National Archery in the Schools Program

[illianabowhntr67]

I have talked to several parents of kids involved in the program who now become interested in archery themselves.

[Muleyslayer]

I think its wonderful no matter what they shoot. My daughter placed in top 12 for girls last yr @ tournament!

[Ssamac]

Mr Vic are you in Eldon? My sons played ball against Cardinal. Nice little town. Are you coming to the shoot in Nauvoo on Labor day weekend?

sam

[Herdbull]

Chad- I'm glad it seems they are allowing talk about hunting now. I called the national chairman about 5 years ago, and yes he said the reason they didn't want the archery program linked to hunting was because of the huge urban schools. So now it seems it may be  a local thing and state wildlife agencies are involved in many areas. Sounds good. If any of the NASP instructors on here want to contact me about copies of Primal Dreams condensed version, please feel free to do so. Thanks, Mike

[smoked]

I worked the NASP nationals this weekend, 7,125 kids were involved from 34 states and while somewhat stressful at times, I'll probably volunteer every year I can. Seen a young lady shoot a 294 out of the possible 300, it was her first year in the program! There was a 3d range set up by Rhinehart and had a line all weekend, the kids loved it! Also had a bowfishing range, so I do not think they are trying to keep hunting out of it. Anyone that gets the chance to help should, the kids having fun and competing on a level playing field is well worth the vacation day I had to take to help out.

Darrell

[Tim Nuss]

Thanks for all of the great feedback on the program.
 In my opinion the National Archery in the Schools Program will only help us in traditional archery. The young people in that program today are the future for us in the years to come.
 I would realy like to see every national,state, and local club and orginization do what ever they can to help it now to secure our privleges in the future.

 Tim

[moebow]

I too have just returned from the nationals in Louisville.  What a great event!!!! Billed as the largest archery tournament in HISTORY  and it was.

To those that disparage the Genesis as a "wheel" bow, go do some homework and find out about it.  As has been pointed out many times here it has a universal draw length, no wall and adjustable draw weights from about 10 to 20 pounds which remain constant--no let off or build up.  At 20# it throws an arrow roughly equivalent to a 35# trad bow.  It is the best beginner's and instructional bow that has ever been produced.  Reduce the draw weight to work on form then increase it to get performance.

Here's one for you - if you don't know.  An eleven year old here in Minnesota won the overall state tournament.  She is in 6th grade and was able to out point ALL the girls in the state 4th grade through 12 grade.  She is the youngest to ever win the Minn. State tournament and from what I can find, it looks as though she's the youngest to win in ANY state since the program started.  This would be equivalent to a 6th grade boy's basketball team winning your state's AAA state tournament.  What other sport levels the playing field so drastically?

I do agree that the level of training given to most of the school coaches is rudimentary at best and there is MUCH room for improvement in this area.  But most of the "BAI" basic archery instructors are volunteers and they are doing the best they can.  I offer an "intermediate" archery class in the summers at our club for any NASP student that has at least one year of the school program.  In this course we work on proper form and refining what they get in school.

NASP is currently found in 46 states and four foreign countries.  It has been in existence only since 2002.  What other program has been so successful recently that isn't found in front of a computer screen of some sort?

Get out and get involved!

[Bowwild]

NASP started March 3, 2002 in 21 schools. Today, the program teaches archery to 1.5 million kids per year in 7,361 schools in 5 countries (46 states and 4 provinces).  Massachusetts begins the program next week as 47th state. New Brunswick will becoe 5th province on July 29th (God willing).  These kids learn the process of shooting that most of us on this site could only wish we had learned so many years ago. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association archery participation grew 7.7% last year.  This is 29 times faster growth than the average of the 8 prior years!  Teaching archery, of any style to millions of children can only strengthen the future of the shooting sports and oh, the kids love it and so do their teachers who report better grades, attendance, behavior, and self-esteem among the students.  Most of these kids will never know target panic because they are being taught better than most of us learned on our own or from our friends.  Yep, I just returned from the nationals. There were 7,125 students registered and 6,874 showed up -- the largest archery tournament in world history.  137 people, many bowhunters from traditional clubs worked very hard to run the event. NASP has certified more than 16,000 teachers to teach NASP-style archery. 77% of NASP students had never shot a bow before NASP.  If you want to know how you can help, send me a personal message please.

[Pumphouse Flanders]

I think it is a great program.It seems to be getting bigger here in Bama.

[Bowwild]

25 states have more than 105 schools in NASP now. Alabama is among these -- 404 schools trained but only 201 schools equipped to teach the program.  NASP is operated, under a letter of agreement with NASP, by the state fish and wildlife agency in 44 of the 46 NASP states. The program is run by a NASP-certified volunteer in Washington and Oregon.  While every person on the team that founded NASP is an avid hunter, and most are bowhunters it was decided to keep bowhunting messages out of the training so biased adults in some school districts wouldn't prevent kids from having access to archery.  NASP's philosophy is to teach target archery to millions of students and let them decide, what, if anything to do with these skills.  NASP is a 501 c. (3) foundation.  www.archeryintheschools.org

[BEN]

Gonna say it again:    

When I was down this weekend, watching my sister's team---and ended up being asked to help with some tips and coaching------you wouldn't believe how many of the kids in her team and some other's who were around listening, were very interested in the fact that I shot a "plain" bow and even had made a few. The interest is definitely piqued-----whether for trad. or wheelies-----when it comes to kids: it ALL good!

[Jake]

I went to Louisville and was amazed at the amount of kids.  They were well behaved and having a blast.  It was ran very smoothly and on time.  They did a great job.  Anytime you can get a bow in a kids hand is good in my opinion.  NASP is a great program.