The bow and arrow was the weapon of choice for hunters and fighters around the world for tens of thousands of years. Guns began to replace bows and arrows about four hundred years ago. However, archery never disappeared and recently the sport is popular again. And, as Karen Leggett tells us serious archers say the new interest will continue to develop.

Twelve-year-old Bethanie Ford started Archery training seven weeks ago. She had read the wildly popular book “The Hunger Games.” The hero of the story is a teenage girl skilled with a bow and arrow. “It’s not easy. It is hard. You have to keep trying and get it right, but it is fun.”

Bethanie’s mother, Amy Borst, believes archery is the right sport for her daughter. “It’s a very independent sport. It’s not a team sport, so she can go on her own pace. She can concentrate and focus a little bit better because she has to learn to really focus instead of just shooting the arrow immediately. She has to really focus and take her time. And I think that applies to school work as well.”

That inner focus also appeals to 6th-grader Russell Sperks. “If I make a goal and I achieve it, then that gives me just a sense of accomplishment.”

Their archery teacher is Ruth Rowe. She was a member of the 1984 United States Olympic archery team. She notes that archery is almost opposite of other sports, which often require speed or agility. “Be calm, centered within yourself. It’s very, very quiet. It’s very, very still.”

Interest in the sport expanded when the U.S. men’s archery team won the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. But, Ruth Rowe says Hollywood was even more important to the sport’s renewal.

“Considering that the Hunger Games movies are not going away, ‘Brave’ is not going away. There are now TV shows that have people doing archery in the shows. I think there is so much video and ways to see it now that didn’t exist a little bit ago.”

Ms. Rowe says archery is also a great sport to begin later in life. “It’s parallel to golf in that it’s a precision sport. It is a life-long sport. We have people starting in their 50s and 60s and they can enjoy it.”

Charles Rendleman is one of those older archers. He got involved in the sport when his teenage sons started archery training four years ago. Now, Mr. Rendleman is a coach. “One of things I really like about archery is that it offers personal development. As an archer I can pay attention to what’s going on within my concentration and coordination, and work on that.”

That, says Ruth Rowe, is just part of the sport’s guiding ideas. “Every arrow is a discrete entity. Every time you have a chance to start over new. If you make a mistake, the hard part is emotionally letting go of the mistake and get on to the next arrow to do it the way you need to do it.” A life lesson that is right on target.