1 Apr 2025
Following the season-ending Scottish Indoor Championships Weekend, archers have turned their attention to the arrival of Spring and subsequently the transition to a new season of outdoor competitions.
To aid this, the pool of archers aspiring to be part of this year’s Home Nation’s Team were invited to a Indoor-to-Outdoor Tuning Day held at the 70m all-weather facility at the Ayrshire Athletics Arena in Kilmarnock. Run by National Team Manager, Ainsley Ward, supported by National Coach, Bill Mackay and his knowledgeable team, twenty-five archers were able to ready themselves for outdoor distances through a range of tuning mechanisms.
The day also included sessions using Scottish Archery’s PAS system, which creates multiple views of an archer’s draw process simultaneously to allow them to self-assess and examine technique with their coaches. Archers were also given instruction in enhancing their Social Media presence in line with the 2025-29 strategy for growth of our sport.
Although shooting time in this session was limited, attendees were positive about access to coaches and the potential for more support. Feedback underlined the value of bringing archers together, “I liked the opportunity to talk archery with other barebow archers. Normally I only meet them at competitions, and we don’t get time to chat about settings and tuning.”
There was also a lot of positivity around the PAS system, “What an amazing system. Really happy to get some video of my shooting,” “The camera setup worked well and good to know that it is probably within budget for clubs.”
Further sessions are being planned ahead of the Home Nations Cup – Outdoors, which will be held on 16/17th August in Macclesfield this year, before coming to Scotland in 2026. The team selection criteria for both Home Nations competitions will be published later this month with a focus on bringing the best of Scotland to compete.
Finally, thanks go out to Richard Radigan of rawarchery.com for his invaluable support and demonstrations of the PAS system, and to Bill and his coaching team of Iain Wilson, Allan Winter and Andy Findlay. Now let’s go outdoors!
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Jonny Roy, National Development Manager shared his thanks to everyone for arranging the day:
‘‘I would like to say thank you to Ainsley and Bill for their hard work and support over the past few months and to the Richard of RAW Archery and to coaches Iain, Allan & Andy.
As we look ahead to another busy year, we truly appreciate their dedication and commitment to Scottish Archery. We fully understand the importance and benefits of bringing our athletes together more often, and we're excited about the possibilities of doing even more of this in the year to come’’
