In all sports there are more or less suitable ages to start. This is certainly also true for archery if we talk from a strictly technical point of view. If, on the other hand, we refer to what age to allow a child to enter a sports system aimed at archery, the thing changes appearance. In this case the entry age could be lowered from 12/13 to 6/8 years. These children will enter a fun technical game world that will take care of the changes that the child will undergo at this age.
In this type of sports practice, children are first of all provided with tools that tend not only to give those motor segments they need for everyday life, but above all, the youth technicians will tend to build their self-esteem and his personality.
It is now established that movement in the 8-12 year period contributes in a powerful way to the definition of the personality, improving the reactivity to the auxological changes to which the boy is subjected. Since the mid-1900s, Jean Piaget: Swiss psychologist, biologist, pedagogist and philosopher, has put a new point of view on the growth of children by demonstrating the existence of a qualitative difference between the ways of thinking of children and those of adults. From that moment the path on the study of the importance of direct experiences by children becomes fundamental also for those who teach sports disciplines. Piaget also gives the definition of the main function of our brain identifying it in: generate movement. This to us coaches shows the great importance in the correct organization of the sports day for our boys. A day that cannot be carried out by working only on the technical gesture but, in most of the time it must provide those “motor segments” that will be the powerful basis on which to start building the specific technique at the right time. Age 8/12 is an extraordinary time for our kids. A moment in which they experiment, make mistakes and experiment again; on this proceeding by trial and error we learn the ways that will make adults aware of themselves.
Having these future athletes in the field or in the gym allows us to make them play by learning and to teach them archery between the ages of 8 and 12 we must have as a constant principle that of following “their way of playing”. So going back to the title of this article, certainly the best age to start archery is the one that fits into the 8-12 age range. Sara care of the youth technicians to let the child enter in an organized and structured way for him. We adults like to play too, as long as we remember it every now and then.