July 2019 – Weir Archery

Come and try sessions

July 20, 2019kirsty

Fancy trying archery but don’t know where to start? Don’t want to spend a fortune to try something you might not end up liking? Well we have just the thing for you!

We are launching our target archery sessions after the summer holidays are over (we are running kid’s soft archery till then, you can check my earlier post to find out about that) and we thought it would be a great idea to have a come and try day before we truly get started.

We will be having three sessions on Saturday 24th August at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm which gives you plenty of time to learn the basics of shooting an arrow. So why not come and give it a try?

You don’t need any special equipment, everything you need is provided and Kirsty will be on hand with the tea and coffee (and biscuits!). Leigh leads all of our sessions (although Kirsty helps sometimes, usually with tea and other non-archery related things) and is a qualified archery instructor and level one coach so you are in very safe hands.

Archery can be an expensive sport but at Weir Archery we are committed to keeping our sessions affordable so as a new business we are offering our come and try sessions at a ridiculously low price (saving around £15 on similar sessions offered by other companies) in the hope that you will love it and want to continue when our regular sessions start, but there is no obligation to do so. Come along and try it out and if it isn’t for you that’s absolutely fine. If you love it as much as we think you will Kirsty will be on hand to give you all the information you need about our upcoming sessions and how to get involved. There will never be any commitment to a set amount of sessions with us, and there is no need to block-book (although you are free to do so if you wish to make sure your spot is secure). At Weir Archery you will only ever pay for the sessions you attend (except if you book our private coaching, in which case we reserve the right to charge a cancellation fee).

You can book online by going to https://weirarchery.setmore.com and selecting ‘come and try sessions’ or go to the events calendar and click the link there. The booking calendar will only allow the number of spaces we have to be booked so if you find you are unable to book it may be that the session you are booking is full, you can either try another timeslot or message us to be put on our waiting list, if someone cancels we will refund them (as long as we have 24 hours notice) and contact the waiting list to see if anyone would like their space.

As usual you can stay tuned to our Facebook page and the website for any updates.

We look forward to seeing you soon

Kirsty

Sessions at St. Mary’s for All

July 15, 2019kirsty

We started our sessions at St. Mary’s for All on Saturday and we had a great time!

We have another four weeks of soft archery planned there before we have a week off. The plan after that is to start our regular target archery sessions, but if there is enough interest we could try and see if we could get another timeslot so we would be able to do both and keep the soft archery going as well.

I have also managed to sort it out so that you can book our sessions through the website – you can only book one space at a time unfortunately, but if you are booking for more than one child you should be able to book more than once. This is a limitation of the software I am using so unfortunately not something I can fix, although I have raised the issue with them and they have told me they will put it on their list of suggestions to consider implementing so fingers crossed they do.

Of course if you have any issues with the online booking you can message us instead and we will keep your spaces for you.

I have also spoken to the team at St. Mary’s for All because unfortunately the café there is not open at the weekends and they are quite happy for me to use their kitchen to make tea and coffee for the grown ups if they want to stay during the sessions (and we have juice for the kids too) – there is a lovely outdoor seating area if the weather is nice but there is also seating indoors because, well it is Scotland after all!

We look forward to seeing some more of you on Saturday – reserve your spot now by clicking ‘book appointment’ on the sidebar at the top right, or go through the upcoming events calendar and follow the link there.

Benefits of Archery

July 11, 2019July 10, 2019kirsty

Obviously it is in our best interest to encourage you to take up archery, but did you know there are lots of benefits to the sport.

Firstly archery really is all inclusive, literally anyone can take part. Young children can take part (although soft archery is perhaps a better introduction for very young kids), people who are physically fit can take part, people who are not very active can take part, people with varying disabilities can take part – there is even a world famous archer who is legally blind!

Archery improves upper body strength as it is mostly the muscles in the upper body that are used to draw back the string. The muscles in the arms, shoulders, back and core muscles are all involved in pulling and holding the string. Over time, this repeated motion helps to build muscle just as it would with any other exercise.

Archery is also brilliant for improving hand-eye co-ordination, focusing on and aiming at a target requires you to co-ordinate your view of the target with the action of your hands on the bow. Over time your aim improves as your hand eye co-ordination improves too.

Focus and patience are also improved as you need to be able to ignore distractions and focus on your shot. It is a sport that requires patience as its about accuracy rather than speed. This can help you learn to cope better with high pressure situations and many people find archery to be a great stress reliver.

Of course there is the social aspect of archery – most people who take up archery do it in either a club setting, or a setting such as ours with small group sessions. Everyone there will have at least one shared interest – archery! Socialising with like-minded people is an easy way to make new friends, and for children it is great for teaching social skills they will need throughout life.

Summer Soft Archery

July 10, 2019July 10, 2019kirsty

Now that we finally have our venue confirmed, we are pleased to announce that we will be providing soft archery sessions for the next five weeks. The sessions will be on Saturday’s as St. Mary’s for All in Hamilton.

Soft archery really is a great introduction to archery for even very young children, and it’s great fun too. Better yet, the venue is indoors, so the recent rubbish weather doesn’t need to put us off.

Soft archery uses arrows that stick to a target rather than sharp arrows that pierce through one like in regular target archery. This makes it very safe for kids, although plenty of big kids have enjoyed it too at gala days we have attended. Here are some pictures from one of our outdoor sessions

We will be having three 45 minute sessions each Saturday at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. Spaces are limited as we can only have a certain amount of kids for both insurance purposes and due to the number of targets we can get in the hall (we want to make sure everyone gets a good amount of time shooting so will never have any more than 2 children assigned to the same target).

It’s just £5 a session per child, and you can book as many sessions as you like as long as there is still availability for the ones you choose.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to set up online booking through the website just yet so you will need to get in touch with us to book. You can fill in the form below or get in touch on our Facebook page.