The Archery Program

Want to be taught or coached by someone who’s been there or by people she's trained?

The staff of The Archery Program have the experience and training to take any person to the level they wish to go, whether for recreation or Olympic-level performance.

Head Coach and Staff

Ruth Rowe is a coach and retired competitor. She is a High Performance Regional Coach certified to teach the Community Coach Course. She teaches/ coaches at the Bull Run Shooting Center in Centreville, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC. She has been training beginners to elite archers over the last 8 years. Two of her students have been selected for the Junior Dream Team (youth the National Coach feels have potential to make an Olympic team).

She is also an Olympian and international champion who has represented the United States in 8 World Championships, 2 Pan American Games, the 1984 Olympic Games, and many other international competitions. Placing second in the National Championship in 1970, she continued to place in the top ten nationally throughout her competition career until retiring in 2003. She has been ranked as high as 7th in the world (1977) and more recently 17th (1998).

Her instructional materials, sold through her company -- Fundamentals of Recurve Target Archery, Fundamentals of Compound Target Archery as well as videos Archery: The Basics and Archery: Refining Your Form -- set the standard for recurve and compound archery training and are sold world-wide.

Frank Kelley is certified as a Community Coach and is a competitive archer in the master (over 50 or 60) ranks. He learned all his archery through The Archery Program. Shooting since 2002, he has been VA State Master (over 50) champion several times and has placed high in the USA Archery Indoor National several years. Involved with The Archery Program since its inception, he as been teaching and coaching since 2003.

Jim Belcher is a long-time martial arts student, holding a black belt in almost all the disciplines. (Archery is considered a martial art in the Asian cultures.) Shooting for a number of years, he applies his knowledge of he marital arts to his archery. Holding a Level 2 Coach Certification from USA Archery, he teaches adults and runs the One-Time Introductions.

Alan Anderson is a long-time archer and involved in education for many years. He taught in The Archery Program over the past 5 years and holds a Level 3 Coach Certification from USA Archery.