In the era of 3D digital gaming, teaching archery to your kids is the best parenting decision you can make…

The beautiful thing about kids is that they learn from the atmosphere despite their personal choices, I mean if they are surrounded by other kids playing digital games then they will love playing digital games.

If kids are watching someone playing football, they will love to play football, and this is also what we all used to do in our childhood, right?

So, if you could create their interest in archery it’s going to be kids favorite sport, which is beneficial for their health and focus too.

In this guide of archery for kids, I break down all the steps which I have used to teach my kids archery and now not only they enjoy it but are also winning archery competitions at school.

Why it’s important to teach Kids Archery?

According to research based on many students, the results have suggested that playing video games cause physical complaints, develops Anxiety Symptoms, Social Dysfunction, and Depression of various kinds…

Videos Games Addiction Research

It’s a big issue because the kids who are addicted to games will become dull in studies and try their best to save time from social interactions, family gatherings, and physical activities in order to play their favorite video games.

And soon people including their parents will start calling them nerds.

On the other hand, if we talk about our days and lifestyle, we used to play outdoors, right?

Be it football, basketball, volleyball, or some other type of physical activities or games which sometimes wouldn’t even make any sense but we would still play it because it was fun!

Playing physical games makes you fresh psychologically, and happier in life, it also helps in becoming more social in real life versus virtual friendships over social networks.

And when it comes down to Archery, it also teaches:

Art of Focus:

If you remember the first duration of learning archery, you will understand that it takes a lot of focus to make a stance and to take your initial shots.

Robin Sharma in his book “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” explained that if you keep yourself focused and still on something for minutes daily it will improve your focus on all the other activities.

Method of discovering mind power

We all know, it has been proved that archery requires a lot of focus to hit the target. So, it’s great if kids could learn these techniques at an early age.

Self-Discipline Mastery:

Self-discipline is a virtual superpower which plays a big role in our accuracy, it can only be learned with true dedication towards assigned tasks.

The distraction in youth life is more than anything which has even further increased nowadays due to gadgets in their hands connected to the internet.

While developing self-discipline requires a lot of focus and dedication…

Archery teaches this well-known mastery to kids slowly with the habit of focusing towards their target and staying confident towards the right shot.

Failure Myth:

In childhood, kids are programmed to believe that failure is not a good thing and they should be worried whenever they face failure.

After a lot of life experiences, we realize that failure is actually a part of the winning process, right?

Examples of this theory are everywhere, you can look at the process of most successful people lives and you will see they faced more failures than any of us.

Archery can teach your kids this mastery slowly but effectively with the process of aiming at wrong spots and then slowly developing the accuracy.

Better Social Life:

As you know, Archery is a social sport where you join a club and then keep performing in the tournaments with other people.

When you look closely, in this process kids are meeting a lot of new people, learning and socializing.

On the other hand, if the kids are playing video games and spending time on the internet their interaction style and convincing power will be very poor.

Physical Health Mastery:

Our kids only work hard for good grades because that somehow shows their image of capability in our society.

In this competition of life, we often forget that physical exercise is essential too for a clear mind and better focus.

Archery is a safe sport and uses all body muscles which can over time make your kids healthy and focused towards their tasks.

1: Start with Toy Bow and Arrow

I never suggest you hand over the real archery equipment to your kids without any starting experience.

You should gift them the toy archery equipment and start teaching them the rules and methods of shooting.

It will be fun for them, right?

What you can do is to hang the toy target in the backyard and teach them the basic methods of shooting arrows and once the kids learn the art of shooting, then there is no stopping to it.

And with the passage of time, you will see them hitting the targets closer and closer…

2: Now, Real Archery Equipment

Once you realize that they are confident enough, understand the harm the equipment can cause and they might end up hurting themselves if they are not careful, just as we teach them about knives at home…then You can start teaching them with real bow and arrows.

The good rule of thumb would be their first hundred shots which they do in your presence and if still, you think they are not confident enough, you should not hand over the real equipment until you are sure that they are ready to use the real equipment.

But, at this stage, if you think kid/s have learned all the things about shooting and the damage which equipment can cause if they are careless, now you may allow them to use the real equipment.

It’s very important to teach kids the Archery Safety Rules before they start shooting.

Note: you can show kids the videos on YouTube about possible damages while shooting the arrow for their further awareness.

3: Teach them Posture

Making the correct posture plays a big role in achieving the shot at the target, we all know that…

Stance: For making proper stance kids should be taught how to stand in front of the target with shoulder-width apart.

Knocking Arrow: While for knocking the arrow, posture should be still but staying still is often found to be difficult for kids to maintain.

Grasp Bowstring: For grasping the bowstring, kids should be told to use 3 fingers as it’s difficult to change the style later.

Aim: After still posture, kids should be taught to look through the arrow shaft towards their aim to achieve a good shot and on target.

Release: While releasing the arrow, the technique is to make sure only your fingers are going to move (wide open), otherwise a little body movement can make a big impact on the shot’s direction.

Join Archery Tournaments with Kids:

To develop your kid’s interest in archery, you need to keep yourself up to date with the upcoming tournaments in your area (City/town).

If you could find a tournament for kids, it will be the best option otherwise you can always take them to the tournament of professionals too.

You should attend a lot of archery events with your kids and with the passage of time, this will surely get them excited about learning archery and maybe taking part in these competitions one day.

Well, if they promise themselves to compete in next tournament, kids can do it and it’s just the matter of belief and understanding…

All you have to do is to give them the necessary confidence, they will learn fast and then soon they will be able to compete with other kids of their age in this cool sport.

Take Kids to Hunt:

Whenever you are going for hunting on a safe spot, you should take kids with yourself and this will boost their energy of learning archery.

I always take nick with me on safe locations who is 12 years old and he loves joining me with his own bow and arrow.

Also, you should keep teaching them the basic rules of hunting. It will make them confident for trying it one day on their own.

Final Words:

Archery is a safe sport and when you are trying to teach your kids you should make sure they are learning all about the equipment and dangers first.

So, when you realize that kid has enough understanding of these things only then you can allow them to use the original equipment.

You should remind them, that in order to take perfect shots, they have to focus on their posture and release style of the bow.

Also, it’s your duty to make sure kids are learning the important things the easy way, and it’s going to take time to reach perfection and every expert needs lots and lots of practice to reach the perfection level.