By Octavius Palmer
Eighth grader at Grace Holistic
Throughout the first quarter of the 2019-2020 school year, Grace Holistic Center for Education offered an archery elective. One freshman student, named Maya San Miguel, said, “It was a lot of fun.” The elective took place at the archery range/store, The Archery Place in Montgomery.
The facility has two ranges, each with enough space for 12 persons to shoot their bows at once. The archery coach started the participants’ training with the basics, such as how to stand in a way that optimizes accuracy. These first steps were taught at the 10-yard line, with each step learned directly linked to increased accuracy. As the course went on he taught the group more advanced techniques.
Half-way through the course, the coach moved the participants up to the 20-yard line. It marked the end of the first section of the elective. At the 20-yard line, participants were taught more advanced techniques, though it should be noted that aiming had not been taught up until this point.
Although at first, this might seem strange, there is valid reasoning behind it. If aiming were taught to the group from the beginning, a not-insignificant portion of the participants likely would have paid little attention to other techniques after being taught to aim. It is true due simply to human nature, if you are taught how to do the basics of a skill and learn as you go, you will acquire a deeper understanding of that skill. In contrast, if you were to jump right to a more difficult portion of the skill, you would eventually learn what you set out to learn, however you would likely see little point in learning the basics and would have less success as a result.
Knowing this fact, the coach taught his class of archers in a way that saw visible improvements in every session. Even after learning just the basics, the participants saw significantly more accurate shots. By the time the course was over, they were shooting at the 20-yard line at a target noticeably smaller than the one at the start. Even with these added obstacles, the coach’s lessons were able to ensure that the participants had no trouble hitting their targets.