Take a moment out of your crazy day, close your eyes, clear your mind, and picture yourself or your child at our archery range. What are the first thoughts that come to mind? Possibly dread of never hitting the target, or feelings of joy and excitement, or maybe all you imagine is Katniss Everdeen. Not only is archery fun, but it also teach useful life skills! It doesn’t matter if the target is missed. There are numerous important skills that can be learned from archery and we are going to discuss three of them.
1. Creativity and Imagination
Our archery range isn’t any ordinary place. It is a place where heroes live, where the helpless receive aid, and thieves steal from the rich and give to the poor. It is called Pendragon Pines and is modeled after the story of Robin Hood. The story can get as elaborate or as simple as the participants want. The sky and the imaginations of the participants are the only limits.
2. Concentration & Focused Attention
Pretend the arrow is already loaded on the bow. Although most of the time that process only takes a few seconds, it also takes concentration. Your loaded bow is ready to fire. However, there are more steps that take concentration. Breath in, breath out, aim and if luck is with you, you can fire. It sounds simple enough, but there are several factors that take complete attention- keeping both the bow and arrow steady, aiming, firing- without being distracted by any elements (aka other people, the wind, your arrow slipping from the bow) around you. It is much more difficult than it sounds.
3. Determination & Patience
Archery is a sport that takes time and practice. The more practice given to this sport, the better and more accurate the arrows fly. Determination and patience are needed to make successful improvements.
At the end of the day, participants leave the archery range with more refined skills, a feeling of accomplishment, and wonderful memories of a great time at AstroCamp.
