Archery Benefits

The benefits of participating in archery are involvement in an individual sport, exercise, mental focus, self-discipline, and social interaction. Most athletes have been exposed to team sports, and have not experienced an individual sport. Some athletes are not suited for team sport, either by their personality, social abilities, or physical condition; and archery provides the opportunity for everyone to shine. A typical archery lesson has the participant shooting 60 arrows. Each arrow requires an archer to lift 3 pounds and pull 20 pounds and walking 40 yards to retrieve the arrows. Cumulatively, archer is walking a half mile, lifting a total of 180 pounds, and pulling a total of 720 pounds. While these are not trivial numbers, each arrow is easily shot. Since archery is 90% mental activity, focus and self-discipline are very important, and mental focus is stressed from the very beginning. During a typical lesson, 30% of the archer’s time is spent shooting with the other 70% spent interacting with the other archers. Archery provides a unique sport experience complete with exercise, mental control and social interaction.