World Archery Guyana Head Coach, Nicholas Hing, recently returned from an Archery Training Camp and Coaching Seminar funded by Pan Am Sports, and coordinated by World Archery Americas in collaboration with the Colombian Olympic Committee in Medellin, Colombia.
The Camp and Seminar, which followed on the heels of the World Archery Americas General Assembly and the conclusion of the Pan American and Parapan Championships, was conducted by top level experts in various fields of the sport, and attended by a total of 32 archers and 39 coaches from 22 countries.
Among them were Olympic silver medalist Aída Román of Mexico, Central American and Pan American champion Alejandra Valencia of Mexico and Men’s compound champion Roberto Hernandez of El Salvador.
The intensive programme, with sessions beginning from 08:00h and concluding at 22:00h and with practical sessions at the archery range, was coordinated by USAA coach Phil Graves.
Speaking on the importance of biomechanics of the shot cycle, and the prevention of physical and mental injury, was world-renowned Head Coach of the US recurve team Kisik Lee.
Also speaking were Level 4 Coach, Philip Graves, Dr. Alison Pope-Rhodius and Professor Fernando López of the Department of Psychology at JFK University who spoke on the mental aspect and mental training in archery.
Equipment expert Don Rabska, Vice President of Easton Foundations spoke on bow tuning and set-up, WAA Secretary-General Sergio Font spoke on the rules of archery, and physical trainer Felipe Marin’s presentation was on designing and controlling physical training schedules for archery.
From all of this, a high performance archery programme can be developed from the bottom (grass roots programmes -Junior development in schools/clubs) leading to schools and national competitions, and work upwards to win World Championships in preparation for the Olympics.
“There was special mention of Guyana as a developing nation on the archery stage in the Americas, as we hope to soon be competing regionally in the Caribbean’s development with sister nations; Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, the British and US Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, etc. All eyes are on Guyana with the tremendous Archery potential. The next important event in the Americas, are the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October,” Archery Guyana said.
It added, “The training camp and seminar was a boost for Archery Guyana’s development programme for which Hing is grateful to have been selected to attend, and is thankful to his part-sponsors; New GPC Inc and Guyana Times Inc.”
