Bowhunter – September 2019

22 BOWHUNTER///SEPTEMBER 2019

THE GREAT THING about getting kids excited about

shooting traditional archery is that it’s really as

simple as giving them a bow and arrows. In my

opinion, the trick is not making shooting too regi-

mented, or brow-beating them with OSHA-type

regulations or safety speeches. I feel my job as an

adult mentor is just to give praise, supervise, and

help make shooting a bow fun for kids.

Start Them Young

GET KIDS STARTED SHOOTING TRADITIONAL EQUIPMENT.

Traditional Editor

Fred Eichler

†

T

My rules are easy to follow. I simply

tell kids not to shoot each other, not to

run with an arrow, and always to point

the arrow in a safe direction. No kid

wants to get a stern lecture on safety be-

fore having fun.

Another important factor for kids is

making sure the longbow or recurve is

light enough to be really easy for them

to draw and shoot. If the bow is light

enough, I start kids out shooting with

bare fingers, and without an armguard.

All they need is a light bow and arrows.

However, sometimes I will go with fin-

ger savers that slide over the string, or if

they tend to bow their arm and I think

they are apt to hit it, I will give them an

armguard — but only after I try to get

them to keep their bow arm bent a little.

My goal is to get kids hooked as

quickly and easily as possible. Flinging

arrows is fun, and all children seem to

just pick it up naturally. Kids are like me,

and most have a short attention span

and don’t want to get bogged down with

the “unfun” stuff.

I also try not to make a big deal about

accuracy, because if I do, kids will

automatically start challenging

themselves. For keeping it fun,

I like silly games like archery

golf, or reactive targets like

really big balloons that are easy to hit

in the beginning. Later, as they begin to

challenge themselves, I may go to large

aerial targets.

All children are different, and

some want more instruction or direc-

tion, while others seem to learn better

on their own. I know from experi-

ence that it is much better to let kids

have fun first, and then slowly to

add instruction later as they want

to learn more. I also slowly add in

pieces of gear, but only if they want

to use it. My son didn’t want to use

a tab or glove when I slowly tried to

introduce it. It wasn’t until he

watched his older brothers

shooting with them with-

out getting sore fingers

that he finally came

to me and asked

for one.