Inhaltsverzeichnis

Fundamentals

What Is Instinctive Archery?

Instinctive archery is a traditional form of archery in which the archer shoots without a sight or other aiming aids. Rather than consciously calculating distances or relying on technical reference points, the archer learns to place the arrow on target through experience, perception, and repeated practice.
The term comes from the English expression “instinctive shooting” and has been historically documented since the 1920s and 1930s.
In this context, instinctive does not mean that archery is an inborn ability. No one is born with the skill to shoot an arrow accurately.
What is meant is a learned instinct. Through countless repetitions, movement patterns, distance judgment, and target perception become so deeply internalized that they happen without conscious thought. Similar to throwing a stone, the archer does not calculate angles or trajectories. The body has learned what to do.

Instinctive archery does not mean learning less. It means learning until thought and action are no longer separate. The arrow does not fly because of magic. It flies because of experience. Through practice. Through trust. And eventually, something emerges that feels natural. Not because it was inborn. But because it has become part of who you are.

What Is the Difference Between Instinctive and Intuitive Archery?

Today, the terms are often used interchangeably, but originally they did not describe the same thing.
The term instinctive archery comes from the English expression “instinctive shooting,” which has been used in traditional archery since the early decades of the twentieth century. It does not refer to an inborn instinct but to a learned one. Through repeated practice, movement patterns, distance judgment, and target perception become so deeply ingrained that they happen without conscious thought.
Intuitive archery, on the other hand, is a more recent term. The word intuition is commonly associated with feeling, insight, or the spontaneous understanding of a situation. For that reason, the term is often used to describe a more emotional or feeling-based approach to archery.
In practice, the two concepts frequently overlap. Many archers who speak about intuitive archery are ultimately describing the same shooting method.
From a historical perspective, however, instinctive archery is the more precise term. It emphasizes that the skill is neither inborn nor based on spontaneous inspiration. It is developed through training, experience, and thousands of repetitions.

In short:
Intuitive describes the feeling.
Instinctive describes the result of practice.

That is why I deliberately use the term instinctive archery at Mellansken Bågskola. Not because it sounds better, but because it describes the original idea more accurately: a craft that becomes second nature through practice.

Is Instinctive Archery Difficult to Learn?

No. Most people can learn the fundamentals of instinctive archery surprisingly quickly. Many beginners are already hitting reliably at short distances during their very first lesson.
The real challenge is not getting the arrow to hit the target. The challenge is repeating the movement often enough for it to become natural.
Instinctive archery is not based on complicated techniques or technical aids. It is based on perception, coordination, and experience. Similar to throwing a ball or catching an object, the body gradually develops a sense of distance, movement, and timing.
How quickly someone progresses depends both on their individual circumstances and on consistent practice.
One of the beautiful things about instinctive archery is that you do not have to be perfect to enjoy it. Many people discover a special appeal in the simplicity of the bow, the focus on the present moment, and the continuous learning process.
Instinctive archery does not mean learning less. It means learning until thought and action are no longer separate. What begins as conscious practice gradually becomes natural.
Not through magic.
But through experience, practice, and trust.

Can Anyone Learn Instinctive Archery?

Yes. Most people can learn instinctive archery.
It does not require special talent or exceptional physical fitness. What matters are practice, patience, and a willingness to learn.
The body learns with every repetition. What initially feels unfamiliar becomes natural over time. Not because you were born with it. But because you learn it step by step.

Do I Need to Be Athletic or Particularly Strong?

No. Neither exceptional fitness nor great physical strength is required to begin instinctive archery.
More important than strength are sound technique and an appropriate draw weight. That is why beginners at Mellansken start with bows that match their individual needs and abilities. People of all ages and athletic backgrounds can learn instinctive archery.

Why Do Instinctive Archers Shoot Without a Sight?

Because instinctive archery relies on experience rather than technical aiming aids. Through regular practice, the archer learns to perceive distances and target images naturally, without the need for a sight.
The focus remains on the target — not on the equipment.

