To start archery you join a club and take a beginners' course with an instructor. Clubs are listed by the federations, the course is shot with the club's bows, so at first there is no need to buy anything, and in the first months you work on the fundamentals at short range, under the same safety rules that apply in competition. Your first competitions come when the person who taught you thinks you are ready.
Finding a club
The two worlds each answer to an international federation, and both are made up of national bodies. World Archery admits one national federation per country; the IFAA, the International Field Archery Association, brings together national field archery associations. In Italy, where I teach, the first route runs through FITARCO, the Italian member of World Archery, which organises target archery outdoors and indoors, field archery and 3D: this is the route to World Archery's international events and to the Olympic Games, with the recurve, the compound and the barebow. The second runs through FIARC, the Italian field archery federation, which is Italy's member of the IFAA. Within Italy FIARC recognises three disciplines, shooting at animal-shaped targets, shooting at aerial targets and bowfishing, and has eight bow categories, from the historical bow and the longbow to the recurve, the barebow, the compound and freestyle; its archers can then compete in IFAA events, which are shot over field and hunter rounds, animal rounds and 3D. It is the route for anyone drawn to the woods and to shooting at unmarked distances.
Whichever world you choose, your country's federation is the place to start looking for a club. FITARCO's website, fitarco.it, has a club finder: in the box headed "Vuoi tirare con l'arco?" you choose your region, province or town and the nearest clubs appear. In FIARC clubs are called compagnie, and the federation's website, fiarc.it, lists them by region; outside Italy, the IFAA's member associations are listed by country on ifaa-archery.org. Wherever you are, it pays to watch a session before you sign up and ask when the next course starts. Course and club fees are set by the club, which will also tell you what federation membership costs: in FIARC the FIARC Pass is valid for the current year, and the up-to-date FITARCO and FIARC figures are available from the club or on the federation's website.
The beginners' course
The rules of the two Italian federations say who runs the beginners' course and what it is for. In FITARCO, under the Federal Coaches Regulation in force since 17 September 2026, the level 1 instructor is the coach qualified to introduce newcomers to the sport: they look after organisation and equipment, basic teaching and the theory lessons up to the first competitions, and they do so in coordination with an experienced coach or a federation technical lead, because on their own they are not yet qualified to work independently. The same regulation requires that, when an archer first registers, they are paired with the coach of their beginners' course, and that the pairing cannot be changed for 90 days from registration.
FIARC's Instruction Regulation, as updated on 2 December 2023, goes into more detail. Before the first lesson you need a medical certificate for non-competitive sport and federation membership; the course is split into a variable number of lessons adding up to at least 18 hours, which the instructor can extend if the students need it, and each instructor teaches no more than six students. The first aim written into it is safety towards others and towards yourself, and the instructor must help the student choose and set up their first equipment.
During the course you shoot the club's bows, and my advice to everyone is to buy nothing until it is over: after a few weeks of shooting you know which bow you like, what draw weight you can handle and what your draw length is, and the purchase becomes a choice rather than a gamble. Buying too much too soon is one of the beginner mistakes I see most often.
That a structured course raises scores is something the studies have not shown. They all find beginners who improve after a course, but none separates the effect of the lessons from that of plain practice, and in the registry the claim that a structured course on the fundamentals raises beginners' scores remains unstudied. I recommend one anyway for the outside eye: an instructor sees a fault while it is still cheap to correct.
What you learn in the first weeks
The first lessons start with safety and equipment: how to assemble and string the bow, how to nock an arrow, where to stand while others are shooting. Then comes the shot, one part at a time: foot position on the shooting line, the string hook, the draw, the anchor, the release and the position you keep after the shot. In one of the early lessons the instructor will also check your dominant eye, which matters when choosing the side you shoot from. You shoot close, often a few metres from the boss, with your attention entirely on the shot.
Starting close is a matter of convenience and safety rather than a measured advantage. The only comparison between groups, from 1966, on 58 university beginners who started at 10, 25 and 40 yards, found no significant differences by the end of the course: in the registry the claim that starting close and moving back gradually gives no better results is reported, with the limitation that the three groups were not randomised.
In the first sessions you improve, but everyone at their own pace. Eleven adults who had never shot, with three sessions of a hundred arrows in one week, gained on average just over a point per arrow, while on the first day their averages ranged from 4.0 to 8.5 points per arrow: that in their first sessions beginners improve, but very differently from one another is reported in the registry. In the following months, too, studies find scores going up: in one of them beginners doing only standard training went from 247 to 298 points out of 600 in two months, and the claim that in the first months a beginner improves anyway is also reported.
It takes time for the shot to become automatic, which is the subject of the article on motor learning; what sets an experienced archer's shot apart from a beginner's I have collected in experts and beginners.
