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Archery has been around since 5000 BC and is a fun hobby for many people. Centuries ago, people used it for hunting for food, but today it is a favorite sport and needs a considerable amount of focus and strength. These days the activity offers you more than having fun and keeps you fit and healthy—giving you the best reason why archery is right for you. Another fantastic thing is it does not matter how old you are as archery is beneficial for young and old to do. The health benefits apply to both as it improves your mental and physical health in young and old at the same time. On the other hand, there is more to you holding a bow and arrow in your hand. Here are some of the best reasons why you should learn archery today as a sport. The Benefits of Taking up Archery While holding a bow and arrow is fun, we have a plethora of explanations why you should take up archery as a activity today. Not only is it enjoyable but it is open to all to participate from able to disabled people. You can even do it if you are blind by using special tactile equipment. The sport is physically demanding and helps improve your upper body strength. Besides, you need mental fitness and helps develop your focus and gives you attention skills. The sport is relatively inexpensive if you only want to play for fun. However, if you want to be competitive at it, the costs increase and needs loads of your time with perseverance. The fantastic news is there are different archery outlets available where you can borrow equipment. What makes it more beneficial is that recreational archery offers you satisfaction. When taking it up for leisure, you need to focus on improving yourself. You need to forget about what other archers think making it more pleasurable. Further, you will learn to become more patient as you need several levels of practice and requires dedication and endurance. Another advantage is you can do archery indoor or outdoor, so there is no limit in taking part in the activity during winter. No matter what age you are from 7 to 80, you can take up the sport for fun or shooting competitively. What’s more, it teaches you teamwork when taking part in competitions involving groups. Lastly, it provides you self-confidence as it combines your mental and physical attributes while teaching you safety. You will learn to become responsible for the equipment you use and other people. Also archery cost is relatively low and you don't nee a lot of equipment to get started. How Does Archery Improve Your Health By now, you know that archery is fun, provides you with self-confidence, and builds your mental health, but there is more: 1.Archery Improves Your Hand-Eye Coordination While holding the bow and arrow your hands, they work together to perform different tasks. You learn to aim and fire the arrow with the input from your eyes. By doing this, it improves your coordination with every repetition and practice. What’s more, you learn to balance, as you need to hold your body still while aiming. Over time your core gains better control to make an accurate shot. 2.The Finger and Hand Strength Improves When making each shot with the compound bow you use your fingers. During the aim, it strengthens your hand and fingers making them more flexible to use. 3.Physical Benefits of Archery - It Gives You Strength Building During archery, you are not only using your hands. You are physically using your arms, chest, core, and shoulders to make a proper draw. The activity is similar to standing in the gym lifting weights. The tension on the different muscle groups maintained for several seconds before you release the string. By drawing and firing your bow continuously, it leads to the development of your major muscle groups in the upper body. 4.Helps Increase Your Patience Archery required immense staying power as it is about precision and not speed. Learning accuracy takes time and loads of patience to maximize your accurateness. Also, most people need a lesson in endurance and archery can help. 5.Archery Increases Your Focus As mentioned before archery helps you to focus. You need to tune out your surroundings and focus on your form while releasing the bowstring time after time. With your concentration, it helps you cope in your daily life when under high-pressure. 6.Improve Your Confidence with Archery If you do plan taking part in archery competitions, you will find your confidence improving. As you are shooting against other archers, it helps improve your form and technique to give you self-confidence and boost your self-esteem. 7.Makes You More Sociable and Relaxed Whether you are enjoying combat archery with family at home or shooting at the range, you become more sociable. You learn to work in teams and in the process build fantastic relationships with others. In addition to learning to work in groups, it makes you relax as you release the arrow and watch it fly hitting the target and a great stress reliever. 