TAAT (The Archery Association of Tamil Nadu)

ARCHERY COACH ALERT!

This is an information initiative by The Archery Association of Tamilnadu (TAAT) issued in the interests of aspirants of Archery, schools who wish to start Archery classes and the general public to deal only with AAI in the national level and TAAT in the state level on all matters concerning Archery.

This is for the benefit of the public and institutions who search online for Archery courses, Archery schools and Archery coaches. It's in the public interest to be careful not to be cheated by unqualified Archery coaches, flyby wire Archery schools or non existing Archery associations.

The Archery Association of India (AAI) is the only national body which promotes, controls and regulates Archery in India. AAI is affiliated to World Archery (WA) which is the only world federation that promotes, controls and regulates Olympic Archery and major Archery events in the world. AAI is affiliated to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the Sports Ministry of India.

The Archery Association of Tamilnadu (TAAT) is the only state body in Tamilnadu, affiliated to AAI.

ATTENTION AND CONCERN!

It has come to the attention of Tamil Nadu's official archery body - TAAT (The Archery Association of Tamil Nadu), which is the only unit duly recognised by the TNOA (Tamil Nadu Olympic Association), and the AAI (Archery Association of India) that there is a sudden spurt of online advertisements by a multitude of Archery academies and fancy associations in fancy names claiming to be affiliated to non existing international associations, claiming to teach Archery and offering affiliations to unsuspecting members of the public for a fee.

This alert notice is for the benefit of managements of schools/colleges and the public at large to be extremely careful not to fooled by online advertisements or other claims that one is an Archery instructor or is running a genuine Archery school with an affiliation to AAI.

The Archery Association of India (AAI) registers all genuine Archers and trained Coaches in its AAI affiliation portal. Please check with your instructor/coach if they are affiliated to AAI and has an identity card issued by AAI.

FIVE STEP PRECAUTION!

The following are FIVE precautions an individual, parents, schools or institutions must observe before allowing someone to teach Archery to their children / students.

1) CHECK CREDENTIALS OF THE COACH

Ask the person for a coach accreditation issued by AAI. All Archery coaches in INDIA are duly affiliated to AAI in the national level and to TAAT in the state of Tamilnadu. Any coach who teaches Archery will carry an identity card in his person and will VOLUNTARILY produce it before introducing themselves. This card must have the date of issue/expiry, qualification of the coach, address and telephone numbers of the coach and other details. For any clarification you may contact TAAT office ( Ph: 98416-18386 ) or AAI office ( Ph: 011-22146057 ).

2) VERIFY TRAINING HISTORY

Ask the person who his/her coach in archery was, get the number and verify the claims.

Unless a coach has trained under the SAI (Sports Authority of India) and has a six week certification or a one year diploma OR has a coaches accreditation from AAI ( level 1, 2 or 3 ) OR has a certification from WORLD ARCHERY ( level 1, 2 or 3 ) OR has a certification from TAAT ( level 1, 2 or 3 ). Otherwise, he/she is not academically qualified to teach Archery.

Please remember that improperly trained Archery coaches can do lots of irreversible damage to the unsuspecting Archery beginners' shooting skills by teaching wrongly. Such errors in shooting are hard to correct as the Archer progresses.

3) DO THEY HAVE PROFESSIONAL EQUIPMENT?

Today anyone can buy a basic bow in a sports store and shoot instantly in short distance.

Ask the prospective coach if he/she has his own recurve or compound equipment. You may request the coach to shoot with a recurve bow at 70 mts, with a compound bow at 50 mts and an Indian bow at 50 mts. Check how he/she scores at this distance. You can decide then if the person is qualified to teach others or not. Even if the coach has not shot for a long time, the arrows ought to reach the target. Don't get carried away by Archery coaches who can't shoot themselves with an appropriate bow and arrows.

4) VISIT THE ARCHERY RANGE

Check with the coach if he/she has an Archery range where Archery is regularly practised. Go and visit the range and see for yourselves if there are buttresses ( target boards ) in the range and if other Archers are shooting in the range. Talk to these Archers and get their views on the history of the range and the number of Archery students attending. Check if they are shooting with professional equipment. Observe if the Archers are shooting at appropriate distances ( Recurve 70 mts, 60 mts / Compound 50 mts / Indian round 50 mts, 30 mts ) and check their scores.

