Please read all of this page before you fill in the form, as it answers many of the questions that we get asked after someone has filled in the form. Thanks.
Send someone the gift of archery
Why not give someone the gift they will never forget. Gift them one of our beginners' courses.
The gift of archery
Our courses introduce people to the sport of field archery and do it in a safe fun way. We run courses throughout the year, so if you are interested in gifting someone an archery beginners course, then get in touch. We don’t have set dates and arrange courses based on demand. You could end up being coached one to one or in a group. Our groups tend to be 5 people or fewer. It’s a full days course (10am to 3pm) and all equipment is provided. The maximum we can accommodate on one course is 5 people.
If you want to book an archery course for friends or family members, please fill in the contact form opposite and give us a few details about the people who you’d like to book for. Such as age, gender, physical condition, and any archery experience they may have had.
Once we have your details we will be in touch with you within 24 hours to arrange everything.
How it works
We take payment for each gift certificate online (we send you a link) and then we send you a personalised gift certificate as a PDF file for you to print out and give to the recipient of the gift. Once they have the certificate, either you or they can contact us to arrange a suitable date. We normally run our courses on a Saturday, but can sometimes run them during other days of the week. We discuss this when someone contacts us. The gift certificate is valid for 12 months from the date of issue.
Please note: All of our coaches are volunteers and all money generated by beginners courses goes into club funds. This means, whilst we will do our utmost to be available on your preferred date, we ask that you be flexible when you contact us to arrange a date.
One day course
We offer a one-day intensive coaching session at our Field Archery Range with a qualified coach. We will start at 10am and finish around 3pm. All the equipment needed for the day will be provided, you need to bring your own food and weather appropriate clothing/footwear. We start at practice targets, where you will get to learn archery starting with basic techniques needed to get you shooting safely and competently. We will then head out onto the course for some more ‘on the go’ coaching, which will give you a real feel for what field archery is all about.
These sessions can be either on a one to one basis, one to two or one to three. We can accommodate bigger groups but please contact us first with specifics.
Costs
Adults (16 or over) – £40 per person
Junior (Under 16) – £25 per person
Family of 4 (At least one Adult and two Juniors) – £110 per group
We will send you more information prior to the start of the course.
The Archery Beginners Course Details
The course covers basic archery instruction using recurve bows. We can also offer the opportunity to use some other bow types during the course, once we feel the individual archer has a good enough grasp of the basics.
Our aims for each archer are:
- To familiarise you with the equipment
- To ensure you understand and can shoot within the safety rules
- To get you shooting safely at reasonably short distances of up to 10 yards initially
- Move into the woods for shooting at longer distances
- To begin to develop a consistent shooting form and style that you can build on
- Understand the fundamentals of field archery
- Get a grasp of the scoring systems
- Most of all, to enjoy yourself
The aim of the course is to get each person to learn archery to a standard allowing him or her to shoot unsupervised at Blaidd Field Archers or at any other club. We cannot guarantee each archer will reach that standard.
We supply all of the archery equipment you will need for the beginners course – our advice, is however enthusiastic you become (and many do) – try to resist the urge to buy your own equipment straight away. It’s very easy to buy the wrong kit early on and this can be an expensive business.
We offer individual coaching and group sessions and can tailor the course to the participants. One-to-one coaching is the best way to learn archery. Although it can be quite intensive and tiring, you can beat learning archery in this way.
Types of shooting
There are many different forms of archery, but for the purposes of our courses, we will be teaching people to shoot ‘bare bow’ style. This means shooting instinctively without the use of sights on the bow. This is the purest form of archery and is a great way to learn archery if you want to shoot field archery.
Please note: Junior Archers (under 16) must be accompanied at all times by a parent/guardian or responsible adult nominated by the parent/ guardian. This is to satisfy both insurance and Child Protection requirements. We can accommodate juniors of any age, but we find 10 years and older are best suited to this intensive form or coaching.
After the Archery Beginners Course
If you decide to take up the sport of field archery with us, you can shoot as a member 7 days a week, 365 days a year, from dawn until dusk. You’d just need to become a member of Blaidd Field Archers. Find details here.
You also need your own equipment. The costs of archery are relatively inexpensive compared to many sports. Basic costs to be budgeted for would include:
- Your equipment. This can be as much or as little as you want to spend, but we suggest starting with a basic setup which can cost less than £200. We will recommend the type of equipment to buy and where to buy it.
- Membership fees to the governing body. We are affiliated to the three main governing bodies in archery. NFAS, Archery GB and IAFF. We will recommend the body you should join at the end of the course.
- Membership fees to Blaidd Field Archers. The final fee is to our club, this fee covers our costs to run the club, pay for our shooting ground, maintenance, and new equipment. We always aim to keep this fee as low as possible. Here is a link to the membership fees
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Get in touch
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GDPR notice. By filling in this form, you are giving us your data and we take this very seriously. We will never share your data with any third party or use it for any other purpose than communicating with you with reference to our beginners’ courses. You may receive emails and/or phone calls relating to the reason you have completed the form, we hope that meets your expectations. Thank you.