Beginners’ Course

OUCofA's Beginners' Course is a great way to learn archery, and have fun while doing it. The course runs from the second week of Michaelmas each year. Sign up below, and please note there are only 25 spots per session.

Taster Sessions

The club will be running FREE taster sessions in Week 1 of Michaelmas in the Old Sports Hall at the Iffley Road Sports Centre. These are open to Oxford University and Oxford Brookes students and staff.

The taster session times for 2024 are:

Tuesday 15th Oct 12.30pm - 2.30pm

Friday 18th Oct 06.30am - 09.00am

Course Session Times

The Beginners' Course will start in 2nd Week of Michaelmas term. You will have to choose between attending the course on Wednesdays or Fridays (i.e. once per week). Please note that we have a maximum capacity of 50 beginners.

The session times for 2024 are:

Wednesdays 06.30am-09.00am

Fridays 06.30am-09.00am

Cost

In order to take part in the beginners' course you have to become a member of the club (from 2nd week), this is to make sure you are affiliated with ArcheryGB, the sport's national governing body. With this affiliation you will also have liability insurance, which is a requirement to be allowed to shoot at all! Our current membership fee is £70 a year. If you are a novice you will also be charged £30 to offset some of the cost of the (highly subsidized) course. This includes use of all equipment, coaching over the seven weeks of the course as well as a free resistance band and finger sling which is yours to keep.

For reference, any other non university club would charge you around £120 for less than we can offer you (and you would have to pay extra for any course!). You'll never be able to learn archery so cheaply after you leave Oxford. If you have any other questions, feel free to email a member of the Committee (see the Committee page) or come to a session and see us in action.

Goals

The basic aim is to get you proficiently shooting, able to set up and take down equipment unsupervised, do all of it safely and most importantly to have fun whilst doing it. By the end of the course (the end of term) you'll be competent enough to shoot completely unassisted and will be able to shoot at our 3 additional "experienced" sessions each week.

We'll also aim to have you ready to face the exciting world of archery tournaments, with our first one of the year (with strong emphasis on novice participation, no matter how good you are) usually part of the TOUCAN League, where we shoot against Cambridge, Loughborough, Derby, Nottingham, Nottingham Trent, Warwick and Birmingham.

Structure

Each week we'll be teaching something new, building on everything you have learned so far. Our experienced archers will be at sessions to guide you through the learning process.

The content of each of the sessions in a given week will be the same. You only need to attend one session each week. Try to make it to one of the sessions every week, otherwise you might miss out on the training goals of that week!

Requirements

No prior knowledge is assumed or required. Our only requirement is membership of the club. Enthusiasm always helps :)

Clothing

You can wear pretty much whatever you want, but try to avoid anything baggy around the arms and chest.