the rules; any other equipment is consequently not legal.

b) The archer is responsible for ensuring their equipment is legal.

The rules also state that if an archer is in doubt of the legality of their equipment, they should ask a judge for clarification. The judge will certainly help, but the legality question is still the responsibility of the archer (a judge making a mistake does not change the rules, etc). To be quite sure of the legality of the equipment being used, a request for interpretation, or clarification, should be sent to the FITA office in Lausanne, Switzerland by the national federation.

Legality of the bows in the compound category is actually the easiest to confirm, as most “items” are legal. The limitation is basically the following: the bow can have a maximum peak weight of 60 lbs (be aware of varying tolerances on specific weigh scales, the archers cannot claim a weight more than 60.0 lbs). The “overdraw” cannot exceed 6cm, there shall be no electrics or electronics on the equipment and there cannot be more than one aiming point.

It is advisable to set the peak weight of the bow a little less than the maximum permitted to avoid a need for this to be adjusted at a tournament.

For recurve (and barebow, instinctive and longbow) the rules are more specific and have to be studied carefully).

For field or 3D tournaments the equipment must not be modified in any way that would give any aid in estimating distances. This rule also applies to the compound bow category.

If the archer uses illegal equipment, there are basically three courses of action that the officials can take:

a) The archer will be asked to adjust their equipment to make it legal, but no further action is taken because it is not considered to have given any advantage (so far).

b) The archer’s scores may be disqualified up to the point of the equipment adjustment, but they may continue to shoot and record a score from the point of the equipment correction.

c) The archer’s scores may be disqualified completely (this action may be used if the archer is considered to be knowingly cheating).

World Archery Communication

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Information No. 5 from FITA Judges and Coaches Committees

Lausanne – 19 August 2010

Information to Coaches

In 2009 there were many competitions where archers were either confused or just did not know the rules or regulations currently in place. This resulted in many delays being encountered during competitions which caused frustration to the competitors and organisers alike. Because of this the FITA Judges and Coaches Committees have agreed it would be useful to introduce some  “drops” on issues concerning coaches, procedures and rules, and make judges procedures understandable to them, and not least, so the coaches know what to expect from the judges.

Ken BEARMAN, FITA Coaches Committee Chairman

We hereby intend to start a series of small inputs in order to be helpful to coaches and enhance their knowledge on rules and procedures to avoid extraordinary stress on their archers. We are of course also open to questions that might be asked.

Morten B. WILMANN, FITA Judges Committee Chairman

5. Illegal Shooting Techniques

Over the last two years many archers have been told to change their pulling technique due to safety. Mostly it concerns compound archers, for two main reasons. Some of them have bows that are too hard for them to pull over the peak weight, so much so, that they use too much energy to be able to concentrate on the direction of the arrow. This heavy peak weight may cause them some injury. Secondly, if the release “goes off” the shot cannot be stopped and the arrow may travel a great distance and land in an area that is dangerous to other people or animals etcetera.

The coaches have a responsibility to see that the bows are pulled so that, if the release activates, the arrow will not fly any higher than the top of the target. This is a technique that has to be trained from the very beginning not at a championship tournament. This may require the peak weight to be set so that is comfortable and manageable by the archer.

The judges will of course look at the direction of the arrow when the full energy is in the bow, and they are not concerned about the direction of the arrow before that point. I.e. many archers lift their bow arm before pulling the bow in order to put their bow arm shoulder correctly into place.

Sometimes archers/coaches may refer to other events where they have not been told to adjust their pulling angle, but that might be because the judges are considering the total possibility of danger, and that may vary due to the background of the targets.

Another issue is the bows that have a built in brace on the bow hand side of the riser, some of them very close to the bow hand due to the archer’s shooting technique. One should be aware that the bow hand cannot regularly touch this brace, and thus give a kind of “stabilisation against torque”. The judges will study this carefully during shooting, and will judge according to their opinion.

The same goes for compound bows that are fitted with split cables, i.e. shoot through cables. These cables must not regularly touch the bow arm although fewer archers are using this type of set-up nowadays.

From a coaching point of view it is essential to create a shooting technique that is safe and never needs to be adjusted, especially when it is least convenient, such as at world championship tournaments.

