Two missing Sundays

It is my custom to write this blog on Sunday nights, but a couple of obstacles got in the way of that habit in the last two weeks.

The first was the pleasant reason that archery got in the way.

On the Sunday before last, we went to a new indoor shoot in Alloa, run by Bannockburn Bowmen. I shot well enough and the team of me & her indoors got team third place. There were a whole pile of people from the new Edinburgh Club - Fellowship of the Bow - and I shot with one of them and had a really nice morning. The scoring was again pleasant and done by someone with very nice handwriting and who could add up - juniors, please note.

The shoot did not require uniform and people were encouraged to turn up in something bright. The morning were a pretty plain lot really (my orange breeks were mysteriously in the wash) but I was glad to see the afternoon crowd being led by the big McAuley resplendent in kilt and hairy legs.

I then spent the rest of the week sorting myself out for the winter GNAS Board meeting, which was a two day affair, with some extra days tacked on for side meetings. I worked on the train on the way down on the Thursday morning, and spent the afternoon with Dave Sherratt and Lin Berry looking at their office systems.

Lin is a real stalwart, always rushing about getting things organised, on the phone to members, or sorting our suppliers out. She keeps smiling through all of this which is something that I would struggle with. The office are now getting ready for the AGM and all the papers that are needed for that. Before I started in this role, the AGM was just ticking a box to me, but that is certainly not the case.

On the Friday, we had guests from Standard Life Investments who we have been partnered with through the 2012 process of joining up the Olympic Sports to FTSE 100 companies. The idea is to enable a bridge between successful business and sport and members will read more of that in future issues of Archery UK.

As well as sitting in on part of the Board meeting, they also had a come-and-try. This was in the Sutherland Hall (where you can shoot 90m indoors) in the midst of the development and paralympic squad training. I can't be often that sports can offer this kind of experience to outsiders.

The Board meeting itself was a pretty energetic affair and there is certainly a buzz these days. We had a presentation from the Performance Unit and it should be obvious to all the members how that has moved on, but I get the feeling that the progress made in other areas is less obvious and, perhaps, not as appreciated.

I had a much delayed train journey back, not unpleasant but wearying and long, and so I missed writing last Sunday. I just about had time for a quick chat, cup of tea and unpacking the bag before it was time for bed.

I did come back to the news that her indoors was Eastern Area champion (561 Portsmouth I think). This was accompanied by a perhaps familiar tale of starting off with 60s, falling to the wayside and gallantly rallying at the end. Ho Hum!

Tom Williamson had been at the Board as well. He has had some shoulder issues of later and is using a 26lb recurve and shooting barebow. He shot, I think, 560 Portsmouth recently - cold feet in the back in bed was the response for using that story in reply to winning the area champs! Live & learn? Not at my age, it seems.

It's 2008 already!

I had two nice things arrive to start the year off. The first was a copy of the Winter 2007 news from London 2012. It contained a full page on one of GB's top archers, Noami Folkard, and it is good to see that extent of coverage. The second was an invitation to comment on Scottish facilities that had been put forward for 2012 pre-games training camps for archery. I shared these with National Council colleagues and fed back on the eight venues. It is good to see so much interest, given we are so far from London - I guess that commercial confidentiality will preclude me from sharing their names in this public place.

The first shoot of the year for me was today at the Penicuik frostbite. I started off well enough, fortified no doubt by Liz's own spicy lentil soup, with a 116 dozen and then the cold got the better of me. The wind chill certainly cut in and I dropped at least 6 point per dozen for the remaining two dozen. I was shooting with two delightful juniors (one of who scored and could add without a calculator, hurrah!) and the other managed to shoot two of my nocks off.

At the present exchange at the end, Alan got my donation of finger puppets which is grand as he has grandkids. I got a jar of damson jam, not just damson jam but home made damson jam (that sound like the Marks & Sparks ad?). There is just nothing so good as this kind of jam, so that made my day.

There was the traditional stovies (Scottish delicacy for the uninitiated) and curry at Elayne and Norrie's afterwards. Norrie (a life-long teetotaller) has a huge range of whiskies, so I helped out a little in draining his reserve before going off to domestic chores (her indoors being at squad this weekend and so having to fend for myself).

