The club is hosting come and try sessions for beginners aged 12 and over.
We run these sessions when we get enough interested people and the volunteer coaches have time. Cost is $50 per person, and we provide equipment and instruction.
When a class becomes available you will be emailed the details, together with instruction for on-line registration and payment.
After you have completed the Come n Try Day you can return to the club 6 more times during shooting times ( usually Saturday mornings) and continue supervised shooting with some coaching. Cost is $20 per session, or $10 if you have your own gear. After this you can join the club and shoot independently.
In due course please watch the videos below before attending the class.
NCA Policy on Children and Archery
From time to time the club receives enquiries from parents asking “how young can my child take up archery?”
The answer is complex and will vary from child to child depending on their physical size, their state of development, and the maturity of the child together with the effort that needs to be made by one or both parents.
As a general rule we do not accept children under the age of 12 for a number of reasons:
- Archery is a weapons sport and arrows can kill – even out of children’s bows. We are not resourced to provide child supervision and we are not a child minding service. Twelve in our experience is about the minimum age for responsible self-regulation on the shooting line in circumstances where club members shooting and enjoyment of the sport can be ruined by the need to constantly supervise “other people’s children”.
- While it will vary significantly from child to child, 12 is about the minimum age in general terms where a child has the physical strength to be able to draw and aim a bow. Non archers understimate how hard it is to draw a bow. Ask yourself could you pull, say 40 lbs in weight with your arm and fingers 144 times in about 3 hours? That is what’s required to compete in archery. Many adults have physical difficulty in drawing and aiming a bow. While a child’s bows draw weight will be less, to be competitive it will likely need to be in the range of about 23 – 28 lbs depending on bow type. While it is possible to purchase special bows for younger children, we as a club are not resourced to buy them as club equipment, and we have no such equipment available for beginners to try before taking up the sport.
- There are significant orthopaedic and developmental risks in taking up archery too young. In medieval graves archaelologists identify archers (who were required by law to practice from the age of 6) by their spinal deformaties and shoulder growth plate damage at the acromioclavicular joint. These chronic problems which lead to arthritis later in life are totally absent from modern sports archery because we are sensible about ensuring the sport is not “overdone” too young.
Obviously there are exceptions – some chidren at age 12 these days can be large and physically developed. If you consider you child under 12 is large and strong enough, and importantly is not going through “a growth spurt” when the risks are proportionally greater, then consideration will be given to waiving the general rule on condition that:
- The club coaching staff are satisifed that the child can manage the club equipment; and
- A parent is always in attendance to supervise the child. Preferably that parent should also join the club and learn with the child.