promo target help

[Kevin English]

just attended our clubs open day and shot in special area safe and secure for the archery club also on this day were repressented the basketball club, tennis club, ping pong club, painting arts & crafts and even the club which these charming ladys make teddy bears.

I thought we were realy boring as a club on display and it seemed to be down to the fact that the general puplic get no excitment out of watching arrows thumping into targets any suggestions would be more than welcome.

[Thunk]

Maybe you ought to thump them into the teddy bears instead?

Just a thought.

[Thunk]

On a (slightly) more serious note, why is it surprising that the public find watching archery boring?

If you want to get their interest - get them involved. Run a 'have a go' session and they'll queue up for a go.

[Kevin English]

yes we tried but here in france we have insurance coverage problems when out off our licsenced club we do offer open house but its the problem of firing ther imagination to come, after several hours there the ladys were looking interesting not just the bears

[Woodie]

You could try and get a beiter hit / miss target. (Search other threads for more info) They make a great popping sound when you hit the gold.

[napolienne]

Originally Posted by Woodie

You could try and get a beiter hit / miss target. (Search other threads for more info) They make a great popping sound when you hit the gold.

I second that. Or balloons are a cheap alternative, if not as professional looking. Also, trick shots? got anyone who can robin hood a big fat alloy on demand?

[Fugue]

Originally Posted by Kevin English

just attended our clubs open day and shot in special area safe and secure for the archery club also on this day were repressented the basketball club, tennis club, ping pong club, painting arts & crafts and even the club which these charming ladys make teddy bears.

I thought we were realy boring as a club on display and it seemed to be down to the fact that the general puplic get no excitment out of watching arrows thumping into targets any suggestions would be more than welcome.

What kind of interaction did you give the public?

Obviously you could not run a have a go due to insurance as previously mentioned. But ...

Did you have any commentry on the archery going on?
could the public clearly see where the arrows were hitting?

One idea would be to run a head to head knockout competition at the open day. Put up a board showing the progress of the archers, and have some commentry (light hearted). Have some medals and a cup for the winners, encourage the participants to get a bit of buzz around the competition.
People are more engaged when they can see a little drama, can see people enjoying themselves, and most importantly can see that people love the sport.
Watching two or three people endlessly thumping a few arrows listlessly into a boss is not going to get many people interested in archery.

Somehow this "non spectator" sport won awards at the last two Olympics for being one of the top spectator sports at the games!

I have to say that our club is very fortunate to be in the middle of a popular park in South Manchester, we get quite a lot of spectators during the summer when shooting out of doors, we also run a couple of have a go's at our club and this is how we get a lot of our new members.
We do have very good relations with our park rangers, and the have a go's advertised get in the councils list of events.

[Kevin English]

thanks for your time and imput, I got abit single tracked into the physical side of it very good point and strongly noted, creating an exciting atmosphere to replace the have a go seems obvious now youv'e said it, we still got a good response at the club the week after with 15 new juniors but I thought at the time we could have done better and your thoughts will help in the future!!!

[Fugue]

Good news on the 15 new members