Fulfilling a childhood dream.

geoffretired

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As a kid, I made bows and arrows made from branches cut from hedgerows with my penknife. A few of us played shooting in the field to see whose arrows would go furthest. I think I got more fun from this than the rest of my friends, and when I saw an advert for a beginners' course (30 years later) I signed up. I was taken back to my childhood and the fun I felt was increased by using "real bows and real arrows and shooting at proper targets".
The pure pleasure of shooting arrows is still with me; I guess I am lucky.
These days, I see archers as they arrive for their first lessons and, see in them, the same sort of excitement that got me started.
Many of those beginners last a year or two and then move on to other things. A very small minority last longer than that, and become the experienced archers that I was once so keen to emulate.
The experienced archers form the nucleus of the club where I shoot. It seems to me that this might not be unique; and many clubs are in a similar situation. Their progress fits a similar pattern; a good number of new beginners, and a large drop out a year or so later, creating a small nucleus of experienced archers who are looked to for support by the newer members. And so it continues.
Some suggest that this situation is something than needs to be addressed and sorted out before archery clubs fall into disrepair and close down. I think it has been like this for so long that it is likely to run for many years to come. I guess other sports find things run to a similar pattern.
Although that pattern is still evident, there are changes taking place. Compared to the days when I started, the gear is more advanced and the jobs we do for ourselves are decreasing in number. Our new members belong to the 21st century and live the lifestyle that is appropriate to these times. There is no point in trying to stay as we were... who darns socks these days? Who makes bowstrings?Are they new members or the experienced ones?
I think the thing keeping archery alive is the experienced archers, and in particular those who the newer members want to approach for advice. The ones they see shooting. Shooting and enjoying it.
 

Eluned

Member
Lovely sentiments Geoff. When I was a child I spent many happy hours pushing Matchbox and Dinky cars across the floors of my home. I guess that Sterling Moss, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart et al probably did much the same thing.
 

geoffretired

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Supporter
Thanks for that.
I too pushed dinky toys around the floor for hours;but it never struck me to race them. I made them go where I wanted them to go. Sounds like archery,heehee.
 

Kernowlad

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Supporter
Good thread. I think I'm lucky in discovering a really good club nearby with great indoor and outdoor facilities and helpful members.

Regarding cars - I grew up with a petrolhead dad and it's definitely rubbed off on me! Probably spend too much on cars and vans but we love it!
 

Eluned

Member
Strangely, when I attained the appropriate age the government would not give me a full driving licence based on my extensive collection of toy cars; which I had long since put back into the toy box. Unfortunately, the benevolence of the National Lottery does not extend to supporting an Olympic Target Archery Programme for similar reasons. It is great that you have retained your childhood pleasure and interest in archery and anyone who reads your posts cannot fail to understand your passion even when at odds with your views.
 

Yew Selfbow

Active member
Nice post Geoff.
Coming from a farming family, I had pretty much the same upbringing, making bows from hedgerow staves, arrows with chicken feather fletchings and baling twine for strings ... halcyon days.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Thanks for the posts,Kernowlad, Eluned and Yew selfbow.
Good clubs, helpful archers and living on a farm can all play their parts. Straw bosses spring to mind for some reason.heehee.Homemade I hope.
Well, I would have to agree with the government for not allowing a full driving licence; real driving requires the driver to be inside; whereas toys of the matchbox variety tend to prevent owners from taking control other than from outside.
In a similar way, my childhood freedom when shooting, was curtailed somewhat when I took up real archery. I had to pass a test and stand on a line with others and shoot to a time limit and at a fixed target, despite being closely connected to Robin Hood. Still, I was more adult, in some ways by then, and the restrictions were offset by the feeling of being trustworthy.
But, despite the restrictions, the thrill of just shooting arrows can remain with us. It is a delicate situation though, and tensions can rob us of what we most found so captivating.
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
You can probably guess my response... too much emphasis on scoring, competition, expensive equipment, and not enough on fun and VARIETY !
Too little publicity of the other disciplines like field, clout, roving.
It's all about money and consumerism.. most people are exposed to archery via the Olympics or have-a-go days.
I heartily approve of the latter especially when it has a variety of bows.
I don't think AGB and the Olympic movement does archery any favours.
All just my opinion of course, but I think field would be far more TV friendly and entertaining at the Olympics.
The various archery organisations should interface better with each other too.

