Archery Essentials – getting started

Once you have decided to take the plunge into this amazing sport read these helpful tips for getting started.

   Beginners courses

It is essential that you attend a beginners course. Without your pass certificate you cannot join a club. Beginners courses will teach you basic safety and shooting technique.

Beginners courses can have long waiting lists so sign up straight away. Most clubs run around two beginners course a year so plan ahead.

These courses tend to last between 4-6 hours over 2-4 sessions and are often done in small groups.  

   Clothes

Ensure that you have appropriate clothing. Unfortunately the best type of tops is the unflattering close fitting tops. Avoid tops with buttons, else you do what I did and manage to propel a button all the other way to the end of the indoor range!

Pick the flattest most comfortable shoes you have. Once you pick a pair it is a good idea to stick with the same ones to shoot in all the time. This way you get used to a good shooting stance and there is no change in angle form a slight heal. Also keep in mind how quickly the weather can change and turn shooting fields into mud – don’t want to ruin a nice pair of shoes (there is a fair amount of walking required to collect arrows).

Wear thin layers, at first it can be difficult to judge how warm you will get when shooting, but there is also a lot of standing around. Therefore be prepared and take a thin top layer than you can add if you get chilly during the less practical bits of the beginners course.

    Equipment

I will no doubt mention this a lot, but it’s important that you don’t go and buy equipment fresh after the beginners course. Without all the technoblabble your strength will increase so rapidly that one pair of limbs won’t last you very long. It is not until you have figured out “your style” that you will know what to buy. I would recommend leaving at least 3 months following your beginners course before you buy equipment (longer if possible). Also during this time you can ask to try out other people’s equipment and get a feel for what you like.

Buying the right equipment is not all about money, but this is another topic by its self.

   Journal and pen

Everyone is keen to help new members and the amount of advice you can get can be overwhelming. Someone suggested to me recently that you could keep a journal of your coaching.

Make note of which coach suggested something and this may give you an idea of which coach gives advice best suited to you. Also if something is going wrong you may be able to trace back the change to something specific.

Coaches tips will take practice to perfect and advice can easily be forgotten. A pen and paper at the beginners sessions will help you remember what you have been taught.

   Find a club

Take time to find the right club, you don’t have to join the club you did the beginners course with. There are lots of clubs in the UK (nice list posted here) and it’s more than likely that there are two or more within driving distance.

The right club for you will depend on what you are looking for. I would suggest that a big club is a good idea. Bigger clubs generally have more coaches and technical expertise. This way you can get a range of opinions (and archers are full of them) and choose to take on board what advice suits you the best. Larger clubs often have more equipment to hire; this can be of great help when getting started.

Take a look at the facilities the club has to offer, remembering to look at both indoor and outdoor locations. What is the club set up, can you shoot whenever you wish and are the targets easy to put up in a pair?  

Make sure you double check the club costs, this is often fairly similar between clubs but you don’t want a nasty surprise. Generally you pay for a year in advance, so it’s worth giving some consideration as to which one to join.   

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