World Archery Communication (http://www.archery.org/)

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Seting busur panah (equipment set up recurve bow)

Tehnik melakukan set up peralatan memanah dalam hal ini busur panah ternyata memiliki cara khusus. Mulai dari melakukan pemasangan nock, posisi limbs, arrow rest, nocking point, dan kliker dijelaskan dengan gamblang dalam lembaran ini (download). Banyak dilengkapi dengan gambar skematis yang memudahkan para atlet panahan baik yang masih baru belajar maupun yang sudah expert untuk disampaikan pada rekan-rekan. Secara pribadi mohon maaf mungkin saya belum bisa banyak membantu dalam melakukan pelatihan secara intensif. Mudah-mudahan adanya lembaran ini dapat membantu adik-adik dan rekan-rekan penggemarolahraga memanah untuk meningkatkan skill dalam berlatih. Semoga Berhasil! S A L A M   P A N A H A N !!!

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Tehnik Dasar Memanah (Archery)

Bagi temen-temen yang ingin mendapatkan petunjuk teknik memanah yang singkat dapat didownload disini.

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Martial Art Lessons for Archers

Adapted by Drh. M. Fakhrul Ulum from:

http://www.hikarudojo.com/channels/bwarchery/secrets6.htm

 

The most romantic idea is that a martial artist, a samurai, commits his entire focus to one technique – live or die – to vanquish his enemy. But this thinking is not entirely accessible to an archer, especially a high-level sportsman that has to shoot multiple shots over an entire competition.

I will present three lessons for the modern day archer taken from martial arts strategy.

Lesson One – Winning Strategically

The first lesson is from the idea of ikken Hisatsu. This is the concept of ‘one strike, one kill.’ Meaning you train yourself to such a level that with one blow you are able to destroy the opponent – utterly and completely. In a recent discussion I had with my friend, a weapons instructor in the UK, he said ikken hisatsu is a great idea when using a weapon, but is a misleading concept when applied to an unarmed martial art. To an extent, I agree with him, but ‘one strike, one kill’ for my art is not a gimmick. You do not just ‘pull’ this rabbit out of your hat, aim and destroy the opponent. ‘One strike, one kill’ means you set up the opponent in order for an opportunity to use a powerful technique so that he will not pose a threat to you again. In a combat environment where you have one group against the other, this makes for a compelling winning strategy.

For archers, ‘one strike, one kill’ prompts you to look at your competitive setting and to see how you have to set yourself up to win with each arrow, with each challenge, and with each new opponent. This is a top-down strategic way to look at how you need to prepare yourself in order to set yourself up to win. It is not just shooting a perfect arrow; it is about shooting in order to win. Few archers take the time to look at it from this point of view, prefering to look at equipment setup, number of arrows fired, score for the day, etc. All of these are important, but not so important as understanding that you can win and you need to prepare yourself for that challenge!

Lesson Two – Details and Structure

Martial arts is all about structure! Martial arts is not at all about structure! A martial artist worth his salt would know about 12+ kata (patterns). Each kata would house about 25 techniques. Each technique would have about 2-3 different applications and drills. This equates to about 1000 different moves, not even mentioning the more basic skills that a practitioner would have to know to even learn each kata. With this amount of detail, doesn’t a Black Belt get analysis paralysis? Not on your life! Analysis paralysis is met with immediate chastisement in a very dynamic environment where your opponent is out to strike you. The lesson here is that the structure of the martial artist is not the core essence of the art. The art has to be objective based – meaning the martial artist needs to know that there is a changing environment out there and all of the structure he has learned needs to be driven by his goals – striking the opponent, blocking and covering incoming strikes, and dealing with other opponents.

Likewise, an archer that obsesses over breathing, or the way of pulling the string, or the feel of the drawhand against the cheekbone, or the movement of the clicker is getting it ALL WRONG. Focusing on the details will get you killed. Your job when you are standing on the line is to shoot an arrow into the goal. Of course you need to prepare the shot correctly, get your breathing right, and draw the string back correctly. But the most important thing of all is only to aim and shoot – that is your job. Focus on your muscles or your clicker and you will falter.

Lesson Three – Timing

This is an issue again awashed with detail. You can strike the opponent before he launches an attack, during his attack, and just after his attack. Timing issues in the martial arts are also different for the various distances you engage the opponent in. For a more enlightened response, all the martial artist has to do is to strike or block when it is required. All your training is for nought if you apply the wrong drill to whatever the opponent throws your way. You need to choose the right one and choose it at the right time. This means the martial artist needs superb reflexes, mental speed, and a great deal of experience.

