Observations on the growth of traditional archery

[Scott E]

I am an archery coach and full time archery bum I love my job. It is the most rewarding feeling to start somebody in archery and help them progress into a great archer.

I shoot/ have shot every type of archery. Selfbows, traditional bows, barebow, Olympic recurve and compound. I think it's important to be well rounded and I just like shooting arrows    

I work with a lot of brand new archers. I'm talking about people from non archery and hunting families. That have an interest in both. What I have noticed with my students is that when given the option between compound and recurve more than half will choose a recurve. And some will choose both.

I think that alone is really exciting and it has been fun to see the numbers of trad guys and girls grow in my area. Most of them are between 12-14 years of age.

On the flip side of that there are a lot of people that go to instructors or archery shops with open minds. And are pushed into a compound bow. To be fair to those shops and instructors that is all they know. I've also seen people who just want to shoot targets being sold hunting bows with bow quivers and whisker biscuits. That is maybe another gripe for another time.

As it stands right now there is a general lack of knowledge of traditional archery and archery in general from people who own shops and teach archery. The people wide eyed soon to be archers seek out for help and to get started.

I am really excited about the growth of archery and bowhunting. There are so many new people coming into the sport. Some of them are in their 30s and always wanted to try archery and many of them are 12 and saw it on tv. It's more important than ever that we have people out there representing our side of archery and at least giving people the option of what bow they want to shoot.

Sorry for the long winded post I don't normally do long posts but I just wanted to share what I've seen over the past few years.

Thank you,

Scott

[shreffler]

Originally posted by Scott E:
What I have noticed with my students is that when given the option between compound and recurve more than half will choose a recurve.

There is so much hype about bringing back that "nostalgia" and things that seem "vintage" these days. In my experience, a lot of people just starting out want to shoot recurves to sort of have that old school feel. Which is interesting, considering most young people have grown up in a completely technological and digital age.

Whenever I talk to friends my age about traditional archery, they're all so fascinated by the amount of detail in everything. From building arrows to learning form, the more people are educated I think the more people love it.

It's a beautiful thing seeing someone get started and become passionate about it    

[Doc Nock]

Amen to the lack of knowledge in the marketplace...but then we're such a small market % you can't blame stores for not stocking inventory or hiring knowledge for such a small return.  Catch-22!

[Paul/KS]

When I was a 4H archery leader we would start the kids off with bare bow recurves. We had a good assortment of decent starter bows for all sizes.
The downside was that the National 4H archery shoot did not have a "Bare Bow" class so they would have to gear up to Olympic to be competitive or they just switched to wheels.

[Orion]

Since I'm one of the few who shoot a trad bow in my archery club, when we get a request to learn how to shoot trad equipment, it's usually channeled to me.  

Our club does have an instructional program for young archers, so most who I have contact with are adults, usually young adults.  I noticed that the Olympics of a few years ago and movies like Hunger Games and Brave tend to spike interest.

Almost all of these folks are new to archery. Some see trad archery as part of their effort to simplify things. They eschew the compound in favor of a stick bow because of it's historical, nostalgic attractions and perceived simplicity and greater challenge.  Some fashion themselves locavores, and like the idea of securing their own meat with their own hands. These are new concepts to them, and some are quite idealistic, but most do stick with it.

Unfortunately, often times, they are sold equipment that doesn't fit them (usually bows that are way too heavy, arrows that aren't properly spined, etc.) before they get to me.  

I can't say as I've seen an increase in new folks getting in touch to receive instruction.  It's been pretty steady over the years, 3-6 per year.  On the other hand, there seems to be a growing movement in our club of more and more compound shooters switching to traditional equipment.  Might even have enough trad shooters for a league pretty soon.        

I should add that our statewide traditional archery organization, Wisconsin Traditional Archery, is growing quite nicely. We have nearly 500 members now, and have been adding about 30-40 members a year the past few years.

[kill shot]

Im trying to spark some interest in trad archery in my area. Any ideas are appreciated. (616)570-7212

[Kris]

 

"movies like Hunger Games and Brave tend to spike interest." jk

My son is 6 and I have had a hickory selfbow in his hands since he was 3.  Of his friends that learn that Finn shoots a bow...most are eager to learn themselves and most all cite Brave or the Hunger Games(other movies) as their exposure and/or motivation.

Kris

[Stump73]

Speaking of movies there a new one out called big game with samuel jackson as the president and is hidiing from terrorist and a young boy that is a woodsman and hunter saves the president. He hunts with a long bow it shows him with it almost all through the trailer. May have to check it out. That will bring some people to want learn about traditional archery.

[Amberjack]

Anecdotally I see a lot of the same thing here in Colorado.  Other than RMSG in Denver we are almost totally wheel bow shops.

That said, I just came from the CTAS high country shoot a week ago and we had over 500 trad shooters roaming the mesa tops and chasing down 3D targets.

