Leahurst College

Leahurst College is a new Kingston high-school that just opened it doors in September 2013. As a new private high-school they started up with only grade 9 and have plans expand adding grades each year until they can accommodate grade 7 through grade 12 by 2017. The school is taking a very unique approach teaching advanced placement with very high academic standards while introducing hands-on learning through practical application and experience. My younger brother Joshua was given a unique opportunity to attend and is enjoying it very much.

As part of their practical application, they visit universities, research facilities, try different sports like rowing, rock climbing, slack line etc…. With this in mind, on Wednesday, I was given the opportunity to introduce archery to all of Josh’s classmates. One of the reasons, they wanted to introduce Archery was because Josh became the school’s first competing athlete, when he attended Ontario OFSAA championships in Toronto.  The school wanted all his classmates to understand and appreciate what it takes to not only shoot archery but to compete.

We covered the basic 10 steps of archery, safety, basic tournament rules, and some physics of archery. The students had a lot of fun in the sun shooting arrows in to the target. They all started at 5m working their way to 15m for about an hour.  At the end of class, they sat back and admired as Josh shot from 45m.  I believe they all now have an appreciation for the level of skill and consistency Joshua has developed in the sport. Little did they know, this was all with his indoor setup and feathers vanes.

There were about seven students in total, which is the most amount of students that I have personally coached at once but, it was a lot of fun. They even talked to me about doing another group lesson in the future and the possibility a Leahurst Archery club that could attend OFSAA in the future. Leahurst’s students are currently doing exams, and I want to wish them all the best of luck and I look forward to teaching them in the future.

If you would to learn more about Leahurst College check out their website or facebook page.

Archery Skills Help Students in the Classroom

Awesome article posted by Shannon Rikard on December 18, 2013 in Archery Growth

“Once the kids realize they can only shoot if they follow the rules, they get it. I’ve seen even kids with the worst behavioral problems straighten up because they know if they follow the rules, they can shoot. It’s like magic.”

Mastering archery requires skill, concentration and perseverance. It’s a sport that’s fun, but also allows participants of any age or skill level to compete against others or challenge themselves individually. The sport has long helped archers gain confidence and physical strength, but two Texas teachers have discovered archery also helps students with math.

Mike Duncan and Raeann Melvin, who teach physical education at Nolanville Elementary School in Nolanville, Texas, started an archery class two years ago to help third- through fifth-grade students understand how to determine area and perimeter in geometry.

Read More…

Chapter One complete…

On Thursday, I finished the first chapter of my life by graduating from Kingston Vocational & Collegiate Institute.  My graduating class was about 300 kids, with more 80% graduating with honors (academic 80% average) and Ontario scholars of which I was one. I remember walking across the stage, my brothers and sister cheering, apparently my mother cried, my father could not stop taking photos they was so proud and happy.

Besides being an Ontario scholar, I was also the recipient of couple of awards and scholarships. With the first award, my name with forever by etched on the walls of K.C.V.I. as it in engraved on a plague.

The Adrien Langlois Award (Physical Education)

Awarded to a graduating student who has completed a minimum of three physical education credits including PSE4U (Sport Science). The student is considered the best overall physical education student as determined by the Healthy Active living department

The Sandy Prentice Memorial Scholarship

The scholarship is designed to recognize the efforts and accomplishments of a graduating K.C.V.I. student with an identified communication disability. The student must have demonstrated outstanding and persistent effort in overcoming the challenges of their learning difficulty such as reading, writing, organization or social skills. The student must also demonstrate a high degree of academic competence, the ability to self advocate and self regulate, and some level of contribution to the school community in the area of sports, clubs, or student leadership.

Graduating from high school was an extremely important moment for me, since at five years old, my parents were told I would never learn to read or write so not to bother to try and teach me. I have dyslexia, severe auditory processing communication disorder to be more exact, so much so that when officially tested, I scored in 1st percentile.

There is often a misconception about dyslexia, most people think of people reversing letters or numbers; however dyslexia is about learning differently, and auditory processing disorder is a broad umbrella for people who have difficultly either understanding or expressing ideas or information either verbally or written. For an overview about various types of auditory processing disorder check out the Wikipedia article.