For the archer, timing was chosen as the last but very important lesson. You have two and a half minutes. Do you quickly shoot your arrows? Do you wait for your muscles to rest up? Do you space them all out evenly? Some of this will depend on how you train, and the circumstances you find yourself in at the competition. But when you’re standing at the line, the main lesson is that you must shoot when it is the correct time for you to shoot. The mind is set a parameter of two and a half minutes. If you are focusing on your job of shooting the goal, then you need to allow yourself to decide when is the best time to shoot that arrow. Not any faster, and not any slower. It is the same for practice as well as for competition. Timing is when you are ready to shoot your goal!

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Correlation between stabilizer weight and shoulder pain with archers

Adapted by Drh. M. Fakhrul Ulum from Dr Hans Pfeffer in http://www.hikarudojo.com/channels/bwarchery/secrets4.htm

Within the last few years, I have treated more and more archers due to pain in the shoulder of the shooting arm. The pain seems to stem from the pause phase that comes directly after release. The discomfort seems not to be related to the stress on the arm resulting from high draw weight, which could arguably result in shoulder pain.

I think it can be expected that a heavy draw weight or an improper string length (or a combination thereof) would result in pain in the forearm rather than in the shoulder.

Still, it is important not only to treat the injury but rather to get to the root of the problem, which lies in the choice of equipment.

After checking with my patients, it has been determined that without exception, they all use heavy stabilizer systems. Systems such as mono-stabilizers without V-BAR with side stabilizer on compound bows, as well as complete systems with Mono-stabilizewrs, V-BAR and Extender are being used. The lengths are generally between 37 and 40 inches. The mono-stabilizers were equipped with either 2, 3, or 4 tuners.

From personal experience, I know what such systems weigh because I used these heavy systems myself. At that time, I also experienced pain in my bow shoulder. I was then shooting between 900-1000 shots per week.

Fortunately I was able to find at least a part solution: I used only one tuner on my stabilizer in order to reduce the weight and the amount of strength needed to hold the bow.

The results were not really surprising. with a reduction in stabilizer weight, the shoulder pain also decreased.

By reducing the amount of tuners however, the bow vibration also increased and this is naturally not the hoped-for result.

At this time, I had the opportunity to test several of the extremely light “The Better One” stabilizer systems from OK-Archery. This had the advantage that I could let other archers test these systems also.

I could determine that the strength needed to hold the bow was indeed reduced. In the meantime, many of my patients have switched to the “The Better One” from OK-Archery and since that time, shoulder pain has been eliminated.

To sum it all up, I am of the opinion that a light stabilizer system can reduce the pain in the bow shoulder or even completely eliminate it.

A small weight on the end of the stabilizer ensures a clean follow-through of the bow after the shot without dramatically increasing the total weight of the system.

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Top 10 Secrets of Shooting Better in Archery

 

Adapted by Drh M Fakhrul Ulum from Colin Wee in http://www.hikarudojo.com/channels/bwarchery/secrets.htm#top10 

Number Ten: Good archers know when to coach, know when to train, and know when to shoot.
We had an Olympic coach come give us a conference on archery coaching, and one of the things brought up was ‘when you shoot, you shouldn’t coach’. It’s easy to coach and instruct, many of us do it unconsciously. However, when you’re trying to do something well, especially at a high sporting level, you should really just focus on the doing. All you should be focusing on is on your form and your archery. Someone not doing something right? You shouldn’t care about that. In other sports like martial arts, if you start having stray ideas, you run the risk of injury and pain. Just because this doesn’t happen in archery doesn’t mean you should be nonchalent about it. I think ‘know when to ~’ is a great piece of advice, especially in our relaxed culture. Ever seen how the Koreans march to their practice grounds? Ever seen how they don’t talk when they practice? That’s because they know when some things are appropriate. When you engage in archery, all you should do is shoot your arrows into the goal.

Number Nine: Archery can be fun!!!
Getting uptight? Want to do better? Sighing a lot? Did you just shoot a lousy shot? If you can’t get over mistakes, the next arrow is going to be another one. If you can’t adopt the right attitude when you’re doing archery, how do you think you can be shooting at top form? Everyone else around you is totally positive. You think you can do it being negative? This is major advice to all Singaporeans doing archery: ease up and have a good time! Relaxing and ‘getting over it’ will help you prepare yourself for the next shot. Everyone does mistakes, professionals however, learn from them and try not to do it again. They do this by: regrouping, relaxing, NOT TRYING TOO HARD, and returning to their form.