Is Instinctive Archery Safe?

Yes. Instinctive archery is a safe sport when the basic safety rules are followed.
These include responsible bow handling, clear shooting procedures, and a safe shooting direction. That is why safety rules are an essential part of every course.

Is Instinctive Archery a Sport or More of a Leisure Activity?

Both. Instinctive archery can be practiced as a sport, but it can also be enjoyed as a relaxing outdoor activity.
Many people appreciate the combination of movement, concentration, and the unique sense of freedom that comes from shooting a traditional bow.

What Makes Instinctive Archery Different from Olympic Archery?

The biggest difference lies in the equipment and the shooting method. Olympic archery uses modern target bows equipped with sights and other technical aids.
Instinctive archery, by contrast, is usually practiced with traditional bows without sights. The focus is on a natural shooting motion and trust in one’s own perception.

Why Has Archery Fascinated People for Thousands of Years?

The bow is one of humanity’s oldest tools. For thousands of years it was used for hunting, protection, and competition.
Even today, people are captivated by the combination of concentration, movement, and precision. At the same time, archery offers a rare moment of stillness in an often hectic world.

Equipment

Which Bows Are Suitable for Beginners?

Three types of bows can be suitable for beginners. What matters most is not the bow design itself, but choosing an appropriate draw weight and a bow that fits you.
Longbows offer a particularly traditional shooting experience.
Recurve bows are powerful and widely used.
Hybrid bows combine characteristics of both designs and are known for being comfortable and forgiving.
At Mellansken, many archers begin with a hybrid bow because it offers a balanced combination of performance, shooting comfort, and forgiveness.
More important than the type of bow, however, is that the bow matches your height, draw length, and strength.
A bow that is too heavy makes learning unnecessarily difficult.

What Is a Hybrid Bow?

A hybrid bow is a modern development of the traditional longbow. It combines characteristics of both the longbow and the recurve bow within a single design.
As a result, it offers an excellent balance of shooting comfort, performance, and forgiveness. Many archers appreciate hybrid bows because they are pleasant to shoot while maintaining the traditional aesthetics of a longbow.
For this reason, hybrid bows have become one of the most popular bow types in traditional and instinctive archery.

What Is a Longbow?

The longbow is one of the oldest bow designs in the world and has been used for hunting, warfare, and sport for thousands of years.
Its defining characteristics are its simple construction, elegant shape, and traditional character. Many archers appreciate the direct shooting experience and the strong connection to the history of archery.
To this day, the longbow represents simplicity, tradition, and the roots of archery.

What Is a Recurve Bow?

A recurve bow is a bow whose limb tips curve forward away from the archer. This distinctive design allows for efficient energy transfer to the arrow and provides excellent performance in a relatively compact form.
Recurve bows are used in both traditional and modern target archery. They are known for their power, versatility, and widespread popularity.
Their design provides dynamic shooting characteristics and a high level of shooting comfort.

What Are a Finger Tab and an Arm Guard?

A finger tab or shooting glove protects the drawing fingers from the pressure of the string and makes shooting more comfortable. Depending on personal preference, archers may use either shooting gloves or tabs.
An arm guard protects the forearm from contact with the bowstring. Beginners in particular benefit from using one until proper posture and movement patterns become second nature.
Both pieces of equipment improve comfort and are considered part of the recommended basic equipment for traditional archery.

How Heavy Should My First Bow Be and Why Is a Bow That Is Too Heavy a Mistake?

For most adults, a sensible beginner draw weight lies between 20 and 30 pounds. The ideal draw weight depends on your physical strength, draw length, and training goals.
At Mellansken, the principle is simple: it is better to start with a lighter bow and develop sound technique than to struggle with excessive draw weight.
A bow that is too heavy makes it difficult to learn proper shooting technique. Movements become tense, concentration decreases, and mistakes appear more quickly.
A lighter bow allows for more controlled repetitions and therefore faster progress. Especially for beginners, less is often more.