Scotland is just beginning to wake up after the holidays and I get the feeling that it is going to be a busy and eventful year both locally and nationally.

I am going to finish now and get off to a long soak in the bath to finish the thawing out. There is a new men in far-too-tight britches series on the box tonight, her indoors will be glued to that and it will just be me and the bubbles for an hour (unless, of course, I can find where she has hidden my duck).

The year draws to a close

Just before Xmas, Kate (from sportstructures) and I spoke to sportscotland about how to link into the Active Schools network. They seemed pleased we had come to them and gave us some good feedback. In particular, they have details on what each school in Scotland is doing in terms of sports participation. Our next step is to pull together a map of what all the various parts of activity are taking place (in schools, in GNAS clubs etc). We had this conversation through a telephone conference call which I am well used to through work, but was a novel experience to the others on the call - good that the "new technologies" can bring people together quickly and at little cost.

Bumped into Susan from Penicuik at Ikea where her and the family were out for an excursion. Santa brought her a new compound bag from Christmas and she reminded me about the annual Frostbite and to bring a £3 present as part of the communal present giving that takes place at the end. Next Sunday, someone will be the happy recipient of Ikea finger puppets!

The household has been awash with virtual re-decorating (wish the real thing indoors could progress as quickly!). The SAA web site is getting a makeover, and Muriel is busy with that and e-mails are flying back and forward between her and Murray. I guess it is the only time that they can get on with this as they are both involved in squads (Muriel with Scottish and Murray with UK disabled).

Having time on our hands, a trip to wildest Hawick was planned, which many people may not know is one of the Archery hotspots in Scotland.

We shot indoors with (another) Kate who is, I think, Scotland's only international double medallist this year having gained Sliver & Bronze at the IPC event in Korea the other month. Her man was there shooting as well with his recurve as he has had his arm twisted into competing in deepest Geordie land at a Vegas. At the end, we were joined by Ronnie, a local newcomer who will be at Lasswade soon taking part in his first competition (that thrill seems so far away from me now).

Kate let us into a wee secret. She said that Peter Suk, in the way of coaching, gives her a wee peck on the cheek and says she is a great archer. This obviously works from her medal success - must be something in the way the Koreans kiss :-) I feel a wee tongue twister coming on here (based on Peter Piper nursery rhyme) ...

Peter Performance pecked the purple pinkie of a pretty paralympian
The purple pinkie of a pretty paralympian Peter Performance pecked
If Peter Performance pecked the purple pinkie of a pretty paralympian
Where is the purple pinkie of the pretty paralympian that Peter Performance pecked?

... must remember not to give up the day job for a career in poetry writing.

I had a chat with Gwyn who has now been there for almost seven years now (visit http://www.eastcote-archery.co.uk/ if you don't know them). When they first started out, shooting inside in the winter was problematic as the gas in the heater would often be so cold as not be able to light properly. Now, there is an outdoor range for up to 8 targets @ 90m, a well stocked shop and a really warm new indoor range with three foam targets. The shop is planned to be moved into the original indoor range which will give lots of room and also provide for a reception area. All of this has been gradually built up over the years without too much public investment - well done Gwyn!

During writing this, I had forgotten the link to Gwyn's place and did the usual web search to find it. The first link to come up was the news that Andy Logan (a two time European Field Archery champion from Hawick) had narrowly escaped death in a car accident and will miss the Worlds in Namibia. Though Andy is from the "other lot" (the Scottish Field Archery Association), it is still a sad piece of news to have at this time of year.

Ah, Yoda

Michael Mather kindly sent through the extract from the SAA's Development Plan concerning how to use Leaders to increase numbers. As usual with Michael, it has a deal of thinking and detail behind it. GNAS are also interested in this area, but are a little more cautious. Needless to say, everyone has a number of completely contradictory opinions (it wouldn't be archery otherwise) and I hope to work with GNAS to survey Leaders in Scotland to establish a independent basis to proceed on.