Check if these archers have attended any state meets by TAAT and national meets conducted by AAI. Such a visit to the Archery coach's range will give anyone with common sense an idea of the coach's credentials.

5) CHECK AFFILIATION LETTERS

If any coach / academy / association claims to have affiliation to the state body - ( The Archery Association of Tamilnadu - TAAT ) or the national body ( Archery association of India ).

Please check letters of such claims and check with the respective bodies. The contact numbers of the nodal bodies are hereby given with the contact person for verification.

TAAT: Shihan Hussaini - 98416-18386
TNOA: Mr. JM Fernando - 044-65683424
AAI: Mr. Gunjan Abrol - 011-22460137

Please remember the above important FIVE points to check the authenticity of archery coaches/schools/ associations.

DONT GET FOOLED BY PHOTOGRAPHS!

Fakes have a habit of carrying albums, showing off a few photographs with some kids holding bows and some VIP being garlanded or standing around.

Please do not get cheated by such pictures.
Anyone can take such pictures.
Some are known to have attended a national event as spectators and then posed as participants.

DON'T GO BY A PAPER CUTTING OR FEW

Be careful of coaches who go around showing paper cuttings as a certificate of their skills.
Anyone can be written about these days and there are many unethical ways of publishing news and photos in the print media.
This show is a definite indicator of the hollowness of their skills. Be very careful of such people.

THE FOUL MOUTHING CON COACHES

These are of another kind. They will foul mouth all others but themselves. When cornered with the FIVE verification questions, they will blame it all on 'politics!' and claim that the Indian constitution has given rights for anyone to teach anything. They will quote violation of human rights and illegality of AAI to regulate. Yes anyone can do what they want to but must reap the consequences of what they do.

The recognised national archery body AAI and the affiliated state body TAAT are within their constitutional rights to inform the public to learn Archery from qualified coaches.

COACHES SUPPLYING ARCHERY EQUIPMENT

Be very careful of any Archery coach who also claims to supply Archery equipment.

While the coach can suggest the specifications, it's always better to buy Archery equipment directly from credible Archery suppliers than from your coach. Be very careful of some coaches who take money without issuing receipts promising they will buy quality or imported equipment and delay indefinitely putting the blame on import delays, customs and other fabricated stories.

Please check the list and contact details of reputed Archery suppliers in this Webpage like Ruth India, Ten Ring Sports and ASI.

WHAT YOU MUST LOOK FOR IN ONLINE ADVERTISEMENTS AND WEBPAGES ON ARCHERY

It's very simple to find the culprits and the fakes.

MOST IMPORTANT CHECK!

Check if the online ad has the most important logos and names of the official affiliating bodies for Archery.

1) TAAT - The Archery Association of Tamil Nadu
2) TNOA - Tamil Nadu Olympic Association3) AAI - Archery Association of India

Note: All the above mentioned logos can be seen at the top of this website.

If these are missing in their ads and webpage, then they are unmistakably dubious schools and groups.

They know well that using these names and logos can land them in serious legal trouble.

They will use fancy names and non existing entities to hide their hollow claims.

They will also use similar sounding names.

Eg: instead of The Archery Association of Tamil Nadu which is the authentic, official body, they will use Tamil Nadu Archery Association.

Instead of www.tamilnaduarchery.com which is our official webpage, they will use www.tamilnaduarchery.co.in

Our official email is tamilnaduarchery@hotmail.com. The imposters will try using tamilnaduarchery@yahoo.com or gmail.com

Please be very careful of these dubious people. Their only aim is to confuse the genuine with the fakes.

There is this amusing case of a habitual archery webpage offender who describes his several fancy academies and associations as "Recognised by Govt" and "recognised by International Olympic Commitee".

ONE POINT RULE!

TO MAKE SURE YOUR ARCHER's FUTURE IN ARCHERY IS SAFE AND SECURE, YOU ARE ADVISED TO DEAL ONLY WITH TAAT (The Archery Association of Tamil Nadu), AAI ( Archery association of India ) and WA ( WORLD ARCHERY ).

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