I also noted that Cabelas in Thornton has moved their trad bow section out into the daylight instead of tucked away by the lanes and added twice as many bows.

Jack

[Mark R]

I live in the suburbs of Chicago,we have access to ranges but not many for the population size. Through out the area including southern Wi., There are some  pay private clubs,also two or three public ones, maybe one or two more that I may not be aware of but thats about it. I've been shooting alot at DuPage  County Forest Preserve,open to the public, for the past six years or so and the traditional archers have kept pace with the compound shooters.Most of the new people are just interested to try it without to much of an investment and commitment, so ease of access is important. DuPage Forest Preserve is great with that, they have a program for kids and adults, but its with the beginner type compound bows. IMO I think alot  of compound shooters like to try Traditional more than traditional shooters would like to try shooting a compound. In a nut shell I think more access to more public ranges, and more programs geared toward traditional archery would create more archers and interest in archery in general.

[cab207]

As someone that is 29 years old and started hunting 5-6 years ago I  can tell you first hand I wish I started with a recurve rather then a compound. Compounds are great and all but the amount of time I spend learning to tune and putting sights, stabs and all the goodies that go with them on and then retuning....it got old quick for me. Lucky for me I sit next to a die hard trad archery hunter. He got me hooked on recurves. Without all the tuning and gadgets I now have time to make my own arrows and have fun shooting a lot more now. I'm still going to use my compound but my recurve is going to be my go to. Plus how much more bad a$$ is it when you you see a deer taken with a recurve compared to a compound.

[Sam McMichael]

I read a lot of outdoor magazines and see very few articles or advertisements regarding traditional archery, except those publications dedicated solely to traditional archery/hunting. The lesser number of ads are understandable, but I am not sure about the written content. Are none of the traditional people submitting articles, or, are most of the publications simply not publishing them? We are a small segment of the archery world, but I wonder if we would have a greater following if more of the public could be exposed to our world as some have previously mentioned.

As regards such groups as 4H, has there been an effort to establish a classification for bare bow shooters outside the Olympic class? Until this thread, I never realized how ignorant I am of archery programs in the country.

[Scott E]

Originally posted by shreffler:
 

Originally posted by Scott E:
What I have noticed with my students is that when given the option between compound and recurve more than half will choose a recurve.

There is so much hype about bringing back that "nostalgia" and things that seem "vintage" these days. In my experience, a lot of people just starting out want to shoot recurves to sort of have that old school feel. Which is interesting, considering most young people have grown up in a completely technological and digital age.

Whenever I talk to friends my age about traditional archery, they're all so fascinated by the amount of detail in everything. From building arrows to learning form, the more people are educated I think the more people love it.

It's a beautiful thing seeing someone get started and become passionate about it      [/b]

I completely agree. And when you explain to them that the bows are custom made by individual craftsman they are totally into it.

[Scott E]

Originally posted by kill shot:
Im trying to spark some interest in trad archery in my area. Any ideas are appreciated. (616)570-7212

I will give you a call on Wednesday. Or feel free to PM me.

[kmshfa]

Yesterday we had a 3d shoot at my club in fort Wayne indiana. I was encouraged to see that at least half of the people there were shooting traditional equipment. I just figured that even though there are far more compound guys, the traditional guys are the ones who continue to throw the most arrows down range. We actively seek out places to practice.
There were quite a few kids with their dad's tossing arrows too, mostly with traditional equipment.

[Bowwild]

Last school year NASP® teachers taught more than 1.95 million students, age 4-12 how to shoot barebow. These kids attended 13,343 NASP® schools.  

The NASP® bow isn't traditional but the way the kids are taught to shoot is.  At the NASP nationals in Louisville, the "Olympic Archery in the Schools Program" was invited to hold a recurve contest.  More than 500 of the 12,045 national NASP® students (42 states and 763 schools) at the tournament tried the recurve contest.  They took to it quite well.

If more clubs would connect to their local NASP school they could invite the entire class out to their range and share "traditional" archery with them.  NASP is in 47 states and is quite strong in 33 of those; TX #1, VA #2, and KY #3.

Unfortunately, I've observed that so few people do all the work in archery clubs that they can't take on the additional load of attracting 100+ new kids to their range or events.

All archery is growing since March, 2002.  In fact, the number of archers in the U.S. has risen  from 7 million then to 19 million by 2012 and continues.  In a survey of NASP kids 15% indicated Hunger Games created interest for them. Most however are influenced by other NASP kids and NASP graduates.

Two of the folks on this thread, above my post, are from very weak NASP states because the FW agency doesn't believe shooting target archery, as part of PE, is good for their conservation mission (duh!).  Nine of the other states above this post are quite strong NASP states.

FYI. The industry says 11% of archers use longbows or recurves. The number is growing as evidenced by recurve bows for sale in some box stores.