Archery: Can it Improve your Eyesight?

Isaac

One big myth with archery is that you need an excellent pair of eyes to shoot accurate. The truth is some Olympic-level athletes are visually impaired. Therefore, with this being the case many people ask us if it can improve their eyesight. In short, yes, it can, as the more you practice, the more your vision improves. However, there are other benefits as well, and we are going to look at them.

What impact does archery have on your eyesight?

With archery, you force your eyes to work in different ways to aim and shoot the X on the target. A fact is some officers in the military noticed the eyesight of trainees improving as their archery skills improve. They even found having the soldier sitting on the sideline watching the arrow pass a good exercise for pursuit and tracking. The soldiers would watch the arrow moving and similar to following a person with every move they make.

By doing this, it improved their eye speed making your eyes flexible. Therefore, you can improve your sight by only watching the arrows go by. Furthermore, it helps with fixation and is when you concentrate on a single point at a distance exercising your mental focus. With the different ranges, archers shoot it provides diversity to strengthen the eye muscles.

The more you focus, the more your sight improves with your accuracy. Alternatively, it not only makes your view better but also with focusing you can concentrate on two points at different distances. Therefore, you will be looking at the target, at your sight, and back at the goal without losing concentration.

You learn to readjust quickly to strengthen their eyes and boost the speed of viewing at targets at various distances available. Instead of using a bow and arrow, you can place your finger in front of the eyes and focus on it. Now remove it, look at something else in the distance, and repeat.

The fantastic thing is yes archery can improve your sigh like a hawk and is only one of many benefits related to the sport.

improve archery

Top Benefits of Archery

Some people see archery as a hobby, but there is more to it than having fun and improving your sight. You may think a shooter is standing still shooting at a target, but they need significant strength, focus, and endurance to perform well at it. Here are some other health benefits related to archery:

  • Improves hand-eye coordination – with archery you train with your hands to perform different tasks to aim and fire all based on the input of your eyes. By doing this regularly, you improve your coordination and balance as the body must be still to aim and make a shot. Further, it enhances the core the better you become making accurate shots.
  • Makes the hands more flexible – the more you train, the more flexible your fingers and hands become while aiming and shooting.
  • Builds upper body strength – you use your arms, hands, chest, shoulders, and core to make a proper draw. The exercise is similar to lifting weights. With the draw, all your muscles tense up for several seconds before you release the string to fire the arrow. More repetition leads to muscle development, making it stronger. There are various archery workout exercises you can do to help with muscle development.
  • Gives you more patients –helps with this age-old problem. You need a lot of it to get the best precision, as it is not all about speed.
  • Archery makes you more confident when taking part in shooting arrows at a target. Further, it helps improve your form and technique and gives you self-confidence and esteem when making the first shot.
  • A great form of exercise – when you are at a competition level, you walk the equivalent of five miles. You carry heavy on the gear throughout the day and drawing a bow burns up to 140 calories every half-hour. Therefore, the training is the same as taking a brisk walk at 3.5 miles per hour pace.
  • Help make you relax – by releasing the arrow and watching it hit the target helps relieve stress.

Find the best archery bows and accessories to get started.

Frequently Asked Questions

As you will not, it helps to do archery to improve the eyesight. Perhaps you have additional questions on your find you can find some of them answered here.

I have some form of disability; can I still partake in archery?

Whether you have poor eyesight or another form of disability, you can still take part in the sport. As long as you can use your upper body, there is no problem in shooting the bow.

What is eye dominance?

Eye dominance is the eye you use to aim at the target and can be left or right. However, some shooters do not have it as the brain only choose the sight of one eye over the other one. You can determine your eye dominance by placing both hands together at arms length by overlapping them to make a small triangle. Keep both eyes open and look through the triangle while focusing on an object at the other side. Now bring your hands towards your face slowly while looking at the item. Once your hands touch your face the opening of the trainable should be in the front of your dominant eye.

What is “Robin Hood?”

Robin Hood is a popular shot and expensive award an archer can receive. You get the honor if your arrow embeds in the back of another bolt already in the target, and in a competition, both the arrows score.

The fantastic thing is you can get the family together and start taking up archery as a family activity as there is no age restriction. Furthermore, you can the members of your home can improve their eyesight and enjoy many other benefits at the same time. Think about it you can get everyone together on a Saturday afternoon at the BBQ and have some combat archery fun.

Isaac

I'm Isaac Murphy and at the moment I am a student. I took up archery as a hobby about 3 years ago and built this blog to share some of the things I have learned and to help those starting out in this sport. Check out my bio here

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