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We are back!

kirsty

The government guidelines finally allow us to get back to business and we have a shiny new venue to boot! We have been really missing archery and of course all our customers so we are very excited to be back up and running!

To celebrate we will be holding come and try sessions at our brand new venue on the 18th of September, we are going to be based in Tannochside Business Park and for now will be there every Friday evening although we hope to be expanding our availability soon.

If you have always fancied trying archery, or even if you are an experience archer and fancy coming along you can book through the upcoming events page or this link https://weirarchery.setmore.com/resourcebookingpage/r21ca1563198806319

Places are extremely limited due to government guidelines and we expect demand to be high. If the demand is very high we will run another round of come and try sessions before starting our regular sessions because we want as many people as possible to get a chance to try archery. You don’t need any equipment as we provide everything you need, all we ask is that you tie your hair back if you have long hair and remove any jewellery that might get in the way of the bow or string.

As always if you have any questions feel free to contact us on facebook, through the website or by email info@weirarchery.co.uk

Our latest YouTube video

kirsty

Disclaimer this post contains affiliate links, if you buy from these links we may earn a small commission but this does not affect the price you pay

Firstly apologies, I know I was supposed to post this last night but I ended up with a serious headache and I was struggling to look at the computer screen so I just left it till today.

Here is the video of Leigh demonstrating how to use resistance bands whilst we are all stuck in lockdown. If you don’t have resistance bands you can get some from amazon at this link: https://amzn.to/2WFoLVK

Look out for more videos from us on things you can do during lockdown when you aren’t able to do any real archery and remember to subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss anything.

– Kirsty

We are now on YouTube!

kirsty

Yes that’s right, Weir Archery now have our very own YouTube channel! Obviously it will take us a while to get videos on there and I admit to not being the greatest cameraperson/video director in the world but we thought it would be a good way to bring archery to more people, especially just now when we are all stuck at home.

Leigh has put up a welcome video and has been trying to film a few things today for me to edit and post later so please do subscribe to the channel and keep an eye out for new videos from us.

We will be putting another video up later today showing you the video of how to use resistance bands like on our last blog post and will continue to bring you ideas of archery related things you can do from home until lockdown is over.

Myself and Leigh would like to thank you for supporting us by visiting the website or our new YouTube channel and we promise that as soon as we can we will be back providing face to face archery sessions.

– Kirsty

Using resistance bands to practice form during lockdown

kirsty

Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links, if you purchase something through one of these links we may earn a small commission however this does not affect the price you pay.

Lets face it, most of us don’t have massive, safely secured gardens that are suitable for an archery set up and because of that we find ourselves unable to shoot due to the covid-19 lockdown. There are things you can do at home though to keep your skills practiced that way when lockdown is lifted you can go back to shooting as normal.

One thing you can do is use resistance bands to practice your form. This helps you ensure your body is in the correct position as if you were actually taking a shot as well as work the same muscle groups that you use when doing archery.

Resistance bands come in different levels of resistance and you can also change the resistance by folding or tying them up to make them shorter. Here are some photos showing you how to use a resistance band to practice your form.

First take a resistance band and fold it in half like in this picture.

Next place the folded end in the crook of your left elbow (assuming you shoot right handed, if you are left handed you would use your right arm), don’t pull the band tight at this stage. Pinch where your thumb is and this will give you the correct length.

Thread the loose end between your fingers like the photo below, this makes the band easier to hold.

Put your three fingers into the looped end just like you would use when shooting an arrow then prepare to draw.

Then pull to your anchor point and hold for a few seconds. You can let go as if you were firing an arrow but the band will slap your hand so your better option is to release this position slowly without letting go of the band.

Practicing this several times will work the same muscles as shooting arrows does and allow you to practice your form.

We will have some more ideas for how to keep your archery hobby going during lockdown in the coming weeks and look our for some videos too!

Missing archery during lockdown

kirsty

Here at Weir Archery we are obviously really missing archery during lockdown. Covid-19 has obviously closed us down along with thousands of other businesses whilst we are all in lockdown. Leigh has been finding different things to do to keep archery going for him and I have been coming up with different things we can do as a business to keep the business going, including blogging more often and monetising the blog (see amazon ad above) from now on our posts may include affiliate links, clicking on these may earn us a small commission but it does not affect the price you pay and it really does help support our business.

The reason I chose an Amazon Prime advert as our very first ad is because we have been watching a whole lot of it! We are currently watching Mr Robot which is pretty interesting but only give it a go if you are a tech geek like me or it probably wont make much sense. Leigh loves Supernatural but I am really not into that type of thing. Leigh loves TV and movies almost as much as he likes archery!

There is even archery on Prime including the world cup!

I am still working, thankfully I can work from home and we have spent quite a lot of time converting the spare room into something that resembles an office and I have had to get over my dislike of talking on the phone pretty quickly since that is now all I do all day. Leigh obviously can’t do any classes just now, but we have some exciting ideas coming up including a video series and more content on the blog.

We are also using the downtime to source better venues with more availability for us to hold classes in once the coronavirus lockdown is over and we are seriously considering trying to get our own place which would allow us to have more equipment since we wouldn’t need to move it about all the time and would give us complete flexibility as to when we run classes.

For now though we are just thankful that we are safe, we are of course disappointed that we cannot run classes right now but we are very safety conscious in our day to day business and safety remains our top priority. We will not start running classes again until the government advice allows and it is safe to do so.

Until we can start running again we would love to keep in touch with you more via the blog, videos and our social media channels so please do share your lockdown tips with us – in our next post we will be showing you some archery related things you can do in lockdown.

Come and try sessions

Come and try sessions

kirsty

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

Sessions at St. Mary’s for All

kirsty

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

kirsty

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

Summer Soft Archery

kirsty

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.

Welcome to our new website

Welcome to our new website

kirsty

Hello and welcome to our new website **waves**

Our long term followers will know that we are now on our third version of the website because I am clearly a bit crazy and obviously somehow enjoy the torture that is building websites (seriously anyone that does this for a living has my total respect!).

The reality is I am a bit of a perfectionist and a massive tech geek, I wanted to add new features but had just never gotten around to it and I was slightly limited by our hosting plan. So when our hosting plan expired and we moved to a new host, I was left with the decision of whether to move the existing site and try to add the new features, or start all over again which is obviously what I ended up doing.

The new site features an event calendar so you will be able to see all our upcoming events. It should also be easier to comment on our posts, as there is no need to be logged in to wordpress just to comment. There are probably more things I will add as I finish up building the site but I was keen to get us back online with as little downtime as possible so here we are!

Things are about to get very exciting here at Weir Archery after a long period of struggling to find funding and venues (and time on my part if I am honest) so please do subscribe to the blog, join the email list, or follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with all the exciting things that are going to be happening.

Kirsty