Archery in Badajoz: Sport for All Ages & Growing Popularity

A few days ago, the club organized the Extremadura Championship, with the collaboration of the Badajoz City Council, which gave it the facilities located on Corte de Peleas street and which are its shooting room. In return, the club collaborates in municipal sports activities with seniors or the FMD summer camps, as well as with other entities such as the Spanish Association against Cancer, with sessions for women who have suffered a breast tumor.

initiation course

Among the advantages of this sport, the instructor indicates that great physical condition is not required, but that it is suitable for all types of audiences, which is why he invites people from Badajoz to live the experience and take the initiation course, with a cost of 100 euros and about 20 hours of practice. To receive this training, which usually lasts about two and a half months, it is not necessary to have a bow.

Fabián Morcillo calls archery an “elitist sport.” They state this taking into account that it cannot be practiced anywhere and requires very specific equipment, whose average starting price is around 400 euros to start competing, with “top-level archers” equipment reaching two thousand euros. To this disbursement we must add the cost of registration for the championships and travel costs.

Some people come to the club weekly who want to relax by shooting arrows at the target, who are joined by athletes who are preparing to measure their aim in championships such as the national one that will be held soon in Valladolid. «These are people who train between 4 and 5 days a week.

Most of those who come into contact with the Ibn Marwan club do so after discovering its existence through social networks. “They take the introductory course and then some stay to continue with the follow-up and become members because the hobby is born in them.”

«I like this sport because it clears your head. “You let go of bad temper”

Elena

Archery fan

«Getting involved in this sport is very easy, you only need strength to draw the bow»

This is the case of Elena, a young woman from Badajoz who discovered the club when passing through the door of its headquarters. «What I like most about this sport is that it clears your head. We have a lot of stress every day, and I think there is no need for high-impact sports or yoga. “Here you come and let out your bad temper.”

It is required to be federated

In his opinion, it is very easy to get hooked on holding the bow because the only thing required is strength to draw the bow. “The normal thing is that automatically when they finish the initiation course they become federated – at a cost of about 40 or 50 euros – to be able to practice, because the bow cannot be transported without a federative license,” recalls the experienced instructor.

Furthermore, it must be taken into account that this federative license only allows the archer to transport the bow from his home to a place authorized for sports practice, such as a shooting room, sports facilities such as La Granadilla or the place where a championship is held. “You cannot go with the bow in the trunk, unless you have obtained a hunting license, that is, as if it were a shotgun,” adds Morcillo. That would involve having a medical examination, insurance and a hunting license.

In the case of this club, members pay 120 euros and the cost of the federation license is already included.

Morcillo certifies the good health of this discipline throughout Extremadura, with the presence of clubs in the main cities and also in the towns, with several archers who are preparing at the high performance center in Cáceres to try to enter the Spanish team.