St George s Archery Club BEGINNERS COURSE SESSION RUNNING ORDER PLANNER SESSION ONE Lead SESSION THREE Lead Bow Selection Freestyle Shot Refresher Arrow Selection Warm-up Bracers & safety check Adjusting Sights Scoring Theory Welcome & Introductions Range Safety Parts of Bow/Arrow & Equipment Safety Etiquette Joining the Club Range Captain Warm-Up Barebow Shot Demo Arrow Collection Range Captain SESSION TWO Bow Stringing Lead SESSION FOUR Warm-Up Lead Setting up a Boss/Target Scoring Practice Safety Recap Types of Bow Barebow Shot Refresher Field & Flight Archery Warm-Up Clout Shooting Freestyle Shot Demo Wrap-up and Certificates Range Captain Range Captain NO PERMANENT MARKERS! 2015 St. George s Archery Club,
Session One You have now completed the first session of your beginners course and, hopefully, started on a long and enjoyable career in archery. After each session you will receive one of these sheets as a reminder of the key points that were covered. RANGE SAFETY Waiting Line/Shooting Line. Don t forget - once you ve completed your shots move back behind the Waiting Line. Nobody crosses the Shooting LIne before the double whistle sounds. Whistle Commands: One blow: safe to shoot. Three blows: safe to collect. Verbal Commands: Come Down : lower your bow. FAST (normally shouted): lower your bow immediately and remove the arrow from the string. Range First! POSTURE/STANCE Place your feet a shoulders width apart with one foot on either side of the Shooting Line. Your feet should be parallel with each other and with the Shooting line. Your hip joints and shoulders should be over your feet. Your pelvis should be tucked under. Back straight. Body and shoulders relaxed. BOW HAND Relax your shoulders. Make a STOP sign. This puts the hand in a good position to bear the weight of the bow. Hold the bow loosely with your forefinger curled round the front of the bow to lightly touch your thumb. Your other fingers should be curled with the knuckles at 45 degrees. to the bow. Your wrist should be cocked which gives good alignment and reduces the possibility of contact with the string. 2012 St. George s Archery Club,
Session One POINT OF AIM: BAREBOW Nock your arrow. Set your posture/stance. Relax. Make a three-finger hook on the string underneath the arrow. Raise the bow to the T-Draw position. Head straight. Bow arm straight. Focus on Gold. Draw: look down the arrow keeping the point on Gold. Bow hand pushing towards Gold. Draw the string towards your face until the first or second finger touches the corner of your mouth. Settle, focus on Gold. Steady. Relax your fingers to release the string. COLLECTING ARROWS SAFELY Walk (don t run) towards the gaps between the targets. Outdoors in particular, always look out for arrows on the ground or stuck in the ground. Pulling arrows: place your palm or the back of your hand on the boss. Your other hand grips the arrow shaft close to the boss with the forearm running along the arrow. Pull straight back - no twisting or jiggling. Always check behind you when pulling arrows. Don t stand in front of, or close to, targets when arrows are being pulled. You should stand at least 2 metres back. Carry arrows safely. Arrows should be held in one hand with the points downwards and the shafts held close to the arm. Session One has given you a lot to take in and you may well be feeling a little overwhelmed or confused Please don t worry - Session Two will give you lots more time to practice and to receive further tuition. 2012 St. George s Archery Club,
Session Two SETTING UP A TARGET Always a two-person job. Stand or A frame opened to full width. Two people lift the boss with correct technique - bent legs and straight backs. Boss label to rear and boss fully seated on supports. Target fully secured with tie-downs for outdoor shooting. RANGE SAFETY REPRISED Waiting Line/Shooting Line. Whistle Commands: One blow (shoot) & three blows (safe to collect). Verbal commands: Come Down and FAST. Walk down the side of targets and stands. Carry arrows safely - points downwards. Don t forget the other safety points on the reminders sheet for Session One. Range First! You have now been shooting freestyle. There are three main differences between this technique and the barebow technique that you were shown in the first session. They are: the use of a sight; finger position on the string; and reference (anchor) point on the face. STANCE/POSTURE This is essentially the same for both barebow and freestyle techniques. Weight spread evenly between feet. Body in line. Front shoulder low. Bow arm relaxed - forearm away from string. Draw arm, eye and arrow in line.. 2012 St. George s Archery Club,
