If you are looking into making archery your next hobby, you are in the right place. You will find out if archery is fun to do.
So, by the end of this article, you will know for sure if archery is fun or not for you.
Let’s go.
As a general rule archery is a fun activity to do because it provides the archer with immediate feedback if they are successful or not. This enables the archer to quickly adapt and achieve his goals faster. This sense of progression is what gives archers a sense of enjoyment when doing archery.
But there are some things you should pay attention to before you start archery. And you will see a few ways how to make archery even more fun for you.
Let’s delve deeper here.
Know What To Expect
Let’s define what fun means for the context of this article. For the purpose of the article, we will break down fun into two parts.
The type of hyped-up fun you get when you are out with friends in a bar or having drinks. Or going on a rollercoaster ride in an amusement park.
The other part is the subdued fun you experience when you accomplish something worthy of note. Maybe you struggled with something like parallel parking your car, practicing a new dance move, etc.
When you finally make it happen and you experience the “I got it” moment, your brain will release dopamine into your brain. Dopamine is a feel-good chemical that gets released when progress is made.
It’s one of the motivation chemicals that drives us forward.
The beauty of archery comes in providing immediate feedback to the archer. You do not have to wait to get feedback if your shot was good or not. You see quite quickly if you hit your desired target or not.
When you receive feedback, you correct yourself and shoot again. And you see the arrow land a little closer to the desired target.
Archery is a fun hobby to do because it provides immediate feedback on whether you are making progress or not. And when you make progress towards the desired target your brain will reward you with releasing the feel-good chemical of dopamine.
An Important Thing To Remember
Do not expect to have immediate adrenaline-released dopamine when you start practicing archery. Remember the distinction I made a while back?
Archery is an enjoyable hobby to do. It will provide you with the subdued fun that comes from realizing you are getting better and improving. That sense of progress brings you satisfaction and is quite enjoyable.
So, if you go into your archery training expecting fireworks to pop inside your head every time you hold a bow. That ain’t happening.
You can expect to have subdued fun, that comes from knowing you are making progress.
You will see how to make archery a lot more fun in just a moment.
Things That Make Archery Boring For You
- Not Having The Right Expectations
- Having Too Big Of An Ego
- Not Having Any Goals You Can Measure
Let us look at each one in a little more detail.
1. Not Having The Right Expectations
You saw a glimpse of this in the previous section. If you go into your archery journey expecting fireworks to go off in your head every time you fire an arrow you will be sorely disappointed.
Archery is a game of progress. And noticing progress and improvement will give you the most fun.
2. Having Too Big Of An Ego
This one says it all, doesn’t it? If you go in ignoring every piece of advice from your coach you will never learn the proper technique. Your form will suck and that leads to imbalances and at best poor groupings at worst physical damages.
Archery is an incredibly safe sport to get into. You just won’t get far if you’re an ego-driven dummy.
Coupled with the big ego is the desire to choose the bow with the biggest draw-weight.
Draw weight is an archery term that describes how much force is needed to pull the bowstring back. The higher the draw weight the more force is needed. High draw weights are for the experience to intermediate archers not for newbies.
The danger of having a big ego is that you will have a poor form and choose the wrong bow for you. That is a dangerous combo that can easily lead to injuries. Which isn’t a lot of fun.
Control your ego.
3. Not Having Any Goals In Archery
As I said. Archery is a game of progress. So if you can pick a goal to chase that can be measured that will help you notice your progress more effectively. This leads to that dopamine release from your brain we talked about earlier.
So making visible progress towards your goal will release those feel-good chemicals in your brain. To make consistent progress you also should practice regularly. To see how often you should practice archery then click here.
How To Make Archery Even More Fun
This one is a lot of fun.
Archery can be made more fun by employing some cool tricks:
- Compete officially or un-officially
- Change target archery ranges for field archery
- Curve your arrows
- Try Archery Tag
Compete
Once you get half-decent at archery you can compete with other archers at your local archery range. Simply walk up to one of them and say “I’m looking at measuring my skills against a good archer so I’m wondering if you want to engage in a friendly competition, and if you get a better score than me I will buy you a drink”.
You can see how competition floods your brain with feel-good chemicals if you click here. In short, it releases a crap ton of dopamine if you win. If you lose this round you simply pay him a round of drinks and thank him.
The act of competing makes things more interesting.
You can also attend local archery tournaments for a more high-stakes competition. They are fun. And if you happen to win you get to show off with a cool trophy.
2. Change Practice Avenues
If you get tired of shooting at an archery target at your local archery range, you can change for an outdoor 3d archery field.
In essence, it means you move in a forest and shoot makeshift archery targets that resemble animals. It’s a fun way to spice up your archery.
3. Make Your Arrows Curve
You can practice by making your arrows curve left or right in flight. You can hit targets hidden behind a wall in a sense. It’s a cool skill to have. One that is sure to impress those around you.
You can go here to see an article describing how to curve your arrows in 7 easy steps.
4. Try Archery Tag
I freaking love this! Imagine paintball but with bow and arrow. Round up some people from your local archery range and go at it in teams, firing specially designed bows and arrows at each other in an archery battle like no other.
I highly recommend this one! It’s loads of fun.
You can even buy archery tag equipment on Amazon if you click here.
Why Archery Is A Good Hobby For You
- It develops your upper body
- It develops your ability to calm down on purpose and increase your focus
- It is loads of fun to do and practice
- It is incredibly safe and popular world-wide
That is why you should be doing archery. Then again, I am biased.
In Conclusion
Archery is an incredibly fun hobby to do which offers many benefits to you. Archery is a sport that offers little risk to you. If you go in with the right mindset you will experience lots of fun in return.
If you haven’t already, I suggest you give it a try.
Take care