ATTENTION PLEASE: Cell Phones Must Be Turned Off, Or On Silent Mode.
In the below picture you see me watching 2 archery instructor candidates during a shooting evaluation at Camp Wyonegonic . I’m aware of everyone around me including the other 14 people in the instructor class. We have some very specific safety rules that we build on before they get to shoot an arrow. And there is no way I can be on the phone or have my head be anywhere else than giving my full attention to this class. No matter the size of or the kind of classes that I teach, from high performance private lessons, community classes, my JOAD program and online webinars, I’m nowhere else but focused on that class and those students that I’m working with at the moment.
At the archery range, I offer a space where, just for an hour or more, depending on the class, you are cut off from the world because your cell phones are off. This allows you to be in the moment with a family member and or just enjoy the here and now. Archery is about being one with the bow, being in the moment, and forgetting everything else in your life. And that is what my adult archery clients tell me about our archery classes, and they say they love having that space to be in the moment.
My adult clients come from all walks of life, from doctors and cops to people that work in retail and parents that do home schooling. The wonderful thing is that the peace and relaxation that happens on the archery range can transfer over into archery competition and other areas of life. Our cell phones don’t have to become an electronic leash. Have you ever seen someone talk on the phone and shoot an arrow? I have and I was amazed that she did not drop her phone
As an archery coach, I want to be fully engaged with my archery clients, be it instructors learning to teach or folks coming to learn how to shoot an arrow or my more advanced clients refining their skills and mental toughness. I mentally prepare for my class, way before they arrive to the archery range. I put my phone on airplane mode when I get into my car before I start driving to where I’m going to teach archery, since I provide lessons in different towns. I think about my lesson plan and how grateful I am to have these students in my class.
My archery instructor interns come to my classes early to help with set up, and sometimes they will show up with cell phone in hand and not paying attention to where they are walking and I wonder if they are going to run into something lol I’m just waiting for that to happen. Teaching and learning archery is about leaving the day at the door and learning to be in the moment when you enter the archery range, which is not always that easy to do.
A couple of years ago I called an archery instructor on the phone and I did not know that he was in class teaching archery. This person answered the phone and he told me that he couldn’t talk right then because he was in the middle of teaching archery. Then why the heck answer the phone? Just let the phone go to voice mail and listen to the message later on when you don’t have lives in your hands. Things can happen on the range in an instant and the phone can be a distraction. You never see lifeguards talking on the phone while working… Ok so you might say that people could drown and swimming is more dangerous. I give the lifeguard example because teaching archery may feel safer than swimming and because of that archery coaches may get a get a false sense of security that nothing bad can happen.
It is that one moment when you are coaching archery that you look the wrong way that you miss that one thing, that one student who gets excited and walks forward or someone does something stupid. And it can be something as small as a child that is watching your archery class and wanders forward without the parent noticing. You always want to be focused and 100% paying attention like a lifeguard when you are teaching archery, and that is not always an easy thing to do when you yourself are not at peak performance that day.
Every June I offer certification training at summer camps and I usually have about 140 potential archery instructors signed up for my instructor’s classes. I don’t work with all 140 students all at once lol, but I usually have about 15 instructor candidates in each of my classes. At the beginning of each instructor course, I will give a cell phone briefing where I tell the instructor candidates to turn off their phones while they are taking my class. We discuss the hazards of being distracted by the cell phone and the positive impact on a student when you give them your full and undivided attention. Even though at the beginning of every class we talk about cell phone hazards on the archery range. I will always have at least 1 or maybe 3 potential archery instructors who don’t comply with my cell phone policy.
I had one instructor candidate who actually got on the phone while we were out at the archery range when I was teaching, but it was not during the shooting evaluation. It happened near the end of the course, so after I graded his written test, we had a private discussion about using the phone while I was teaching. He gave me an explanation as to why he used his phone during class and I told him that I considered failing him for not complying with my cell phone policy.
I wanted him to get the point that using the cell phone at the archery range can be dangerous. And I explained that you can turn off the phone and the world won’t fall apart if you unplug for a little while. I also said that he could take control of his life and not take a call and not be at the whim of other people. I tried to make the point that you always want to be alert and watching your students when you are teaching archery and working with other people’s children, be small or adults. The archery instructor candidate has only a small amount of time to prove to me that not only can he or she teach a safe archery class, but that the candidate can listen and comply with my safety instructions.
Oh and by the way, I do bring a cell phone to the archery range. Actually, I bring 2 of them so I have a backup because I film my classes and I take pictures. And in doing so, I have caught on tape some beautiful moments, and I also use the video for form analysis as well. Just think about it: any tool can be dangerous or useful depending on how it is used. As an active archery coach or just going out to shoot arrows, let the range be that one place where you disconnect from the world. Just focus on the now and be one with the bow and in the moment with the arrow. The feedback that I get from my adult archery students in my different classes is that they love shooting arrows, and that it allows them to forget about the day and to enjoy the moment.
