A Beginner's Guide to Clout Archery

Look closely and you'll spot the arrows close to the flag pole shown in the photos on the right.

So what's the big deal?

Well, the flag is approx. 70 yards (210 feet) away from where the archery student was standing... And this was only their 5th archery lesson.

Oh and it was a tad windy that day.

That's why such results are worth taking photos of.

So what is Clout Archery?

Clout Archery is a long distance sport wherein archers compete to see who can get their arrows closest to the flag pole, which is generally placed really far away.

Usually 140 to 180 yards away, which are the competitive distances for Clout Archery.

However since the Toronto Archery Range is only 140 yards long (and lots of trees behind that) we have to use a shorter distance which is still challenging for a beginner, but also surprisingly a lot of fun.

Getting a cluster of arrows to land near the flag pole is also very challenging, even for experienced archers who are used to getting their arrows in clusters at shorter distances.

If you look closely at the photos on the right you will note that some of the arrows are touching or almost touching. That is some very good consistency for a beginner archer.

This isn't unheard of for my archery students however. I have periodically had students hit the flag pole or the flag itself at distances of 80 yards, 90 yards or more.

Getting to the point that you can do Clout Archery with this degree of accuracy isn't for beginners really. I generally only teach this to my archery students who sign up for 5 or more archery lessons.

When students sign up for 5 archery lessons they generally (I will sometimes customize the lessons for the needs of the student) get the following:

Lesson 1: Safety Lecture, Eye Test, Lecture on How to Aim Traditionally, Lecture on Proper Form, Field Archery Practice.

Lesson 2: Target Archery Practice, Lecture on Arrowheads.

Lesson 3: Long Distance Field Archery Practice, Lecture on Arrow Spine.

Lesson 4: Target Archery Practice, Lecture on How to Aim using Gap Shooting, Moving Target Practice.

Lesson 5: Clout Archery or Gap Shooting Field Archery (varies on the student).

Thus it really depends upon the student. Some students are more into learning Gap Shooting and others are more interested in long distance shooting.

Note - When someone signs up for 10 or more lessons I don't really have to choose so much. I will just teach them both, but I will still be customizing the lessons to the student's needs or interests.

Clout Archery Tips

Because the archer will usually have to aim at the sky in order to get their arrows to go that far you need to come up with a system for how to aim at the same spot on the sky.

Don't aim at clouds. They move. Instead you need to measure on the sky where you want to aim. I teach several different techniques for how to measure and aim at the sky so that students can choose which method works best for them.

Proper Form! If you don't know how to properly perform a shot then you should either get archery lessons or buy a book on the subject (I recommend "Precision Archery" by Steve Ruis & Claudia Stevenson).

And if you're in Toronto or the GTA you have no excuse not to get archery lessons from a dedicated professional like myself who teaches multiple different styles of archery and different archery sports like Clout Archery.

Browse the links below to learn more. Happy Shooting!

See Also

The Benefits of Clout Archery

Archery Lessons in Toronto

 

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