This is the first time I have publicly acknowledged my learning challenge. Mainly because I never ever wanted anyone to treat me differently or for one minute think that I could not do something. Personally, I think it is a learning GIFT, since I just learn differently and the list of famous people with dyslexia is very extensive including Muhammad Ali, Cher, Robin Williams, Albert Einstein and many more.

Although, I had been accepted at Dalhousie and Acadia, I will be attending Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario this fall studying Kinesiology, with  goals of becoming a physiotherapist and a national level archery coach.  To all who read this, do not let anyone else dictate your path in life. You can achieve anything you want to, it just takes a little hard work.

Thanks followers

On Thursday, I competed at Ontario High School Archery Invitational Tournament, a sanctioned Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) event. To my delight over 400 provincial high-school archers participated with over 100 in the Girls Olympic division.

Although, I finished 6^th this year, my excitement came from meeting some of my blog followers.  I love meeting my followers and discovering that they enjoy my blog and  find it useful.  I want to thank those people for coming up to me and introducing themselves to me.  I hope I get the pleasure to meet more of you in the future.

One of the weekend’s highlights was finding out, Canadian national and Olympic coach Joan MacDonald has read my blog. While presenting me with my 6^th place award she whispered to me “good job with your blog and keep up the good work”; high praise from some with over 30 years of archery experience.

In the future, I hope to personally meet more of my followers. I would also like to thank all of my other followers who have followed my blog for the past several years.

Happy Shooting

2013 OFSAA

The Ontario High School Archery Invitational Tournament, a sanctioned Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) event is once again being hosted by Richmond Green Community Sports Centre. To my knowledge, Ontario is the only province in Canada offering a high school archery championship. I am very happy the organizers have decided to move forward with the event, since it is a good stepping-stone tournament for archers in their development into competitive archery.

Last year’s tournament saw over 440 archers compete in four divisions. Both boys and girls in Olympic recurve, Standard (one-piece fibreglass bows) shooting on a 60cm face, and compound fingers and compound release shooting on 40cm faces with everyone at 18m. This year compound bow and standard divisions compete on Wednesday, May 15^th and all Olympic recurve divisions compete on Thursday, May 16^th.

Participation is expected to be slightly less this year because of the Ontario Teachers strike impact on high-school clubs. However, if you are interested in participating in the event, please contact your high-school archery coach to find out if they are sending a team to the event and get registered.

Getting Started in Archery

Archery is one of the best sports because it can be social, competitive, fun, and casual, you just need to decide what you want to get out of it.  Recently the interest in archery has sky-rocketed since the movies the Hunger Games, Brave and the Avengers.

Archery is so popular that Britain right now, with London Olympics finishing recently,  MPs are demanding its return and politicians have participated in training sessions with current and future Olympians.

This is not a local phenomenon either, there are tons of articles throughout North America about the increased interest in Archery. I am sure there are even more throughout the world since I have seen a lot of blogs about people who have or want to give it a try and I have also seen a lot of questions and comments about how to get started.

Well, here is a quick simple step-by-step guide.

1. Find a archery club : Archery clubs exist everywhere; your school may even have an archery club. You can also contact your provincial, state or national archery organization. Most Provincal Sports Organization (PSO) or National Sports Organization (NSO) are now online and they will either have a listing of clubs or you can contact them directly for one
2. Setup a take a beginner class or a private lesson : Most clubs offer regular lessons for both beginner and advanced archers. Alternatively you can contact a private coach, like myself, and setup a private session.

It’s that simple and once you have tried archery; you’ll be hooked.

Since, the hardest part about getting started in archery is finding information. Check out my links page for links to Ontario, Canada, USA, and International organizations to help you find an archery club close to you.  Once started, you can talk with your club or coach and they can provide some insight on how you can get the most out of archery.

Next Saturday…

The key to achieving your goals is to first set your priorities and manage your time accordingly. Sometimes you need to make sacrifices, and sometimes you are not able to do everything you want.

