Archer
Who Is An Archer?
Archers are sportspeople who participate in modern competitive archery competitions, which involves the skill of releasing an arrow from a bow and hitting the bull’s eye. As an archer, you will be practising and perfecting your archery skills and participating in archery competitions for prize money and recognition. Your goal as an archer would be to hit the centre of the target, generally concentric rings so that you earn the most points in a competition and win it.
Roles & Responsibilities
Training regularly. As an archer, you will be training regularly in an archery range and perfecting your archery skills. For example, you will be regularly going to the archery range to train and compete with your fellow archers and under the supervision of your coach. Regular training will improve your arrow release and precision.
Working on fitness. Apart from working with the bows and the arrows, you will also have to take care of yourself and be in good physical and mental shape to be a successful archer. For example, apart from staying fit, you will also have to make sure that you breathe easy because erratic breathing can spoil your attempt.
Familiarising with latest rules and regulations. In any sport, the governing body lays down various rules and regulations which they update from time to time. As an archer, you will have to be updated with the World Archery Federation guidelines. For example, if you participate in target archery, you should know the code of conduct while other archers are shooting.
Ensuring safety. Archery can lead to serious injuries if adequate precautions are not taken. Therefore as an archer, it is your duty to protect yourself as well as others from injuries. For example, you should be careful while shooting arrows and retrieving the arrows as well, making sure that no one else is coming in the way or still shooting while you are about to approach the target.
Ensuring compliance with drug control. As a professional archer, you will have to comply with the doping regulations. You should be committed to keeping the sports clean from drugs and also raise alarm if you come to know about any foul play. You should be aware of the position of the Federation towards doping. For example, you must know the therapeutic relaxations with regard to drugs and be available for drug testing.
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What Skills Will I Need To Have To Do This Job Well?
As exciting as this sounds, there are some things you’ll need to learn to do the job right:
ARCHERY SKILLS
Archery requires you to be an expert in the use of your bows and arrows. You should be comfortable with the use of the same and trained to perform with the specified dress and similar conditions. For example, if you practice indoors in your comfortable clothes, you will not be able to improve your archery skills which often requires special clothing and outdoor competitions.
PHYSICAL FITNESS AND STRENGTH
Archery doesn’t require you to exert yourself physically too much and it is not a manually intensive sport. However, physical fitness is important in archery to make sure that your body parts are in complete coordination in your quest for a good archery performance. One aching muscle can affect your performance, therefore staying in the best of health is very important as an archer.
MENTAL STRENGTH
The need for mental strength and steadiness in archery cannot be overstated. In many sports, nervousness and anxiety can be channelised into the performance. However, in archery, even a slight unevenness in your heartbeat can ruin your chances. Even if you are competing for the Olympic gold you have to maintain perfect composure, as if you are only practising in your backyard.
COORDINATION AND BALANCE
As you become well trained in archery, you will have the skill to use your body’s coordination and balance to perfection. Stretching your limbs in a particular way and their movement as you draw and release an arrow improves with time and training. You will be able to use instincts and develop muscle memory in your game.
CONSISTENCY
It may be an underrated skill, but consistency is extremely important to be successful in archery. You will be drawing and releasing several arrows towards your target in any typical competition. Each of your shots has to be as best as it can be if you want to win the competition. Since the winner is adjudged based on the aggregate of the multiple attempts, the archer has to be consistently hitting around the bull’s eye.
What Will My Workplace Look Like?
As an archer, you will have to endure tiring sessions of training and exercises and appear in competitive archery tournaments at regular intervals. You are unlikely to be in regular employment in an organisation, unless it’s a sponsor, and therefore will work as a professional or amateur archer in an independent capacity. You will have to travel across the world depending on where the archery event takes place, although participation is mostly at your discretion. There is a threat of injuries and accidents, although there are strict safety standards in archery before, during as well as after shooting. It can be a stressful sport as it involves competitions and performances at the highest level that may involve painful defeats and uncontrollable poor performance.
What is my Scope for Career Growth as an Archer?
Most sportspeople don’t have employers. As an archer, you will register with Archery Association of India and participate in its events. Your career growth will entirely depend on your performance in the world of archery. At every age level, you will be able to compete in competitions, AAI, for example, organises under – 9, under – 14 events apart from youth events. Depending on your performance trainers will be provided to you by the federation, but you can also opt for a personal trainer early on in your career. Once you enter the competitive circuit, your performance and wins will define your success as an archer and bring the aspired recognition. Performances of archers like Jayanta Talukdar and Deepika Kumari are followed by sports fans across the nation, particularly in events like Olympics.
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How Much Will I Get Paid?
The exact number will depend on your skills and on the success you had as an archer. But we can give you a general idea.
Archery is still coming up in India and the prize money for the same may not be significantly high. The National Ranking Archery Tournament generally have 5-10 lakh prize money for the top finishers. Champion archers like Deepika Kumari are flooded with job offers and sponsorship deals after tasting international success. At present World Championship prize money for archery is around 13 lakhs.
Okay, I'm sold. This is amazing
STEP 1: 10+2/Junior College Degree/Graduation
There is no specific junior level requirement to be an archer. You should ideally try to pursue a course whose curriculum that doesn’t get in the way of your archery training and competitive participation. You might choose to avoid additional practical classes and internships and opt for simpler study curriculum to accommodate your presumably hectic training regime.
With sufficient training and competitive experience, you can compete at higher levels.
Congratulations, you are now officially an Archer!
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