ABC ARCHERY - Basic Essentials Archery (Basic Essentials Series)
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List Price: $7.95
Our Price: $7.95
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Falcon
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 799.32
EAN: 9780762730452
ISBN: 0762730455
Label: Falcon
Manufacturer: Falcon
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 80
Publication Date: 2003-12-01
Publisher: Falcon
Studio: Falcon
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Editorial Reviews:
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For a generation, the Basic Essentials series has been as much a part of the outdoors experience as backpacks and hiking boots. Information-packed tools for the novice or handy references for the veteran, these volumes distill years of knowledge into affordable and portable books. Whether readers are planning a trip or thumbing for facts in the field, these books tell them what they need to know.
In Basic Essentials Archery readers will learn the history of the sport, essentials of archery equipment and gear, safety, technique, equipment care and maintenance, target shooting, and competition.
Other books in the Basic Essentials series include Animal Tracks, Backpacking, Camping, Canoe Paddling, Canoeing, Cooking in the Outdoors, Edible Wild Plants & Useful Herbs,
Fly Fishing, GPS, Hypothermia, Knots for the Outdoors, Map & Compass, Climbing Ice,
Minimizing Impact, Mountaineering, Rescue in the Backcountry, Photography in the Outdoors, Rafting, Sea Kayaking, Sit-on-Top Kayaking, Snowboarding, Snowshoeing, Solo Canoeing, Solo Hiking, Survival, Weather Forecasting, Whitewater Kayaking, Wilderness First Aid, and Women in the Outdoors.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Every bit as basic as the title implies.
Comment: Basic Essentials Archery is exactly that - the basic essentials. If you've been shooting for 6 months or more, stop reading now. You already know everything in this book. If you are considering archery for the first time, read on.
Construction: this 64-page book includes table of contents, index, and glossary. The chapters are laid out in a logical progression. Editing is good overall, though some simple grammatical errors (including several occurrences of unnecessary hyphens) were missed.
Style: Beth and Stephanie write in a conversational style that is easy to read and lends itself to understanding with minimal effort. Ideas are presented in a logical, organized fashion, and I never had to reread a sentence to understand the point.
The authors do not always seem to take their audience seriously, as they frequently point out the obvious:
"... once you have mastered the basics of archery, you can even shoot by yourself." (p. 49)
Content: Few pages, largish type, and frequent illustrations make BEA a very quick read. I am slow reader, and I finished it in 2 sittings.
The book opens with a brief historical intro, providing some simple illustrations of archery's impact on history. While the history lesson is vaguely interesting from an academic standpoint, it is irrelevant to any audience looking for elementary archery information for competition or hunting. Even if you want the history lesson, chapter one is shallow enough that it probably contains nothing you don't know already. I suggest skipping this chapter.
Chapter two is a more logical introduction, as it presents the three common bow types (long, recurve, compound), and illustrates their components. This is a good source of terminology, but nothing you can't get for free on the Internet (or just pick up by talking with other archers).
The authors offer the dubious suggestion that you can buy enough equipment to get you started for $100. This may be enough to pick up a used bow on eBay, but even then you don't have a string, arrows, a target, armguard, or finger tab.
If you want to learn about archery equipment, consider the excellent Hunter's Friend Bow Selection Guide (http://www.huntersfriend.com/bowselection.htm). This will give you more information and a much better understanding than the material presented in BEA chapter 2.
Chapter three briefly glosses over how to store and clean your equipment.
Chapter four is an introduction to archery safety. This is one of the better chapters in the book, and provides a good grounding in what not to do. Unfortunately, it offers a few dubious pieces of advice:
"Cracked bow arms: If a crack doesn't get fixed, the bow could break under the tension of your draw and cause an injury." (p. 26)
This statement implies that a cracked limb can be repaired. The only safe remedy for a cracked limb is replacement. There is no way to make the limb as strong as it was before the crack.
"Get someone else to stand in front of the target or prop a bow or quiver on it so no one will try to shoot at that target as you look for arrows that you've overshot." (p. 31)
I won't explain why it's a bad idea to stand in front of an archery target. I can only wonder why the authors would suggest something so obviously unsafe.
Some suggestions are provided without explanatory details:
"Make sure that the bowstring (or bow cables for a compound bow) is positioned properly." (p. 27)
No details are offered to explain proper string position, or how to achieve it.
Chapter three ends with a brief summary of strength and flexibility training. This would have been a really useful section, but the authors assume you are already familiar with strength training terminology. Unfortunately, exercises are presented with no explanatory detail:
"To develop the muscles in your shoulders, try lateral raises as well as bent-over dumbbell flies." (p. 33)
No attempt is made to explain this exercise or how to perform it.
Chapter five is actually a pretty useful reference. It explains the T-form shooting posture, explains three different shooting stances (open, closed, and regular), wrist angle, and finger placement. This chapter includes a simple step-by-step shooting method, and some basic troubleshooting suggestions. These are all useful details that I have had surprisingly little luck finding on the Internet.
The book's final chapter provides a rudimentary explanation of several types of competition. By the time you are thinking about competition, you will have left this book far behind, and that's just where I intend to put mine.
-sean henning
Customer Rating:
Summary: Ideal for New Archers!
Comment: Children and adults who are new to the sport of archery will find this book extremely helpful. This brand new, reader-friendly paperback by Habeishi and Mallory includes a variety of information -- from a brief history of archery to the tools you need to get started in the sport, practice safely and effectively, and properly use, care for and store archery equipment. I highly recommend this read to anyone who has never picked up a bow and arrow or to those who haven't attempted a shot since 7th grade physical education.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Basic...
Comment: This book is excellent for someone who is just starting the hobby of archery and who has not yet learned ANYTHING about different types of bows, arrows, and shooting stances. The authors have done a very good job of making the fundamental concepts of archery easy to understand for someone who has never dealt with them. For anyone else involved in the hobby, this book is very basic and is probably below your level of skill.
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