This week is a busy week for me, it is the final week of school and I have back to back exams on Thursday and Friday. I know I have blogs that I want to publish, training and practice however I need to make sure that my education is still a priority.  Sometimes, even I get overwhelmed and need to take a couple of minutes to clear my head and focus. The good news is next Saturday, I will be done.

In the meantime, check out my Time Management page for key factors to helping you manage your priorities and schedule.

2012 OFSAA Archery Invitational Tournament

On May 16^th to May 17^th 2012 Richmond Green Community Sports Centre again hosted the Ontario High School Archery Invitational Tournament, a sanctioned Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) event.

Once again, I was able to compete on behalf of my high school Kingston Colligate and Vocational Institute alongside my sister Sydney.  We had a great time meeting up with several of our archery friends from all over the province.

This year, well over a hundred girls competed in Olympic Individual division which produced a close competition, a difference of only 34 points separated the top 10 finishers. I was fortunate to capture the Silver Medal between friends Odelia Wong of Parkdale CI and my MICA teammate Lindsay Fulmerton of St. Michael’s School. My sister shot extremely well and improved on last year’s performance to finish 17^th. The new KCVI Archery Club, for which we are founders and I am the coach, has been making progress towards participating in the annual OFSAA tournament. Next year we should be ready to enter a team in the Girls Olympic & Standard Divisions. I hope that we will have enough interest to have a Boys’ Teams as well.

This tournament was a lot of fun and hopefully, the results for the entire tournament will be posted on the Ontario Association of Archers shortly. Any high-school that has or is thinking of starting an Archery Club should really consider participating in this OFSAA sanctioned event. It is an awesome event to gauge your archery club’s development and it is a lot of fun.

Preparing to take on the World

The 2012 World Archery Indoor Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada are less than a month away, and I am equally excited and nervous. This will be my first experience at the World level and I am trilled about enjoying it with my junior recurve team mates, Virginie Chenier of Quebec and Caitlin Northey of Saskatchewan. I am sure that we will gel as a team however since we all live in various provinces we will develop our team round strategy at the hotel on practice days. Speaking of the Hotel, the South Point Hotel and Casino, where the event will be held, is located in the heart of the premiere southwest Las Vegas valley, just minutes away from the famous Las Vegas Strip. According to their website, some of their many amenities include a 16-screen Century Theatre movie complex, 64-lane bowling center and a handful of restaurants that cater to all appetites and tastes.  Their distinctive hotel features spacious rooms and suites with 42-inch plasma televisions, Point Plush mattresses and Wireless Fidelity throughout. A unique feature to this property is its Equestrian Center, which is the finest horse facility in the country. South Point also has a fabulous 400-seat showroom that features headliner entertainment and dancing to live bands on weekends. Although the hotel offers plenty to do, even for those under age of majority (21 in Nevada), I am not sure I will have a lot of time based on the posted schedule for the Championships. The practice venue will be open for both official arrival days, Friday and Saturday, and I plan to get there early on Saturday. The rest of the week looks like the following…

• Day 1 Official Practice & Team Captain Meeting
• Day 2 Qualification Rounds
• Day 3 Individual Eliminations
• Day 4 Team Eliminations
• Day 5 Individual and Team Finals

Immediately following the championships from February 10^th to 13^th is the World Archery Festival, stage 2 of the Indoor Archery World Cup. However, due to the amount of school I would have to miss, I have decided not to participate, instead I will fly home on February 10^th. I look forward to meeting so many new friends from all over the world, and participating in one of the archery world’s premier events. Until then, my focus will be on eliminating all distractions. First and foremost, finish this semester and exams the week before leaving. So rather than setting expectations to high; my goals are simple. First, focus on shooting and ignoring bells, whistles and the bright lights of Las Vegas. Then, give it my best effort each day, focusing on each shot and ignoring any mistakes. Lastly, learn and enjoy the complete experience. If all I bring back is the knowledge of what it takes to compete that the World level, I will succeed. I have been asked a couple of times now, however it is unknown at this time, if they will be streaming a live feed of the competition however results will be posted on the World Indoor website.