Think of it from the viewpoint of a family wanting to enjoy a days entertainment... I think field would win hands down as there insn't too much standing around (which kids won't like), and one can even be competitive with a stick bow!
Del (Ducks and runs for cover)
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
I recently got chucked of a farmers land despite having had permission a couple of years before from the farmer's wife and being questioned by one of the farm hands about a year later, and despite leaving 'em a bottle of scotch at the farm shop at Christmas.
Probably some busybody stopped in the farm shop and complained that we were "dangerous"....
The farmer had no idea about the range of the bows we had... prob thought we were shooting compounds, not wooden bows, and wouldn't listen... effectively called me a liar when I tried to explain we'd asked for permission.
Still we had 2 years of occasional bow testing and flight shooting :)
The public is ignorant and many modern bows are too powerful which tars us all with the same brush.

Most people stop doing something because it's too inconvenient, expensive, time consuming or it isn't fun. It's always that balance between effort vs reward.
Kids are pretty much at the mercy of their parents as they can't wander the woods like we did as kids. (They'd have an armed response unit descend on them!)
Del
 

Rog600

Member
I agree with Delthecat about field and TV; I watched the field comp on world archery TV (Ireland somewhere I think) and really enjoyed it despite never having seen any before, or having done it or knowing anything about it. Particularly enjoyed the team event where there was a recurve, barebow and compounder. And I now drive round places thinking "that'd be a good field course" 😁
 

geoffretired

Supporter
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Del, Your response is not unexpected; but valuable all the same. I agree with you on lots of these things. Perhaps I see different causes for the way things pan out.
Let me just put forward some ideas; not saying they are correct, but might be.
Why are so many beginners' courses done with recurve bows?
Why do so many beginners' courses include target faces and sights?
Why do so many clubs put on club shoots with scores to be recorded and handicaps (possibly) worked out to level the playing field occasionally?
Why are clouts and field shoots and other variation so badly advertised?
Why do many archers end up losing the fun of just shooting?
I think it is because clubs are run by archers who shoot well enough to be a source of information and possibly inspiration for the newcomers. I said something about that on my opening post.
So, what are those experienced archers doing? They are, by example, demonstrating what happens at the clubs where they shoot.
I don't like target faces or sights for beginners yet I am faced with a lot of opposition because others think the way to go is to start them off as they are going to continue. They expect newcomers to continue in the way they themselves have done for the past xxx years.
When people are put in a situation where they have to instruct others( or volunteer to undertake the instruction of others) it is natural to show the beginners the things they know best. It takes more than just knowing how to shoot. One of the tricky aspects to get right is knowing when to stop feeding more and more information to the beginners. It is easier to fall into a routine that is very familiar. Use the same ideas as last year etc etc etc.
The easiest way to get things done is to find a routine that works and repeat it. Often, simplifying that routine comes later.
Beyond that human nature stuff, there are constraints on some clubs that don't make it easy to demonstrate clout/ field. flight etc etc.
If those aspects of archery are to be developed, it will have to be done deliberately. Someone will have to do it. Someone will have to convince others that it should be done. Clubs will have to communicate and find out where such variety is available and how to access it.
I am not going to blame anyone for the situation that exists. I haven't the right to complain.
The club where I shoot was 99% recurve when I joined( with my compound). I was known to some of the club before I joined but I think my arrival could have been less welcoming otherwise. Compounds can now be seen, apart from mine, as others found out of their existence by watching me, I suppose. A guy joined who was keen on longbow and started shooting his own bows. In a few years and after some input by him with trial bows and arrows, we had a nice group of longbow archers and some recurve archers converted to recurve barebow.
The club is now quite evenly represented in the different bow styles, though we only have facilities for target archery. We occasionally run a clout on a nearby cricket field. That is all down to a keen member or three putting in the work to sort it out
 

bimble

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I agree with Delthecat about field and TV; I watched the field comp on world archery TV (Ireland somewhere I think) and really enjoyed it despite never having seen any before, or having done it or knowing anything about it. Particularly enjoyed the team event where there was a recurve, barebow and compounder. And I now drive round places thinking "that'd be a good field course" ��
That was, however, only the finals they televised. There had been four days of competition previous which would have been very hard to televise (without a lot of cameras) and very hard to have spectators at. Unless you perhaps had only a handful of targets with spectators. Even though field is a lot more fun, target archery is a lot easier for spectators and the television. And it's possible to fit several thousand people in to watch it.
 

