Now that the government has decided we should no longer socially interact and from the guidance by Archery GB in the UK all archery has been postponed. Until when we don’t know. But what can we do in the meantime, while we wait to start the 2020 outdoor archery season?
Training
You can still exercise in your local gym (if it’s still open) or you may be exercising at home in your own gym area. You can use or buy some small weights, use clinibands, therabands etc. You can still run through your warm-up exercises and complete bow drills etc. How about buying a wooden training bow to practice with, these can be quite cheap at only £60.
- Gym – if not in a gym, home gym, small weights, use a cliniband or theraband to practice form.
- Warm up exercises
- Bow drills
- Wooden Training bow – practice your form on a lower poundage bow.
Archery Equipment
It’s a great time to look at your equipment, here’s just some things you could be doing regarding your equipment:
- Re-fletch arrows, change nocks, general equipment housekeeping
- Clean out pressure buttons
- Set up your bow for outdoors, so your ready to go when we do start again
- Clean out your archery bag – sweet wrappers, old broken nocks. Buy spares, nocks, new strings etc.
- Take stock of equipment, sell your old equipment you don’t use, spend that money on new equipment
- Catch up on reading your archery magazines and book reading and YouTube video watching!
Shooting
Now that shooting has been cancelled at registered Archery GB grounds, where else can we shoot?
- Most clubs have stopped shooting on the request of Archery GB
- Some retailers that have outdoor facilities and own insurance may still be shooting
- Set up a safe home shooting range – remember your Archery GB insurance won’t cover you though.
- Use back stop netting, get yourself a small layered foam boss (60cm, 90cm), shoot into your garage.
I did post a video on this, which is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/56IhfGY3BlQ
Shopping List:
Wooden Training Bows
Therabands and Clini-bands
Layered Foam Boss
Bow International magazine