Over the last few months there has been a fair amount of talk on various NFAS Facebook groups and in clubs about what slows down an open competition down. What factors play a part, along with lots of myths and rumours.  I wanted to tackle this head one and gather some actual facts and data.

There have been general assumptions quoted by some archers as to what slows progress. These include taking excessively long tea or lunch breaks, the use of binoculars, searching for missed arrows etc.

For reference binoculars can only be used in some shooting classes in NFAS. Though there is a proposal that is has been muted and will be voted on next year to all allow all classes the option. As they say that’s another story. The vast majority are not allowed to use them. The feeling by some is that by expanding their use would result in slowing things down even more.

To gather some facts I created a simple poll on a Facebook group and invited people to vote on the options, add other options and comment if they thought elements were omitted.

The feedback has been great and I’d like to thank all those who contributed. I received 215 votes and over 50 comments. In the podcast episode I dive into the details more offering some thoughts on how the top aspects can be addressed.

Here are the results. I gave respondents the ability to add additional options as I felt this might highlight topics I had overlooked. They were also allowed to vote on more than one thing.

The core question was “What makes it a long day, and detracts from the enjoyment?”

Question options	Percentage result
archers searching for missed arrows	44%
time spent on the peg preparing to shoot, distance judging, etc	19%
discussions / scoring at the target	16%
group size I.e. large number in a group	6%
poorly thought out shot, (multi targets predator/pray)	6%
taking long tea / lunch breaks	5%
people blaming other people	2%
Fully subscribed shoots	1%
People taking photos/videos of themselves to add to their social media	1%
announcement before the shoot begins	0%
navigating difficult or challenging terrain round the course	0%

I’d encourage you to listen to the podcast where I unpick some of the above points, offering some ideas on what can be achieved or changed to improve the situation.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.