In general, archery is seen as a masculine sport. Like other shooting sports, a lot of people think that archery is primarily a sport for males. But on the contrary, there are a lot of reasons, why archery is a great sport for girls and women. Some masculine character traits can even hurt your archery performance. Therefore, I will discuss 9 reasons why archery is a great sport for women.
1. Archery is all about concentration
Archery is all about concentration. To keep the right form and aim correctly you need to be very focused. On the field, there can be many distractions, either from the audience or from fellow archers.
In general, women and girls have less trouble concentrating than men and boys. Women are generally calmer and get distracted less frequently. That’s one of the main reasons girls tend to score better grades in school than boys.
Therefore, you could say that women have a slight advantage in this regard.
2. Strength is not as important as you may think
A lot of people think that archery is all about upper body strength. Meaning that you must be strong to become an archer. But in reality, strength doesn’t matter that much.
Of course, shooting a heavier draw weight bow gives you some advantages, especially when outdoors. I will indeed decrease the arrow drop and decrease wind drift, but that does less for your accuracy than you might think.
I have seen archers shoot very accurately with 16 LBS bows and very poorly with 40 LBS bows. The skill and concentration of the archer matter much more. So don’t be deterred from archery, just because you might not be that strong, because it doesn’t matter that much.
Not convinced yet, read the articles below for more information:
Do you have to be strong for archery?
What are the benefits of a heavy draw weight bow?
3. Archery is a tranquil sport
Men generally gravitate to more action-focused sports, such as soccer, football, and basketball. These sports are focused on endurance and tactics.
Women, on the other hand, often enjoy more calm sports, such as volleyball, gymnastics, dancing, and swimming. In these sports, there is a bigger focus on technique and execution.
So, what do you think? Is archery more like soccer, a contact sport where endurance plays a big role? Or is archery more like volleyball, where concentration and technique play a big role?
From experience, I can tell you that the latter is true. Therefore, it’s a bit weird that archery is often seen as a ‘’male sport’’ since it has a lot of characteristics of ‘’female sports’’.
4. The shot sequence is like a dance
Markus Wagner wrote for Archery Focus, that he believes archery is like playing music. Just like music, you must make the right movements and rehears sequences. If you make one mistake, the song, or for archery the accuracy will suffer because of it.
In archery, there is a huge focus on keeping your shot sequence consistent. This means that you make the same movements for every arrow. The reason for this is that it removes variation from your shots, which causes inaccuracies.
Therefore, I think shooting a bow is a bit like a dance. You want to remember your paces and execute them perfectly in the right order. Let’s face it, women are better dancers than men, so they might also be better at rehearsing and training their shot sequences.
5. Most females don’t suffer from the macho syndrome
In archery, there is a big issue, which I often call the macho syndrome. A lot of archers are focusing too much on the draw weight of their bow. These archers find it important to shoot a heavy draw weight because they don’t want to be seen as weak.
And you might already have guessed it, but this is primarily an issue among men. Men often focus on strength, while women tend to focus on their performance.
In archery competitions, you don’t get points for the draw weight you shoot. Whether your arrows fly fast or slow, it only matters where your arrows hit.
There are a lot of disadvantages to shooting a too heavy bow. It can cause you to hurry your shot and cause your arm to vibrate. Therefore, shooting a too heavy bow can decimate your accuracy. Luckily, there is less emphasis on draw weight among females.
6. Archery is a social sport
Although archery is generally not practiced as a team sport, archery is a social sport. While waiting for everyone to finish shooting from walking to the shooting line, archers often talk about all sorts of topics.
In my experience, there are much more conversations in archery practice than in other ballgames. But that makes sense, if you are exhausted from running around on a field, you have no breath left to talk.
Therefore, if you like to socialize during your sport, archery is the right sport for you. In competitions you can even participate in teams if you like, as I discuss in the article below:
7. You can practice it with the entire family
One of the major benefits of archery is that you can practice it with the entire family. Of course, you can also play a ballgame with the entire family. But in most cases, there will be huge differences in skill within the family. This can cause the better players to feel bored and the less skilled player to feel pressured.
With archery, this isn’t the case. Dad could shoot at 70 meters (77 yards), while the kids shoot at 18 meters (20 yards). Each archer can practice on their level at their full potential, without having to worry about the performance of other participants.
At my local archery club, you often see entire families join practice sessions. You won’t see this in most other sports because you won’t be able to play on your own level. Therefore, archery is a great sport to bond with your family.
8. You can practice how and whenever you want
Another big advantage of archery is that you can often practice it when and whenever you want. Some clubs have a practice field you can use 24/7 or maybe you have a big backyard you can use. This gives you a lot of flexibility to enjoy the sport when it suits you.
You can of course join training sessions, but you could also practice it by yourself. Read this article, if you want some tips on how to learn archery by yourself.
If you want, you could also join different competitions, both individually and as a team. But of course, you can also only practice, without participating in competitions. That’s one of the benefits of archery, there is just a lot of flexibility on how you can enjoy it.
9. Archery is just a lot of fun!
The last point is probably the most important. Archery is simply a lot of fun. The satisfaction from hitting the gold for the first time gives a lot of joy. But also improving your personal best gives a huge confidence boost.
No matter your age, gender, or strength archery can be a great pastime to be active and outdoors. Just give it a try, you will probably like it! Even if you decide not to continue shooting, you learned a new skill and have another interesting experience.
Do you want to get started?
I hope you will give archery a try. With a lot of sports, you only know whether you like it when you have seriously tried it.
Since archery is not a run-of-the-mill sport you might struggle to get started. You must buy or lend a bow, find an archery club, and learn the basic technique. This can be a bit overwhelming. To make this process a lot easier I have written a full guide on how to get started with archery:
Buying your bow, tuning your equipment, and learning the technique, it’s all covered in that article. So, if you want to give archery a try, it’s definitely worth a read.
If you are not sure whether archery is the right sport for you, the article below might help you out. I discuss what kind of people generally like archery and what you can expect from the sport:
Is archery the right sport for me?
Final words
As a final message, I want to mention that I don’t intend to stereotype with this article. Of course, women can have a lot of masculine character traits, while men can have a lot of feminine character traits.
But still, there are some differences between men and women across the board. Men tend to be more competition focused while women tend to be more socially active. In our society, we need both male and female character traits!
The goal of this article was mainly to wash away the stereotype that archery is a masculine sport. There are a lot of points that make archery a great sport for women. I also think that it would be great if more women would join this sport!
Tim van Rooijen
For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by archery. First due to its historic significance but later because I like being outdoors. With this blog, I share my knowledge about Archery and how you can improve your shot. More about author…
