Starting Archery

Starting archery is easy! Archery clubs across the country offer try-outs and guidance for first-timers. Many clubs give guidance also in English and in Swedish.

There's no strict physical fitness requirements for archers. Archery is a fun sport for everyone!

Own equipment is not needed at first and it is not even advisible to buy your own bow too soon. Use club bows for a couple of months before buying your own equipment. 

Find your nearest club here.

If you are interested in field/3D -archery, please see more information on Maasto/3D -pages. 

Bow types

Recurve, compound, longbow, barebow and traditional bow are the most common ones you can use in any archery field or indoor shooting range. See our jousityypit page for links in English: https://www.sjal.fi/etsijaloyda/aloitajousiammunta/jousityypit/ 

Special courses: Ensinuolet

Most archery clubs in Finland offer a beginner's course for recurve called Ensinuolet. It is a 6 time 2-hours course with emphasis in learning the basics of shooting with recurve bow. It also teaches in general the best archery practices like security rules, how to count points, what are the other bow types and so on. Courses are held also in English at least in bigger cities. In the end of the course you get a diploma and you can to shoot for the World Archery's white arrow beginner award badge. See current courses: www.ensinuolet.fi

Competing in Finland

License policy

You need a license to compete in Finland. For the license you need to be a member of a club which is member of the Finnish Archery Association.

You can also compete in Finland, if you have a valid (World Archery) license in your home country. In this case, local Finnish license is not needed. 

Licenses are bought in Suomisport www.suomisport.fi. The prices vary from 5€ to 83€. For your first license you get 50% off. 

Rules and competition formats

Competition formats (target outdoor / indoor, 3D and field) and rules are in line with World Archery. In youth and senior classes the distances are localised. 

- Junior age groups: 11, 13, 15, 17 (cadet) and 20 (junior)
- Senior age groups: 50, 60 and 70

Bow types:

- Recurve
- Compound
- Barebow
- Longbow
- Traditional
- Horsebow (instictive rules)

Local rulebook (in Finnish) you can find from here, World Archery rules in English here.

Harrastesarja or beginner's class is introduced as a new class summer of 2020. In this class distances are shorter and target is bigger. Archer can choose the distance of 30 meters or 50 meters regardless of the bow type. Target size is always 122cm. In beginner's class you can also buy a single license which is only 5€ per competition.

To attend competitions

Event calendar ie. list of competitions is here. From link saying "Kutsu" you can open an invitation (normally only in Finnish), where you can find registration details. All competition formats (target, 3D and field) are in same calendar. In 3D some competitions are joint events with Bowhunting Association (SJML) or Finnish Field Archery Association (FFAA). 

You can also attend Finnish Championships (Suomen mestaruuskilpailut) but in order to win official SM-medal you need to have stayed in Finland at least one year and be a member of a Finnish archery club. The same rule is valid for national record nominations.  

You can find more information about archery in English in World Archery's webpage.

Field and 3D-archery in Finland

Field and 3D-archery are quite popular shooting styles in Finland, even when we have quite a short season to shoot outdoors. Therefore we are trying to get the most of that season and mostly we are starting the season already when there is some snow and ice on the ground.

International archers can enjoy field and 3D-archery freely if they have an archery license of their home country association - there is no special needs to purchase Finnish archery license to participate competitions in Finland. Only requirement, on the top of that license, is that you have a proof of insurance which is also covering archery in Finland.

You can find more information about Finnish archery competitions in our Field- and 3D competition calendar,  where you can find Finnish Archery Association (SJAL), Finnish Field Archery Association (FFAA) and Finnish Bowhunting Association (SJML) archery competitions collected in one place. SJAL target and field competitions you can find on SJAL Kilpailukalenteri, but there are only SJAL/WA competitions.

Note that enrollment into the competitions are always according to the invitation, normally there is a fee of 25-30Eur for participation.

WA International regulations do apply in Finnish field and 3D -archery, on the top of those we have some national amendments on bow classes etc. which are allowing us to carry out our national ways of archery.

If you need more information about field and 3D -archery in Finland, for examble you want to participate a competition or so, do not hesitate to contact us by sending an email to maastojousiammunta@jousiampujainliitto.fi.

See you in the #Archeryinthewoods!