What Is More Important: The Bow or the Arrow?

Both must work together. In practice, however, the importance of the arrow is often underestimated.
Even a high-quality bow cannot perform at its best if the arrows do not match the draw weight, draw length, and shooting style.
Conversely, properly matched arrows can significantly improve accuracy.
That is why the arrow is at least as important as the bow.

Should I Buy My First Bow Online?

For beginners, personal advice is usually the better option. The bow, arrows, and draw weight should match your draw length, physical strength, and intended use.
An experienced archery dealer or a beginner course can help you avoid common mistakes and unnecessary purchases.
For that reason, I recommend choosing your first bow only after receiving professional guidance.

How Important Are Feather Color and Feather Length?

Many beginners underestimate the importance of feather color. In reality, it can have a significant impact on training.
The better you can follow the flight of the arrow, the easier it becomes to recognize mistakes and learn from every shot. For this reason, feathers should primarily be highly visible. The ideal color depends on lighting conditions, background contrast, and individual factors such as color blindness.
Feather length also influences arrow flight. Larger feathers stabilize the arrow more quickly, while smaller feathers generally create less drag.
For beginners, however, feather visibility is more important than choosing the perfect feather length.

How Important Is Arrow Fletching?

Very important.
Fletching stabilizes the arrow in flight and can also provide valuable feedback about the quality of the shot. At Mellansken, I recommend choosing feather colors based on visibility rather than appearance.
The better you can observe arrow flight, the faster you will learn and the easier it will be to identify mistakes.

Which Arrows Do I Need – Carbon or Wood?

Both wooden and carbon arrows can perform well. However, for most beginners, I recommend carbon arrows.
Carbon arrows are more durable, more consistent in manufacture, and considerably easier to maintain than wooden arrows. They generally tolerate the realities of beginner practice much better and require replacement less often.
Wooden arrows have their own charm and are an important part of traditional archery for many people. They are beautiful, but they also tend to increase the frequency of visits to your archery supplier.
For this reason, I generally recommend carbon arrows for beginners.
For me, wooden arrows are more a choice for experienced archers or enthusiasts of traditional equipment.

What Does Draw Weight Mean?

Draw weight describes the amount of force required to draw a bow. It is usually measured in pounds (lbs).
The marked draw weight on a bow almost always refers to a draw length of 28 inches (28″), which is the international standard in archery.
For example, if a bow is marked “50 lbs @ 28”, it means that the bow produces a draw weight of 50 pounds when drawn to 28 inches. Archers with a shorter draw length will generally pull less weight, while archers with a longer draw length will pull more.
For beginners, however, the most important factor is not maximum draw weight but a bow that can be shot comfortably and with control.
Good technique is more important than having as many pounds on your fingers as possible.

How Much Does It Cost to Get Started?

Getting started in instinctive archery is often less expensive than many people expect.
For a basic setup consisting of a bow, arrows, an arm guard, and a shooting glove or tab, you can generally expect to spend between €150 and €300, depending on the equipment chosen. Additional costs may apply for a beginner course.
I recommend that beginners invest first in good advice and equipment that truly fits them.
A bow that is too cheap often ends up costing more than a good bow.

Training

How Often Should I Practice?

Consistency is more important than long training sessions. Practicing for 15 to 20 minutes several times a week will usually produce better results than a single long session on the weekend.
What matters most is not the number of arrows you shoot, but the quality of the repetitions.

Can I Teach Myself Archery?

In principle, yes. Many of the fundamentals can be learned without a coach.
However, an experienced instructor can identify and correct mistakes before they become deeply ingrained.
This saves time, frustration, and often money.
For that reason, I recommend that beginners attend at least one introductory course.

How Can I Practice at Home? Is It Safe to Practice at Home?

