News feature
COVID-19 and clubs; what the landscape looks like
In the last issue of Bow International, we looked at the impacts of the pandemic on elite athletes, coaches and dealers. Another key aspect of the archery landscape is clubs, the primary driver of the sport, especially in the UK.
One of the luckier aspects of 'our thing', certainly compared to several other sports, and the leisure and entertainment sector, is that we can fundamentally practice our sport with social distancing in place. Obviously, many changes have to be made, to comply with general government guidelines, but it's clear that archery can work with the situation - especially outdoors. Needless to say, the situation is more complicated than that, because clubs need revenue to survive, and that only comes from archers.
It seems that many archers have not yet returned to club shooting, or are still practicing in back gardens. With a generally older demographic meaning that more senior archers, at higher risk from COVID-19, this is perhaps not so surprising.
Only a few indoor archery spaces in the UK are currently open, it seems, and a large subset of recreational archers in the UK shoot indoors only. It is much more difficult to make an indoor space safe, and the limitations on numbers indoors is going to make indoor spaces more problematic than outdoors to keep viable.
Bow spoke to several clubs, and extensively to Mark Brown, a senior officer at Hampstead
Bowmen in London, to get some details about the changes that had been made.
Hampstead are currently unable to shoot indoors, as their indoor hall is part of the recreation facilities for the Royal Free Hospital in London, and since lockdown started it has been being used (and will continue to be used) as a supply station for key workers. "We're saving money on the hall costs, at least, so we're not in too bad a financial situation. A lot of people are keen to get back indoors. But the future is a little uncertain at the moment." said Mark.
With most clubs not owning their indoor spaces, it's not just about fulfilling government and/or Archery GB regulations – archery clubs have to abide by the rules of whoever is managing the hall, too. "We can normally get 15 people on the line shooting at 18 or 25m. Spacing them out 2m apart would mean we could probably squeeze in maybe just six or seven per detail, and people would have to be extra careful with space behind the line. We're not absolutely sure how we could make that work, even if the Royal Free would let us." said Mark.
Like many other clubs, Hampstead have instituted an online booking system for their outdoor ground, to regulate numbers coming in to shoot and ensure that there are enough well-spaced bosses for each individual. (Only people in the same household can shoot on a single boss.) New rules include: bringing your own target face, bringing gloves to move any club equipment (Hampstead needs to leave a clear field after sessions) and sanitising hands at every opportunity.
"Fundamentally, the outdoors is going well, although we've probably only had 20 of our 60 members joining us outside to shoot. We've sold out several sessions, although mostly it's been the same faces turning up. We're coming up to [membership] renewal time, and I'm a little worried about how many people will drop off. I think we may lose a few of the more casual archers we only see indoors at the weekends. The new rules are working fine, but when it gets to November and we start to lose the evenings, it's going to be a bit tougher again."
Hampstead usually benefits from people joining after starting at one of London's commercial clubs and paid private ranges, which have been closed for the lockdown. But a wider problem for club membership numbers is that just a tiny handful of clubs and facilities are presently offering have-a-gos and/or beginners courses, which provide a continuous feed of novices joining new and old clubs alike.
Beginners courses present significant issues in the face of the pandemic; they are usually held indoors, they use shared equipment, and they rely on close one-to-one supervision with the coach having to touch both the novice and their bow. You can see a situation where they could work, with masks and coaching from a short distance away, but it seems unlikely that anyone other than commercial outfits would be prepared to take on that burden right now.
Another issue is personal finance, with many people feeling the pinch – or worse. "I personally know a couple of our members are in a bad way financially." said Mark. "Our senior fees are only £75 for the year, which is cheaper than many other clubs, but I can absolutely understand that people would find that difficult at the moment and would be looking at some hard decisions."
The commercial sector, including clubs such as Archery Fit in Greenwich, have managed to reopen with stringent government rules in place. But the usual volunteer clubs are facing a smaller, but potentially long term, 'slower' crisis. Other club managers we heard from were angry at the Archery GB regulations which mean that they were facing halved shooting lists with no reductions in insurance premiums or any discussion over fees. Archery GB, for its part, is facing its own issues over dramatically falling overall membership numbers and a consequent reduction in revenue.
As with most things related to the pandemic, it is impossible to plan ahead effectively. Until we can do that, clubs will feel the squeeze along with everyone else.