Recently my archery club, South Nation Archery Supply, hosted our annual awards ceremony; it is a chance to reflect on achievements of the club and present awards to all the hard working individuals of the club. It is awesome, we have a large potluck dinner (the food was amazing) and Kathy and Larry present medals, certificates, pins and flowers to everyone that earned them throughout the indoor season.
Our club also presents certificates of participation for those archers that left their personal comfort zone to try a provincial, national or even international tournament. For the first time, I had the pleasure to be a guest presenter for the participation certificates at the national level. It was a real honour to be introduced as a role model for younger archers and extremely flattering.
“Recognition is the greatest motivator.” Gerard C. Eakedale
Recognition is one of the most powerful psychological tools. Badges, medals and trophies are achieved through hours, weeks, months and sometimes years of hard work. It is importance to recognize these achievements, especially with young beginner archers. It encourages archers to spread their wings and leaves their comfort zone.
To assist junior archers growth, Archery Canada introduced the badge system called Canbow. The Canbow system is a badge level system used to measure an archers’ growth through various stages of development including…
- Level 1: Basic Form and Safety (4 badge progressions)
- Level 2: Competency and Basic Equipment Knowledge (4 badge progressions)
- Level 3: Increased Skill and Physiology (5 badge progressions)
- Level 4: National Skill Level and Tournament Preparation (13 badge progressions)
This is a great system for archers to measure their development, especially for those junior archers who are just beginning and do not compete for medals in their club, provincially, nationally or internationally.
“I learned the value of hard work by working hard. “ Margaret M. Fitzpatrick
If your club is interested in implementing the Canbow system for your junior archers, checkout archery Canada’s website.
Jordan Sequillion 