25 archery goals, from your first end to a full 72 arrow round

Archery goals for beginners

Beginner goals count arrows and safe habits, starting with your club's range rules: shoot only from the line, and walk to the target only when everyone has finished.

• Finish a beginner course at an archery club.
• Shoot 100 arrows a week for 8 weeks.
• Land 6 arrows out of 6 on the target face at 10 m.
• Put 3 arrows in the gold at 10 m in one session.
• String your bow with a bow stringer, safely and without help, 10 times.

Archery form and shot process goals

Form goals are about making the same shot every time, and the calm, repeated motion they train is also at the heart of badminton goals.

• Touch the same anchor point on every arrow for a full session of 60.
• Shoot 50 arrows into a blank target from 5 m, thinking of one form cue only.
• Do 20 form reps with a stretch band every day for 30 days.
• Keep your bow arm up until the arrow lands, on all 72 arrows of a round.
• Film 6 shots from the side every week for 8 weeks and fix one thing.

Archery score goals by distance

Score goals use numbers the sport already keeps: a World Archery recurve round is 72 arrows at 70 m on a 122 cm face, and an arrow scores 10 at best, so a perfect round is 720.

• Score 250 out of 300 over 30 arrows at 18 m.
• Shoot a full indoor round of 60 arrows at 18 m and beat your last total by 10.
• Shoot your first full round at 30 m, then at 50 m, then at 70 m.
• Score 500 on a 72 arrow round at 70 m.
• Raise your average arrow by 0.5 points in 3 months. Over 72 arrows that is 36 more points.

Archery equipment and tuning goals

Equipment goals are checks and firsts you can tick off, best learned with a coach or an experienced club archer the first time.

• Measure your draw length and get arrows cut to fit it.
• Check your brace height before every session for a month.
• Paper tune your bow until 3 arrows in a row tear a clean hole.
• Number your arrows and note which ones group together, for 10 sessions.
• Fletch or repair 6 arrows on your own.

Competition and field archery goals

Like a first show in horse riding goals, a first tournament is a goal you tick by turning up and shooting every arrow.

• Enter your first club tournament and shoot every end.
• Shoot in 4 tournaments this year.
• Shoot a full field archery course, 3 arrows at every target, and score every one.
• Shoot your first 3D round and judge the distance before every shot.
• Shoot 10 practice matches with the set system: 3 arrows a set, first to 6 set points.

What is a good archery goal?

A good archery goal is about the shot, not only the score. A review of 27 studies of goal setting in sport found that process goals, the ones about how you carry out a skill, had the largest effect on performance (1.36). Goals about your own results came next (0.44), and goals about winning had almost none (0.09). In archery, the score is what a good shot leaves behind.

The score still gives you a clear scale. On a World Archery target face, the yellow rings score 10 and 9, and the white rings score 2 and 1. Indoors, the round is 60 arrows at 18 m on a 40 cm face, so 600 is perfect. Outdoors, recurve archers shoot at 70 m and compound archers at 50 m. In field archery, the targets sit between 5 and 60 m, out in the woods.

Write the goal with a number and a date, the way SMART goals are written: "300 arrows a week until March, and 500 at 70 m by June."

How to track archery goals

Keep your score sheet after every session. Archers already write each end down, so the habit is half built. A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often, and that recording it beat keeping it in your head.

Arrows and points are amounts that add up. Sessions are a day count. A goal like 100 sessions, or 100 arrows a day for 100 days, is tracked the same way as a 100 day challenge.

A round's score moves a few points at a time, and one windy day can hide a good month. A picture that fills with every arrow shows the work the score sheet does not.

Frequently asked questions

What are good archery goals for beginners?

Finish a beginner course, shoot 100 arrows a week for 8 weeks, and land 6 arrows out of 6 on the target face at 10 m. Follow your club's range rules from the first day.

What is a perfect score in archery?

In a World Archery recurve round, 72 arrows at 70 m, a perfect score is 720: 10 points on every arrow. Indoors, 60 arrows at 18 m make 600 the top score.

Should my archery goal be a score?

Keep a score as the direction, and set goals on the shot: arrows a week, one form cue, a full follow-through. In a review of 27 studies, goals about how a skill is carried out had the largest effect on performance.