Beginner Archery Lesson for Adults at Archery Country
- Kimi's Travel Thoughts
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
March 2026 Monthly Adventure
I really wanted to try something completely new and have an opportunity to learn something interesting in the process. After careful consideration, I decided to attend an archery lesson at Archery Country here in Austin, TX.
Background
A couple of years ago I applied to be on the tv show Married at First Sight. I probably should explain, but I won't be doing that in this blog post (or any future post). While I was not selected for the show, I still watched the Austin season that premiered on Peacock this past fall and one of the couples went to Archery Country. I always thought archery was cool after seeing movies like The Princess Diaries 2 and The Hunger Games when I was younger along with watching the sport in the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. I never attempted archery before and with a business dedicated to archery located in the city I live in, I thought it would be fun to go for a Friday beginner lesson for adults!
Sign Up and Cost
Sign up is super easy for the Intro to Archery for Adults class at Archery Country. The events page on the Archery Country website has simple instructions to contact Matt via phone or email to confirm your spot. There are 12 slots available per lesson, so be sure to reach out early if you plan to bring a group! Once Matt confirms your spot for the archery lesson, you'll get links to the waiver, eye dominance information, and online payment if you plan to pay ahead of class. The beginner class is $39 per person.
Beginner Archery Lesson for Adults at Archery Country
I arrived a few minutes early and had the opportunity to check out the storefront. I learned that bows can be pretty pricey and come in many varieties. Some bows (like compound bows) can easily get into the $500-700 range. I also noticed that arrows don't necessarily come cheap. Some arrows were about $7 each and I saw a set of 3 arrows with LED lights that cost just under $100. Have you ever wondered how Hawkeye has an endless supply of arrows in the different Avengers movies? I also had that thought, but now I'm just thinking about how expensive each of those arrows would have been! It's a good thing Tony Stark could afford to foot the bill on all the equipment.
Matt got everything set up for our nearly full class in the back room and we got started by grabbing paper targets to pin to the back wall. As we did so, Matt began learning our names, faces, dominant hands, and dominant eyes. We grabbed some arrows and picked up bows after a quick demo on stance. There are left-handed bows and right-handed bows. I'm a lefty, so I grabbed a left-handed bow and it was for a heavier weight, so I was given a finger glove to make it easier to handle the bow. Matt showed us some options for our stance, explained how to alert us to when we would be able to get set, begin shooting at our targets, and then retrieve our arrows so it would be safe for everyone. Once we had all the info, it was time to start using our bows and arrows.
The first couple of rounds were focused on technique without any expectations of actually aiming for the target. Before moving on to some additional rounds, Matt explained more about aiming and various types of bows. He also encouraged us to try different bows and even shooting with our non-dominant hands. I did that because I'm right eye dominant and wanted to see if it would be easier to shoot right handed. My aim was better, but it didn't feel right so I went back to the left-handed bow and a lighter weight and found some success with that. Matt also blew up some balloons for us to shoot and provided even smaller ones to aim at after popping the bigger balloons. Sadly, I never popped my little balloon. However, I did hit my balloon on my first shot attempt in our 5-on-5 challenge where our class was split in half to pop assigned balloons the fastest as a team (and my team won)!
Note: I missed the target A LOT as you can probably guess from my relatively clean target. Now that I know better, I will try to make sure that doesn't happen the next time I go to an archery class. It's all about improvement and probability.
Wrap-Up
I've been passing by Archery Country for years and was always intrigued by its existence because of the movies I watched through the years that highlighted archery. Finally taking the time to go and participate in a beginner archery lesson for adults was so much fun and I loved that I took the time to check something off my bucket list of activities to try! I got to learn a new skill in the process and support a local business offering a unique experience. While in this class, I met some really nice people and discovered that archery is an activity that I want to try again and work on getting better at. That said, I will definitely return to Archery Country for the intro to archery class again. They're happy to have people come back and it's a fun way to spend a Friday evening. I'm no Katniss Everdeen or Hawkeye, but maybe I can at least be as good as Princess Mia with a little more practice!
On to the next adventure!
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