1. Take inventory. Make a list of all of your past, old, used, and forgotten lessons, skills and drills, activities and practice sessions. Repurpose what you can with an at home focus.
2. Make a plan. Outline in a calendar format to follow during this time. Share this information with friends or family, let them help you hold yourself accountable.
3. Create a routine. Acknowledge that training during this time is different and you may not like it. That’s ok. Use your daily or weekly calendars to keep on track. Allow yourself to adapt and evolve your schedule to fit your unique needs and environment.
4. Revisit skills. Build on what you already know. Focus on areas of improvement or strength for at home practice.
5. Try new ways to connect. Explore different online meeting and hangout apps to positively stay connected with teammates and other archers.
6. Look forward. Set a goal and create a plan for where you want to be the next time your club meets, at your next event or in-person coaching session.
7. Work with what you have. If you don’t have access to a safe archery range and/or equipment then work with stretch bands, sting loops or training aids.
8. Share what you’re doing. USA Archery will share everyone’s ideas to build a community where athletes, coaches, club leaders and parents can get and receive the support they need.

The athlete development competencies were created to provide a roadmap to develop athletes with the qualities to be a successful archer and person. The athlete development competencies encompass most skills coaches should strive to develop in their athletes, and athletes can strive to develop individually. 

When working with Minors, always include a parent or guardian on communications and be sure to adhere to the Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies.

1. Offer Creative Solutions - Virtual Lessons and Competitions
   • Give Video Lessons: Group lessons are not advised and most 1:1 indoor lessons, require close contact. Instead, suggest doing video lessons with your regular archers through Skype, Zoom or FaceTime. Consider a weekly team meeting to keep club members engaged with each other.
   • Utilize Virtual Coaching Apps: Apps such as Coach’s Eyeallow your archers to upload a few videos of their shot cycle and you can provide voiceover feedback frame by frame or use the videos as the basis for a video or voice call to give archers something to focus on and work on for a week of intentional practice. Coach’s Eye is offering a 15-day free trial.
   • Host a Virtual Tournament: Advertise and run a virtual tournament. Utilize your club websiteor social media to explain tournament rules and procedures. Have archers film or live stream their shooting and award prizes to the winners of each category. Get creative to allow different distances as archers may not have access to a full range. Click here for inspiration. Simplified version: create a leaderboard in a Google Sheet, etc. and have club members log drills, exercises, scores, or whatever else you assign so they can stay connected and motivate and challenge each other.
   • Encourage Virtual Matches: With parental permission for minors, set up similarly skilled archers to compete in virtual match-play – set up a video call and simulate real matches in real time. This will help your archers stay engaged with their archery friends and build their competitive edge.
   • Build Lessons Outside of Shooting: Archers can learn and absorb from just watching great archers. Share exceptional archery competition footage from archery.tv. This is also a great time to refer to USA Archery’s Athlete Development Modeland Athlete Development Competencies (page 24) for lesson plan ideas. Offer webinars or other online lessons to keep your archers engaged. The USA Archery Coach Competencies and Athlete Competencies are a great place to start, with free resources linked in your USA Archery Dashboard.
2. Re-evaluate the vision, values, and culture of the club
   • Take the time to meet with club leaders, coaches, key volunteers and athlete leaders within the club. Identify the 4 to 6 values that mean the most to the club membership and use those values to enhance the vision and mission of your club. This is a perfect time to reimagine and further define the club’s culture and create a following. For inspiration read Dan Coyle’s Culture Code or watch this talk with Dan Coyle.
3. Communicate
   • Effective communication is the best way to maintain relationships. Be transparent with your staff, archers and parents. Share what’s happening through email, and on your website and social-media accounts. Let them know you’re following CDC cleaning guidelines or modifying your business hours. If you’re offering virtual lessons or tournaments, you should describe those efforts with information on how to participate in these offerings.
     
     The U.S. Chamber of Commerce developed a customizable flyer so small business owners can personalize key messages about what they’re doing to keep people safe. Also, read the Chamber’s article “Communicating with Customers During Corona” for more tips and ideas.
4. Create and Share Engaging Content
   • It’s smart to attract new potential customers through marketing techniques, but it’s also smart to engage and entertain current customers. Create valuable content such as blogs, posts, articles, videos or podcasts to engage new and existing customers. Share what you know – creative ways archers can train at home, training schedules, mental game trainings and more. Explain the services you offer, encourage people to train where they can safely shoot at this time, challenge them to share and post their at home archery practices or DIY archery projects.
     
     If you haven’t yet built your free USA Archery Club Website, take some time to set it up – it can be a great tool for your business!
5. Create a Facebook Group Page
   • If you have downtime, create a Facebook group for your club and community.
   • According to Hootsuite, brands in 2020 should reasonably expect their Facebook posts to be seen by about 5.5% of their page’s followers because of Facebook’s algorithms. In other words, your customers likely aren’t seeing your content. You can pay to promote/boost your posts, or if you create a group, you’re more likely to organically reach 100 your group members. Click here for step-by-step directions for how to create a Facebook group. Then, invite members to your group and start sharing content.
6. Ask Your Archers to Review Your Club
   • While archers and their families are at home, ask them to support your club. Some people are short on cash, but they can still help your business without spending a dime. Ask them to write a review, tell their friends about you, and like or share your social posts.
7. Take Advantage of the Slow Period to Catch Up or Learn Something New
   • Use this time to scratch tasks off your to-do list. Renew your certification or USA Archery Membership. Make sure you are up to date on your annual SafeSport Refresher Course. Watch educational videos for coaches in your USA Archery Dashboard or stay up to date on the rules in the World Archery Rulebook.
8. Explore Disaster Assistance Loans
   • If your archery club business is suffering, consider applying for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan through the SBA. The SBA is offering designated states and territories low-interest federal disaster recovery loans of up to $2 million to small businesses suffering substantial economic injury as a result of the coronavirus. These loans provide vital financial support to small businesses to help overcome the temporary loss of revenue they are experiencing.
     
     Visit the SBA website to learn more and to see if you’re eligible.

This content was partially provided by the Archery Trade Association. For the full article visit archerytrade.org.

The club competencies encompass the necessary characteristics needed to be a professionally organized and high-performing club. The primary objectives of the USA Archery Club Competencies are:

1. Establish principles of excellence, which transcend different team cultures
2. Enhance and cultivate the ability of coaches to personalize the development of their archers, coaches and club
3. Provide focused development of coaches and clubs 

USA Archery Judges are a crucial member and component of any USA Archery sanctioned event. Judge Competencies are meant to educate, empower, support, and advance judges in this vital role.