Joining a Club

Hoffa

Hi

I am looking to join an Archery Club in Dublin south. I have looked on Archery.ie and identified two potential clubs.

Dun Laoghaire Archery Club
Woodbrook Garden County Archers

Has anybody had any experience who can speak for or comment on either club. I live in Killiney so the DAC is considerably closer.

Thanks
Alan

Lardy

What kind of Archery are you looking to do? Field Archery (In the woods), Target Archery (stood in a line, shooting at round faces) or Trad only Archery (wooden bows, wooden arrows).

maguffin

I highly recommend Dun Laoghaire Archers....good club, great people...contact Joe Malone and get shooting.

fenris

Woodbrook is an excellent club, great mix of people and very beginner friendly.

To get started with a club you normally have to do a beginners course to ensure that you are not a danger to yourself or anybody else!

After the course you can then go onto join the club attend events etc. T
Woodbrook have a beginners course due to start in a couple of weeks.

The most important thing at the moment is that you do NOT buy a bow!
A lot happens in your first few months of archery and the bow that feels right now will feel like a toy in a few months time, conversely if you buy a bow that you think that you will "grow into" then you will probably hurt yourself (muscle injury) and/or get browned off chuck it in.

To get beginners past that point clubs run a beginners course using light training bows to make sure that you develop correct form in the critical early period. After the beginners course you can then rent a bow through the club for a while to give yourself time to figure out what you need and what type/s of archery you prefer.

When you decide to buy a bow there is always plenty of advice on hand to point you in the right direction. As most people follow that path you will find that there is usually a good bit of second hand kit available especially at the beginner end of the scale as people are progressing from lighter poundage limbs to heavier limbs as their strength develops and they fund/ pacify the other half by flogging off their old kit!

I can only speak as a member of Woodbrook but the variety of disciplines available on your average Wednesday night is enough to cover most bases and keep most people going for a long time!
Generally there are both Target and Field targets set out, there are recurve, compound, barebow archers training and normally at least a couple of traditional/ self built bows & arrows in evidence, if you have the interest then the guys are more than happy to talk to you and advise about their particular discipline.

It is great to see built from scratch bows shooting beside compounds that have more toys hanging off them than your average Apache Gunship!

Hoffa

Thanks for the advice

@ Fenris, had almost bought a bow, thanks for the tip may have saved me alot of cash.

I am interested in Target Archery, certainly to start while I build appropriate strength and style. I will give Woodbrook a try.

fenris

Beginner recurve Target, Field and Barebow all use the same kit so you are not locked into any single track, it will be a good while before you would notice the difference made by the various toys beyond the basics, that won't stop you from wanting to buy stuff though, the Archery variant of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) is particularly strong!

We have a beginners course starting in two weeks, there is nobody home next Wednesday as the hall is being used for round 1 of the referendum.