Piece of advice...

[Purple Hugs]

I was wondering.. What piece of advice or tip do you wish someone had given you when you were starting out?

yep.. I'm picking your brains.

[Little Miss Purple]

That's a good question - the list will be endless!! It's difficult to answer a specific tip as we have said so many times..I wish I'd known that in the start!!

The best initial tip I got when I started was from Lez at Aardvark - I was struggling to find a constant reference point, he introduced me to a platform tab.

Another thing, if you have a choice of clubs around you, look into them all and see what facilities they have and when they are available. We changed clubs as we compete a lot now and our initial club only shoot on a Sunday.

Have fun!!

Originally Posted by Purple Hugs

I was wondering.. What piece of advice or tip do you wish someone had given you when you were starting out?

yep.. I'm picking your brains.

Now that's a really good question. In my case I feel it's more a case of people not giving me too much advice. Especially the wrong advice. I wish I had joined a different archery club from the start. The first one I was a member off was rubbish , but I did not have the experience to realise it until I had made lots of mistakes and developed really bad form that took ages to undo . It was a club full of "The blind leading the blind". Probably why I have a downer on so called "coaches"

With regards to a tip...Be patient, don't get too focused on hitting the gold all the time. There is practice and there is "good" practice, the two are worlds appart. Form is much more important than aiming at targets all the time. Get good form and you will get good scores, with time and hard work.

Good archers come from hard work and commitment. I was told when I started it takes a good 4 years to make a good archer, it sounded a long time back then, but it's not far off, give or take a year or two.

Oh yes, the most important bit is to "Enjoy it"

[Barry C]

Use a clicker from day 1. Buy a good book and dont listen to coaches. Never buy ACC. A matrix is a better buy than a 2001. You dont need a beiter LR. Learn how to push, push/pull.

Push probably being the best advice i would have liked to have had.

[Furface]

It is more important to work on good form right from day 1 than to simply get arrows in the target.
Take time to find the setup that really suits you, not the retailer or the club "expert".
Be prepared to work hard mentally and physically. Setbacks will come but thay can always be overcome.
and....
Never volunteer!

[Jerry Tee]

Have Fun. I once new a person who was very gifted when it came to badminton. but they did not enjoy it, end result, they did not play.

[JohnK]

An excellent topic.

My one piece of advice that I think is critical to all beginning archers is that they should start with a light draw weight. It's nigh impossible to learn good form with a heavy or even medium weight bow. Even top archers are known to step down in weight when making changes to their form.

[Rik]

Find a good coach. Listen to them.

It would have saved me an awful lot of work and time...

Take "everyone knows that..." with a large pinch of salt. Try and find out if it's true, and if so, under what circumstances. Even if everyone does agree on something, it doesn't mean they are right...

What was that Heinlein quote? It went something like:
"Democracy is based on the idea that 100 people are more likely to be right on any issue than 1 person... Huh? What was that again...?"

[grantwomack]

Don't focus on scores, focus on technique.

[moo-mop]

Keep a notebook/journal with your goals, practice plans, scores, the number of arrows you have shot etc. And if you are a bit bad about filling it in don't just think "oh bah it's too late now, I seem to be missing months of stuff" - go back to it and try again.

It doesn't have to be online .