One of the main barriers to getting into archery is not having a place to go or someone to learn from. Is it feasible to be a self-taught archer? === Follow me on Facebook: / nusensei
NUSensei, would it be possible for you to start making a tutorial video series, for self taught ppl? You obviously have the skills and for me these videos would be a good watch to continue my training.
LordFren I am intending to do a full talk-through of the shot process. However, this is a significant undertaking and I don't have any idea how long this will take.
Probably a lot, but it might be a good idea, to start with the very basics, arrow parts,bow parts, what to watch out with maintenance,arrow types and maintenance guides, and from there slowly build up the series. I would offer you any help I can.
NUSensei Probably a lot, but it might be a good idea, to start with the very basics, arrow parts,bow parts, what to watch out with maintenance,arrow types and maintenance guides, and from there slowly build up the series. I would offer you any help I can.
LordFren It's all there - I've learned prob 90% from nusensei videos - from string making to hitting the 9 ring from 15 yards. I've reached the point where I need lessons to take me beyond 20 yards.
+NUSensei You should start a gofundme or a patreon for a series. If you wanted to do a good 10 episode series I would gladly pay 5 bucks an episode, and I am sure others will do more. Olympic recurve tutorial of course, since that is what you shoot.
Can you teach yourself Archery? Yes is my answer , I never had a teacher or an instructor to teach me Archery , I had to learn by myself , I just knew that you nock the arrow , draw , loose , over time I developed techniques and it turned out rather well for me.
Love the videos NUSensei. This one nailed it! I teach English at a high school in Japan, which also happens to have an Olympic style re-curve archery club. I'm a bit of a history buff, so my interest is in shooting the traditional English longbow (shooting off the knuckle/ stick+string). In Japan, there is almost no information about shooting one of these kinds of bows (Their traditional bow, the yumi, has a very different shot cycle), so using the internet as a tool for research on form and technique has been essential. One thing I have found to be very helpful is to film my shots, specifically so I can see my posture and shot cycle. Once I have the footage I can compare it with videos of more skilled longbow archers and work out what I need to do to improve my form (plus I can see what shots seem to work out well and visualize what I was doing to achieve that result in my own cycle). Learning from scratch is certainly no easy road, but I do feel very connected to the form now because of all the research I have done (not only for technique, but on the history behind the style as well). Thanks for the confidence booster, I feel a little less crazy now in thinking I may become skilled someday, despite working at it mostly alone!
Same here .there are no clubs or lessons in my area . I did do extensive research on you tube ,google , and books (on form ,safety ,anchor points. ECT). I did screw up on buying my first bow . however. My 2nd & 3rd bow I did get it right . I prefer recurve bows . I am still and always learning ,always looking for constructive criticism & improving everyday . Love your videos .
I know this comment has been here for quite some time, but I want to ask.. Was your first bow a longbow/traditional bow? I contemplated buying a longbow or a recurve bow as my first bow but eventually I chose the former (on the basis that longbows are more forgiving and more suited for 'leisure shooting' (and also less expensive) while recurves are more suited for competitive archery).
I love your videos and I'm glad I found your channel it gives me a renewed sense of excitement about learning archery and getting better in it thank you.
This was a good video and you made some really good points. I think this video will help a lot of new archers save themselves a ton of frustration when it comes to tuning.
Good information! Usually self learners slip in tiny mistakes, that's I believe the biggest issue with self teaching in general. Indeed professional guidance every here and there is in pretty much every case a prerequisite to become professional yourself. You're a really good teacher by the way :) super elaborate and you're giving a lot of examples which makes your point double clear. As always an amazing video!
My only archery experience was in taking a P.E. class back in college and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Got high marks and watching this channel is sort of a refresher for when I finally save enough money to get my own bow and practice at home as a hobby. No clubs here unless you're enrolled in university.
Yeah ,,, @ 4:52 ... Had a friend upgrade his compound to an overdraw ,,, then he gave me his old rig really nice w/ arrows and a trigger release ,,, just could not get into it ... but now that I've gotten into recurve and Longbow that scorpion you reviewed ... I'm making my own strings that you help me out with ... you know ,,, I'm really enjoy'n the tect ... I just love the stuff ,,,and the Traditions you know the history is just really awesome ... I love it ,,, thanks 👍👍👍 David ...
