There have been some great books and online recourses written recently on learning archery. These can be a great tool to remind and reinforce the lessons you’ve already been taught during our beginners couse and you'll learn a whole host new skills to help you become a great archer.
The following books are recommended for someone who has just started in archery hopefully after doing a progressive beginners course (see our courses page for current availability of our great weekend, 3 week ‘Fast Track’ or regular 5 week beginers courses in London Bridge). The best books at this level help you to develop a solid, consistent form without going into deeply technical variations on the standard elements of the shot sequence. All three of the following books provide a clear guide to building a good shot sequence and will help a novice archer achieve good consistent form.
Archery (Steps to Success): Kathleen Haywood (Author), Catherine Lewis (Author)
This is a very good book for people looking for a structured way to become a solid archer.
- Thorough - it's a very thorough book and doesn’t miss out anything that a novice archer needs to know.
- Easy to follow - provides an easy to follow program of exercises and provides space to record how well you have done on each exercise. A fun and interesting way to learn.
- Clear illustrations - good clear photos and drawings of each step to help you to conceptualise your body position.
- Bow tuning - a great section on basic bow tuning so you can get your bow up to speed at the same time as you improve your form.
Other good beginner books to try are:
Archery Fundamentals: A Better Way to Learn the Basics by Douglas Engh (Author)
Less rigidly structured than Steps to success, so is good if you prefer to structure your own training/learning your way.
The Archery For Beginners Guidebook by Archery GB (only available through archery stores, e.g. Clickers, Aim 4 Sport, Merlin etc)
Has a very good guide on archery etiquette and protocols in competitions and in clubs.
The Following online sources can also be helpful:
KSL International Archery
This has a very good shot sequence. It's brief in its description but is free to look at so worth a read. It does get pretty technical though.
Archery Interchange http://www.archeryinterchange.com/forum.php
A very popular UK archery forum, this can be a useful recourse for answering specific questions. Although do bear in mind that as it’s a forum there is often lots of arguing that can be distracting and confusing. The loudest voice is also not necessarily the most accurate!
These are the ones that I particularly favour but there are many more useful resources out there. Do let us know if you have any other recommendations that you've found useful on your archery journey!
Roger - 2020 Archery Instructor
2020 Archery Website
Junior Archery Website