Yes, provided that safety can be guaranteed at all times.
The target must be set up securely, and there must be no possibility of people, animals, or property being endangered.
For many archers, short-distance practice at home is an excellent way to improve technique, movement patterns, and shooting rhythm.

How Can I Improve My Accuracy?

Most archers improve their accuracy not through greater strength or better equipment, but through deliberate practice.
Sound technique, consistent repetition, and the ability to learn from every shot are the most important factors.
Hitting the target is not a matter of luck.
It is a learned skill — and trust in that skill.

What Mistakes Do Beginners Make Most Often?

The most common mistakes are using a draw weight that is too heavy, overthinking during the shot, and expecting quick results.
Archers who focus on sound movement, regular practice, and patience usually make the greatest progress.

How Long Does It Take to Shoot Consistently?

That depends on training frequency, experience, and individual circumstances.
Initial success often comes quickly. Consistent shooting, however, develops over months and years.
Accuracy is not a destination you reach.
It is a skill you continue to develop throughout your journey.

Is Strength Training Beneficial?

Yes, but it cannot replace archery practice.
Good overall strength and stable musculature can support shooting performance and help prevent injuries.
For most archers, however, technique, movement quality, and regular shooting practice are more important than maximum strength.

How Should I Deal with a Plateau or a Performance Slump?

Performance slumps are a natural part of the learning process and are experienced even by highly skilled archers.
During such periods, it often helps to lower expectations slightly and return to the fundamentals. In many cases, reducing pressure is the fastest way back to good shooting.
Trust what you have already learned.
Skills do not disappear overnight.

Philosophy

What Does Mellansken Mean?

Mellansken originates from my love for Sweden and the Stockholm archipelago.
The name is derived from the Swedish expression mellan skären —
“between the skerries” or “between the islands.”

For me, however, Mellansken describes more than a place.
It describes a state of being.
A place between tension and relaxation.
Between control and trust.
Between the person we are and the person we can become.
Perhaps that is where true freedom is found.
Not in the target.
But on the path toward it.
And perhaps it is there that we remember how natural the human being truly is.

Why Is Archery About More Than Hitting the Target?

Hitting the target is important. After all, we shoot an arrow at a target in order to hit it.
Yet most people do not stay with archery for years because they hit the target.
They stay because they discover something else.
Archery demands concentration.
Patience.
Presence.
It shows us how we deal with mistakes, how we learn, and how we handle pressure.
The arrow does not always hit the target.
But every shot tells us something about ourselves.
That is why instinctive archery is about more than accuracy.
It is about the person behind the bow.

What Does “Allowing” Mean in Instinctive Archery?

Many beginners try to control the shot.
They want to force the perfect moment and avoid every mistake.
Yet the more we try to control, the more difficult the shot often becomes.
Allowing does not mean becoming passive.
It means doing the necessary work beforehand and then trusting what has been learned.
The body is allowed to do what it has learned to do.
The arrow does not become good through control.
It becomes good through practice — and through the ability to allow that practice to emerge at the right moment.

Why Is Trust More Important Than Control?

Control has its place in learning.
Trust has its place in shooting.
Anyone who tries to consciously manage every movement will eventually reach their limits.
The shot lasts only a moment.
There is almost no time for conscious corrections.
That is why we train.
That is why we repeat.
That is why we gain experience.

The bow does not teach you to aim — it teaches you to trust.

Trust does not mean hoping for luck.
Trust means being able to rely on something that has been built through practice and experience.

What Does Nature Have to Do with Archery?

For me, nature and traditional archery belong together.
Nature asks nothing of us. It does not judge. It does not compare.
That is precisely why many people find it easier there to slow down and focus on the present moment.
Among trees, rocks, and water, archery often becomes more than simply shooting at a target.
It becomes an encounter with nature — and sometimes with ourselves.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons why archery in nature feels so natural to so many people.

Why Do People Still Shoot Simple Bows Today?