I like your videos, they are very informative. I have recently take up archery and completed the basic training and joined a club last week, I set my bow up and took it to buy arrows. Lady in the shop said top tiller was slightly out half a turn on top but otherwise spot on. The arrows I ended up with were 1516 spine alloys to start, but should last me a while, but said she I had to have a very stiff setup as the arrows were kicking to the right. But will have to see how it shots over the next few weeks and maybe tweek it.
hi im one of the self taught i had no choice in country S.A theres no archery shop nearby (700km each way) and the only archery club is in a disued sand mine im in a wheelchair so me and sand pits dont get along but i shoot fairly well on my property of 2.5 acres i learned all i know from people like you on utube. i shoot compound bow at 45 lbs i initialy bought a 75 pounder but it was too much for me ,i have learned how to shoot assemble and tune any compound bow that i own (17 at last count ) and really enjoy it so thank you to all of the utube archers and archery pros out there.
I am in that situation... I recently moved to a rural area with no archery club or coaches to speak of. But I did a sports camp thing when I was a kid and I really enjoyed the archery days. Now that I'm an adult with no school or extracurriculars, I find myself wanting something to get outside and do something and wondering if I could try archery again, just casually, for fun.
Probably the best book a person can buy is Shooting the stickbow by Anthony Camera. This book should be in every archers hands or those that want to get started. I have been reading this book and it is phenomenal.
I learned archery when I was in the cub scouts and I stopped for about 15 years and now I'm getting back into it. I wouldn't say I'm self taught but I've learned more about archery from you and me. Mostly me.
My brother told me to use the split finger method and I figured out the rest but then I watched ur video about split or three under and I became a three under shooter but mainly learned by myself and a few tips from u and my brother
OMG I was literally on Ebay looking at bows in another tab when I heard you mention it. Then you talked about dry firing but I wasn't looking and I thought "Did he actually just dry fire his bow?!" :))
I have taught myself I started archery by first making my own red oak bow 37lb 28 inch draw and a set of wooden arrows. There is tons of great traditional archery RU-vid vids and information to self learn. So far so good bow works well arrows are flying straight getting decent groupings working on perfection and smaller and smaller targets points. I like the Howard Hill style. To be fair I have done a lot of other sports and have a fair bit of life experience so am a bit different and have a fiercely determined independent streak. I don’t learn well in groups but learn well by observation of my own performance and watching others who are good at what they do. I hope to progress to be good enough to hunt with my own gear that’s my challenge. Ps I like your videos and have learned a great deal from them so many thanks.
Thanks for the video, tho I'd like to note that I am a person for example, that likes to learn it the hard way. Learning things the hard way with a good attitude and mentality leads to more feeling accomplished and being good as well.
i just bought a 30lb bow, and am just trying to pick it up through trial and error. i think i'm ok, i've been at it for not quite week. your videos are super super helpful, but so are other less technical videos. i'm already planning my next, more serious bow. my interests are in historical and traditional and instinctive, but still the wealth of knowledge on youtube, for ALL disciplines, is very helpful. i have pretty severe ADHD and have a lot of trouble following or learning from others, but I can still watch videos and take things in subconsciously, and try and figure things out on my own. so far i'm just shooting in my backyard, not very far. 10-15 yards.
I bout some professional arrows and I took some dollerstore lazer pointers took them appart and stuck them inside the arrow shafts then I took my drill press to the arrow tips and made a hole then I put them together lazer guided arrow it helped me learn a whole bunch I practiced form over and over but I was worried about the sight blindness you know the aming too high hense the lazer pointers it didnt work perfect lineing up the lazers perfectly was hard but some hot glue later and I fixed them. They really helped me learn what the actual sight was and how to line my eye to the arrow. It really helps and I think it would help other self learners aswell try it out but dont fire the arrow till the lazer is straight I used a lazer level I made the arrow level then mesured the distance between the beams apatures then I walked 40 feet away to the target and mesured between the dots again if it was an inch difference you have to fix it plus its alot easier to see if its listing right or left because the laser level is perfect up down and left right so I used it to help position the imperfect dollerstore lazer its not as hard as it sounds. I dont shoot 40 feet away I just figured if im just a little imperfect at 40 feet I can just get away with anything less then 40 feet.
NUSensei, I have been wondering after watching many of your videos, i have wondered if there are any kinds of exercises to strengthen those back muscles besides just shooting the bow? I understand that by strengthening them through shooting you gain technique but if I could also do some other exercises to make my back stronger then it could be easier for me (not being a very strong person in the first place) to gain the muscle needed to use more common draw weights without having to spend more money on lower draw weight limbs and working my way up. If you have any tips or ideas, that would be great. also, I love your videos, keep up the hard work!
