Getting Started

It is not as easy as you think.

Although many community clubs offer training and courses on archery – most of the clubs are members only and you have to pay a fee to learn and play. There are only 2 ranges – to my knowledge – which you can walk in, pay a range fee and shoot if you are proficient in handling the equipment and familiar with the safety aspects of the range. You can check out the Singapore Archery Association for their course listing but please bear in mind that this list is not exhaustive. (https://www.archerysingapore.com/courses)

Your First Bow

Buying your first set of equipment might be a difficult decision. Be it a recurve, compound or traditional – the bow is a very personalised piece of equipment. This sport is not like tennis or badminton or for that matter – golf where one can play on borrowed equipment; unless you have the habit of pressing your rackets and clubs against your lips all the time.

In most cases, one would seek the advice of their coaches. However, some coaches are also traders of archery equipment or align with certain dealers and might have the tendency to promote brands which gives them better margins and hence – it might be a good idea to seek a second opinion.

My humble opinion is – for recurve bows – start with a cheap wooden bow set that will cost you between S$100 – S$150. This is what I call the trial stage where you are interested but not committed.

When you are committed – and I am assuming you are still a beginner at this time – you should invest in a better set of equipment. Assuming you are still pulling about 20-30 pounds in draw weight, you should get a good riser and a pair of cheap limbs with a lower poundage suitable for you. A friend once told me – buying a branded item is an investment and a non branded item is an expense. Since you are committed to the sport – you should invest. However, due to the fact that you need to constantly upgrade your limbs when you are able to handle a higher draw weight to take on longer distances – it is wise to just use a cheap pair of limbs as an interim. What is lacking in Singapore is a 'marketplace' to buy and sell second hand equipment when you upgrade. SGArchery will take on this task to offer a classified ads section for the exchange and trading of these.

You can choose to buy your recurve from several places. The only one shop (a real shop with archery products on display) which I know in Singapore where you can walk in and buy a bow off the rack is with Archery Forces in Bukit Batok. Otherwise, most people I know order from their coaches or from overseas websites.

Tips

1. Do not assume that buying from overseas websites are necessarily cheaper. My own experience – if your coach can pass on some of the dealer discounts to you and they can ship into Singapore in bulk – you are better off buying from your coach.
2. Some websites do offer a better price and a wider selection for accessories such as string wax, arrows (that comes with tips and fletched), finger tabs etc.
3. Your bow must be about your height. Naturally a taller person will have longer arms and hence a longer draw length (of course there are exceptions). The whole idea is to make sure that you do not over stress the limbs – i.e. a tall person and hence a longer draw length, with a short bow is not advisable. Parents – please remember this when you are buying a bow for your 13 year old kid who will grow 12 inches in 2 years.

For compound bow – I have no experience (I will invite a compound archer to fill in this part) but I figured that most archery taught in schools and CCs usually starts with recurve first. Once you have decided to commit to compound bows – you should buy a relatively good one with a heavy poundage since you are not expected to change your bow throughout your life as a compound archer.