Xmas is drawing near and I was at a fun shoot on Friday night that was very enjoyable and good humoured (the juniors certainly liked their selection boxes). Ian Wilson took in in good part when he was ribbed about missing the balloons twice and I certainly shot better this week. I got two red stars at the top of the tree to Muriel's none and so all I need to do now is to get FITA to make an official Spruce Tree Round.

The Scotsman reported that sportscotland looked to be safe from the SNP axe, though their remit will be changed and re-focused. We will have to wait until the New Year for the details, I suspect.

There are a number of schools who will transition into GNAS School Membership due to the demise of the AAS scheme. The SAA and Areas need to set corresponding fees and Ray Mason is on the case with the solution to charge Junior Club fees.

I hope that all Scottish Archers felt some pride this month in the December announcements in the News section of the web site - Hannah becoming Junior Lady Indoor Champion and Andy Ward shooting 1380 in Australia.

I've had less time for Archery this week than of late. I was down seeing my three week old grandson in York. As I held him in my arms, he made a face like Yoda and noisily filled his nappy, thus displaying he had the family genes.

Schools, students, AWOLs & socks

Conversations around schools continued this week with a very helpful conversation from the development officer at Learning & Teaching Scotland (a PE teacher on secondment who used to teach archery in his school). Information about activity also started to come in - most of the activity seems in the Northern Area, and John Sullivan told me he had been running lunch time sessions for over 10 years, wow!

I visited Edinburgh University who are in the early fund-raising and planning stages for two new indoor ranges to be open in 2010 as part of an extension to the already impressive sports centre (http://www.sport.ed.ac.uk/). The club has really grown in numbers and quality over the years and the University is acknowledging this with this investment.

The SAA AGM was not quorate this year which is a real pity and those Absent With Out Leave missed some great debate and information. The Children 1st unit that looks after child protection were there and gave a presentation full of really useful facts. GNAS' Marketing & Development Director talked about Clubmark and how it could be used to provide a framework for club improvement and also took open questions - what an opportunity missed to talk to someone at such a high level! The Development Plan was covered by Michael Mather and a good healthy debate followed.

The Development Plan had a lot of detail in it, but there is one inescapable fact - if Scotland had the same participation as in England, the SAA numbers would just about double and we could afford to employ a Development Officer to get even more growth.

The final thought is that "her indoors" made me shoot a round on Friday and beat me. Totally unacceptable, so socks need pulling up.

More formats, deep thoughts, 2012 & a baby

I spent a couple of hours this week looking at a format for action plans with Kate Griffiths of sportstructures, and have hopefully come up with a template that is usable for these types of documents.

Kate and I also had a conversation about extending the work done for school engagement in England into Scotland. That will involve her understanding about the different systems up here and so I've arranged for a couple of conversations with sportscotland and Learning & Teaching Scotland. I also wrote to National Council and got back a response from Alan Wood

for three activities in the Northern Area.

I also attended a Board Meeting of the Scottish Sports Association. Here we discussed the legislation going through the Scottish Parliament about children and vulnerable adults and it is clear that there will be continuing work to be done on procedures. We also had an interesting start to a conversation on what legacy is in terms of 2012 and 2014 - this resulted on some deep thoughts to answer that simple question and I suspect the debate will continue for some months.

My last attendance of the week was at a talk from UK Sport on how they will monitor the National Governing Bodies in the run up to 2102 and the GNAS Performance Unit is involved in the pilot of that activity. They also shared their thoughts on what Elite Centres should look like and their observation of what is happening in China in this respect.

I write this on a train back from York after giving my 8 day-old grandson a bath and wonder if his grandfather's generation will leave him with a country dedicated to world-class performance in sport and, more generally, in life.

