We have all seen young archers performing in competitions who were just “Lights out!” Golfers talk about youngsters really being able to putt well, but that characteristic goes away with age. There are myriad other examples of how youth seems to be an incredible asset. But, then, why is experience so important? I have commented many times that “Experience might be the best teacher, but it is brutal.” I ran across this quote which explains why experience is such a brutal teacher: “Life is the cruelest teacher because it gives you the test before it provides the lesson.” —Vernon Law, MLB pitcher ..read more

I have been emailing back and forth with a colleague in Belgium, trying to work through a student’s Recurve tuning problem and I experienced my coaching juices flowing again. So . . . I am open for remote coaching should you need any as an archer or as a coach. I am not charging for this service, but if we work together substantially and you want to show gratitude, my PayPal account is the same as my email address. (I used this process when I first start remote coaching since I was just learning the ropes of remote coaching and it seemed to work fine.) So, if you have a coaching or shooting is ..read more

This is an occasional series on books you don’t need to read based upon the advertising for the book, typically the “blurb,” which Merriam-Webster defines as “a short publicity notice (as on a book jacket)” and which can be better described as “The blurb is the writing on the back of a book’s cover that describes its contents. The blurb should include information that best portrays the book and piques the readers’ interest.” This post is with regard to a book called “Archery” and “The Archery.” Here is the blurb (Source: Amazon.com) The Archery by Grace C. Benson Archery The game of archery i ..read more

I am currently reading “The Foundations of Winning Golf” by Jon Sherman. (I know, I know, golf again? But if I looked to the archery literature for inspiration, where do you suggest I look?) I often use golf as a metaphor for archery in that there are many similarities; both are individual sports, both involve “shots” that have pre-shot, post-shot, and shooting routines, etc. Also, their mental games are quite similar. But golf and archery, while similar, are also quite different. In this case when addressing “How to win?” those differences are important. In golf a shot can hit a sprinkler hea ..read more

The question above is the topic for today, along with “Should you shoot wooden arrows from a compound bow? or its rough equivalent “Why don’t people shoot wooden arrows from compound bows?” Can You Shoot Wooden Arrows from a Compound Bow? Most compound archers would say no . . . and they would be wrong. There is a perception that there is so much energy stored in a compound bow that the wood arrows would break if used. It is true that there is more energy storied in a compound bow than in longbows and recurve bows of the same peak draw weight. It is also true that upon loosing of the bowstring ..read more

I have advocated, as have most other archery coaches, that serious students keep a written logbook for all of their archery data, the most obvious reason for doing that being there is too much information to keep in memory. I go so far as to give each new student a small spiral bound notebook as a starter. My students always want to use their smartphones to type in the data but I insist that they handwrite in their notebooks. I have offered more than a few reasons for this practice. If students write notes in some notebook app in the phone, how do they organize the information? How do they fin ..read more

I write book reviews in this blog to help you decide whether or not to read the books reviewed or to recommend to your students, but sometimes a blurb is enough to make that decision. I did not buy this book (100 pages, US $22.95, free shipping, self-published) and here is the blurb. Archery Basics: All About Archery is a simple and easy-to-read book in which you’ll discover top tips and practical advice to learn all about archery including: Archery: An Introduction Popularity of Archery Relaxing with Archery An Overview of Archery Archery Equipment Tips for Beginners Determining Arrow Length ..read more

When newcomers find this site, they typically find my most recent post and then scrolling down they find the one before that and then the one before that, like a gigantic roll of toilet paper. Just going down, down, down, down is not a good way to explore the site and find things you are interested in. There is a “word cloud” in the right hand column (it’s in blue, right over there →); each of the words is a term used to describe other posts. If you click on a term you are interested in, such as “Buying,” or Coach Training,” all of the posts that have that descriptor will be brought up for you ..read more

Howard Hill (1899-1975) was the finest practitioner of the longbow that this country has ever seen. Some random facts about Mr. Hill: He won 196 archery tournaments in a row; he was observed stringing/bracing a 100-lb draw longbow while seated in a chair; and he did all of his trick shot performances (some of which are still available on video) using 80+ pound drawing long bows. Just for comparison’s sake, I once tried to draw a 100-lb longbow and I am not sure to this day that I even bent the bowstring, let alone the limbs. This post is for the express purpose of explaining his novel aiming t ..read more

I woke up this morning (January 1, 2024) feeling every one of my 77 years and for some reason I recalled some Archery Focus articles about archery over the age of 55. (One of the sterling aspects of our sport is that it is available to people aged from 8 to 88.) Somehow I talked Dean Pidgin into writing on this topic, as he qualified and if you are unaware, he is legendary in the compound world. Prior to rotator cuff surgery in one shoulder and then again in the other, Dean won about 35% of all of the tournaments he entered. (That is at least 35 times more than me.) The wisdom in Dean’s articl ..read more