Contents
The session structure
Three blocks, always the same:
| Block | Role | Typical content |
|---|---|---|
| Warm-up | Prepare the shoulder and back, wake the posture | Shoulder/back mobility, band work, dry-run routine, often without an arrow |
| Main blocks | Groove one, sometimes two skills | One isolated technical theme: blank-bale, aim-and-hold, clean release, the shot sequence |
| Game | Put the skill under a constraint | Short-range grouping, colour game (juniors), single-arrow shoot-off |
The blank-bale (a bare boss, short range, often eyes closed) is the learning bed for every new skill: with no target face, nothing pulls attention off the movement.
The archer's eight themes
Paak sorts drills by the eight themes derived from archery itself, not borrowed from another sport:
| Theme | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Posture and hold | Stance, bow hold, grip, alignment |
| Shot sequence | The shot cycle, the technical spine |
| Aiming and control | Aiming, holding the sight, back tension, the clicker |
| Release and follow-through | Release and follow-through, where points are won |
| Grouping and ends | Reading the group, the end rhythm, scoring |
| Field and 3D | Unknown distances, angle and slope, terrain |
| Mental and routine | Pre-shot routine, focus, handling the block |
| Physical | Draw strength, holding endurance (SPT), shoulder and core |
The teaching principles
- Blank-bale first: the bare boss at short range grooves the sequence and the release with no score pressure.
- Short before long: the flèche progression ladder (10 → 15 → 20 → 25 → 30 m) is the sourced progression; earn distance as form holds.
- Light before heavy: over-bowing the bow is the cardinal error.
- One change at a time: groove one shot-cycle element, then the next; blank-bale isolates.
- Shooting-line discipline from day one: the whistle protocol is part of the youngest sessions.
Adapting to the age band
Archery starts young, on a light bow at short range: most (band × theme) cells fill with a youth form, not an exclusion. For u9, the session is blank-bale, short-range target games and shooting-line discipline, never a scaled round. As age and technique rise, you introduce distances, progression rounds, then bow-specific work (the recurve clicker, the compound release aid, barebow string-walking) where the source supports it.
The session in Paak
Paak ships 30 archery drills, in French, English and German, sorted by theme and adapted by age band. The session generator assembles them into a warm-up, main blocks and a game. Drills with shooting-line geometry (a line, a boss, a course) carry a schematic that shows on the session sheet and reprints on screen and on paper.
Frequently asked questions
How many arrows in a session?
Should you always start without an arrow?
Sources
USA Archery, National Training System (NTS); World Archery, Coaching Manual; FFTA, les étapes du tir (DTN) and the plumes/flèches progression ladder. Paak archery corpus, file 03 (technique, drills and pedagogy), verified September 2026. Per-session arrow volume and exact protocols are coaching practice, not a published federal figure.