Hello, my name is Ian Norwood and for those that don’t know, I am the County Coach Officer for DNAA.
I became an archer in 2005 after trying to shoot three balloons for £1.00 (might have been more…it was a long time ago) at a small archery centre near North Berwick when I was there on holiday with my wife Ann.
Prior to archery I used to be a church bell ringer and Ann used to be a traditional china painter…now I don’t ring church bells and Ann doesn’t paint china as archery has consumed our lives.
I was aware that our coach wasn’t getting any younger and wanting to give something back to the sport, I trained to become a coach Level 1 in 2009. I then went on to become a coach Level 2 in 2011.
I have tried my hand at almost anything relating to archery, I have shot recurve both freestyle and barebow, Compound, English longbow and all manner of traditional bows in target archery, field archery (both WA and NFAS), clout and our latest passion, flight.
I took on the role of County Coach Officer in 2017 a role which keeps me very busy. My main objective as CCO is to support and develop coach training in the county and provide opportunities for the development for our junior and senior archers.
I know that Covid has been a major blow to the archery community, and in particular, our coaches have struggled to stay motivated during lockdown. Now that archery has returned close to where it was prior to covid, I hope that clubs recognise the need to have good coaches and give them the means to give back to the sport as I did when I started my coaching career.
