Golden archery and its lead instructor, Zachary Johnson, have a lot to offer. Mr. Johnson clearly loves his craft, and he fosters a community spirit in his practice. Additionally, I deeply appreciate that he wants to bring a controlled, martial artist style to the sport of archery. The ideology is sound.
However, it was my observation that Mr. Johnson is himself a scattered individual and instructor which can be difficult to learn from, and completely counter to the mindset of martial artistry. I will also own that, as we were paying him for private lessons, I reacted to his scattered form of teaching, jumping around and forgetting a train of thought, as an acceptable way in which to interact with him as a fellow adult in a private learning environment. Therefore, I would ask questions and express feedback at potentially inopportune times, thinking I was mirroring his modeled style of interaction. In retrospect, I can see that my following his scattered thought process may have, in fact, exacerbated his disjointed and forgetful flow. I regret reading that incorrectly.
Martial artistry is a lifelong discipline, and true students are constantly seeking learning opportunities, and true teachers are always students. Therefore, I expected Mr. Johnson, a self-proclaimed martial artist, to seek continuous evolution of his craft and teaching. However, he ultimately un-invited myself and my fiancé from further private lessons and courses with him because I questioned his sensitivity to teaching to a variety of different bodies and levels of body awareness. It was my experience that he would have difficult yoga postures as the first stretch in class, and pays little to no heed to form when having students participate in non-archery related activities. For example, in a circle of students I noted there was a child doing push ups on her knuckles who was absolutely not ready to do an advanced push up. The student's back was bowing and their shoulders were hiked up to their ears. Children can sustain this to an extent, but in my experience it is the instructor's responsibility to guide their students and protect their bodies, as they are the expert. Not altering poor form is detrimental to the students' long-term well-being, as well as their ability to participate in the sport and transfer proper body alignment among movements.
My observation is that Mr. Johnson says the right things, but does not ensure he does them. He said structural integrity is important in all movements, but I have not seen that he helps his students achieve it. Additionally, he is not receptive to feedback so will likely not be able to alter these potentially detrimental behaviors, and could set students up for low levels of success and future injury. In fact, when asking him questions and attempting to have a dialogue with him in a private lesson, he asked me to not return to the school. It alarms me that his response to asking questions is met with hostility, instead of discourse.
I would advise any future clients bear these things in mind when considering enrolling themselves or family members in Golden Archery. Furthermore, I cannot find that Mr. Johnson has any group fitness or instructional certifications pertaining to his crafts.
A bit on my background, I was an all-state volleyball player in high school, an all-american and academic all-american snowboarder in college, did six years of karate as a child, and three years of taekwondo in college. Additionally, I instructed Pilates in college, have had over 500 hours of one-on-one private instruction in Pilates and other forms of movement, and currently train yoga, handstands, and contortion regularly. While I am not an expert in any discipline, I am no stranger to different styles of body movement and good instruction.
I believe we have one body and if we want to use it to the best of its ability for as long as we possibly can, we owe it good instruction. Instruction that is consistent, safe, and aware so we can teach ourselves to be integrated, respectful, and in tune with how our body works together. It is my understanding martial arts agrees with this, and if you also believe this Mr. Johnson may not be the instructor for you or your family members. read more