Because it is not always about finding the easiest way to hit the target.
A simple bow challenges us to develop skill rather than rely on technology.
Every successful shot is built on practice, experience, and trust in what we have learned.
Many people value precisely this simplicity.
It does not reduce the archer to equipment and technology.
Modern life already provides enough of that.
It brings us closer to the original roots of archery and reminds us that less can sometimes be more.
Perhaps that is where the unique fascination of a simple bow lies.

What Can We Learn from Traditional Archery?

Traditional archery teaches us that not everything becomes better through more technology or more control.
It reminds us of the importance of patience, concentration, and regular practice.
It shows us that skill takes time to develop and that trust must grow.
Perhaps one of its most valuable lessons is that not everything can be forced.
Some things emerge only when we are willing to learn, to practice, and eventually to allow.

Why Do We Not Teach Through Perfection?

Because perfection is not an attainable destination.
People who constantly strive to be perfect often lose the joy of learning and the freedom to make mistakes.
Yet mistakes are exactly how we learn.
I believe that progress is more important than perfection.
Every shot can teach us something. Every missed shot reveals something we have not yet understood.
That is why Mellansken is not about becoming perfect.
It is about becoming a little better than yesterday.
Every single day.

What Does Presence on the Shooting Line Mean?

Presence means giving your full attention to this one shot.
Not to the previous arrow. Not to the next target. Not to the score.
Only here.
Only now.
Many mistakes are not caused by poor technique but because our thoughts are already somewhere else.
Presence brings us back to the moment.
Because we can only hit the target with this one arrow.

Sweden

Why Sweden?

For me, Sweden is more than a country.
It is a place of peace, openness, and nature.
Here, I rediscover many of the things that are often lost in everyday life: time, silence, and the opportunity to simply be present. This connection to nature and to a more conscious way of living also shapes Mellansken and the way I teach archery.

What Does Archery Have to Do with the Archipelago?

At first glance, not much. And at the same time, everything.
The archipelago represents tranquility, simplicity, and closeness to nature.
These are the very values that shape my understanding of traditional archery.
Both remind us that not everything needs to become faster, louder, or more complicated.
Sometimes the greatest freedom is found in simplicity.

Why Are Courses Held in Sweden?

Because the environment is part of the learning experience.
Swedish nature creates a setting that encourages concentration, calmness, and presence.
Far away from stress and distractions, many people find it easier to focus on what truly matters.
That is why Sweden is not just a course location for me.
It is an essential part of the Mellansken experience.

Can I Take an Archery Holiday in Sweden?

Yes.
Mellansken combines traditional archery with nature, outdoor living, and the unique atmosphere of Sweden.
It is not only about shooting a bow.
It is also about experiencing the landscape, the tranquility, and the Scandinavian way of life.

Why Is Swedish Outdoor Culture Important to Mellansken?

Swedish outdoor culture is built on a simple idea:
People belong outdoors.
Time in nature, movement in the fresh air, and a respectful relationship with the environment are natural parts of everyday life in Sweden.
This attitude also shapes Mellansken.
Not as a set of rules, but as a reminder of how beneficial a simpler and more nature-connected life can be.

What Makes the Stockholm Region and the Archipelago Special?

The Stockholm region combines the advantages of a modern capital city—with Stockholm being, in my opinion, the most beautiful city in the world—with a truly unique natural landscape.
Just beyond the city begins one of the world’s largest archipelagos, consisting of approximately
30,000 islands, skerries, rocks, and bays.
The combination of water, forests, open space, and Nordic tranquility makes this region a special place for many people.

Can I Visit Mellansken Even If I Have Never Shot a Bow Before?

Yes, absolutely.
Many participants at Mellansken hold a bow in their hands for the very first time.
No previous experience is required.
More important than experience are curiosity, openness, and a willingness to learn something new.

„Some places we visit for the first time.
And yet it feels like coming home.„