Number Eight: Achieve balance for proper follow through.
My dad would always say to push using your bow arm. Push it directly towards the target. Push that shoulder down! What he means is that people usually forget that the bow arm needs to counter the pulling arm. Everyone is focusing on pulling the string back and forgetting that you need to have a similar tension on the other arm or the forces on your skeletal structure will not equate. Without the proper balance, when you release that shot, you jerk and you flinch. What you need to do is achieve balance by working both your pulling and pushing arms. Understand the forces at work on the fulcrum (your shoulders). Understand that without balance, additional forces will show themselves when you release that string. If you’re doing it right, the bow falls toward the target and the drawing fingers slide across your neck EFFORTLESSLY. Don’t hurry or hasten this process. Don’t linger to achieve it either. It comes when everything falls in place and follows a natural rythm.

Number Seven: Work on strong mental visualization.
Bill Wee is big on this. And so you should too. All high level national athletes engage in mental visualization. No one who doesn’t do it will be able to achieve that similar standard. I’ve written a one pager regarding visualization in respect to self defence, and the link is available off our links page in http://www.hikarudojo.com/channels/bwarchery/freeres.htm. The summary of that is that visualization starts with the decision to do whatever it takes to reach your outcome. You then use tools to recreate a mental space for top performance. This helps to ground your performance to the form you have set out for yourself.

Number Six: Know when to call it a day.
Your bow is a high performance machine. You are not. It’s better to know how to call it a day when you’ve had enough. When your muscles flag, when you’re distractable, when you’re grumpy or hungry. Stop shooting! Practice is only good if you’re practicing with good form, and able to replicate the exact form again and again. Japanese Kyuodo practitioners sometimes only shoot a maximum of 2 arrows in a day. Why? I’ll let you think about that.  

Number Five: Shoot and die. Don’t shoot … also die. :-)
This is a martial arts philosophy, and is similar to the idea of ‘burning your bridges’. When you’re shooting, you should perform as though you were in a life and death situation. Not so much to increase your anxiety level but to engage yourself by fully committing the shot to the target. If you’re really serious about archery, why shouldn’t that seriousness translate to full dedication to each shot? ‘Shoot and die’ means to focus yourself at that moment at the exclusion of everything else. ‘Don’t shoot … also die’ means that if you don’t do to your full ability, you might as well just give up now.

Number Four: Focus on your own archery.
Archery is about preparation. It is about helping you acheive what you need for best performance. Getting distracted will not help you. Caring for others will not help anyone. Is your equipment in order? Have you checked the straightness of all your arrows? Do you know exactly what is in your case? Any spares? Rain gear? Hat? Sunblock? You basically owe it to yourself to manage everything pertinent to YOUR archery. Not to do so is to be irresponsible.  

Number Three: Bring your archery training to your competition and your competition into your training.
Your training should be set up so that you can perform well at competitions. Prepare for all competitive environments. Use visualization to help prepare you for the competitive arena. Use all your archery gear (even your spares). When you get to your competition, you should compete with the mindset you have trained for. I believe this ‘normalizes’ a person emotionally so that you can replicate technique under adverse situations. This is what a martial artist attempts to do: to use technique and knowledge to counter any adrenaline dump or pre-fight jitters. Archers should be aware of such anxiety and compartmentalize themselves to help ensure proper form and mindset are achieved.

Number Two: Decide to win.
That should be the only thing driving you. I read somewhere about how the shot is influenced by the stakes. Shoot for nothing, and you shoot properly. Introduce money into the game, and you’re shooting for small change. Put a million dollars and then you’re clamping your mind around that dollar figure. No. When you shoot, you should just shoot to win. You should decide that you can win! It doesn’t matter if you have just been placed last and have lost. Your attitude must be a winning attitude. Like I mentioned before, all the other archers are dying to win. They want to be number one. If you don’t have that hunger, what chance do you have? Don’t aim for second place. Go for the top spot. Believe in yourself!

Number One: There is no big secret to archery. There is no killer app.
Don’t obsess about any one thing. There is no one secret to a great archery: it is a combination of everything. Good equipment. Good training. Good coaching. Good mindset. Good conditions. Talk to good archers. You’ll find they’ll tell you different things. Why? Because what works for someone will not work for you. You need to figure out how best to put it together. That’s part of the fun. Need any help? Talk with Bill Wee. He’s got 40 years of experience dealing with every sort of archer. He’s a great resource you can’t afford to ignore.  

I think thas can be tray..

be successfull..

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