Irish Field Archery Federation

The home of Field Archery in Ireland

Covid 19 8/5/21

General

To assist archers during the Covid-19 pandemic, IFAF has produced this guide for its members and clubs in respect of participating in archery.

NOTICE: There is no cover on IFAF’s Insurance policy for someone catches COVID-19. This is the same for other policies as, in the majority of cases, no one knows where they have contracted the virus.

  1. Duration of our recommendations: Until end of calendar year 2021, with a possibility to extend for as long as Covid-19 restrictions remain in place.
  2. All our existing safety rules and regulations continue to apply. Our COVID-19 regulations are in addition.
  3. All Government rules/recommendations to apply for your location (ROI and NI). Our recommendations are in addition to official guidelines. If our recommendations are in conflict with Government/Public Health rules/regulations official guidance over-rules our recommendations.
  4. Do not travel to a venue or event if you do not feel well, or if you know that you were in contact with a Covid-19 infected person in the last 14 days.
  5. Maximum group size: 4 archers, unless all of them are living in the same household. Minimum group of archers: 2
  6. Archers should bring a portable disinfectant hand wash with them in their quiver.
    1. If for any reason it is necessary to touch another archers equipment it is important to wash your hands before and immediately after.
  7. Always maintain social distancing of a minimum of 2 meters between archers
  8. Anyone found to act in an unsafe manner, including Government/Public Health regulations, our standard safety procedures and/or COVID-19 regulations can be ordered by the local safety officer or their deputy to leave the venue immediately. Any fees etc. paid will not be refunded.

Travel to venues

  1. Only members of the same household should be travelling in the same car.
  2. Adhere to minimum distancing rules if travelling by public transport.
  3. Anyone planning to attend an archery event must take responsibility for confirming their accommodation adheres to Covid-19 regulations.
  4. All attendees must adhere to the health advice including travel distances stipulated by government health advice for their area.

Training

Outdoors

Summary of Do’s and Don’ts

  1. There can be no mass congregation during practice sessions (e.g. meet-up, lunch stop or wrap-up)
  2. Food/drinks should not be provided (i.e. high risk of contamination from common touch-points)
  3. Communal facilities such as chairs, tables, W/C must be cleaned before and after each use
  4. Reduce the risk of community transmission by:
    1. following Public Health Advice to prevent the spread of Covid-19
    1. creating pods who practice together on a go-forward basis (i.e. limit groups to 2-6 archers)
    1. pulling only your arrows and not touching other people’s equipment
    1. using your hip/knee/shoulder instead of your hand to brace a target when pulling arrows

Procedure for Outdoor Practice

  1. Individual training pods should remain separate of each other at all times.
  2. The total number of people in any location, at any one time, must not exceed the maximum number allowed in a Pod as per the Sports Training guidelines in the framework.

At base-camp a Club Admin is on duty plus two training pods are present; one pod is a group of 6 the other is a group of 4. The total number of people in that location is 11.

Another pod of 5 arrives for their scheduled training. The third pod cannot enter base-camp until at least one pod, ideally both pods, vacate the area (i.e. be mindful of Point #1)

  • Archers and Club Admins should work together to:
    • manage pod sizes based on the framework level applicable to the venues’ area/region (ROI and NI)
  • coordinate times to prevent large numbers congregating at the start/end of training
    • 3D: A gap of 20 mins is recommended per group (e.g. 09:00, 09:20, 09:40)
    • TARGET: A gap of 30 mins is recommended per group (e.g. 09:00, 09:30, 10:00)
  • At practice sessions, ARCHERS must:
    • arrive no more than 15 minutes before their allotted time (if early, wait at the entrance)
    • have their equipment ready
    • bring everything they need for the day with them (e.g. equipment, clothing, food/drinks)
    • go to the starting target at their allotted time
    • snack on the range or have a rolling-lunch (i.e. move on when the next group enters base)

Indoors

Indoor activities are not permitted at this time.

Competition

Competitions are not permitted at this time.

Official Links

All activities held under the auspices of IFAF will be subject to local, regional and national Government guidelines.

For full details of Government.ie guidelines go to:

For full details of NIDirect.gov.uk guidelines go to:

Next Update 7/6/21