10 Reasons to Teach Your Kids Archery Right Now

We have all heard children development experts saying that kids should get out more often and avoid staying indoors. It’s true that video games have made it more exciting for kids to stay indoors. So what can you do as a parent to make your kids more active. My suggestion is to let them learn archery.

Archery is generally considered as a sport which involves the shooting of projectile carbon arrow for hunting. Archery is not only recognized as a sport, but also as an art of its kind. Statistically, it’s proven that archery for kids is likely to keep adolescents and other children alike active, focused and far away from drugs and alcohol.

1. It’s Quite Safe

Out of my years of archery practice, I can now outwardly admit that this is one of the safest sports among other children’s sports. This amazing fact is also backed up by the Archery Trade Association that claims that the only two sports that are also considered as one of the safest sports is table tennis and bowling.

2. Improves Mental Focus and Physical Strength

In order to hit the bulls eye, you need to position yourself well, control your chest, shoulders, hands, and arms as you hold the arrow. Solid positioning allows you build your upper body strength. In addition, you also need stamina and energy to practice shooting the bow and arrow every day.
Take the example of bow hunting. This is a sport that comes with regulations and whoever takes part in it has to be a very good marksman. A bow hunter stays focused on their target until they hit it.

3. Good for Both Life and Classroom Skills

Archery is versatile and can be used to teach skills both in the field and in the classroom, which helps to build on character.

As a retired archer, I was able to put archery to good use by teaching the art of shooting compound bow for kids, and using the same opportunity to teach the same kids how to practically determine area and perimeter in geometry.

4. Teaches Valuable Skills
Just as I had mentioned earlier, archery is considered as an art and sport owing to the fact that you get to upgrade your equipment and shooting dynamics the longer you practice. This is mostly because the equipment you use is usually matched to the user’s ability to maintain focus.
In addition, archery is considered as a friendly physical sport that enhances body fitness, hunting awareness, and sportsmanship.

5. An All Year Round Sport

Unlike most of the ball sports that can easily be affected by weather changes, archery is not the kind that is affected because it can be practiced in almost any setting. I can strongly testify that archery is such a versatile sport that you can play it both at the comfort of your own home or even outside.
There are various types of archery practiced that mainly includes field archery (mainly played on a wooded course and outdoors), target archery (this can be witnessed on Olympic and Paralympics games), and 3D archery (targets being shot at are farm animals).

6. Creates a Sense of Accomplishment

Archery is the kind of sport that easily stands out from others due to the fact that it involves individual effort and not a compound team sweat. Ever since I started archery, I have always felt good about my ability to pull back a string, aim at my target, and carefully loosening my grip as the arrow flies into the target.
Similarly, having kids take part in the sport can ultimately build on their confidence and self-esteem, knowing that they can carry out such a skill by themselves.

7. Scholarship Offers

The good thing about archery is that you can play it as a sport and still use it to get a sports scholarship.
During the year 2014, there were about 11000 student-archers that managed to acquire higher education scholarships worth $77,000 that was being issued by the National Archery in the School Program (NASP). There are also other bodies that offer archery sports based scholarships such as the Easton Foundations.

8. Archery is Enjoyable
Have you ever hit the bullseye in a game of darts or scored the last minute equalizer in a soccer match? Well I would honestly say that this also applies in Archery, where you get to build on your skills and get to enjoy the fun and thrill that comes from it.
At the end of the day, archery is the type of sport that leaves you in high spirits after a series of successful hits.

9. Shapes Behavior

When I used to teach compound bow for kids, there’s a lot more than shooting arrows that the kids needed to learn. Ideally, archery has rules that you need to follow, such as having the right stance and vision even before you’re allowed to shoot an arrow.
This technique equally applied even inside the classroom walls, where student-archers get to learn that there are rules in society that governs us and gives freedom at the same time.

10. Helps Set Goals

Just as mentioned earlier, archery is a sport that requires a long term attention that basically requires time and energy. As the saying goes, ‘practice makes perfect’, archery requires the learner to begin slow and work your way to the top by setting goals.
Eventually, as an archer gets to improve on their skills, they also get to achieve their long-term goal.

Conclusion
Archery is a work of art that can benefit kids of all ages. In any case, it’s vital to make sure that your children are indulging in archery for kids because it can build them physically, mentally, and character-wise.