What are the benefits of being an instructor, how do you become one and what opportunities are available? Archery GB's Grassroots Digital Officer, Daniel Fisher-Jones, who has just completed his instructor course and led his very first sessions, breaks it down for us.
Most archers begin their journeys with a have-a-go or taster event led by an instructor. From children trying archery for the first time to clubs taking part in Start Archery Week, instructors are essential to our sport flourishing.
As an archery instructor, you can share your passion for the sport with others. By teaching and guiding new archers, you can pass on your knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm, inspiring them to develop their own love for archery. Inspiring people to become the best version of themselves never gets old.
Becoming an instructor allows you to make a positive impact on people's lives. Archery is a sport that promotes focus, discipline, patience and mental strength. By teaching these valuable life skills alongside archery techniques, you can help people grow and develop as individuals.
Training as an instructor offers significant personal growth and development opportunities. Teaching others requires you to continually deepen your understanding of archery, refine your coaching techniques, and stay updated with the latest trends and advancements in the sport. This continuous learning process helps you become a better instructor, makes you even more employable and can help to enhance your own archery skills.
To become an instructor, you need to complete an Archery GB Instructor Award course, which are held all over the UK. Mine was held in Liverpool.
Over the course of the weekend, you will be taught to how to introduce beginners safely and efficiently to our sport and guide them through their very first shots. This includes how to setup a range, range safety and, most of all, how to create engaging and exciting sessions for your students. Yes, that includes popping balloons.
I thoroughly enjoyed my Instructor’s course as it was mostly in the range shooting and practicing – only a small portion was 'in the classroom'. To go back to basics was refreshing, as you can sometimes forget how much you’ve learnt quite quickly!
The way the courses are delivered requires teamwork with other instructors-to-be, so you can meet some interesting people over the weekend who might be delivering archery to a different audience than you. Not everyone on the course will be an archer, so it could be their first ever time shooting.
I’d highly recommend the course; it allowed me to better understand how to help beginners get started and how to guide them through their first session, passing on the passion that I have for archery.
After your training, you be given a multiple-choice question paper that covers the specifics of what you’ve learnt on the course.
Additionally, there is a practical assessment where you have to deliver a 15–20-minute taster session. Both of the assessments are on the second day and you’ll have plenty of practice and guidance throughout the course to find confidence in your delivery and test ways of making the session engaging.
You can certainly be paid to instruct archery and pursue it as a career.
On my course, everyone had their own motivations. We had students from Liverpool John Moores University Archery Club learning to lead taster sessions at their university, someone who was heading to Camp America this summer to instruct archery, primary school teachers and several instructors from outdoor centres aimed at school children.
There are plenty of opportunities to be an archery instructor. So, whether you decide to adventure abroad to instruct archery, teach it on your doorstep at a local activity centre or as part of an after-school club, it is a really rewarding pastime, a great way to help out your club and, you never know, it might it even turn into an exciting career!
If you want to know more about becoming an archery instructor, including how to book yourself onto a course, find out more at the link below:
