Promoting Archery - How?

Rhys

Active member
AIUK Saviour
I feel this is a relavant question given the recent rebranding etc. So what do you think can be done to promote our sport? What can we do to attract more young people into archery and to raise the profile of archery as a serious sport.

It doesnt just have to be ideas that need doing by those in charge, but also what can be done right down to grass roots level!



At university I notice that most people who come see the ultimate frisbee stand and go "Yeah I heard that was really cool" yet i've never seen frisbee on TV but its suddenly become very trendy. I honestly can't see how we can make archery a particularly trendy thing to do? (my relatively limted experience with juniors seems to suggest a lot of young kids come along but very few stay on through their teens or attend many competitions)
 

Trunkles

The American
American Shoot
There was an item on Frisbee on the local news recently as two lads (from Rotherham ??) were in the GB junior team (??) if I recall correctly.

Out of 9 beginners on our recent course 4 were juniors and would be 12 -14 (I need to get their actual ages for the handicaps/classifications). The main problems are:
1. Need some structure for them after beginners - I hope we can get this right. One of our previous beginners is attending the Yorkshire squads so getting development (along with a couple of the older ones)
2. Sex - older teenagers discover the opposite sex and along with exams this can disrupt other activities such as archery, ballet,.....

How do we encourage them during this period - do the Universities get a number of people who say I did archery when I was younger but have left it for two or three years.

I think it is possibly better for youngsters to have a parent who shoots - then it is a normal activity - I'm going do you want to come tonight. If the parent is not interested then they are not going to encourage over the patches where they need to go out with boy/girl friend.
 

napolienne

Active member
Fonz Awardee
Things clubs and counties can do:

Have a development plan
Have a gos, until they come out of your earholes.
Get and stay friendly with your county sports partnership; your local authority, local schools, colleges and unis, local leisure providers, other local sports teams
Good, professional looking website, good shirts! This is your brand, use it to your advantage.
Get as much (decent) copy and and especially photos into the local press as poss
Make the most of any national squad archers you have - publicity and funding!
Do your damndest to get modern, decent club facilities - peripatetic clubs are never going to reach their full potential
In everything you do, be professional. If you are a club, get clubmark. Use the FITA beginners awards scheme, it is ace.
Train as many coaches as you can. Support their training and CPD in any way you can.

Things coaches and volunteers can do:
Spread yourself around. Make sure archery is seen in the right places (schools, leisure centres etc etc) and in the right way. Be friendly and encouraging with the newbies -in most cases you are the first real contact with the sport they'll have had, and those first impressions really count.

I think about this quite a lot. Maybe the best pull we have on the age group you're talking about is that we aren't a mainstream sport. This isn't the sport your PE teacher made you do in the pouring rain when you were 13. And if you're rubbish at the usual sports it doesn't matter, you can excel at archery.
 

BorderBows

New member
Archery is a numbers game, its an internal fight to improve and not very visable.
This is the problem that most struggle with.
I like racing games on a games console, they are a internal race against the clock. From the out side, i dont move, and the screen doesnt change much either. A few numbers here and there and you have a good or bad result but it all looks the same.
To me, its all about the racing line, and not devaiting from it, i know the bad corners from the good and i know where i need to try harder.
a bit like marmite, you either love it or hate it... Though if you have some small success at the start, you become one that loves it, and if your not good at it, you hate it... if you see what im thinking.

So maybe a way of adressing the "nothing appears to change" might help.
I also dont think that its all about the sport, for example, there are not many teenagers stick at many sports.
In NZ there is a culture of live and let live, and if someone is carring a (insert sports equipment here) in town, then folks say "cool" they are interested in such and such. While gowing up in the UK, and interested in sports, the reply you get is "why do you do that?" and "wouldnt you rather be down the pub?"
The british stiff upper lip seems to be, dont tell anyone what you do, incase they mock you, while a more stand up and be counted approach, is more of what is needed. Maybe, a intranet staff achivement board at work, so you work friends know what people do... i think you would be amaized at what the people round you do for fun... and that would make you more approachable to those who have thought it might be a cool sport.
Traditional archery is growing all over the world, with the advant of less geeky looking home made targets and the advent of 3D. The head to head style shoot offs are also a aim at making the skills visable, and not just a numbers game.
At work, a statement of and a achivement board would show your firends and bosses that your striving for more and not a couch potatoe... " this year im looking to achive bowman, or master bowman, or such like means that its not about green tights and pretenting your robin hood... You might get a "whats a bowman?" and thats the start of a informative question.
Id garentee most of the population wouldnt have a clue that archery is a complex as it is, or even that its an olympic sport.


Just some personal ramblings there...
 

Rhys

Active member
AIUK Saviour
How do we encourage them during this period - do the Universities get a number of people who say I did archery when I was younger but have left it for two or three years.
Actually yes, this year we even picked up ex welsh squad junior and got him back into things. Maybe one thing we should be doing at university is pushing people more towards external competitions (we have been working on that, and I know Oxford and Cambridge have done it for years) as a lot of people stay within the university scene and don't really carry on much afterwards. That way we could pick up a fair few of these juniors and get them back into archery.

One thing that would be nice is instead of getting reactions of "oh that looks like cheating, bet its really easy, why don't you use real bows" when people see compounds/recurves but a reaction of "wow that kit looks nice"
 

moo-mop

New member
when people see compounds/recurves but a reaction of "wow that kit looks nice"
When I was back in Cam we had one of our practices straight after an archery party and all the eight year olds came back out going wow, here come the professionals as of course all our bows had shiny do-dahs all over them.

Actually I don't think we do too bad in promoting archery, many many people who you tell I do archery say oh yes I've tried it at a have-go etc etc and that's a good thing. I also do not think we really do worse than other sports in getting people to stay with it. Of course I'd like to see everybody get more out of archery but a lot of that comes from within and although you can demonstrate and encourage, you can't force it. That's why you get people coming back to the sport later in life when you understand this: archery by default is quite serious and is rewarding (and therefore also frustrating :) ) rather than fun in itself.
 
I feel this is a relavant question given the recent rebranding etc. So what do you think can be done to promote our sport? What can we do to attract more young people into archery and to raise the profile of archery as a serious sport.
OK heres an idea for a round - a bit like golf

70m 50m 60m 30m 70m 50m 60m 30m

First pair go up and shoot 1 dozen at 70m, then move over to the 50m etc. etc. until they do the final 30m, and then their score is easily put up on the scoreboard. Next pair are following at 1 dozen offset. etc. etc.

This way scoreboard is being updated 'real-time', so spectators finally have something to watch. Maybe even start with a 2 dozen ranking round to get the good archers coming up to shoot last, and really applying pressure to them.

The question is though do people want the sport to be popular, or an elite clique?
 

pmiddl

New member
I think the best competition for spectators to watch is the way the British Uni Team Champs is run. Team H2H using the Beiter hit/miss faces. Its a lot easier for spectators to keep track of the score during the end, and the short time limit makes it fast paced.
 

acehero

New member
Good points made so far. I think image is pretty crucial to promoting the sport, especially among young people. Youngsters want to do things that make them look cool in the eyes of their friends. Go along to your nearest comp and look along the shooting line. You'll see a lot of folks, predominantly middle-aged and above, mostly wearing drab looking greens and whites, with bellies rounder than the bosses they are shooting at. Now go to youtube and look at the Olympic archery videos in contrast. Young fit competitors, wearing snazzy national colours, sunglasses etc, shooting tense and exciting head-to-head rounds. Now that is an awesome image to attract people into the sport, but alas we all know how hard it is to find such footage and how little coverage archery gets. I dont just mean visual image either, the sport needs to appear to have plenty of exciting elements to it too.

Borderbows is very much correct about how people in this country tend to be embarrassed about admitting to their sports/hobbies. I dont know why the prevailing culture is to laugh at anyone who doesnt spend all their time in the pub, its a bit sad. I think improving the image would help archery. When i tell somebody im into it, im immediately ready to start explaining that its not all about wooden sticks and Robin Hood and tights. Ive never yet come across a snowboarder/racing driver/bungee jumper/*insert sport with cool image here* that was ashamed to admit what they do.

I think one way may be to add some fun exciting elements into shoots, especially at beginner courses or for new archers. Things like a balloon burst, dartboard faces on bosses, or other novelty type shoots are a good way to show that archery isnt just about plinking away at the same old target all day - and lets face it most people will get bored quickly with that if they dont succeed at it straight away.
 
I think the best competition for spectators to watch is the way the British Uni Team Champs is run. Team H2H using the Beiter hit/miss faces. Its a lot easier for spectators to keep track of the score during the end, and the short time limit makes it fast paced.
Plus get rid of bouncers. Wow do those use up a lot of time, especially at 90m.

Do the same as in darts - bounces out no score. So throws something extra into the mix.
 

Thunk

Well-known member
Ironman
A lot of very positive ideas here especially from Napolienne and Border Bows.
Let me chuck a negative into the mix - 'Don't, whatever you do, mention Robin bl**dy Hood!' First, because it's the perfect excuse for people to mock and not take the idea of archery seriously ("honestly, grown men and women running around playing Robin Hood, you'd think they'd find something sensible to do...") - you get the idea...

Second, because I've met a few young juniors who were told they could shoot 'like Robin Hood' - and of course what we do is nothing like what Robin Hood is supposed to have done - the discipline requirements of archery as a sport are in direct conflict with the footloose, devil-may-care image of RH and his 'merry men' (why 'merry? Were they permanently ######, or what?)

Archery is a sport. It can stand on its own merits as such, and does not need the image of a character who in all likelihood never even existed hung round its neck like an albatross. If you look at almost any other sport around, you find they have the same problems that archery does in terms of recruitment and retention. People's interest is fickle; they are attracted by something for a while, may even dive in wholeheartedly for a while - and then something else grabs their attention. A good example is sailing, another sport which takes large amounts of my time. You can walk through the dinghy park at almost any sailing club in the country and note that this boat belongs to one person, and that one to someone else...and there are always a few which haven't seen their owner for a long time because he got all excited, bought a boat and then lost interest when he learned that it took time, effort and commitment to learn to sail properly. Some have sat there unloved for so long that nobody can remember who actually does own them...

But nobody feels the need to invoke the memory of Nelson in order to make sailing look like an attractive sport.
 

BorderBows

New member
I think improving the image would help archery. When i tell somebody im into it, im immediately ready to start explaining that its not all about wooden sticks and Robin Hood and tights. Ive never yet come across a snowboarder/racing driver/bungee jumper/*insert sport with cool image here* that was ashamed to admit what they do.
I think the H2H is good for spectators, and it its fun to watch, therefor it must be fun to do...!!!
I think though on the "insert cool sport here", is the classic responce.
Thats both chicken and egg symptom. You say your an archer, and you expect a "ooh, thats a bit nerdy" responce, so there is a bit of hesitation/cringe when you say it, which then leads to the "ooh, thats a bit nerdy" where as if you were bold and confident and said it out loud, then the question is, "why are archers soo proud of their sport, whats so great, maybe i should try it"
You never see a snow border/ surfer with a nerdy image. because you dont look for it. Have you seen a good set of waves in winter, when the surfers are all huddling together with neoprene balacavas gloves and the rest. Not something that looks too cool.
For example, I used to be alittle put off saying i was a Kayaker. Most poeple see kayaking as Lake sessions, Raft running for kids, and anoraks and wet suits. And yes it is for beginners, as for surf kayaking and freestyle/whitewater is a very different affair, but i had a pre-programed responce in "im a kayaker" Wait for the "ah!" then comes the excuses, "yeah but im a white water kayaker" Then it changes when you explain that ive paddled the Nile, and alot of rivers in the alps, and that often ends in "oh, that sounds interesting"
If i was bold enough i woundnt need to feel like i should justify my self. and that in its self causes curiosity rather than stigma.
Golf is pritty nerdy, with its dress code and the likes. But thats no more than archery, but folks know what golf is about... So with some visability alot of the myth about archery being a back room sport would help confidence and stop it being a back room sport. Visability at personal and national level sport.

So after that rant, my summary is, that if you feel the need to explain your sport due to the audiance not knowing what it is you do, you feel like you need to justify it. This gives the wrong impression.
Cyclist is a road racer.
Mountain biker is just that.
golf is golf
Snow boarding is also just snow boarding.
runners are marathon runners.
Thats what people see.
What is an archer?
Thats the image we need to portray, with confidence, and being bold about it. That includes in the office, at home and in the pub, and i defy anyone to call me a nerd/geek for what i choose to do.
As Nats has said, have a go's till the come out your ears and all the rest of the suggestions about image, but also the attitude you say it with!
 

moo-mop

New member
archery isnt just about plinking away at the same old target all day - and lets face it most people will get bored quickly
I don't agree with your sentiment here:
You simply have to do the high volumes of arrows if you want to succeed. That's the one thing I always try and tell everybody who asks me why I'm better than some and worse than others, how well you do is highly correlated to 'plonking away' day after day, week after week. Most sports are very dull when you get down to the hard work required even snowboarding I suspect.
(Aside of course I don't just plonk away, as that's doesn't make the best use of time, but have a training plan for what to do with the arrows I'm shooting)

However, archery more than most sports is trying to be highly repetitive and that is boring if you let it be, for me other sports are fun to do badly at; bad archery isn't fun at all. The point is always about achieving your goals it's rewarding and that is a much more difficult concept than falling over on the ski slopes etc etc wooshing (or drifting) along on windsurf board before being thrown off. I think it's bound to appeal to a different sort of person, and possibly that person is an older person. Golf does too. It's no co-incidence that many of us are engineers or scientists either.

p.s. I just sold my unloved dinghy...
 
