The Beginners Course #4

Passed I cannot believe its the forth and last week that Ill be doing this beginners course, so far I have really enjoyed it. There has been ups and downs but after each session, I have been wanting to continue (so thats a good thing right?)

When I arrived, I put my bow up. This is something that has gotten easier and easier to be honest, although I have been practicing in the week. Its actually a lot easier than you think.

We were told that we would be shooting more arrows today and were actually going to be taking part in a little competition. The aim of this was to not only use a target face (which we have not really used much) but also to introduce us to competitions and how scoring worked.

I have to admit, this did make it a little more stressfull – probably the competitivness of it!

We shot 6 rounds of 6 arrows, so a total of 36 hours. This is the most we have shot in a session and even though my arms were tired, I think I could have shot more. I do think my upper body strength has increased, if I did that many in the first couple of weeks I think I would have been very sore.

To help improve, I think im going to need to join the gym and start working on building up my muscle strength!

At the end of the competition, the scores were counted….I came THIRD!!

To be honest I am really happy with that!

I actually thought I was going to come near the bottom after a few of the poor rounds I had, my arm was obviously getting very tired.

So thats it…the beginners course is complete and I got a certificate and everything…so now what?

I think I am going to look for a club to join in my local area and then looking for a bow to buy, I think I will be going with a recurve bow. I also want to get my garden set up so I can at least do a little practicing.

I think my end goal is to hopefully be able to compete in some competitions, I do however think I am a long way away from that to be honest…but its a goal. In terms of bows, I have been having a little look at some but not really decided on what to get yet. I just need to do a bit more research and read some reviews and then make a decision.

Hopefully the next time I post, ill have my own bow! 🙂

The Beginners Course #3

I cannot believe I am on the third week already, halfway through and I am really enjoying myself. I really dont want this to end, so already I am looking for potential clubs to join after my 4th week.

This week, we continued to practice although the target was as far away as it would go indoors – which certainly made it harder for me to hit. I was continuing to try and adjust the sight so that I could actually hit the target, with some success.

Something I seemed to struggle with this week was the release and the follow through. I was holding to tight to the riser when drawing and this would impact the shot, as my hand would move slightly when releasing.

I was told that when I released the arrow to pretty much let go of the bow and it will stop hitting the floor due to the sling that was attached to two of my fingers. This is something I really couldnt get my head around. Towards the end of the 2 hour session, I was starting to get it better.

After the final shot of arrows we sat down and had a look at some of the other bows that some of the club members had brought in. This included a proper Olympic Recurve bow with all the bells and whistles, a longbow and a compound bow.

All of them looked great but for me, I think ill be sticking to the recurve. There is something about it that feels a little more natural and looks a bit more like a proper bow.

Since I had struggled to hit the target today, I was looking for videos and came across this one….How on earth he does that I do not know!

The Beginners Course #2

Over the last week, I have been waiting for the secound lesson. Counting down to when I can get on the range again and practice, once a week is just not enough. Once I pass, ill hopefully be able to shoot a lot more in the week. (Something I intend to do in my backyard when I have my own bow!)

At the end of last week, we had to learn how to disassemble the bow. This week we had to do the opposite and assemble it. At first I was a bit nervous, as I have watched so many videos and didnt want to damage the string or the bow.

To be honest though, its very simple. I just had to make sure I screwed the right side limbs on and put the stringer on the right side.

As soon as it was assembled, we began to shoot!

I really enjoyed this lesson, I didnt get as many in the centre as id have liked but I suppose at the moment that doesnt really matter. Annoyingly I did get one arrow dead center but that decided to bounce right back out again!

Half way through the lesson we attached sights onto the bow, these are used to aim much better and can be adjusted if the arrow shoots up or down. This did initially make it harder, as I was concentrating on so many different things.

I would get the draw and the anchor points right but then the release was not right. Once I focused on the release, the draw was not in the right place or the sight needed adjusting.

Towards the end of the session, I did feel like I improved. Even though we didnt have actual faces on the targets, I believe I still managed to get all the arrows in the red and a good percentage of them in the yellow.

Not bad really for my secound week!

Three hours later and my arm was getting tired but I really wanted to carry on. I was taught another way of drawing the bow, this time using 1 finger above and two below. It felt okay but did take a little getting used to.

At the end of the lesson we had a chat about the different types of bows and also whether or not people were interested in competitions. We then spent the next 20 minutes or so disassembling the bow. This to be honest was easy enough and took very little time and effort.

I really couldnt believe the lesson was over already, it seemed to end just as it began! Still I suppose its better to end on a high and want to do more!

Some feedback from my coach is that my stance could do with some improvements, I keep letting my elbow down and at times tilting my head to the side when I shoot. This next week, ill hopefully spend sometime in the mirror and try and improve on that for next week!

The Beginners Course #1

The time has finally come to get onto the range and to start learning archery. I have already spent a lot of time researching and watching YouTube videos, as well as spending a couple of individual archery sessions.

I would say that I am getting better but slightly concerned that my form and stance might not be the best. I also want to join an archery club and hopefully start to take part in different tournaments and competitions. I therefore joined a beginners course in archery!

The course itself is a 4 week course, ill be shooting for 2 hours per week and by the end of the 8 hours Ill hopefully have improved my accuracy and power. My plan is to then join a local club and practice as often as possible.

I booked onto the course around a year ago but had to wait for the next slot to open up. Last night I finally went and by the end of the 2 hours, I wanted next week to hurry up and come round!

The lesson started with an overview of how to have a good stance, we then moved onto posture and finally actually hold and shooting the bow. Whilst shooting we were watched by our coach and this allowed them to correct any issues.

At first I continued to repeat a few errors in stance, these including;

Back moving forwards
Not raising the bow high enough when aiming
Not pulling the bow string back enough

By the end of it though, I felt a lot more confident and these issues were gone!

I am happy to say that I didn’t miss the target once, Whoop!

Over this next week I hope to practice the stance a bit in the mirror and also work on an exercise plan to help improve my upper body strength.