Safety on the range
The rules you learn on the course depend on which world you shoot in, because a range with one shooting line for everyone and a course through the woods raise different problems. In FITARCO they follow the World Archery competition rulebook, Book 3 in the version of 15 August 2026, and the main ones are few:
- you draw the bow only when standing on the shooting line, and while drawing it always points towards your own target;
- you do not raise your bow arm before the signal to start;
- you never use a technique that, with an accidental release, could send the arrow beyond the safety zone;
- anyone not shooting stays behind the waiting line, which in competition is at least 3 m behind the shooting line;
- you go to the targets only on the signal, once the shooting line is clear.
The sound signals are worth learning straight away: two to step up to the shooting line, one to start shooting, three to go to the targets to score and collect your arrows, and at least five to stop everything in an emergency; after a suspension, a single signal resumes shooting. Behind the targets, on competition fields, Book 2 requires an overshoot safety zone of at least 50 m, which can be reduced only with an adequate backstop.
In FIARC field archery there is no shared shooting line: you go round the course in groups of up to six archers, and each archer shoots from the peg at each target. The Sports Regulation, in the version of 2 December 2023, sets out safety in a few rules:
- before shooting you make sure that the other archers are all behind you, that nobody is behind the target and that the line of flight is clear of people and animals;
- you always draw the bow towards the target: drawing from below is allowed, from above or from the side never;
- outside your turn you never draw the bow with an arrow nocked;
- you do not go past the target's marker board before your turn;
- once the arrows are retrieved, the group leaves in the direction signposted, and lost arrows are searched for after the competition.
The IFAA rulebook, the Book of Rules in its revision of 4 April 2021, applies at IFAA events and adds further rules: archers shoot in groups of three to six, normally four, and one group does not approach or disturb another while either is shooting at a target; when shooting on a horizontal plane, the bow hand does not go above the top of the head during the draw; nothing that reduces hearing or sight may be used; bright clothing is recommended on the course, and full camouflage is not allowed without a high-visibility item.
On the risk of getting hurt, the picture depends on what you count: acute injuries turn out to be few and mostly minor, complaints from repeated load common, which is why the claim that archery is a sport with a low risk of injury is contested in the registry. For a beginner this means a low draw weight, volume that rises slowly, and telling your instructor about any discomfort that does not go away; I cover this in the article on injuries in archery.
How long before you shoot competition distances
There is no set time, either in the rulebooks or in the studies: it depends on how much you shoot, on your draw weight and on how your shot develops. The distances, on the other hand, are written down. In the World Archery rulebook, Book 2 in the version of 15 August 2026, indoor competition is shot at 18 m for all divisions, on a 40 cm face, in its triple version at international events. Outdoors the recurve shoots at 70 m, the compound and the barebow at 50 m, and the distances are shorter for younger and older archers: 60 m for recurve under 18 and in the 50+ class, 40 m for recurve and compound under 15, 30 m for barebow under 15.
In FIARC distances are not declared: every shot is at an unmarked distance, and the Sports Regulation sets only the maximum distance for each group of targets, 20, 30 or 40 m in the Battuta and the Percorso, up to 55 m in the Tracciato, and no more than 35 m in the 3D Round. In the IFAA the field round, over 14 targets, runs for adults from 20 ft to 80 yd, roughly 6 to 73 m, and the hunter round from 11 to 70 yd; juniors shoot from no further than 50 yd and cubs from no further than 30. Indoors the IFAA shoots at 20 yd, 18.3 m, on a 40 cm face, and cubs at 10 yd.
In my experience, in FITARCO the first competition for someone coming off a course is often an indoor one, because at 18 m the distance is short and the same for everyone, from beginner to champion. In FIARC the step is written into the Technical Regulation, as updated on 2 December 2023: an archer holding the green FIARC Pass shoots in the Training Class until they have completed their training, and the date from which they can take part in competitions normally is entered on the pass by the federation instructor. In FITARCO the level 1 instructor's basic teaching runs up to the first competitions, and the coaches' regulation awards credits to the coach who follows a new member through their first two calendar competitions. For IFAA world and continental championships, you also need a Score Record/Classification Card with at least two competition scores recorded, shot outdoors for outdoor championships and indoors for indoor ones, as the IFAA executive restated in its clarifications of 1 June 2026. In both worlds, the person who taught you decides when you are ready, not the calendar.
The greater the distance, the more every small inconsistency in the shot spreads out on the face: I have covered this in why groups open up with distance, and how to alternate short and long distances in training in the article on training distance.
Age
People start as children and as adults, and the rulebooks allow for it with age classes. World Archery has under 15, under 18, under 21 and 50+ classes. FIARC has the Cuccioli, from age 7 until the year they turn 13, and the Scout, until the year they turn 18, with a maximum draw weight of 25 lb for the first and 40 lb for the second, then the Cacciatori and, at national events, the Seniores over 55; for its courses it requires a parent to sign a minor's enrolment and the young archer to be accompanied by the responsible adult throughout the lessons. The IFAA divides archers into cubs, under 13, juniors from 13 to 16, young adults from 17 to 20, adults from 21 to 54, veterans from 55 and seniors from 65, and in competition cubs shoot in their own group with a non-shooting responsible adult. At what age it makes sense to start, and what we know about draw weight and pain in young archers, I have collected in the article at what age can you start archery.