Cyclist is a road racer.
Mountain biker is just that.
golf is golf
Snow boarding is also just snow boarding.
runners are marathon runners.
Cyclists get massive TV coverage, and cool clothing and stuff.
Mountain biking, neat tricks, speed, dangerous, quirky.
Golf you can earn loads of money.
Snow boarding, same as mountain biking just colder.
Runners - it is easy to take part in it and anyone can run.

Golf is about the closest to archery - it is generally quite elitest, expensive, special clothing rules imposed, normally run by donkey year old comittees that hate change, most clubs just about tolerate juniors, governing body called the Royal and Ancient (and they are proud of the fact it sounds old) - but it is still really popular - how is that?
 

moo-mop

New member
[Golf] is still really popular - how is that?
A guess: because you can put the hard work in and see rewards and improvement, like archery talent/fitness is secondary? We need to convey this, I wouldn't choose to go the balloons or depressing h2h (where nearly everybody looses) route myself, or at least not all the time.
 

BorderBows

New member
Cyclists get massive TV coverage, and cool clothing and stuff.
QUOTE]

Lycra!!! Yikes!
Nearly fell off my seat!!! :raspberry

I get your point though, but im saying its all to do with the subjectivity of image, which is convayed with confidence. Confidence in knowing your audience knows what your talking about.

Please dont take my bad wording here as a bad thing, im using it to make a point. A fat Woman can still be sexy, it just takes confidence! Ive taken a negative term as an example, and said it can be a nice thing, its just about the way the subject is expressed. Im also not talking about using Positive terminololgy. Im talking about confidence!

If you expect the "robin hood" view, you will answer that way! If you expect to be treated respectfully, you will.
Worst of all, as pointed out, we are often refering to the one image we are mostly fighting to get away from. What do you do... Im an archer... as in robin hood?... yeah kind of...
My starter phrase to people that ask, what do i do for a living, the answer is make Bows, for both types of archery, one is an olymipc sport, Target Archery, and the other main disciplin is field archery which is like golf.

That generally scares them off enough :jaw-dropp
 
Lycra!!! Yikes!
Nearly fell off my seat!!! :raspberry

I get your point though, but im saying its all to do with the subjectivity of image, which is convayed with confidence. Confidence in knowing your audience knows what your talking about.
Lol if you are wearing lycra you probably would slip off you seat anyway.

It doesn't matter what anyone else says about archery it is how we portray the sport to people around us. I really enjoy the sport, and people that know me know that I do as well. I do not like some of the rules and regulations, just as some football fans do not like the offside rule, or necessarily understand fully some of the rules, just like no-one understands the offside rule in football (re: decision at Euro2008 aginst Italy, I think it was Italy!).
 

acehero

New member
I don't agree with your sentiment here:
You simply have to do the high volumes of arrows if you want to succeed. That's the one thing I always try and tell everybody who asks me why I'm better than some and worse than others, how well you do is highly correlated to 'plonking away' day after day, week after week. Most sports are very dull when you get down to the hard work required even snowboarding I suspect.
(Aside of course I don't just plonk away, as that's doesn't make the best use of time, but have a training plan for what to do with the arrows I'm shooting)

However, archery more than most sports is trying to be highly repetitive and that is boring if you let it be, for me other sports are fun to do badly at; bad archery isn't fun at all. The point is always about achieving your goals it's rewarding and that is a much more difficult concept than falling over on the ski slopes etc etc wooshing (or drifting) along on windsurf board before being thrown off. I think it's bound to appeal to a different sort of person, and possibly that person is an older person. Golf does too. It's no co-incidence that many of us are engineers or scientists either.

p.s. I just sold my unloved dinghy...
I wasnt saying thats not the way to improve at archery, I was just saying people new to the sport should be aware theres more to it than that - like field, clout, flight, head-to-heads etc. If you told somebody who was thinking of beginning archery that the only way to get good is to spend 6 hours a day shooting at a 70m target, or worse a blank target at 10m, they may well not find that a very exciting prospect :gloomy: However get them into the sport with "fun" stuff first and when theyve got a taste for things hours of plinking away wont seem so dull (well thats how it works for me - could shoot all day at the same distance and love every minute :))
 

moo-mop

New member
I was just saying people new to the sport should be aware theres more to it than that
Well there really isn't more to it (well at least in target). I guess I'm just too honest with the beginners who seem to get thrown into scoring before they have got basic technique. I think people can actually get to like the hours at the grounds when they are convinced it'll get the results. Improving is the fun part of archery - so in answer to the question convince others that you can do well at archery if you want to.
 
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