In honour of my first archery session since the plague, I thought I’d do a “what’s in my archery bag?” post. No bows or arrows, I’m afraid. I don’t own my own (yet). This is my teaching bag, the stuff I take with me when I teach kids to shoot. I’ve got a few posts on the subject of archery here if you want to see what a session looks like.
Bow stringer
Most important, my bow stringer. It’s just a long piece of webbing with a loop at one end and a pocket at the other but you try stringing a bow without it (I have. It’s possible but it’s very difficult and one day I will snap a bow trying it). Bows work under high tension but if you leave the string in place when it’s not being used, the entire bow loses its spring so I have to string the bows at the beginning of each session and unstring them at the end. This simple tape allows me to easily apply the tension to get the string on and off. Much admired by my ex-county commissioner who oversaw a session once. She got her qualification years ago before stringers were a thing and seemed to regard it almost as a piece of magic.
Whistle on lanyard
Generally I just shout “stop!” if there’s a problem and that’s worked fine but the whistle is to really get the point across. And I’ve needed it – at a county event, a clueless Brownie wandered onto my range mid-shoot and we had to call an emergency stop. In front of the county outdoors advisor too!
4 arm guards
Not all ranges come with armguards as part of the equipment. My orange plastic things aren’t as comfortable as the leather ones usually provided but they’re cheaper and they do get used occasionally. Bowstrings often slap your bow arm when you release. It’s actually never happened to me and with short sleeves, I can explain rotating your forearm so the string misses but with my pupils, this is standard equipment. We don’t use finger tabs. 1) they’re so rarely provided 2) I can’t properly see what their fingers are doing 3) you just don’t need them with the rate of shooting you tend to get with a group.
Whiteboard pens
Some ranges come with a whiteboard for keeping score. They don’t always come with pens. I should keep some chalk in my bag too, for those ranges that have a chalkboard but, to be honest, my favourite has a whiteboard and obviously that’s where I try to go.
Index cards & ballpoint pens
Various purposes. I used these to make bingo cards once, they’re good for individual scoring and at a push, you can turn them into targets to place on the butt. It’s always more interesting to try to hit something that’s not just a yellow circle in the middle.
Paper coconuts
Like these much-maligned coconuts. I did a session once with a comedian you’ve probably seen on TV and he laughed at my coconuts. They make a change from aiming at concentric circles and they teach you to think differently about how you’re shooting – suddenly you’re aiming top right or middle bottom or anywhere except the centre and that’s good for your aim. Yes, I kind of wish I had laminated coconuts on brown paper but we work with what we’ve got.
Masking tape
For sticking coconuts or any other shapes onto the target. Maybe even a large sheet of paper that covers the entire target with a new picture drawn on it. Masking tape sticks nicely without damaging the original target underneath. I mean, other than punching dozens of holes in it, we do try not to damage the target face.
Drawing pins
Sometimes I’ll pin balloons (not pictured; I don’t have any at the moment) to the target. I can’t blow them up, though, it makes me gag, so that’s dependent on whether I have someone around who can. Balloons don’t really stay on with masking tape but to be honest, they don’t stay on a whole lot better with drawing pins. You need something longer that actually goes through balloon and paper and into the butt underneath.
Hair bands
Hair gets tangled in bowstrings and that can hurt, a lot, so my pupils are requested to tie their hair back before they arrive. These are just in case anyone forgets or needs an extra band to hold their hair out of the way.
Plastic box
My pupils are also told to remove jewellery, especially rings and earrings. This box is for safekeeping of any jewellery that needs to be removed on the range. Can’t fall on the floor, can’t discretely get stolen and so on.
Freddos (not pictured)
The classic prize. Depending on whether it’s a group I know or not, I either hand out Freddos to the winners or give them to the leaders to give out at their own discretion. Prizes vary – you might give them to the three top scorers in the point-scoring finale. I often give one to the most improved, the kid who hit the roof with the first ten arrows and then finished the session in fourth place. I might even give one to the winner of each individual game. It depends on the group, the size, the way it’s split up and so on.
And that’s what’s in my archery bag, except that sometimes I’ll take my instruction manual because it’s been so long since I’ve strung a bow that I need to consult the book (preferably quietly on my own before my group arrives!)