No matter how old you are, archery can be a truly rewarding family activity. It’s a family sport that encourages social skills, patience, focus, and self-control. If that wasn’t enough, it’s also a year-round sport that doesn’t require huge amounts of money to start with.
While there are some basic considerations to choosing your type of archery, and debates like “is a longbow or a recurve bow better,” getting involved in archery as a family sport is a no-brainer. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at why you should consider this family sport beneficial for your kids.
No Seasonal Blues
Archery isn’t a seasonal type of sport tied to one short few-week window a year. It is available year-round, indoors, and out. That means you don’t have to choose “either” archery or another sport your kids or family is already involved in, simply choose events that are happening when you have time.
That also means that your spouse’s softball, your dad’s bowling, and your son’s little league don’t have to suffer—and you get more family time at archery events together.
Adaptive to All Levels
According to Alex Knobloch the founder of UberBows, archery is an easily adapted sport that most people of any level of ability can take up. There are even archers who don’t have any arms, so your child can learn to have a feeling of success regardless of their physical capabilities with correctly applied adaptations. Archery is an Olympic and Paralympic sport, also.
Great Skills Building
From developing patience, hand-eye coordination, and focus, to learning how to communicate well with teammates, archery builds necessary life-long skills for kids and adults alike. Archers highly value social skills, which may fall by the wayside in our modern culture.
Little Potential for Injury
Archery is not a highly active sport, in general. You won’t be running miles, or even walking uncomfortably long routes while shooting in an archery tourney. Due to this lower level of activity, there are fewer possibilities for injury with the safety rules in place.
The most common injuries are bruises from hitting yourself with your string while shooting. That is not to say there is zero potential to get hurt, as in any activity accidents can happen. However, unlike running sports or contact sports, the chances are relatively lower for injury.
Great Culture
In the U.S., Archers who hope to become Olympic competitors must adhere to the U.S. Archery High-Performance Ethos. While all organized sports have a “sense of fair play” and codes of conduct, I think you’ll agree that this one stands out.
In U.S. Archery, especially high level, wins and losses are a team event; not about one great archer but about how a team functions together and demonstrates the following values:
- Communication
- Respect, Integrity, and Humility
- Trust and Standards of Excellence
- Duty, Legacy and Team Player
- Engagement and Support
- Priorities and Follow Through
- Success
Success is defined not only as winning, but winning in the right way. That’s worth adding to your family’s sports repertoire, alone.
Health Benefits
For any age, getting out and moving your body is a good idea. Drawing back a bow, practising balance and breathing, and practising correct form all come with physical benefits that are good for any age group.
Whether indoors or outdoors, archery sporting events are fun and structured. Children are ready to participate in archery when they meet a few requirements. They need to be able to follow safety instructions, physically drawback and shoot a bow and have the ability to understand to focus and set goals.
For most kids, this is somewhere around eight years of age, when the physical and mental maturity together appear. For some kids, that age will be different, as size and ability are both a part of this. You know your child best, so consider that when choosing the age to start your child in archery.
Never Too Old
We’ve talked about how old you kids should be to start shooting archery, but what about when you need to stop? It turns out that the highly adaptable nature of archery means that not only can you begin whenever you’re ready, but you also don’t have to stop—and many people don’t want to.
Seniors find great social time in archery, and especially when it’s seen as a family sport, they can even gain a lot more time with their families. It’s pretty rare to find a sport that the entire family, from 8 to 80, can all enjoy and compete in; archery is that family sport.
The Family Sport You Need
Whether you used to love archery, and are considering starting up again, or are searching for the perfect family sport to get your tribe together more often, archery offers unique advantages to all age levels. It truly is a sport that’s fit for everyone in the family and builds strong character to boot.