On Saturday 15 October, at the request of CCS and Sports Wellington, six members of the Trentham and Randwick Archery Clubs travelled to Masterton to coach CCS children in the sport of archery.

Later in the year the children were to compete in the "Independent Games" which were to be held in Napier. Saturday 15th October was a training day for those from the Wellington region who would be taking part in the Games and they were concentrating on four sports, one of which was archery. The children were divided into groups that rotated around the four sports. Rain set in at lunchtime when each sport had only coached half the intended numbers. However, after an extended lunch, the weather cleared and we were able to complete the day's program.

Coaching people with disabilities is a challenge as no two people have exactly the same type and degree of disability. As each person came to the line their coach had to rapidly assess the most likely way that they would be able to get their pupil shooting. In some cases the pupil did not have sufficient strength to both hold the bow and draw the string. Having two coaches hold the bow while the pupil drew and released the arrow solved this. A further problem to deal with was "apprehension", where the pupils wanted to participate but were not sure that they could do it. By the end of the day we had managed to get all those that had chosen archery to shoot a number of arrows and there were some who were very good shots.

The children were a real inspiration to their coaches. They were determined to try and were not disappointed if they were unable to hit the target, but when they did, their pleasure was immense. We left at the end of the day with a feeling of satisfaction and the experience prompted some of us to register for a forthcoming Sports Wellington seminar on “Coaching the Disabled.” (Editorial Note: The proposed seminar was subsequently cancelled “due to lack of interest”!).

The following is a selection of photographs taken on the day:

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