I have an elkhorn bow, good Jr. Bow but Its to small for me but it still gives me good wonders. Using that bow, I reached myself how to use it and hey, I'm not bad
Do you have any books to recommend on learning primitive archery or at least bare bow archery? I don't have access to instructors. The person who built my bow doesn't really teach the art. He even admits that he doesn't know how he consistently hits the target. He's clearly good at the sport because when he goes hunting, he doesn't bother with a quiver. He just carries three arrows. He straight up said that anyone who needs twelve arrows to bring down a deer shouldn't be bow hunting.
I think, just like with anything else, you just have to love it, to be good at it. If you fall in love with love archery, you'll research it a lot, and do it with pleasure and passion. And when you are passionate about something, you are good at it.
NUSensei, I was curious what your stance would be on someone who is self taught that has bad form, but is able to land consistent and accurate shots? Should they be corrected, despite being able to pull off consistent and accurate shots, or have they gone too far into their habits, that correcting would be like starting all over again?
In my opinion bad form executed right will work, but will cap the ability to improve. I see a lot of people drawing from arm and not using back muscles at all. If you are strong enough with a low poundage bow you can get away with it. You can hold steadily enough to hit gold sometimes and stay in red 90% of the time. But that's far from maximum potential. Same with inconsistent anchors, bad stance (people usually lean forward god knows why).
I mean to get back into archery some time, but it will mean joining a club again, now the last club I belonged to was the University club ( out of politeness I will not say which Uni) but what really frustrated me about it was the difference between why I wanted to practice archery and the competitive nature of the club with it's emphasis on olympic technique. Yes for sure the club wanted to compete in the local league against other clubs, but what I wanted was not so much the ability to put x number of arrows into the bull but to develop a technique that was natural to me for the sake of meditation and excercise as much as anything else.
This is also a problem at my club. While I'm open-minded about people wanting to shoot different styles for different reasons, there is an undercurrent of pressure for target competition-orientated clubs to strongly "encourage" new archers to adopt target equipment and train in the modern method. This DOES make sense to a degree (considering that clubs tend to be focused on one style), but as you said, it can be frustrating when people are marginalised in a sport that is already fragmented into different disciplines with varying levels of support.
Is it possible to be a self-taught Archer with a compound bow and arrow because I don't shoot recurve bow and arrows or traditional long bow and arrow I only shoot compound bow and arrow
I think that the term 'self taught' may not be accurate for most archer (such as myself). I personally think that 'self taught' means that you have completely learned how to use a bow without any previous practical or theoretical knowledge of it, whereas most 'self taught' archers like myself have learned from studying archery on the internet, books and so forth. In my opinion, that is not truly a method of self teaching because your teacher is whatever resource that you are studying to learn from.
Would I be considered a 'self taught' archer? When I bought my bow the guy at the shop showed me basic form safety and anchor point. I've also been to the nearest range a few times and got some advice, however I much prefer shooting with my mates at there farm. I've had about an half an hour of advice and tips.
I wouldn't be overly concerned with whether or not you're a "self-taught" archer. There are varying degrees between self-taught and professionally trained. When I got started, I had a basic safety speech and learned primarily from trial and error for about two years, at which point, coaches were able to provide some tips/advice. The coaching ran out after 3 years (mostly because I hadn't hired them, I just went to JOAD-junior Olympic archery development). So I have had a lot of trial and error, some tips and some formal training (I'm now a coach myself), but I consider myself a "self-taught" archer with some help along the way.
Live in Canada.went to a hunting store and bought a 45LB recurve bow. Practiced for 3months now. Killed 4 turkeys already.definitely takes some practice but not hard. Good luck everyone!
Would you say jumping right to a 45# bow was too sudden or was it just fine to pull back without too much shaking to begin with? Do you think a 65 year old can pull that puppy back and be steady for 12 to 20 seconds? What length of riser did your bow come with and what is the overall length of your bow? Is it a Samick, Hoyt, etc? I am looking for a recurve for hunting purposes. Our Canadian law for small game up to large animals for Bow is minimum 39.7# small game (Deer and/or Turkey) and minimum 48.5# for large game (Moose, elk and bear) with a 27.6 Draw length or less, for any of the above.
Well i have been training for about a year now. I have been training instinctive archery and now i can hit the inner red from 15 yards consistantly. I learned everything from videos. I know this issent that impressive but im only 13 so.
I think I was born with it in myself, I used to shot with a bow with like 5 years (it was like a toy bow), and now im 12, and I have been training for about 4 months or so, and I have already won the first place in the national championship :D
I think I'll try to teach it to me myself. In Germany these sort of clubs where you can go to shoot both guns and bows are very institiutionalized and they want you to become not only a member but sort of part of the family. And I'm just not down for that, I just want to shoot my bow. Even worse, the club in my town wouldn't even let me try shooting bow and arrow, either you're a member or you're not, they said :/
While you can learn by yourself every top archer in the world has had coaching at some time and usually still has an active coach. I say this as a disgruntled archer whose local clubs only course is in bowhunting...
