Recommended books for beginners?

[TJ Mason]

What books would you recommend for beginners in recurve archery? "Total Archery" and "The Simple Art of Winning" are great, but perhaps too advanced.

I started many years ago with a copy of Don Stamp's "The Challenge of Archery". It was a good intro, but it was showing its age even then and doesn't have much to say about current techniques. Roy Matthews' "Archery in Earnest" was better, but again it's showing its age.

Anything more recent that you'd recommend?

[KevinH]

The first book I got as a beginner was "Archery Steps to Success" it is very easy to follow even for the complete beginner, but it is very very basic with a little too much american bias (i.e. a chapter on hunting ).

Although not a book as such I think it's hard to beat Murray's excellent Archers Reference as introduction for a new archer.

[Shirt]

Murray's guide, and when they've absorbed enough of that, a copy of "The Simple Art of Winning".

[radsbow]

I'm a beginner of 6 months and#went this way with the books:</p>

1st. Fundamentals of Recurve Target Archery</p>

2nd. Archery Steps to Success</p>

3rd. Precision Archery</p>

4th. Archery Anatomy</p>

5th. Total Archery</p>

Found Total Archery the best out of the lot.</p>

[Barry C]

I found Archery Anatomy quite unhelpful. It is more theoretical than practical. I am not the only person to think this. Total Archery is a wonderful book.

[Armchair Archer]

I bought Fundamentals of recurve archery AND Basic maintenance for archery. Fundamentals was ok but maintenance had a lot of overlap on the maintenance, you could probably get away without it.
Just ordered total archery, from the comments here, i'm looking forward to it!!

[morphymick]

Ditto on Fundamentals of Recurve Target Archery - Ruth Rowe.
Excellent beginners book for equipment, safety, form and maintenance.

I'd recommend it for all beginners and is a good reference when losing form.

Mick

[Barry C]

The Heritic Archer is my new favourite book. Its written with a much simpler style than Total Archery so beginners can understand it and experienced archers can gleam some important insights. It has a very good arguement for pushing and for not using alloy arrows.

[Little Miss Purple]

I've only ever read Al Henderson's book!!! And Murray's guide which was excellent

[bluebow]

'Understanding Winning Archery' by Al Henderson is one book I keep dipping back into. Lots of useful advice - but only on small portions

Really impressed with 'Total Archery' and has taken over from 'The Simple Art of Winning' as my favourite.

I've had 'Archery Anatomy' for some time now, while not an easy read, I've found some chapters useful - particularily regarding string hand. However recently I've found it much more useful used along side Total Archery and working on alignment.

I was far from impressed with 'Archery Steps to Success'.

I've found that that the key to any of the books, is to use them in small portions. By all means read the whole book at the start. But when it comes to applying the advice, focus on a small area, work on that and then dip in again. Avoid information overload.

Any of these suitable for beginners? I do think 'Total Archery' comes closest. While it has a lot advanced topics, the chapters are well broken down, allowing specific elements to be picked out.

Also don't forget the Easton Arrow Tuning Guide. Free download and has plent of advice on equipment set up.