Technique ("Form")Training and physiologyPsychology - the mental game

This corner of the site is about being fit to shoot.

Archery doesn't exactly push the envelope of human endurance, or use peak muscle strength. And diet? well, a lot of recreational archers get by on coke and crisps. Nonetheless, performance archery demands complete physical control of your bow through days of shooting, and nearly all top archers and coaches reckon on good attention to physical fitness. So this corner contains some tips on physical fitness for archery - what you need, why you need it and how, in general, to get it.

This is the only corner of the site that literally comes with a HEALTH WARNING, though. Physical training is great if done properly; you really can get fitter and stronger, your shooting usually benefits, and rumour has it that you may even live longer. But badly or unwisely done, training can easily cause short or long term injury, and can kill you. These things can severely disrupt your shooting. So the only unqualified advice about exercise on this site is this; get qualified professional advice about physical training before you start, and consult your physician as well if there is any doubt about your ability to undertake training.

Latest additions:
21 April 2002:
Some recent research data suggests that static stretching during warmup may not be the best thing you can do. More here.

21 Jan 2002: A whole new collection on Stretches for archery.

8 August Forward rowing and bent-over lateral raises; two more important exercises on the 'shoulder training' pages.

23 July 2001 Since March, added a lot of new exercises for archery, including some body weight and basic dumbbell work. Go here for a look, and push the 'Abdominals' 'The Back' or 'Shoulder' muscle training tabs for a look. Last update 30 July

25 March 01: Quite a few pages on muscle use and anatomy. Go here for a look, and push the 'muscle use' button (not all the menu items work yet!).

19 Feb 01: Two pages on cardio fitness added to the 'what to train' corner. There'll be a menu version of that in time, but there's only a picture placeholder for that right now.

12 Feb 01: Well, this page, for one. Plus the training principles and objectives pages.

 

TRAINING TOPICS
Training principles
Building Basic fitness
Improving strength
Improving Endurance
Food - Fuelling performance
 
Training resources
A few general fitness links, some allowing personalised fitness programmes:
 e-fit.com
Allows general fitness programme selection; free for 'registered' members.

 gymamerica.com
Not free.... but looked good last time I looked.

 getfit.com
Nice interactive finder for exercises for each muscle group.