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Archery For Kids – 15 Reasons To Get Them Into It

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After school activities such as Archery for kids, has been proven to not only improve their general health but also boost confidence levels. In fact, according to this study, 57% of children aged 6-17 take part in some form of after-school activity.

Below are 15 reasons why I believe Archery is a great sport to introduce your children to.

1. Safe Sport

Even though arrows are sharp and dangerous, archery is actually a very safe sport. According to this report, between 2000 and 2004 archery is one of the least likely sports that your child will experience an injury. It is actually safer than many popular sports such as basketball, soccer, and baseball.

Rules are put in place to ensure the safety of all archers, these are taught to the kids from the start.

2. No Entry Requirements

With many sports you need to either be a certain size or shape, to either get picked or to perform well. With archery, there are no initial requirements. It is open regardless of gender, size and fitness levels.

3. Archery Can Be Done All Year Round

If you are looking for a sport your kids can enjoy all year round, archery is perfect. In the summer months, the children can enjoy different types of archery from target, field and even 3D archery. (This is when they shoot 3d animals made out of foam). Come the winter, archery then moves indoors.

4. Ideal For All Ages

It can be hard if you have more than one child to find a sport that both can take up. The great thing about archery for kids is that it’s open to all ages.

5. Scholarships Available

College is not cheap and for many families, a scholarship is a great way of getting our kids a great education. In 2014 the National Archery in School program had given 11,000 student archers some form scholarship.

6. Develop Goal Setting

Setting goals and knowing how to set goals is very important for personal growth. It allows you to realize what needs to improve and then set goals to hit those new targets. Archery helps our kids to learn how to set these goals, a skill they can adapt into their day to day life.

7. Improves Children's Behavior

Archery is an excellent sport to help improve a child's behavior, this is both outside of school as well as inside. In order for them to take part in archery and shoot their bow, they need to follow the rules. If they don't, they are simply not able to shoot. This teaches them that in order to do what they enjoy, they must behave.

8. Teaches Life Skills

We want our kids to grow up and learn important skills as they do get older, the great thing is that Archery can teach them some important life skills. These include;

Determination

Ever been on the range and couldn’t get the shot that you wanted, you are no doubt determined to do it before you leave. Archery helps our kids to learn how to be more determined.

Time Management

How can archery teach time management?

Most clubs only allow shooting on the range for so many hours, on certain days of the week. Your children, therefore, need to make the most of their time and thus focus more on the time they have. If your child also has homework, they may need to learn more about time management to get this done before being able to shoot.

Patience

The thing about kids is they lack patience, archery can, however, help to encourage them to be more patient. They are not going to be able to shoot perfectly right away, however, with practice, they will improve and thus teach them to be a little more patient.

We have also found children become more patient whilst shooting, as it requires a lot of focus and thought.

9. Trains Focus and Encourage Discipline

Learning how to become an archer is very much a step by step method, IE nocking the arrow, drawing the bow, aiming and finally shooting. Kids that are interested in archery soon learn that by focusing on each task at a time, they will hit the target more often.

Archery helps to train kids to be more focused, as they improve one of these steps at a time.

10. Archery Provides Relaxation & Stress Relief

You see more and more in the news that children are more stressed, a lot of this is down to the pressure at school or social media. The great thing about archery and why id recommends it for kids is that it can help to relax them and reduce stress.

When you stand and face the target with the bow drawn, all your thinking about is the target. Your breathing and focusing on your shot, you don’t think about anything outside of that target. Perfect for when you just want to get away from the day to day stress.

11. Gets The Kids Outdoors

Sometimes it can be incredibly hard to get children out of the house, even more so if they love playing computer games. Getting them into archery helps encourage them to get out into the range or even in the backyard to shoot at the target.

12. Improves Physical Health

We all know how good sport is for our health and archery is no exception. Many people don’t realize the health benefits it has for our children. As mentioned above it gets them outdoors more, which means they get much more Vitamin D.

When you draw a bow, you are actually holding a decent amount of weight (depending on the bows draw weight). The more you shoot, the stronger you get and this shows by having to upgrade to higher draw weights. This shows that archery is excellent for helping with improve strength, it does however also help to improve the core and overall strength.

It is even said that during tournaments, the average archer will also end up walking over 5 miles.

13. Improved Eye-hand Coordination and Balance

Archery is great for helping to improve your child's balance, as they need to ensure they have the right posture and stance. They will also spend a lot of time focusing on the target and over time this will help improve eye-hand coordination.

14. Builds Confidence Levels

Whether your child is looking to do archery as a hobby or get competitive, it’s an excellent way of building their confidence. The first way it does this is by putting them with other kids that are like-minded and therefore have something to talk about, thus getting them out of the shell.

As your child practices archery their skill will improve and with this their self-esteem. They can then get even more confidence if they compete in tournaments and win awards.

15. Low Cost Compared To Other Sports

Finally, the 15th reason why archery is perfect for kids, the cost. When you look at some sports, it can be incredibly expensive. All of the equipment needed, new equipment as they grow out of it etc.

With archery, you can generally find all of the equipment at a very reasonable price. Some of the best youth bows are low in cost but can still provide them with years and years of use.

There you have it, archery for kids and 15 reasons why you should get them into it. I really do think it can provide a lot of benefits to children and would recommend any parent to at least introduce them to it.

If you do have any comments or questions, please do post them below.

https://www.letsmoveschools.org/archery-for-kids/