Archery – The Art of Repetition
Simon Needham
Paperback: 160 pages
Price … £14 (often 2nd hand copies available)
Published in 2006, this book by Olympian Simon Needham was once the gold standard for archery books. That’s not to say its become a bad book, far from it. It has however, lost a little of its relevance in the 16 years since it was written as so much has changed and become better understood during this time.
That said, what’s good about this book? Well, its absolutely in the intermediate archers ballpark. There is so much detail that the beginners chapters are a little wasted as owners of this book have likely progressed passed this stage. Getting into the section for rough tuning your bow is where this book starts to come into its own. It now assumes you can shoot and gets into nutrition, string and arrow making, the mental game, structuring practice and even fine tuning techniques. Again some of these things may no longer be as right as they once were as the mad scientists in Korea rewrite the book every year. Still, there’s nothing in this book that will really steer you wrong.
Is this book worth getting? Absolutely but it is available for kindle on Amazon at a much lower price (£8.50) than for the paperback. You can also pick up second hand copies in very good condition as our editor did to replace his lost copy. At the lower prices this book is a steal. However, even at the higher price, its still a worthy addition to your library.
GA Anecdote: Our Vice-Chair actually shot on the same target with Simon in the VC’s first ever competition. Unfortunately it was just as the Vice-Chair’s bow shoulder failed (later requiring surgery). As a result of the injury experienced mid shot, our VC’s last arrow shot along the floor and vanished under the safety net. On approaching the target for scoring, Simon said nice things about the VC’s other 2 arrows in the gold … then went off to look for the one under the netting. Olympian goes looking for noobs missing kit. Only in archery! :o)
