– Matthew Ebner – When you are a new student archer you may have many questions and I hope these tips will help. These tips include information about your equipment, safety, tournaments, and having fun. Once you begin shooting, you will have tips you can pass on to new archers as well.
Before you begin shooting it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with your equipment. This equipment includes your Genesis bow, arrows, and target. This can include watching a video of how the bow shoots, observing other archers, and practicing your grip on the bow without pulling the string back. It is important to know the components of your arrows, including the tips, fletching, and nock.
Check out this video to learn about NASP® equipment.
I believe that one of the most important tips a new student archer can hear is that safety is always the priority. Being safe will help protect yourself, others, and the surrounding area. Some of the best safety tips in my opinion are making sure your bow is in working order and safe to shoot, making sure your arrow has all of its components and are undamaged, always know what is behind and around your target (in case an arrow didn’t hit the target you are aiming at or went through), and following all range commands. Learning the range commands and always following them will come in very handy when you begin shooting tournaments. These rules would include range commands and how to handle your bow. Being safe will make the environment you shoot in, and other archers you shoot with, feel more comfortable too.
A great tip is to learn the steps of shooting a bow. In NASP there are eleven steps of shooting a bow. These steps will help you improve as an archer and will help improve your shooting technique. You can find all eleven steps here, as well as additional information on how to shoot a bow. You can find a section about success and tips from both current and past archers here. This website has a lot of valuable information that is useful to new student archers.
One very valuable tip for new archers is to have fun! It is so important that you are having fun and I have found that you may even shoot your bow better when doing so. An archer should try not to get discouraged when learning archery. There are a lot of things to learn when starting archery and it takes much patience and practice. It can get difficult at times, however, you should always be having fun. One of the best parts of archery for me is how much fun I have while being involved with the sport. When you are having fun other archers will appreciate it as well.
Practice is a very important part of archery, and the more you practice the more comfortable you will feel with your equipment and the process of archery. You learn so much by practicing and it’s important to have quality practice time. NASP tournaments are so much fun, and you will be so glad you practiced when it’s tournament time. Don’t be afraid to look for opportunities to practice and compete in archery. If your school doesn’t currently have a club you may be able to start one.
I believe if you have fun, be safe, and are committed to learning archery you will succeed!
