Teaching
strategies of a 4-H Shooting Sports volunteer: goal setting, skill
instruction, encouragement, and fun
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[January 26, 2022]
The Illinois 4-H Shooting Sports program relies heavily on
adult volunteers to take the lead in teaching the disciplines and
management of the local clubs. It is the volunteers who ultimately
make the county program successful. Mason County 4-H Shooting Sports
archery instructor Ted Snider is an instrumental part of the team
that makes it an outstanding program.
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“When my
kids joined 4-H Shooting Sports, I saw a great program with great
volunteers and participants in all shooting disciplines. I knew
pretty quickly I wanted to join in the fun with the kids and other
volunteers,” shares Ted. Over the last five years Ted has taught
dozens of youth in the program, three of which are his own.
“My own kids and others all get the same coach/dad,” shares Ted. His
teaching method begins by presenting his expectations. He then
allows youth to make their own choices towards how seriously they
want to work towards any goal. He provides a supportive nudge when
necessary, and believes once given the opportunity for personal goal
setting, the achievements can fully belong to the youth.
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The activities of the shooting sports program along with the support
of caring adult leaders provide young people with opportunities to
develop life skills, self-worth, and conservation ethics.
Ted has been a student of all types of archery for many years and
has spent a lifetime of accumulating archery knowledge. He
especially likes the simplicity of recurve archery. “The elegance of
the recurve bow along with the organic connection between the hand
and the string really appeals to me.” Ted feels it takes a higher
lever of skill and discipline to master, and to him “recurve archery
is more rewarding than other types of archery.”
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For his family, archery has been a great hobby and he has been
able to spend a lot of time bonding with his kids in their backyard archery
range.
Over 3.5 million youth and adults have been introduced to shooting and hunting
sports through the National 4-H Shooting Sports program. Ted has also served as
the Illinois 4-H Recurve Archery coach to the youth who participate in the 4-H
National Shooting Sports Competition. All three of Ted’s children have ranked in
top placings in the state to earn national competition eligibility, with middle
son Ben competing at Nationals in summer of 2021. Ted shared, ‘If I could have
youth take anything away from 4-H Shooting Sports, I hope they have confidence
they can succeed in anything they do according to their effort.”
Ben competed against 56 other youth and placed second overall and in the top
five of each recurve archery event. “It was an incredible experience for me as a
coach,” said Ted. “It was a true pleasure to see our state team perform among
the most sportsmanlike youth in the country. As for my coaching technique, it’s
the same no matter the venue...encourage kids, then get out of their way!”
[Anita Wilkinson
Communications Program Coordinator
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS EXTENSION
Fulton-Mason-Peoria-Tazewell Unit]
[attribution] |