Honestly at the price (about £80 in the UK) I think there are better options. To me it has the look of a target bow, but it's short like a field bow, and comes with a weird multi pin sight. It comes in one size, 64" and one draw weight - 30lbs. It doesn't appear to have bushings for stabilisers etc, and it's unclear if a standard sight would fit in place of the thing they supply with it. Good starter bows for around that price or less include the SF Optimo+, Ragim Wildcat, Samick Polaris, Core Blaze/Jet/Pro. These are available in a whole range of draw weights and lengths to suit.
Hallo NuSensi.... noticed that Koreans, French, Germans Mexicans and americans has slight differences , some tiny , such anchoring, release, timing... But sometimes make very much difference interesting to see this differences in get it right in the target.. Please give me your opinnion of whose techniques you consider more complete and efficient...is technology in your bow what matters or internal discipline and work?....
This is a difficult question, because we're splitting what works and what is efficient. The Koreans generally have a method that is consistently reproduced between different archers and suits their temperaments (and archery has a much stronger tradition and presence in Korean culture), while the Americans have also been very successful but there is more variation between their methods. Note, however, that the current US coach is Korean. Ultimately, it's what works for you rather than which system is better.
+NUSensei I'm 11 and want to get into archery. The club in my area is full and i was thinking of teaching myself archery until the club has available spots or when they start up again. I have been watching a lot of different videos on how to shoot and stuff like that to understand how do do the things and how everything works. I'm thinking for my first bow of getting a good affordable (below $230) wooden re-curve (Maybe the samik sage)(Do you have any other suggestions?) .Your video was very helpful and gave me confidence in my choice of self teaching. P.S would you recommend the samik sage starter kit you reviewed ,I haven't been sure what to buy because of my age.
NUSensei Thanks so much for the quick reply it was very helpful. :-). Keep up the good work. On 3 rivers archery whenever i put 62 for bow length it makes the draw weight options decrease the lowest i got it to was 28. whenever i try set the draw weight to something more manageable like 24 it changes the length to 48.
I just was given a Compound bow, and The pull weight isn't too much for me to handle, but I was wondering if you could do a video on changing the draw weight. Right now I can only get about 10 shots off before my arms and back start really killing me. You're videos are super helpful btw.
I fail to see why skydrawing is so looked down on. It was practically the only method used to draw English longbows in the middle ages, as they were dealing with 150-200lb draw weight bows. Skudrawing was THE way to draw.
Skydrawing is a significant safety hazard and is one of the major "never do" things, alongside dry-firing and pointing the bow at someone else. An uncontrolled release will launch the arrow hundreds of metres beyond the target, and that means hitting buildings, cars and people. It's also not a very good demonstration of solid archery form. Furthermore, archers who have the idea of "gravity assist" in their head may increase their chances of injury due to using an overpowered bow. As for English longbows, to my knowledge, sky-drawing is not "correct" either. The method to control the heavy weight was to lean into the bow and push forward, effectively "sitting" inside the bow. English archers aimed at the sky -- for obvious reasons of raining arrows onto the enemy -- but they would have drawn level and raised their bows rather than pulled them down during the shot. There are many videos of modern shooters using old longbow technique with 170+lb bows, demonstrating the method that would have been very specific to English warbows. The essential aspect of English warbow use was the need to put the entire weigh to the body behind the bow to push it forward rather than use the arm to pull it back - an impossible task. Sky-drawing doesn't accomplish that.
I'm 14 years old and haven't trained much at all my grandpa tought me the basics and I'm almost better than him now and can hit the target almost every time I only shoot in the winter time because I just feal like I should be behind the bow
So great when people try to argue with shop staff -___-;. It's like... buddy, these people do this for a living. This is a hobby for you. I think they might know a *bit* more than you do. By all means if your small, impatient child insists he shoots "right handed" when you've just been told he's left eyed... you do that. That literally happened at the shop I train at this past weekend.
If your kid insist he wants to shoot right handed, but is left eye dominant, you let him shoot right handed. Believe me, eye dominance is way less important than what you feel is right.
If he was just going to be casually shooting at a target in his back yard, I'd 100% agree. However, the kids father said that the intention was to take him bow hunting some day. That kid isn't taking down diddly squat shooting his non-dominant eye. This kid was just frustrated that he was struggling holding the bow in the "wrong hand" because he had been practicing right eye. Telling him now that he's actually a "left handed" archer will save him FAR more future frustration and probably money than just saying yeah whatever just shoot like you have been.
