Handicap Scheme

Purpose of the Scheme

The archery handicap scheme is designed to provide a level playing field in competitions allowing the lesser able archers to compete and have the same chance of winning.

The scheme is administered by the club officials with no central records kept by Archery GB.

Handicaps may be derived and used for indoor and outdoor shooting, the same procedure applies to both.

Separate handicaps should be maintained for each bowstyle used by each archer.

Rounds to be recorded for handicapping purposes are those laid down in the GNAS rules of shooting and for which handicap tables are available. Details of Rounds are given here

Plus these additional shoots

(a) Two dozen arrows shot at a 122cm face using 5 ring scoring

(b) Three dozen arrows shot at a 122cm face using metric scoring

The above are shot at different distances to give a rounded view of the archers ability (252 shoots are similar to these but can't be used for handicap purposes).

For the purposes of handicapping, any archer may shoot any such round. Rounds must be shot under GNAS rules of shooting at a club target day or at a meeting organised by GNAS, FITA or affiliated body.

Recording of Handicaps

The clubs records officer should record every score made by each member together with the appropriate handicap rating from tables 5-12

Every member must inform the club records officer about every round shot and, if a member is a member of more than one club, he/she is responsible for ensuring that the handicaps are recorded the same at both clubs.

Initial assessment

A beginner or a member without a handicap will be eligible to receive a handicap after submitting score cards for three completed rounds. From the tables a handicap is produced for each of these rounds and an average is taken and rounded up the next highest number if it is not a whole number. If any the rounds do not qualify for a handicap as shown in the tables the archer will be given a handicap of 100 until he/she improves.

An archer who is not in possession of a handicap may not enter a handicap shoot.

How it works

The archer submits three cards for calculation. e.g.

4 June 2015 shoots Windsor 856 Handicap (tables) 38

11 June 2015 shoots Hereford 1061 " 35

26 June 2015 shoots Albion 840 " 33

We now find the average of these three handicaps by adding together and dividing by 3 to give a handicap of 35.3 as this is not a whole number it is rounded up to 36 and becomes the handicap, if the archer improves then this handicap will be reduced but will not increase. at the end of the shooting year these handicaps are reassessed by calculating the handicaps for the best three shoots in the previous year, this is the only time the handicap may increase.

How to use the handicap

The club has a handicap shoot, shooting a Windsor and the archer returns a score of 902, At this stage note that we have made no reference to the bowstyle that the archer is using, if the archer uses more than one bowstyle he/she must record handicaps for each bowstyle, if for example he shoots a recurve then the records officer will use the handicap relevant to that bowstyle.

So the scores are in but we haven't got a level playing field yet, the records officers now uses the handicap tables to find the allowance (from tables) for the handicap of 36 which for a Windsor is 567 this is added to the score of 902 giving a total handicap score of 1469.

The handicap scheme is designed so that if an archer shoots to his/her handicap no matter what type of bow or ability his final handicap score will be 1440 this figure equates to the highest score that can be achieved in any of the competitions which is 12 doz arrows at 10 per arrow =1440 so what has happened in this example?

This archer has shot better than his handicap by 29 points in this case the records officer will now look at the handicap for this new score of 902 (from tables) which is 32 we now add 36 and 32 =68 and divide by 2 = 34 this is the new handicap for this archer. If an archer doesn't shoot to the handicap there is no change.

Summary

Each member will need an outdoor and an indoor handicap and if he/she shoots more than one bow, they need handicaps for each, The year for outdoor handicaps start 1 January and for Indoor start 1 July. The key to this is the records officer who has to stay on top of the input of scores and making the necessary adjustments, the right kind of software can make the job easier.

Completed Rounds should be handed or sent to the Records Officer, or emailed Records.KLAC@gmail.com