Visiting Coaches

Mick and Kath Fitzpatrick

Mick - County, Kath - Senior

Mick and Kath are the husband and wife duo that have been at the club multiple times over their long and illustrious coaching careers. In June 2015, Mick ran the instructors course for the club. It went so well that Sarah and Dave asked him to be their mentor for their level two qualifications, which they duly passed. He kindly agreed and began attending club sessions at the beginning of the 2015-16 year, and sometimes Kath would come too. Noticing the huge benefit that they were both having to the entire club at those sessions, an agreement was made for them to continue attending in an official capacity. Their impact on the club has been astounding through both club culture and improved performance. They have really become part of the club and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Between them they have over 60 years of coaching experience. Most recently, Kath has been working alongside Lloyd Brown, Archery GB’s National Head Coach, as part of the Archery GB Olympic Development Team. She is also Co-ordinator and Technical Coach with the Northern Archery Academy. Mick has shot recurve, compound, and longbow to Master Bowman level in target archery, and compound to Master Bowman level in clout and field. They have both been awarded the Yorkshire county Award of Merit, the county's highest award. They have both been awarded the Yorkshire Sword, Kath three times! Kath has also received the Archery GB Award for Coaching and the Jack Flinton Helping Hand. Together they run ArcheryCoaches.co.uk

Not only have they personally held many club, county, regional, and national records, they have won the following: At County level- Ladies Compound Field Archery Champion, Ladies Compound Clout Archery Champion, Ladies Compound Target Archery Champion (both indoor and outdoor), Gents Longbow Target Archery Champion, Gents Compound Clout Archery Champion, Gents Compound Field Archery Champion. At Regional level - Gents Clout Archery Champion (both Recurve and Compound). At National level - British Ladies Compound Clout Archery Champion, British Gents Compound Clout Archery Champion.

Archery has four levels of coaching qualification, not including the instructors award. These levels are level one, level two, county, and senior. Level one is designed around taking beginners through a beginners course, making them safe, and giving them the basics. It is a three month long process with a minimum of three teaching days, a minimum of twelve hours of supported practice, and an assessment. Level two is taking more experienced archers and getting them up to a regionally competitive level. This involves many aspects such as technique, bow tuning, diet, exercise, and others. The level two is a significantly longer process involving much greater detail and coaching a single archer for about six months while recording and planning their development. County is an exponential step up in terms of difficulty and details of the course can be found on the Archery GB website. Suffice it to say that this is not within the realms of most people at university level, it requires years of coaching experience. This is even more true of the senior coaching qualification which is reserved for those coaching archers competing on a national and international level