Getting kids involved in archery sounds easy now doesn't it. Most children would jump at the chance of shooting a bow at just about anything, so why am I writing this article you ask?

I have found out through years of experience that keeping a child involved in archery is a hard task. There attention spans especially in the younger years is very short. So I have advised a couple of techniques I would love to share with you.

First and only first I do stress while we are having so much fun, we mustn't forget safety. All during the games I make the kids yell out safety rules, and give them a big pat on the back for the right answers. I work on praise alone, and try not allow anything negative be brought into class.

The first day we usually just have fun shooting at target faces. Whether it be a animal target or a F.I.T.A. target the kids have a ball knowing that on their first day they can hit a piece of paper. The smiles are worth a thousand words. I keep my beginning sessions to no more than 1 1/2 hours. Too long and they get bored, or their fingers start to hurt from the strings.

I then alternate games from then on throughout the month. Here are a few of the games I play.

Candy bar day: Well who can resist the taste of a good piece of chocolate? Defiantly not a 6 year old. I have different age groups in my classes so I have to make sure the difficulty factor is brought in. I split my kids by age 6-7 year olds shoot at a target 2ft. by 2ft. and are on a line 10 yards away. If they hit the target they win a candy bar. My 8-9 year olds are shooting at a target 1ft. x 1ft. and 15 yards away, and my 10-11 year olds are shooting at the same target as the second group but are 20 yards away. At anytime they hit the bullseye they win 2 candy bars. This year with a group of 17 kids I gave away 219 candy bars, boy was I excited. At least more excited than their parents when they came to pick up their sugar induced children.

Water balloon day: Well I set my lines about the same as candy bar day. We all shoot at 4" in diameter water balloons. When the balloon is hit the water splashes all over the place the children get a real jolt out of it. They laugh when an arrow just nicks one and the water sprays out towards them. When the class is over I always bring extra balloons and we have a water fight. Parents are again thrilled to put those wet kids in their cars when it's time to go home.

Poker day: I take a deck of cards and put them face down on the target butt. The kids shoot at the cards and collect the ones shot. At the end of the day the kid with the best poker hand wins a gift certificate to the local drive in for an ice cream cone. We later smoke cigars  and I show them how to place a bet (just joking here), again the parents are thrilled when they pick up the kids.

3-D day: The kids love to shoot the 3-D targets. I usually reserve this class for one of my last classes. By then they have their skills down pretty good. Otherwise you spend the entire time hunting for arrows and that gets boring.  I set the kids up in pairs and they shoot as a team. We keep score and the winners do not have to help pick up the targets and carry them back to the truck. I usually will bring a cooler of pop since it's our last class and they receive their metals for participation.

For the older kids in my advanced archery classes I do the blood trailing day. I go and get a roll of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies mostly pennies. I make a trail across an open short grass field, has to be short grass or you've lost most of your change. I teach the skills of how to blood trail by doing the circular walk from the last drop of blood they found. Then when they find the next coin they repeat the process until they find the next coin, and etc. The kids get to keep the coins and when they find the animal I give the winner a piggy back ride back to the beginning. They love to smash me into the ground.

Well there you have it, this is how I keep my kids involved in archery. It is my highlight of the year when I see new kids mingled in with returning kids year after year.  It's to the point now I just mention what day is coming up and the returning students go with it from there getting all the other kids pumped up for the next week.

The only piece of advice I can give anyone out there who works with kids and archery is duck. Not really it is keep it positive. Positive reinforcement is the best tool and even the orneriest of kids will turn around and thank you for the fun they had that day. I get so attached to each of my kids. And the tails they tell me of their accomplishments they achieve after leaving my classes, warms my heart. Good luck and great shooting.