Successful LA Conference Workshop
Fifty-five archers and coaches met at the Easton Van Nuys Archery Center for a day of learning, practice, and competition.
Fifty-five archers and coaches from High Schools and Middle Schools in and around the Los Angeles area descended upon the Easton Van Nuys Archery Center for a free workshop and Mail-In Tournament Scoring Day under the Olympic Archery in Schools Program (OAS). Participants registered and were received by Kathy White and Fran Bliley, OAS Los Angeles Conference Leaders. Accompanying parents were introduced to the purposes and objectives of OAS.
The first event, conducted by International Field Archery Champion June Montenegro, was a demonstration of equipment maintenance, which included bow string repair, serving and fletching. This was a hands-on workshop that allowed both school coaches and student archers to try it for themselves. The coaches have been eager to learn maintenance procedures since receiving their initial OAS packages composed of bows, arrows and targets among others items.
As the morning progressed, Easton Van Nuys Archery Center Head Coach Rene Paquia introduced the student archers to the National Training System, which is the program used by the US Archery Team. They were then taught the KSL Shot Cycle through the use of stretch band exercises. Students were encouraged to review and practice the cycle at home to improve their shooting form. They were then moved to the archery range for actual shooting in preparation for the afternoon competition.
Coach Roy Villasor, still fresh from a week at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista under US National Head Coach Kisik Lee, used the latest training techniques to get the student archers into alignment to avoid left and right shots. He showed them how to check their alignment in front of the mirror. After a busy morning learning new skills and acquiring new techniques, the student archers took a short break for lunch.
The afternoon session began with the scoring match for the Mail-In Tournament. Student archers got a taste of true competition following World Archery and USA Archery rules for Olympic-style archery. Scoring was also a new experience to some students and there were plenty of Judges on hand to help score arrows and explain the scorecards.
The finale was a shooting demonstration by selected archers steeped in NTS—leading the pack were All American, Raymond Paquia; Junior State Champ, Katie Van Horn Hershey; Medalists Ara Hekimian Brogan, Matthew Singson, and up and coming brother and sister team Kevin and Kaitlin Huang.
The day ended with the realization that the OAS program in Los Angeles has taken root and continues to grow in both public and private schools with every indication that the OAS program may be coming to your school in the near future.
For more information about the Los Angeles Conference, please contact Kathy White (kwhite@eastonventures.com) and Fran Bliley (fbliley@eastonventures.com).