SB has been at it again… My 13 year old daughter put it best, “He is good at getting dad into things, like fun stuff…. and trouble”. It’s true. And somehow, even the trouble I get into with him as the cause ends up being fun.
This time, he didn’t involve me as much as he involved my youngest daughter. 
SB’s two girls are quickly becoming accomplished archers. They’ve both been into spearfishing for years (the oldest one won for smallest lionfish at a lionfish rodeo last year, and is a lionfish devastating machine in general). Not to be outdone, the younger one is quickly starting to rival Katniss Everdeen.
This is mostly due to her drive to perfect her skill. But it is also partly due to great instruction being provided by the local 4H group, part of the Martin County Archery 
Club. SB told me about the club, how the instruction was top notch, and invited my youngest along to try it out if she was interested.
She was very interested. They provided about twenty minutes of hands-off instruction covering safety, stance, and several other things (I’m sad to say I missed some of it, SB distracted me with a story about swallowing a fly – VERY funny story though!) Within 30 minutes, she was putting arrows into a 6 inch circle from 10 yards, having never touched a bow before.
The instructor, Darryl, said she that girls are far easier to teach since they have no pre-concieved notion of how to shoot (caveman instinct maybe?), but that my daughter was also a natural at it.
I blame her mother. I grew up around guns almost all of my life. I’ve shot hundred of thousands of rounds. Not so for my wife – she never grew up around guns, rarely had any dealings with them, and even less with handguns. After a half hour session at the range, she was out shooting me. Annoying on one hand, but reassuring on another. I’ll say that if she is ever assaulted and has a gun on her, the story will end up in The Armed Citizen.
So my daughter’s ability to shoot is probably her mother’s fault. So its up to me to do my part by nurturing it. And apparently get better video of her shooting. Here is all I have of her first day out at the archery range:
Wait, that wasn’t her (but that WAS impressive, wasn’t it?)
Here she is:
And I’m a proud poppa!
For more information about the Martin County Archery Club, you can contact them at:
4-H Youth Programs
Ph : (772) 288-5654
Email : kilbride@ufl.edu
Peace,
db
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What a fantastic way to spend time with your kid. My boys played 2-3 sports growing up. I bought each a compound bow when they were teenagers. Which do you think that can do as adults; football, bball, or bow hunting?
I’d love for either of my girls to get into some form of food procurement via bow, bow fishing is most likely, but deer or hogs could happen.
A guy can dream, right?
I built some simple PVC bows for my girls (aged 7 and 9 at the time), and we had a great time with them. Look up The Backyard Bowyer on YouTube for excellent tutorials.
Just yesterday I placed an order for a better bow for the 9yo (turning 10 next week, hence the present!). She likes recurve bows, and doesn’t want “one of those mechanical ones” :-). I’m also picking up an entry-level recurve for myself at the same time (hey, I have to have something decent if we’re going to go to archery club together!).
We’ve been to our local archery club, and it was great. We’re very much looking forward to getting more involved.