Archive for February, 2009

Ohio archery in schools program outgrows school!

This past Tuesday, I attended the archery finals for the Maysville school district. The top shooters will be defending Maysville’s championship at the state shoot this year.

Seeing 70 students with bows and arrows sounds dangerous on paper. Watching them is another story. The discipline these students show was fantastic. The discipline starts at the school and I’m sure at home. To participate in the program they must carry a 2.0-grade average, have good school attendance, have no disciplinary action against them at school or outside the school. Every week they must have a signed slip from the school stating that they have met the requirements before shooting. The local program has a three-strikes-and-you’re-out policy.

What is so fantastic about the archery program is that you don’t have to be the fastest, strongest, carry a 4.0 to participate. Even kids with some physical disabilities from asthma to a wheel chair can be involved.

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National Field Archery Tournaments – June in South Dakota

Three tournaments, pulling in hundreds of contestants from around the world, will occur in June at the joint National Field Archery Association headquarters and Easton Sports Development Foundation (ESDF) Center for Archery Excellence facility.

“The three tournaments this summer are going to be the biggest group of archers we’ve ever had in Yankton,” said Bruce Cull, president of the NFAA. “Everything is looking very positive for it. This June is going to be a good time for us.”

The International Field Archery Association World Bowhunter Championship will take place June 11-14, while the NFAA Unmarked 3-D Championship and the First Dakota Bank Archery Classic will unfold June 13-14.

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USA National Target Tornament moves to Ohio

The 125th National Target Tournament moves from Colorado Springs, CO to Hamilton, OH for 2009.

“With all the changes in staffing this year, we knew we had to have the Nationals in a location where we had a good, strong team. The City of Hamilton, Butler County Visitors Bureau and the Cincinnati Junior Olympians Club stepped up to provide us with plenty of support,” says Denise Parker, USAA Acting CEO. “The added benefit is that we will be in a proven location for maximizing participation. We have always done well when the Nationals are held in Ohio and in a year where the economy is weak, it will be good to be within driving distance of many of our members. The City of Hamilton is within a day’s drive from 65% of the nation’s population and is an ideal location to celebrate such a historic event for USA Archery.”

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FRA vs GBR in Indoor Recurve Tournament

This movie was mistakenly labeled as having Simon Terry from USA, but as we all know, he shoots archery for Great Britain. Enjoyable match.

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Dave Cousins shoots Indoor World Cup ’09

It is interesting to note what a different arrow Mr. Cousins shoots at the indoor archery bronze medal tournaments compared to the outdoor tournaments. The arrow has a much thicker shaft, and much larger fletchings.

When shooting indoors, the archer is not worried about how much the arrow slows down over the shorter shot, and they like the thicker shafted arrows to help break the lines of the higher ring.

Outdoors, over the longer distances you have to worry about wind, and how much the arrow flight is slowed down by the fletchings.

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FL Gov. Tours Olympic Archery Facility

Governor Charlie Crist today, as part of his continuing commitment to preserving Florida’s natural beauty and resources, toured the Beau Turner Youth Conservation Center and met with Ted and Beau Turner and energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens to discuss environmental and related economic opportunities for the Sunshine State. Governor Crist visited with Jefferson County children as they enjoyed the solar-powered conservation center’s Olympic archery center, various nature trails and fishing pond.

The center, through its free classes and host of volunteers, has provided more than 1,300 youth with environmental education and hunting and fishing activities. The center features a stocked fishing pond, managed impounds for waterfowl, planted fields for small game, a state-of-the-art rifle range, Olympic-style and 3-D archery courses, and a trap-shooting facility that throws biodegradable clay pigeons. Free classes teaching gun safety, fishing, wildlife management and other aspects of outdoor life and conservation are offered throughout the summer for youth ages 12 to 16.

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UK Olympic team looking to prepare for 2012

UK Olympic archer Alan Wills and Copeland’s mayor Keith Hitchen have been getting their heads together to come up with ideas for an archery camp.

They hope the camp would be used by archers from across the world to train at and get used to the British climate.

Mr Wills said that a major part of an athlete’s training before the Olympics is to go to the host country and get used to the weather conditions.

In 2006 and 2007, he went to Beijing to train ahead of last year’s Olympics, where he was shooting his arrows in temperatures up to 40 degrees and 100 per cent humidity.

Read more here:
Olympians to train in West Cumbria

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Australia group to start new youth archery club

UMINA Beach PCYC is about to start an archery club as part of a state-wide initiative to get young people into the sport.

Club manager Allison Carpenter said that the aim is to eventually get the club involved in inter-club and Archery Australia events.

Read more here:
Club targets young archers

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USA Archer Dave Cousins shoots in Archery World Cup ’08

Warning. Dave Cousins lets slip one bad word during some very tough shooting conditions. Overall a great performance for these compound archers considering the level of wind that was out there.