From the June 17 2007
Sunday COURIER NEWS
By GREGORY SALICETI Correspondent

Their aim is true Central Jersey's archery schools, private instructors teach discipline and proper technique

Its components are among the most graceful of any sport: curved wood and taut bowstrings, sleek shafts, arrowheads, multi-colored targets.

There's elegance and simplicity to an archer in action, and poetry in her movements -- her stance compact and powerful, her sight aligning with a distant target, her muscles taut as she draws back the string.

Those among us who harbor Robin Hood fantasies (and who doesn't?) might look at the hills of Hunterdon and Somerset counties and imagine that we, too, could nock arrows to a longbow, let them fly and bury the heads in some far-off bulls-eye.

Those who've tried it know it isn't that simple.

"Archery is cerebral -- it's about discipline and art," reports Jon Bach, founder and proprietor of X-Ring Archery School in Lambertville. "You can kick somebody in the chest, but that doesn't mean you know karate. Likewise, just because you shoot a bow and arrow, it doesn't make you an archer."

Bach, an award-winning toxophilite (that's a fancy word for a bow-and-arrow expert) and executive vice president of the New Jersey State Field Archery Association, has been training archers of all ages and experience levels since the late '90s.

He acknowledges that most enthusiasts pick up archery on their own or by emulating a parent; Bach learned to shoot from his father. But because archery schools are so rare, many, he insists, pick up bad habits and adopt improper technique.

Bowhunting and archery
Bach is also quick to distinguish between bowhunting and the sport of archery. He sells the mechanical-looking compound bows associated with forest tracking and trains prospective hunters in their proper operation. But it's clear he prefers working with the Olympic-standard recurve bows.

"Sure, it's physically less demanding to shoot a compound bow," says the instructor, "but that's really not what archery is about. A hunter can go into a forest for hours, and if he's lucky, he might shoot once at a buck. A trained archer at a target-based competition will fire 60 to 144 arrows in a single day. It requires a completely different level of consistency and discipline in approach.

" X-Ring Archery offers classes six days a week and private lessons for willing participants. It also hosts events and competitions of its own. Each beginning archer is outfitted with a school-standard recurve bow -- lighter and more flexible than an Olympic model -- six arrows and a quiver. The draw weight of beginner recurves is a mere 15 pounds: X-Ring keeps the pull light so Bach can concentrate on teaching technique. Providing students with the basics helps defray some of the price of what can be an expensive activity.

"Like any sport, the best equipment can be costly," says Lori Jepson of Califon, whose daughter Katie shoots for the James Madison University archery side. "A superior-quality recurve bow will sell for close to a thousand dollars. But it really isn't necessary to begin with the very best -- you can learn the basics on any well-built bow."

Young Katie Jepson distinguished herself as part of the Junior Olympic Archery Development program -- a nationwide network of instructors and facilities dedicated to training the next generation of master bowmen and women. Katie's success at archery prompted Lori Jepson to learn more about the sport: "I'm not the sort who likes to sit around and watch," she says. After training, she certified as an instructor herself, and now gives private lessons to her own roster of students.

Like Bach, Jepson cautions beginners that excellence at archery is more complicated than it might initially seem. The best archers are so graceful and natural that every movement seems unfettered by friction, but their formal excellence at the sport is the result of hours of practice and perseverance.

"It's a little like golf," Jepson says, "in that it requires the athlete to repeat the same motions again and again -- because any slight deviation can cause an error." Still, her own experience has shown her how rewarding archery can be and how widespread its appeal is.

"It's something kids can pick up at an early age and continue to do for years," she says. "When you attend archery events, it's not remarkable to see 60- and 70- year old participants. They might not be able to fire as far and fast as they once could, but they can still compete. This really is a lifetime sport.

" It's also one rich with romance and historical meaning. Before the Industrial Revolution, the archer wasn't always the biggest or the brawniest of the king's subjects, but he was often the swiftest, the cleverest and most dextrous, and thus the most deadly.

Archery and forestry
Archery is associated with forestry, too: It's a nature-lover's sport. So it's unsurprising it's become one of the favored activities of the Society For Creative Anachronism -- that group of medieval revivalists who recreate the games, jousts, fairs and feasts of the High Middle Ages. On June 22, they'll be bringing their period dress and traditional bows (no compound hunting devices allowed here) to the Teetertown Nature Preserve in Lebanon. There, the King's Archery Championship -- a target-shooting competition -- is expected to be one of the most popular activities.

Interested? For more info ...
· X-Ring Archers (Jon C. Bach), 287 S. Main St., Suite 5, Lambertville, (609) 773-0099, www.x-ringarchers.com Classes Tuesday to Sunday.