8.You Get In Your Daily Exercise If you do not enjoy going to the gym and running for miles, archery is one of the best exercises you can do. Archers walk for up to five miles while carrying their gear during a completion. Even drawing the bow helps to burn up to 140 calories in half-an-hour and is equivalent to walking briskly at a 3.5-mph pace. You should check out my archery accessories and equipment page Archery Teaches You to Survive When taking up archery for fun or sport survival skills might not be on your mind. On the other hand, if you do not have the skills and the unthinkable happens how do will you survive? You may have a firearm, but bullets do disappear eventually, and you need stealth to hunt for food. In times like this, you need a bow and learning archery is the best way to track for food. Archery is one of the most valuable skills you can learn. Why, because… You Will Not Starve If you have a bow and know how to use it, you will never go without food. You can kill any animal with your Recurve Bow and will not have to scrounge around for a Twinkie. You can hunt whitetail deer to feed many people, and it is easy to clean and cook if ever you are stuck in the wild. You can even use it for bowfishing with your arrow in hand. You Have the Best Protection If ever things change in the world, fire and police will be busy. In honesty, you will find people looting, misbehaving, and stealing. People will help themselves to survive here is where the bow and arrow come in handy. If ever someone wants to harm you and your family, it becomes your first line of defense. You Can Make a Bow and Arrow If ever you find yourself in a survival situation, you do not need an archery kit you can make one yourself. If you can learn how to shoot your bow, you can teach yourself to construct one. All you need is hardwood for the bow, cattails and small sticks for the arrows. Alternatively, you can use stone chips for the broadheads or glass. You can break a glass bottle or use a shattered window. By chipping the glass away on both sides, you can make an arrowhead. For the string, you can use vine, a thread of clothes, or strong plants. Archery Benefits - The Bow String Offers You Multiple Uses Whether you have bowstring with you or making one in the wild, you can use it for different purposes. The string you can use as a snare, to start a fire using a bow drill, or making traps. Great for Long Range Damage Try using a spear to kill a buck from 50 to 100 yards away. All we can say is good luck for trying. However, with a bow and arrow, you can accurately shoot long range with practice to make sure you get food. What does this mean for you? You do not have to be up close to something to kill or scare it away if needed. Therefore, if you have never considered taking up archery, this might be one of the best reasons as to why it is suitable for your survival. With your bow, you can hunt prey, defend yourself, can make it yourself, and use it for multiple purposes in the wild. You do not need to be up close to something to kill or scare it. Bowhunting vs. Rifle By now if we have not convinced you that taking up archery is good for you, let us see what your feelings are when it comes to comparing the bow to rifle hunting. Rifles Choosing the best hunting rifle differs from one hunter to another. For centuries, the weapon of choice is the gun as it is mechanically better. The gun is easy to use, transport has a more extended range and ammunitions transportable. That is why most hunters prefer using a rifle and take little time to get used to using one. For hunters, long-range shooting is essential, as they do not need stealth as bowhunters. You can take out an animal several yards away. Where hunting with a bow, you can only get within the 40-yard range. Compared to using a bow and arrow a rifle costs less with accessories included. For the best hunting bow and gear, it can cost twice that much as you need to spend more on scentless clothing and Camo to get in range of the animal you plan on hunting. Bows While the rifle offers, you load of benefits from price to use many hunters started with a gun and ended up with the bow. Now, why did they do this? It is all about the sense of accomplishment you feel. For an archer, it takes years to become proficient using a bow giving you a great sense of confidence when mastering the weapon. Further, it is a more natural way to hunt and is the way all ancestors did it to put food on the table. Think about cave dwellers, did they have a rifle to shoot. No, they had a spear to start and changed it over to a bow and arrow. Furthermore, you stalk your prey and sneak up close to the animal. Just the feeling of the arrow flying from the bow gives you a more natural feel than using a rifle and taking a 200-yard shot with a scope. You do hunting the way you are supposed to do as many people did centuries ago to survive. The adrenaline rush is fantastic and not the same as using a rifle for hunting. The rifle may be technically superior when it comes to hunting, but the experience for bowhunting is different. Ultimately, each of these weapons is different and using either depends on what you prefer. For a trained bowhunter, they still get convenience when using the bow, and it gives them a thrill. Final Thoughts Taking up archery offers you loads of benefits and these are only, a few mentioned here. Shooting your traditional bow is demanding yet it gives you both health and survival benefits at the same time. You will get your daily exercise, improve your muscles, relax, improve your eyesight, and become sociable. For hunting, it gives you the thrill in stalking your prey and getting up close to the action. While rifle shooting may be more comfortable, the experience is not the same as using a bow and arrow. To shoot with the bow and stealth quietly takes years of practice and shooting your target with one shot is a great achievement in any hunter or archer’s book. For that reason, if you are deciding to start taking up archery as a creational or competitive sport, you have made the right choice. The archery equipment does not need to be expensive at first, and you can build your archery kit the more advanced you become. So get out there, get into the game with your Crossbow, Traditional Bow, or Recurve Bow, and start practicing.