ash

New member
why not just put cameras on location and stuff all the people into a room with a flat screen, that way they buy tickets, watch archery and most likely drink beer. sounds like a win right?
 

geoffretired

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I don't think archery is much of a spectator sport. I know I didn't join an archery club for people to come and watch me. Of the sports I do watch on tv archery is last on my list and really just watch that to see how the top archers shoot, rather than to see a spectacle.
I think that keeping archery fit and well isn't about getting it on tv, but keeping clubs running.
I am not so sure that archery clubs succeed just because there are Olympics to look to, or aspire to, or watch. I can't think of any archery club near me that would close if archery dropped off the Olympic list of sports. Yes, we had a very good intake of beginners in 2012 with the Olympics and all that. There is no large group of archers with us now, from that intake
It seems to me that we have a healthier club now, with all the different bow style shooting on the same line. Changing from almost all recurve to a balanced mix, was not the result of a deliberate committee decision; with plans in place to ensure they were well catered for. It was the result of individuals making the effort to allow others a chance to explore these different bows. Then letting archers choose and offering to help them where they could.
I know there was a lot to enjoy for those who made the change; and I feel sure that those who helped them enjoyed the parts they played, too.
 

geoffretired

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Supporter
why not just put cameras on location and stuff all the people into a room with a flat screen, that way they buy tickets, watch archery and most likely drink beer. sounds like a win right?
Might find they ask to have the channel changed so they can watch something else.
But getting back on track, if we want to keep archery alive, and if field archery is going to play a bigger part in the archery available to archers in this country, how is that going to be brought about?
Advertising its existence on tv may be one way. But getting adverts on tv is not going to bring the grounds any nearer to those archers who are already shooting target archery with the nearest field course too far away to use on a regular basis.
Money is going to be required and that needs to come from somewhere.
Perhaps some of the membership fees we are already paying could be put towards buying suitable places. I guess that would depend on how important more field archery venues are deemed to be.
 

Whitehart

Well-known member
Great post Geoff, canes for shafts, odd feathers found lying around for fletchings and nails for points.

Never once worried that I did not have enough twists in my brown parcel string.

Ah owning a pen knife - a right of passage, now lost in the past for youngsters today.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
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Hi Andrew, yes we occasionally had nails for points, that was when we were shooting into the greenhouse walls. Brown parcel string, straight from the string drawer in the kitchen, second or third time round, having arrived on a clothes parcel from the local Coop.
We never reached the dizzy heights of fletchings; I think that must have been posh Southern idea( heehee) Either that or we were committed to bareshaft testing even in our early childhood.
Penkives were normal I feel. You needed one to undo screws and sharpen pencils. Not allowed to cut string though; all knots had to be untied and the string kept as long as possible.
I tend to feel sorry for youngsters today when I think of what they are missing. Then I think again and realise they have their lives with their own toys/belongings etc. Ours would not interest them these days; any more than my wife would want an old flat iron to heat over an open fire. Burning the back out of a shirt is far quicker with electric.
But on a slightly more serious note, I do feel that the way we shot as kids, with not much understanding and next to no attempts at aiming, we did get to feel how the shots happened. The continuity of the draw; the lack of any stopping and holding. It was like stone throwing in its simplicity and fluidity.
Longbow and barebow and clout shooting can replicate that simplicity, if allowed. I believe that once the simplicity and fluidity has been experienced, it can become an ingredient in the Olympic target forms of shooting.But it does need to be allowed its place in the archer's form. It can so easily end up in the bin as over thinking/over aiming get priority.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
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Hi Andrew, yes, I see the funny side of that,too. It's like someone is having a joke,heehee( I must stress here that I am not laughing at the organisers or complaining about the situation)
I quite often have PM's to and from Del on such matters. I see the differences in form and the similarities. I think that one style can inform the other; despite having no reason to converge. The flow of a longbow shot sequence is almost always present and easy to see. It is not so easy to see in some compound archers' form. But, when examined more closely there is a continuity that, in a sense, replaces that flow.
 
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