Session Two FREESTYLE TECHNIQUE - USING A SIGHT Adjust the sight - To start off this will only be a rough adjustment as follows. Place the end of your thumb under the point of your jaw. Place the first finger in the corner of your eye. Transfer this distance to the sight bar and move the sight pin up or down the bar to match it. Hook the string with one finger above the arrow and two below. Make sure there is a gap between the bottom of the arrow and the top of the finger beneath it. Any pinching can result in the arrow coming off the rest. The pre-draw and T draw position are the same as for Barebow. Draw the bow until the string touches your chin just off centre and, ideally, touches the tip of your nose. Don t waste energy trying to aim at gold before you ve drawn. Draw, achieve a solid anchor and then aim. Concentrate on gold. When aiming, the sight ring floats over the gold. It is very hard to hold it completely still. When the ring is full of gold it ll be a gold. Count to two in your head and if all is right release the arrow. Don t hold too long at full draw and don t be afraid to come down from full draw and re-set your shot if something doesn t feel right. 2012 St. George s Archery Club,
Session Two FREESTYLE TECHNIQUE - USING A SIGHT (continued) The top of your draw hand should now be firmly anchored under your jaw. Re-check that your sight is still focused in the gold. (Do not try and centre the pin on the centre of the gold). Keep up an even pressure on the bow and the string. Count to three. Relax the draw hand fingers to release the string. Maintain your posture, keeping the bow hand pointing at the target until the arrow impacts. You ve now learned the basics of the two common shooting styles - barebow and freestyle. The next two sessions will allow you to refine your technique with lots of practice. You will be given the choice of which technique you would like to use for the remainder of the course, giving you the chance to develop your personal shot routine. The key word here is REPETITION. If you can follow exactly the same shot routine for every shot your shooting will become much more consistent. You might like to write your shot routine down as a series of steps that you follow. 2012 St. George s Archery Club,
Session Three ARCHERY ETIQUETTE These guidelines help to make shooting safe and enjoyable for everyone. Do not join the shooting line when either of the archers who will be next to you is at full draw. Do not leave the shooting line when either of the archers next to you is at full draw. NO TALKING while you are on the shooting line. Do not leave any archer alone on the shooting line. If there are already four archers using the boss at the distance you wish to shoot please get an extra boss from the equipment store and set it up. Ask for help if you need it. When you ve finished shooting please be prepared to either put the boss away or check that any archers still using it understand the need to do so when they, in turn, have finished. SIGHT ADJUSTMENT Now is the time when good stance/posture, alignment and shot execution counts for everything as these aspects will always affect your consistency of aim and the impact point of your arrow. Arrows HIGH Sight pin UP The sight is a means of fine tuning to give the desired impact point. It is important when learning to use a sight that you aim all the arrows for a particular end at exactly the same spot on the target. This is the only meaningful way to establish what adjustments you need to make to the sight. Arrows LOW Sight pin DOWN The general rule for adjustments is that the sight always follows the arrows. So if your arrows are high on the target move the sight pin up the bar. If they are low, move the sight pin down. Exactly the same rule applies to right and left (windage) adjustments.. 2012 St. George s Archery Club,
