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3.0 out of 5 stars
Every bit as basic as the title implies., December 10, 2004
This review is from: Basic Essentials Archery (Basic Essentials Series) (Paperback)
Basic Essentials Archery is exactly that - the basic essentials. If you've been shooting for 6 months or more, stop reading now. You already know everything in this book. If you are considering archery for the first time, read on.
Construction: this 64-page book includes table of contents, index, and glossary. The chapters are laid out in a logical progression. Editing is good overall, though some simple grammatical errors (including several occurrences of unnecessary hyphens) were missed.
Style: Beth and Stephanie write in a conversational style that is easy to read and lends itself to understanding with minimal effort. Ideas are presented in a logical, organized fashion, and I never had to reread a sentence to understand the point.
The authors do not always seem to take their audience seriously, as they frequently point out the obvious:
"... once you have mastered the basics of archery, you can even shoot by yourself." (p. 49)
Content: Few pages, largish type, and frequent illustrations make BEA a very quick read. I am slow reader, and I finished it in 2 sittings.
The book opens with a brief historical intro, providing some simple illustrations of archery's impact on history. While the history lesson is vaguely interesting from an academic standpoint, it is irrelevant to any audience looking for elementary archery information for competition or hunting. Even if you want the history lesson, chapter one is shallow enough that it probably contains nothing you don't know already. I suggest skipping this chapter.
Chapter two is a more logical introduction, as it presents the three common bow types (long, recurve, compound), and illustrates their components. This is a good source of terminology, but nothing you can't get for free on the Internet (or just pick up by talking with other archers).
The authors offer the dubious suggestion that you can buy enough equipment to get you started for $100. This may be enough to pick up a used bow on eBay, but even then you don't have a string, arrows, a target, armguard, or finger tab.
If you want to learn about archery equipment, consider the excellent Hunter's Friend Bow Selection Guide (http://www.huntersfriend.com/bowselection.htm). This will give you more information and a much better understanding than the material presented in BEA chapter 2.
Chapter three briefly glosses over how to store and clean your equipment.
Chapter four is an introduction to archery safety. This is one of the better chapters in the book, and provides a good grounding in what not to do. Unfortunately, it offers a few dubious pieces of advice:
"Cracked bow arms: If a crack doesn't get fixed, the bow could break under the tension of your draw and cause an injury." (p. 26)
This statement implies that a cracked limb can be repaired. The only safe remedy for a cracked limb is replacement. There is no way to make the limb as strong as it was before the crack.
"Get someone else to stand in front of the target or prop a bow or quiver on it so no one will try to shoot at that target as you look for arrows that you've overshot." (p. 31)
I won't explain why it's a bad idea to stand in front of an archery target. I can only wonder why the authors would suggest something so obviously unsafe.
Some suggestions are provided without explanatory details:
"Make sure that the bowstring (or bow cables for a compound bow) is positioned properly." (p. 27)
No details are offered to explain proper string position, or how to achieve it.
Chapter three ends with a brief summary of strength and flexibility training. This would have been a really useful section, but the authors assume you are already familiar with strength training terminology. Unfortunately, exercises are presented with no explanatory detail:
"To develop the muscles in your shoulders, try lateral raises as well as bent-over dumbbell flies." (p. 33)
No attempt is made to explain this exercise or how to perform it.
Chapter five is actually a pretty useful reference. It explains the T-form shooting posture, explains three different shooting stances (open, closed, and regular), wrist angle, and finger placement. This chapter includes a simple step-by-step shooting method, and some basic troubleshooting suggestions. These are all useful details that I have had surprisingly little luck finding on the Internet.
The book's final chapter provides a rudimentary explanation of several types of competition. By the time you are thinking about competition, you will have left this book far behind, and that's just where I intend to put mine.
-sean henning
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