Season start

Are you fit for the start of the new bow season?

There are a lot of recommendations on what to consider in order to start the new season well after a long break.

Practice makes perfect – a well-known proverb probably answers this question best. Because in fact, without regular practice, you will not make progress even in archery. But how do you start practicing after a long break?

How to get off to a good start in the bow season

Especially after a longer break, even if you have unpacked the bow a time or two over the winter, a moderate start makes sense. If you start right away, you risk not only frustration because the meeting doesn’t really work out, but also sore muscles or worse.

Start with warm up exercises

As with any other sport, warm-up exercises for archers should be a standard part of the beginning of a practice or training session. For the warm-up before the workout you should take about ten minutes. It can be done, for example, with the theraband or in the traditional way with loosening and warm-up exercises – depending on your mood. It is important to stimulate the circulation without getting the pulse rate up to full speed, because too high a pulse rate causes restlessness in the body, which is a hindrance to archery.

Here is a suggestion from the book “Fitness for the Archer” by Mellis, how such a warm-up program can look like:

• Take a breath: Inhale deeply and stretch the palms upwards. Slowly exhale and stretch the arms back down. Perform this procedure 4 times.
• The arms circle like windmills: The arms rotate first in opposite directions and then back and forth in the same direction. 5 times each.
• Rotate the hips: Place your hands on your hips and rotate your pelvis 10 times in each direction.
• Lubricate joints: With folded hands, loosely rotate the arms, shoulder and hands in all possible directions. Then put one leg back and turn large circles with that knee in both directions. In total, about half a minute.
• Squats: To get the pulse and circulation going a bit, do 10 squats. At the same time, make sure that archers with knee problems do not perform this exercise low.
• Stick: Both arms over head, bend body back and to both sides and deeply forward. repeat two, three times.
• Deep breathing again as in 1.

Set goals and celebrate success

After the warm-up, we can finally start shooting. Start small and increase slowly should be the motto here. After all, this will ultimately lead to the goal more quickly than starting out right away with great poundage and having to accept the inevitable setbacks. Beginners are recommended to start with a 20 – 25 pound recurve bow, experienced archers can individually choose the poundage they want to start the season with and increase it as training progresses.

Feedback from other archers is valuable

Relying on your own experience is good, but tips from other archers are at least as important. Even if you feel like you’re doing everything right, an outsider can easily spot small mistakes that have crept in during practice and provide valuable feedback.