Just a cracking conference

I was at the Scottish Sports Development Conference this week at Crieff Hydro. First day highlights:

• Stewart Harris (CEO, sportscotland) did the introduction (and will speak further tomorrow). I detected that he thought that sportscotland would continue to exist though its focus and remit would change. Otherwise, he did not say much else, as this was just the opening.
• Keith Brown replaced the minister, Stewart Maxwell, who was ill. He spoke of the need to think about legacy for events, the balance between elite & grass roots, the need to keep driving that sports should be recognized as contributors to nation and community development, concern that the new PPP school estate is not being fully utilized by the community, and concerns about inequality in Council spend on sport (£36-£166 per capita). No real new messages there.
• Dr Pat Duffy, CEO sport coach UK, was most inspiring. He spoke of the challenges of being participant focused, maximizing front line delivery and defining the coaching model, all of which forms the basis for the UKCC. He then went on to speak about new thinking around classifying coaching by age range (child, juvenile, adult) and by type (from community to master) and for sports to build that into their planning. He spoke of a move for coaching to be professionally regulated, embedded into policy and for coaching to recognize that it needed to work with other professionals (officials, administrators, planners, physiologists etc) to make a real difference. Coaching can’t make UK Sport great on its own, was his words. He added that his estimate would be that 40,000 coach (FTE equivalents) being in place by 2016.
• Nolette Rennie OBE, CEO Sporting Equals, talked about her work in addressing the racial part of equity and the government’s desire to decrease under representation (race, disability, female) by 1% per annum to 2012. She has funding of £2M invested in English projects as early adopter programs to provide evidence and case studies. She added that, in race, you will be successful if you reach out and engage with existing race community groups, understand their barriers, and work with them for solutions.
• The workshop on the culture of clubs was interesting. Amongst all the delegates, everyone had their head round the issues. The SFA presented on their Quality Mark scheme (in content like many others) and I noted that: they link their levels to equity (e.g. bringing in females); they support well through their development officers, run urban workshops, and have web/telephone solutions for rural; they incentivise through discount on coach education, priority booking for conferences, automatically endorse funding applications, provide free first aid & child protection training, and advertise on their web site. A major issue in the PPP contracts and the difficulty in access to the school estate. Another major issue is the lack on joining up, at a local level, Active School co-ordinators, Council sport development officers and NGB clubs – the SFA took several months to complete a mapping exercise in the Lothians that identified facilities, who used them and where the local clubs were. They interestingly utilize the EC’s Leonardo fund to arrange transnational visits between clubs here and on the continent.

Second day highlights:

• The day started with Dr Mark Nesti of York St John University talking about the application of existentialist psychology to sport. A good speaker to start a second day off after a heavy conference dinner. In a nutshell, he said that there is too much of a focus on process in sport (though process is important) and that athletes/coaches with skill/techniques and no personality will fail (as personality gives core values and strength). He invited the audience to contact such individuals in their organizations and suggest the move to roles more suited to their capabilities and where they can develop their personalities.
• I attend a coaching CPD workshop around the introduction of the UKCC into Scotland which was surprisingly different from what I thought it would be. There has been quite a bit of tartanising linked to funding that includes creation of SQA units, becoming an SQA centres and being externally moderated by the SQA. Most of this is supported though. I’ve written separately to Bill Mackay and Ollie on this.
• After lunch there were some short presentations and I attended the one on Scottish University Sport. It appeared to me that these guys (and the UK equivalent) were getting their act together in increasing sporting participation and outreach to communities.
• The afternoon sessions started with Derek Casey talking about how Glasgow won 2014, very inspiring. I had no idea how much effort they put in: visited 67 out of 71 commonwealth countries; had as many visit Glasgow; had 1.5M Scots pledge support for the bid; utilize 70% of existing venues and only build 30% new. He reminded us all that 2014 will not only have a profound effect on sport in Scotland but will also hugely impact and strengthen our communities.
• The afternoon ended with Stewart Harris, CEO of sportscotland, reflecting on the conference and noting that can do attitude, clear responsibilities and collective energy are all success factors. Issues still remain around club facilities and we need to do more to employ & deploy coaches effectively and raise professional standards. He closed with thank us all and reminding that sometimes we forget to thank volunteers enough.

The week ended with shooting with Penicuik on Friday night and good chat and then at Montrose for the indoor. I saw Sandy Gregory (who incidentally is on one of the photos in the sportscotland boadroom, in his pre-white hair days) who was shooting both morning and afternoon, I think - none of this part-time stuff for the boys in the wheelchairs.