June 14, 2025

Improving under pressure and the transition to college sport make for a busy Virtual Symposium session

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – There will be six guest speakers across three discussion panels as part of the 2025 USA Archery Virtual Symposium session on August 19, with leading experts in coaching, collegiate archery and precision sports.

EVENT INFORMATION  EVENT REGISTRATION

Early Bird registration runs through this Sunday, June 15.

Dr. Mark Williams has published nearly 500 articles, is author of The Best: How Elite Athletes are Made and has delivered courses for the IOC, FIFA, NFL, MLB and NBA. He is presenting on The Power of Quiet Eye in Precision Sports. This will teach those in attendance how to:

• Gain a competitive edge by equipping yourself with a deep scientific understanding and practical tools to harness the power of Quiet Eye, giving your athletes a significant advantage in competition and contributing to their long-term success.
• Learn evidence-based strategies directly from the research on how to effectively train Quiet Eye in your athletes, providing them with a proven technique to improve focus and execution under pressure.
• Discover the cutting-edge science behind "Quiet Eye" with leading expert Dr. Mark Williams, understanding its profound benefits and direct application for enhancing precision and performance in archery and other sports.

The talk by Dr. Williams will benefit any coach, athlete or governing body from a variety of sports, such as golf, bowling, curling, disc golf, shooting and archery. A precision sport is one which require athletes to have a high level of control, focus and technical skill in executing their movements to achieve precision time after time.

Following Dr. Williams will be a four-person panel made up of highly experienced collegiate coaches - Derek Davis (Columbia University), Lorinda Cohen-Gomez (Texas A&M), Kris Strebeck (University of the Cumberlands) and Craig Holycross (Muskingum University).

Coach Strebeck said, “This will be great information for athletes getting ready to head to college. There will be seasoned coaches in this session with valuable information about the collegiate archery program. We will talk about 3D, Indoor, and Outdoor collegiate events and how this is different from typical archery programs.”

Collegiate Archery Coach Roundtable: Transitioning from Highschool to Collegiate Archery will offer insight on:

• Getting a clear roadmap from 4 experienced collegiate coaches on how to navigate the college application process and make the transition from HS Archery to Collegiate archery. 
• Learning essential strategies for developing your athletic resume to boost chances of recruitment. 
• Gaining confidence through increasing knowledge about how to pursue your collegiate archery dreams

Coach Strebeck has just led University of the Cumberlands to victory at the HotelPlanner USA Archery Collegiate Target Nationals. That title was previously held by Texas A&M. Coach Holycross was National Collegiate Coach of the Year in 2024, with Coach Davis a former National Coach of the Year (2014).

Finishing up a session overflowing with great knowledge will be Elevating Your Archery Coaching: Insights from National Coach Developer Guy Krueger. Guy is Associate Director of Coaching Education at the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and a former USOPC Coach Educator of the Year (2023).

His talk will be ideal for all instructors and coaches within USA Archery, and will help identify ways to:

• Equip yourself with best practices to contribute to the long-term success and holistic development of your athletes. 
• Draw from a wider sporting context to stay at the leading edge of your coaching journey. 
• Expand horizons, gain fresh perspectives and actionable strategies from successful coaching models across sports, not just archery.

About the the Virtual Symposium

USA Archery’s Virtual Symposium is a perfect opportunity to learn from leading experts in the field and gain insights into the latest research, trends and techniques. Sessions are recorded (unless noted) and recordings are provided for all participants.

Whether a seasoned professional or just starting out, the USA Archery Virtual Symposium is the perfect opportunity to enhance skills and stay up to date with the latest trends in sports science, psychology and coaching.

Registration is open for the Virtual Symposium, which includes 13 sessions across six dates. Sessions are open to the public, with other NGBs or community recreation programs encouraged to attend.

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