Courtney Costantino I have to agree with Foxbow on this one. As someone who shoots 'wrong' eye dominance, feel is much more important to me. I'm still incredibly accurate. However, it does make it very difficult to shoot with both eyes open, although not impossible to train to do. I do believe the advantage of 'two eyes open' whilst hunting is significantly overplayed.. i still hunt fine with one eye closed, and notice no drawbacks except for a VERY slight reduction in width of vision.
Courtney Costantino I've found that attitudes to this can be quite extreme. My coach is a leftie who turned into a right-handed shooter and doesn't believe in teaching people to shoot left-handed, to the point where he refuses to purchase left-handed club equipment. His experience in working with children has shown him that it's relatively easy to train their non-dominant eye from an early age, and eye dominance does often change. It's somewhat different to adults who are already set in their dominance - though I have met people who have trained their non-dominant eye for shooting purposes. That said, I'm a proponent of whatever feels more comfortable.
I started to do archery being right eye dominant, but found it easier to use my left eye. So I'm now right handed with left eye dominance which I find works really well
As someone who's now considering archery, I'm trying to gather as much information about archery as possible before buying a beginner bow. For the most part everything seems somewhat clear... except for *_eye dominance_*. I've tried to do some tests to determine which eye is the dominant one, but I find it easy to pass the tests I've tried using either eye with minimal effort to switch from one to the other. Here's a few examples: 1) The "triangle between hands" test initially tells me my right eye is the dominant one, but I find it easy to switch between the eyes. Granted it gives me a major headache trying to keep both eyes open while doing the test. 2) The "finger on a small object" test initially tells me I'm left eye dominant, though on that test it's even easier to switch between eyes, just move the other "shadow" on the object. No headache there. I also found that with a little practice I could consciously switch between the eye I wanted to use for either of those tests. By "switching eye" I mean resetting the test I doing the test so that I used the other eye "dominantly". I think eye dominance has more to do with alignment than anything else. In any of the tests I've done (and in archery, I assume..?), the accurate eye seems to be the one you align the target and sights with (duh). If I align the "hand triangle" so that the hole is right between my left eye and the object I'm looking at, the object is always shown accurately in my left eye. Of course, by moving my hand a bit to the right the object is accurate in my right eye. I'm not sure if my explanations make much sense, but could I consider myself to not have a one specific dominant eye? If I didn't see all these people saying they can only use one eye to aim, I wouldn't even believe it was a thing. :s
I think you may be overthinking things. If you are consciously switching, you are defeating the purpose of the eye dominance test. Inherently, people have dominant sides for all things - a dominant hand for writing, a dominant foot for kicking, a dominant side for chewing, etc. Your dominant eye will be the first one that captures the image.
NUSensei Ah, I understand what you mean. I've been thinking about eye dominance the wrong way all this time... :/ Leaving aside my overly complicated thinking, it looks like I'm a leftie with a dominant left eye. That makes things simple. Thank you for helping!
I agree and disagree with this. You say that some people have natural skill with archery and I agree with that. But you also say that most people need training to become good. That is what I disagree with. Everyone has a basic knowledge of how a bow works before they decide to use it. That is simple fact. Nobody picks up a bow without knowing how to use it. The standard form that everyone uses now was at one point not a standard form and it might be replaced in the future with a different standard form. The whole idea of becoming a good accurate archer is understanding what your bow can do and allowing your bow to do that. The bow by itself will hit a ten every time. Your job is to find out how to do that and practice at it.
***** I agree that the fundamental element of learning a skill like archery is being adaptive - through trial, error and experience, you can acquire a reasonable amount of competency. This is, in essence, "reinventing the wheel" - discovering what other people already know about good form and technique. However, without some kind of guidance, there's much greater risk of not developing effective technique. If the assumption is made that the novice archer has the motivation to become a better shooter, they have a good chance of becoming a better shooter one way or another. If there's no motivation or incentive, many people will stay stuck on bad form, often without realising it.
and it's not about adopting a standard form but avoiding bad form and dangerous things such as sky shooting or forms that will hurt your back. People do it without noticing it and by the time they'll realize it it might be too late, it's one of the reasons we always teach others how to do what we know, to avoid making the same errors they did or their ancestors did.
I'm completely self taught, and I have watched loads of videos and looked at forums on the Internet. Only 3 months after I got the bow, I was splitting thin sticks, shooting Coke bottle lids from 20-30 meters away, shooting ping pong balls, and the list goes of miscellaneous stuff goes on.... My friends and family say I'm a natural at it, and should compete in competitions and stuff, but I don't have the money for it.
