Beginner's Course

Where possible, the club likes to give members of the public the opportunity to go beyond a "Come and try session" that can be found in many places, and give them a chance to participate in a short course designed with the complete beginner in mind. It is open to anyone form the minimum age of ten upwards and is suitable for anyone with absolutely no, or very little experience in archery.

The total course duration needs to be a minimum of 12 hours. We normally spread these over five Sunday mornings (each session 2.5 hours). You must fully attend all sessions in order to complete the course.

Every session also has intervals for education and for other information that is needed to complete the course (more below). Refreshments are normally available during the interval (included in the cost).

Course Objectives

The main aims of the course are to:

• to teach you to safely shoot a bow and arrow to the minimum required level at a distance of 20yds
• teach some basic backgrounds about:
  • the different types of archery equipment available
  • the different styles of shooting archery
  • equipment & shooting-range set-up and take down
  • archery rules & archery etiquette

All of which is required to complete the course.

On completion of the course you will receive an Archery Safety Shooting Certificate, which should be accepted by any archery club in the U.K. as proof of you meeting the minimum standard of archery, which will allow you to join the club if they have capacity.

So there will be short educational sections each session where background and other relevant information is taught to the whole group. You will need to have received all this information in order to complete the course and receive your certificate at the end (which of course means you must be able to attend all the sessions).

Several members of our club give up their free time to assist throughout the course, so each pupil will receive individual 1-on-1 instruction by a recognised Archery GB coach. We might be a small club, but we are unusual in having many Archery GB qualified coaches (including both level-1 and level-2 coaches) within our membership.

Beginners' Course 2014

These courses are very friendly and progress at your own speed, to the point that extra sessions maybe given to individuals if they feel they need more time to reach the required level.

How to enrol for the next course

Next Course Information

We have not finalised dates for our next course yet, but are looking at dates in the first quarter of 2026. Keep popping back here because I will post the dates and times as soon as they have been confirmed with the booking secretary for the hall.

The course will only be open to anyone already on our Waiting List.

To get your name onto the Waiting List for our next course please complete the Enrolment Form as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Course Fees

Due to increasing costs of hiring the venue in 2023, the price for our Beginners' Course has had to increase to £60 for an adult and £50 for a junior (17 and under).
We like to encourage families to shoot together, so we are offering a £10 discount to every additional immediate family member living at the same address, who takes the course at the same time. For example, the cost for one parent and two children receive a £20.00 discount off the full price.

The price includes use of all the equipment you need during the course, hire of venue fees, all archery education & handouts and face fees. Refreshments (tea, coffeé, squash and biscuits) are also included on our indoor courses.

After the course

If the club has capacity for new members, pupils that complete the course to a satisfactorily level and have received their Safety Shooting certificate will be offered the opportunity to join the Bowmen Of Leeds club on either our Full Membership scheme if spaces are available or the Outside Membership Scheme (or Junior Club if under 18).

The hall used for the course is our normal indoor shooting facility and as you will see it is limited in space. So we have to apply a limit to the number of Full Memberships we can offer. When a Full Membership becomes available, it is first offered to people already with the club and regularly shooting on the Outdoor Membership scheme.