5 Tips on How To Start Archery For Kids

Beginning archery is a fun process and many parents will find themselves doing something they don’t know to help their children get started with archery.  Knowing how to start archery for kids isn’t too difficult and a bit of learning will go a long way to helping both parents and kids have the most fun as soon as possible.

Here are the things that I’ve found to be some really helpful tips so that you can have the best experience of getting into archery with your kids or any other youth out there.

Get educated

Children are naturally curious and will want to do things that you don’t know anything about.  It’s easy to get started and it’s a great chance to help them try something new.  The first thing I’d recommend is my Archery Lessons for Beginners to get the right information on how to shoot a bow correctly.  It’s going to be really hard to teach your child how to shoot a bow if you don’t know anything about it.

Get the right archery equipment

There are many great choices for your child. You’re very lucky that there are so many good options out there now.  You will need to be sure and match a bow to your child and their abilities.  Here are the most important things to know when looking at bows.

1. Child height or size – You’ll want to buy a bow that is big enough and can be drawn back far enough.
2. Relative strength – Most beginners will start at a bow weight of 20#.  A stronger youth might prefer a stronger bow up to 30#.  A simple test is to see if how many push ups they can do in a minute.  1 = 20#, 5=25#, and 10+ = 30#  This is a general guideline and will have to be tailored to each individual.
3. Right or Left handed This is easy to figure out.  Have your child make in imaginary bow and arrow and draw it back to their face.  Whichever hand comes back to the face, that’s the answer.  If they pull back with the right hand, they need a right-handed bow.  Most people will pull back with their dominant hand and it will normally line up with their dominant eye.

Minimum Equipment List

A Bow
You want a bow that has the right draw length and draw weight.  If you don’t know which type of bow you want, get one that has a variable draw length or a traditional bow. Two good examples are:

Samick Sage Recurve Bow, I recommend this to anyone who is starting archery. It is able to grow with your child as once your have the initial bow you can purchase different limbs later to increase the draw as your child grows. Check out the reviews on Amazon; and the

Genesis Bow Kit, this is a great bow kit for all the family, including mum and dad. The draw weight can be adjusted if necessary for smaller children. The range is about 20 yards, ideal for most backyards or just practicing.

These are both amazon affiliate links so you can check out the products

Arrows

Arm Guard

Learning archery needs to be fun and one of the most common injuries and pain, whilst learning is the bowstring striking the wrist.  Stop it from the beginning.  Who wants to shoot a bow when it hurts? I recommend getting a arm guard for all learners, the OMP Youth Armguard, offers good protection for under $10.

Target

You need something to shoot at.  You can make your own target, or get something like The Block Archery Target, designed to last for a very long time.

Keep it short and fun

As an adult, I have a short attention span.  As a child, it was even shorter.  Most kids are the same way, so don’t expect them to want to stand and shoot for hours of endless ecstasy on end.  10-15 minutes is long enough for many and you want them to leave happy and excited so they have positive memorize to make them want to keep shooting in the future.

Engineer success

Having a first positive experience is really important with archery for kids.  Take some time and learn to shoot a bow real quick, then get the right equipment for them.  The third part is to stand extremely close to the target.  Seriously, maybe 5 steps away.  You want to be so close that it’s almost impossible to miss.  You can always move the target farther away, but for some reason it always comes across weird to move it up.

Make friends

There are tons of people and other kids that shoot.  Ask around and I’m sure you’ll find some that are in an archery club or have a target setup at their house.  It’s a fun way to hang out and you can meet new friends that way.  Or, you can get your own friends into archery with you.

I hope these help you to figure out what you need in order to have a good experience.  I love archery and it’s been something that I’ve been able to do for years.  I’d love the same thing for you and your family too.

Please share if you know anyone who might be interested in archery.  It will help them to get started in the right direction.

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