[Ansteorra-archery] [Mm] How to increase TA, TW, and CA

[Shell Atwood]

This is one of the things I love about archery, that anyone can do it.  My
mother and aunt came out one day, and despite numerous health conditions and
recent surgeries, they shot and had a blast.  We can't all get onto the list
field and take the physical damage, but for those that want to participate
in a martial sport, archery is there for all.  I love seeing the kids up
there shooting alongside experienced archers and our older members *cough*
like Grandpa Vincenti.  

 

We can't really do anything about the logistics - it takes a lot of space
and that space is often on the outskirts of the camp.  There are some things
we do control though. 

 

1.        Start times.  I can't off the top of my head think of an event
that actually started on time. Yeah, I know, SCA time and all that - but we
need to remember that we are off in BFE and there's nothing for folks to do
while they stand around waiting, unlike around the list field, and it isn't
as though they can just pop off to their tent for a few minutes.  Instead of
lumping inspection, setup and the shoot all into a 10 a.m. start time, we
should separate that out like the fighters do.  Inspection and setup at
10a.m., shoot starts at 11.  The start time is what we advertise to
spectators - and we start on time.  Setup can really suck for the marshal if
there's no one to help out, further delaying us.  Instead of milling about,
we need to get inspected and see what we can do to help out. 

2.       Get announced at court, even for non-titled events.  Make sure the
site herald knows about us, the start time and what we're doing, and keep
him (or her) updated during the event so he'll keep heralding it.

3.       Start adding a newcomer tournament, at least at some events.  It
isn't much fun as a new archer to shoot six arrows and be eliminated
immediately, with no additional chance to shoot.  And while there are often
royal rounds or IKACs scheduled for later, the thrill of competition is
still a draw, even if you can't hit the broadside of the barn.  This also
removed the intimidation factor for newer archers who might not come out and
shoot against the old pros.

4.       Can we do court announced winners and small prize baskets for any
competition or only titled competition?  If we can do it for every
competition, we should.  If each archer in the barony made only one item to
donate, we'd have prizes to hand out to the child, newbie and experienced
archer at each event for a year.

5.       Have more joint baronial practices - Namron's reciprocal joint
practices with Eldern Hills were great.  We had huge turn out and it really
was more of an event than a practice.  We had a lot of new archers come
play, tons of folks watching and visiting.  I would love to see us do
something like that on a regular basis, rotating practices around to the
three or four closest baronies every three or four months.

 

Guess that pretty much empties my brain of thoughts - time to go fill it up
again!

 

Blessings,

 

Mellina

 

From: ansteorra-archery-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:ansteorra-archery-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Patrick
R
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 12:00 PM
To: Archery within the Kingdom of Ansteorra
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra-archery] [Mm] How to increase TA, TW, and CA

 


The logistical problems with archery are something we are going to have to
live with. Even when ranges are available closer to the main activities we
are going to be last on the list to get them. A simple face we will have to
deal with since we are considered the bottom of the list for many things in
the SCA. 

 

What we do have as our advantage is that we can be much more inclusive in
the people participating. For the last two years in the Bryn-gwlad fall
baronial we have tried to get the maximum participation possible. In
addition to the tournament held at the end of the day we opened the range to
people who wanted to try their hand at archery. We do have an advantage over
other activities for doing this. It needs to be announced and announced
often. We placed notices at gate and had people going around making sure
everyone knew about the range (OK I begged a lot of people to come by the
first year). The result is that each year we had over 50 people participate
and over 25 of them shot in the competition. It offered people who were
participating in other events to take some time that they had available and
come join us. The results speak for themselves, several people who never
tried archery went out and purchased their own bows and equipment and are
now part of our community. 

 

For my two cents, the key is to make it attractive for people to try and
they may find that they like it. Sometimes parents bring their children over
and find that they like it as well. It makes for a busy day for the people
running the range but it is worth the work. 

 

Dante

 

 



--- On Tue, 1/13/09, Jed Tressler <jed.tressler at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Jed Tressler <jed.tressler at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra-archery] [Mm] How to increase TA, TW, and CA
To: "Archery within the Kingdom of Ansteorra"
<ansteorra-archery at lists.ansteorra.org>
Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2009, 10:24 AM

Instead of trying to conquerer the logistics of a wagon, why not make an
effort to put the ranges closer to the rest of the event?  Some sites will
make this impossible, obviously, but I have attended several events where
the range is off in BFE, where you had to walk through half a mile
(exaggerated) of suitable range to get to it.  Scoot that sucker up a bit.
It may mean investing in more safety line, but that will be cheaper than
renting a wagon/paying for gas and the like.  This would be especially true
for Thrown weapons, where the necessary safety zone is (usually) much
smaller. 

 

Speaking of thrown weapons, somebody mentioned that if there were multiple
throwers on the line, than each would require there own marshal.  I can't
find this in the rules, can somebody point me to it?

 

I think an additional factor we may not be keen on considering is the
relative ratio of participating individuals to total event size.  My
experience is that a large proportion of the people who sit and watch an
activity (any activity) are connected personally to somebody who
participates in the activity.  So the more participants, the more
spectators.  If 1/3 of the people at an event are fighters of some kind, and
only 1/4 are archers, there will be more people at the list field than at
the range, both due to the number of participants, and there attending
personal connections.  We could use this a bit to our advantage.  

 

We could emphasize the importance of an archers inspiration, have archers
perform salutes, give dual awards to competitor and consort, even pander a
bit and award largess for best list pavilion set up, etc.  We, as archers,
also need to ask our friends to come watch us shoot.

 

Finally, I would like to offer that "all-day" tourney designs, while fun for
us, do not engender attendance from non-participants.  Because of safety
concerns, no matter how close we can get the firing-line to the rest of the
event, watching an archery competition will always mean facing away from
everything else that is going on.  Often it means being completely separated
from the event.  Conversely, watching the rapier tourney usually means being
in the middle of everything, and often you're at the list even when you're
not paying attention to the fight.  Peoples attention span will not hold
very long (most college students have a max attention span of 20 min. and
there on the high side of the curve).  The ideas mentioned about making the
range attractive, having snacks, heralds, interesting formats all combat
this, but if you ask them to sit for hours on end, while they miss the rest
of the event, even strong personal connections are going to be hard pressed
to keep there butts in the seats.

 

I think a good strategy would be to pick your best, most climactic portion
of the days shoot and push to get people there for that.  Try and get it
scheduled in an empty part of the day (no use trying to compete if you don't
have too) .  Get the site heralds to make a big deal of it.  Petition the
presiding royals to attend.  Ask all your friends to come support you.  And
try to time the whole thing to be over in about an hour.  You wont see most
of the attendees any other time in the day, but big deal, they came to the
big tourney.  The fighting equivalent is pick-ups after.  People don't sit
around and watch the fighters practice with each other when the tourney is
over, even when they are on the center field.

 

Just my $1.25.

Bastian Eisengart

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