Perhaps you have tried archery on holiday and fancy something a bit more advanced – or maybe you are contemplating taking up archery as a sport or hobby and would like to join a club. If so, then our Archery tasters and Beginners’ courses are what you’re looking for.
Tasters give an opportunity to pick up a bow, learn the basics of archery, and shoot arrows at a target for an hour-and-a-half on a Saturday morning – under the guidance of AGB qualified CADAC coaches. If our Archery Taster course whets your appetite to take the sport further, then you’ll need to proceed to a more complex beginner’s course to become certified to join an Archery GB affiliated club. If just a taste of Archery is what you’re looking for, then have a look at this …
Beginner’s courses are designed to get you to a standard where you would be accepted for membership and be accredited as safe to shoot at any Archery GB affiliated club. Like most clubs, CADAC requires you to have completed a course such as this before you can join.
CADAC have scheduled three beginners’ courses for 2024, as follows:
- The first course – 8th, 15th, 22nd & 29th May 2024 (1.5 hrs from 7:00 pm on Wednesday evenings)
- The second course – 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of July 2024 (1.5 hrs from 7:00 pm on Monday evenings).
- The third course – 14th, 21st, & 28th of September 2024 (2.0 hrs from 10:00 am on Saturday mornings)
The fee for the courses is £65 per person (ticketing links below) and limited to 12 Archers per course.
In 2022, CADAC relocated to our new home at the Northern Gateway Sports Park. This is where our Beginner’s Courses are held.
Links to buy tickets for the three courses are below. Terms & Conditions are at the bottom of this page. If you have questions that aren’t answered on this page, please email us at: archerysessions@gmail.com and our staff will get back to you. Once you have purchased & reserved your place, your ticket can be downloaded as your confirmation and proof of purchase for the four sessions that month. Payment should be made by debit or credit card through our Ticket Tailor links below:
May 2024 – Beginner’s Course … May '24
The May ’24 Beginner’s course is fully subscribed
July 2024 – Beginner’s Course … July '24
The July ’24 Beginner’s course has limited tickets remaining
Sept 2024 – Beginner’s Course … Sept '24
The September ’24 Beginner’s course is fully subscribed
If you wish to book tickets for several beginners on a course, please complete a separate booking form for each archer.
We usually suggest 10 years old as a minimum age due to the physical strength and maturity needed, given the equipment we use. We’re happy to accept 8 and 9-year-olds, but we know from experience that younger and smaller children do sometimes struggle.
The Archery GB Beginners Guide and our Beginner’s guide to recurve bows provides useful background information for anyone wanting to take up archery.
CADAC will provide all of the archery equipment needed to attend the beginner’s course.
We strongly advise that you finish the course before purchasing any equipment for yourself.
You are unlikely to buy an appropriate bow if you haven’t developed good technique. Also, given that bow length, draw weight, arrow length and arrow spine all need to be matched specifically to an archer, we recommend visiting a reputable dealer to get matched with your first set of equipment. If you attempt to purchase archery equipment online without having the necessary experience it is very likely that you will end up wasting your money and have equipment that is impossible to tune & optimise.
Here’s some info about the beginner’s course events:
Please note that if a beginner’s session is cancelled by CADAC then the club will organise another session to replace it. If you fail to turn up for a course or session, then you will not be entitled to another. Sessions will normally take place even if it is raining, so please bring a waterproof with you. We will only cancel a session if there is persistent heavy rain, lightning, high winds or fog. This will be at CADAC’s discretion on safety grounds and is non-negotiable. We will do our best to contact you using the e-mail address that you used to purchase your tickets, but if you are unsure about the weather and cannot contact us on the day, then turn up anyway as someone will be there to inform you of the rescheduled date if we do have to cancel a session.
You should wear comfortable but close-fitting clothing – baggy jumpers and coats are not recommended. It is advisable to wear several thin layers rather than one bulky one. Items of jewellery or personal body piercing that might be caught by the bowstring should be removed and long hair should be tied back. Footwear must fully enclose the toes and the front of the foot to protect your feet from fallen arrows, so please do not wear sandals.
We look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to our club in the summer. For those of you who fail to secure a place or are unable to attend because of holidays etc, then we do a lot of work with Perris Archery who have an indoor range and run courses all year round at their shop in Raydon, Suffolk. We work closely with Perris and most of our archers will go there to purchase their first set of equipment. Anyone who completes a Perris course is welcome to come back and join Colchester afterwards, and we would work with them in the same way we work with our own beginners to help them through their first couple of months as new archers. You can call the Perris Archery Raydon branch at 01473 316944 or contact them via their website.
If you have any questions, please contact our beginner’s course administrator by email at archerysessions@gmail.com
Terms and Conditions – for the beginner’s events:
- A ticket must be purchased, and the check-out form must be completed before starting the course.
- All medical disclosures relevant to the sport of archery must be indicated at the time of purchase. Note that this is for the safeguarding of the student during the course.
- An adult must accompany juniors (under 18) attending the CADAC beginners course at all times.
- All course fees must be paid in full by the start of the first lesson.
- Beginners’ course fees are non-refundable unless cancelled by the Colchester & District Archery Club (CADAC).
- Beginner’s course tickets/places are non-transferrable unless agreed by the Colchester & District Archery Club (CADAC), prior to the commencement of the course.
- Beginners’ course fees do not entitle you to membership of CADAC.
- All coaching and shooting will be strictly in accordance with Archery GB rules, regulations and practices.
- CADAC retains the right to refuse further access to the beginners’ course if students persistently disobey the safety instructions or the shooting rules.
- CADAC cannot accept any responsibility for damage or injury sustained whilst entering, at, or leaving the shooting grounds.
- All archers using the CADAC grounds must wear appropriate footwear i.e. no open-toed shoes or sandals.