Session Three SCORING Imperial (yards) - 9, 7, 5, 3, 1. Metric/FITA (metres) - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Six arrows per end outdoors. Three arrows per end indoors. Don t touch arrows until they have been scored Call out arrow scores in groups of three. Highest score to lowest. Rounds are shot in dozens in combinations of distances with names like York, Warwick, Western, and National. JOINING THE CLUB At the end of the third session you will be sent a membership application form and will be invited to join the club if you wish. As a member you are welcome to continue to use the club s training equipment. We also have a limited number of bow kits available to novices for a hire fee of 20 for three months. At the end of that time you will have a more settled and consistent shooting style and it will be time to think about buying your own equipment. Rushing out and buying new kit as soon as you have completed your beginners course isn t recommended as mistakes can be expensive. But if you really cannot wait to spend your money please do seek advice from one of the coaches before you visit a retailer. Soon after you join you will be sent an electronic copy of the club s Beginner s Guide and a copy of the latest newsletter. These will provide you with all the information you need to enjoy your shooting and to be an active member of the club. During your first year as a novice archer you will be provided with ongoing support from the coaches and other experienced archers, If you have any problems or concerns please just ask for help. 2012 St. George s Archery Club,
Session Four Congratulations! Our last session completed the Beginners Course during which we have taught you about safety, basic Barebow and Freestyle techniques, and etiquette. Our fourth and final session concentrated on you practising and improving your Freestyle technique. You are now at a standard where you can confidently join any club. You can make an informed choice on the bow type you wish to shoot, which discipline(s) you wish to adopt - target, clout or both. Here is a little more information and a few more pointers which will add to your knowledge and hopefully help you in your decision-making. REFINING TECHNIQUE: BOW HAND Policeman s STOP. Fingers curled and relaxed. Knuckles at 45 degrees to the handle. Handle rests between thumb and forefinger on palm pad. Forearm is rotated away from the string. Bow arm pushes towards the target. Handle retained between thumb and forefinger. Correct Incorrect REFINING TECHNIQUE: ALIGNMENT Use bone structure to carry the load not muscles. Keep front shoulder joint close to the line of the arrow but with no hunching. 2012 St. George s Archery Club,
Session Four REFINING TECHNIQUE: LINES OF FORCE Straight line from arrow tip through the draw forearm to the elbow. For a right-handed archer, a line through the shoulders points to the right of the target. REFINING TECHNIQUE: STANCE Upright with back straight, head straight and neck relaxed. Weight towards balls of feet and slightly more to front leg pre-draw. Rib cage pulled downwards by slight pull on abdominal muscles.. Chest Down CLOUT SHOOTING An early form of archery. Archers aim at a flag (clout) a set distance away. Points scored depending upon how close arrows land to the flag. Different categories for for various bow types. Single clout round: 3 dozen arrows. Double: 6 dozen. Very relaxed and informal. FLIGHT & FIELD ARCHERY Field Archery - Takes place in woods and over rough terrain using targets of different sizes at random distances. These may be standard faces of different sizes or pictures of wildlife. The objective is to score a hit with one of three arrows. It s a cross-country walk with archery. Flight Archery - The object of flight archery is to see how far an arrow can be shot. This requires a huge amount of land a compound bow, for example, can shoot a flight arrow nearly 1,000 yards. The opportunity to practice flight archery in the UK is relatively limited. St. George s Archery Club only offers target and clout shooting. 2012 St. George s Archery Club,
Session Four RECURVE BOWS Alloy or wooden riser (handle). Upper and lower limbs do the work. Limbs of different strength (poudage) available. Stabilisers to steady the shot. Bow sight unless shooting barebow style. Alloy or carbon composite arrows. COMPOUND BOWS Complete unit (not taken down after shooting). Cams help to keep the holding or final draw weight low. Shot with a release aid. Back sight is a peeper in string in line with eye. Sight has a low magnification scope fitted with a spirit level. Very high velocity. Alloy or carbon composite arrows. LONGBOWS Traditional English bow now generally made of laminated woods. No sight aids other than a band. Shot off back of the gloved hand. Generally shooting wooden arrows with feather fletchings. 2012 St. George s Archery Club,