Locavore Blog: Beyond Archery Practice

I’ve always been an active person. My old desk job kept me stuck inside more than I wanted to be and weekends back in the city were filled with errands, laundry, and maybe a bit of leisure time if we were all caught up. Country life is filled with opportunities to spend full days outside — whether you’re hiking, gardening, shooting your bow, working on a project, or, in my case, even writing (though I need to find an anti-glare screen for my computer).

New office location complete with morning archery practice.
New office location complete with morning archery practice.

Learning archery is about more than just practice, even though, like any new sport, practice makes perfect — and my accuracy and aim is improving every single day! Last week’s post talked about how I’m trying to shoot my bow daily, but I also asked for some tips to help improve my stamina and strength and the response on LinkedIn of all places was phenomenal!

Many of the tips focused on cultivating a balanced exercise regime, mixing other types of core strength conditioning with upper body conditioning. This isn’t a surprise to me as I believe that any athletic endeavor — be it archery or running or yoga — requires a balanced effort that focuses on whole body strength.

Regardless, I thought many of the answers would appeal to others starting off on a similar archery journey and wanted to share some of them with you:

  • Practice outside. This way you have the ability to shoot in wind, cold, heat, etc. Easier for me now that the weather is warm(er), but for the upcoming winter months, I would like to move a few targets inside to my basement to keep it up even when the cold keeps us inside.
  • Balance practice with other forms of activity whether it be cardio, yoga, light weights, or, in my case, hikes with this guy:
Rouge on our daily hike down past twin waterfalls.
Rouge on our daily hike down past twin waterfalls.
  • Strengthen your core with specific exercises geared towards this area of your body. Pilates and power yoga are my exercises of choice, but sit-ups, chin-ups, and push-ups are great choices, too.
  • Practice perfectly. It’s better to focus and shoot one arrow well than shoot a bunch of arrows badly. As a beginner, this is pretty good advice since aim is a necessary skill to cultivate for the next few months as I get prepared for my first deer season.
Daily practice with  my block targets.
Daily practice with my Block targets.

Do you have any other tips or advice to offer?

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1 thought on “Locavore Blog: Beyond Archery Practice

  1. also shoot in several positions never know what position you ll be in when that buck shows his face, you never know if you might be stuck in seated position when a group of does sneak in on you and with all your gear on. nothing worse than catching your string on your jacket because you didnt know it stuck out at full draw. also set up to shot then run as fast as you can around your house back to your bow pick it up and shoot with a high heart rate.

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