| rev:text
| - I'm still relatively new to the skill, and my young daughter has shown an interest. So, in order to gauge whether she was actually interested, or whether it's just a phase, I signed up for a private lesson, for both myself and my 6-year-old daughter.
Our instructor, the older of the two gentlemen I saw working there (unfortunately I missed his name), was amazing, so patient with my daughter, and really helped make the experience a memorable one. I was worried she wouldn't have the stamina (or attention span) to go a full hour, but when the hour was up, she was bummed to leave. And she really loved the instructor. She immediately asked if we could come back tomorrow and have another lesson.
I have my own bow and equipment, but my daughter does not. That was the point of scheduling the lesson for her, I wanted to judge whether this was something she would actually stick with before buying her a bow.
While our experience was overall very positive, there were some annoyances.
The first problem was that they do not have any youth bows available. She had to use a 20-pound bow, which was too heavy for her. I was surprised that they didn't have any that were lighter.
There were also no finger tabs or arm guards available for her to use. The instructor did, at one point, give her another bow to try, that may have been a bit lighter, but it did not have the finger savers on the string, and she couldn't pull it back without hurting her fingers. Even with the 20 pound bow, she wasn't shooting hard enough to really worry about string slap, but when I see "equipment provided" on the website, I assume ALL the safety equipment is provided. I still have a bruise the size of my fist on my arm from string slap 4 days ago, and I only have a 30 pound recurve. I'd think arm guards, at the very least, would be available.
The main annoyance I had was with the pricing for the lesson. It is $45 per hour. The price for two people is $80. I'm slightly annoyed that the price is per PERSON instead of per INSTRUCTOR. If I had known it would be like that, I would have rather paid the extra $10 and have an instructor for each of us.
Of course, I'm glad the instructor focused mostly on her, she's the one who needed it, and it gave her an incredibly positive experience, and kept her from getting frustrated when she missed (which is a habit she's had in the past with other things, and it was one of my main concerns with her today).
But the fact that I paid $40 for him to watch me shoot for 3 minutes and offer one suggestion (which actually was a big help, he pointed out the reason why I've been hitting the inside of my elbow with the string so often. Still, $40 for one suggestion) seemed like a bit of a ripoff. I was hoping for someone who could help me get from a novice level to an intermediate one, that was the point of scheduling the lesson for myself, and unfortunately he couldn't do that AND focus on my daughter.
Again, I'm glad he focused on her. She's small, young, and has literally never even held a bow before today. She NEEDED someone focused on her the entire time, and I appreciate that he recognized that.
And he really did spend the entire time truly focused on her, and it made her feel so special. There was no looking at his phone or socializing with other coworkers or anything like that. He made her his entire focus for the entire time (except for the couple of minutes he spent focusing on me). She was still gushing about the experience when I put her to bed tonight. This literally made her week, in no small part due to the instructor.
The instructor himself was beyond excellent, and the annoyances I voiced here have nothing at all to do with him. He was amazing with my daughter, he pointed out an issue with my grip that I didn't realize I was doing (which will save me from more string slap in the future), and if I could give him 10 stars, I would. I honestly can't say enough good things about him.
The other employees, the young lady and the younger gentleman, were very friendly and helpful as well. When I had asked about the pricing, the young lady patiently explained it to me, and was very professional.
And with two adults or older children, one instructor is probably perfectly adequate for two people. It just didn't work in my situation, and for anyone with kids on the younger side, I definitely recommend paying the extra $10 and getting an instructor for each person.
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