(Junior Olympic Archery Development)
JOAD is the club’s USA Archery youth program. Archers shoot every Tuesday evening, work through a national system of achievement pins at their own pace, and go as far into the sport as they want to.
Junior Olympic Archery Development
JOAD is USA Archery’s youth program, and it runs from complete beginner all the way to the national team pipeline. It’s open to archers from age 8 through 20, and it’s deliberately flexible: there are no age-based classes to keep up with. Every archer starts at the beginning and moves through the program at their own pace.
That suits how differently young archers arrive at the sport. One wants to shoot a tight group on a Tuesday night. Another wants a state championship. JOAD is built to hold both, and the archer decides which one they’re doing — this year, and next year when they’ve changed their mind.
Alongside the shooting, the program leans hard on the things archery is genuinely good at teaching: range safety, focus, self-assessment, and the patience to fix something small and repeat it a hundred times.
Every bow style is welcome
JOAD is not recurve-only. Archers compete and earn pins in the style they actually shoot, and they can change their mind later.
Recurve
The Olympic discipline. A takedown bow with a sight and stabilizers, shot off the fingers.
Compound
Cams, a release aid and a magnified sight. The most common style on our line.
Barebow
No sight, no stabilizers. Aiming is done off the point of the arrow and a lot of feel.
Basic compound & fixed pins
Entry categories for archers on a hunting-style setup, so nobody needs new equipment to start scoring.
We host pin shoots, indoor and outdoor
The achievement pin program is the backbone of JOAD, and it’s the part young archers tend to get hooked on. USA Archery sets a ladder of scores; each time an archer shoots the score for the next level, they earn that star pin. It isn’t a competition against the other archers on the line — it’s a competition against the number, which means every archer on the line can have a good night.
We run pin shoots in both indoor and outdoor target. Outdoor distances go out to 50 meters, so there’s a long way to climb before an archer runs out of ladder. Beyond the star pins there are 6-Gold pins for six consecutive tens, and the Olympian award levels — Bronze, Silver and Gold — for archers who go the distance.
Shooting for pins
Pin shoots are included with your Jr club membership — there’s no separate entry fee.
You do need a USA Archery membership to earn and be awarded pins, since it’s their program and their records. Email us and we’ll walk you through signing up.
A range built for this
Archery at Lower Providence has its own building, so the program runs year round rather than stopping when the weather turns.
- Climate-controlled indoor range — 20 yards, comfortable in any season
- 10 lanes, 5 bales, USA Archery certified — the same setup used for the USA Archery events we host through the winter
- 100-yard archery range — for practice and equipment tuning, open to bows and crossbows
Start with an intro class
New archers begin with one of our introductory classes rather than joining JOAD straight away. The class covers range safety and builds a proper shot from the ground up — stance, grip, draw, anchor, release — so that when you do step onto the JOAD line you already know what you’re doing.
Club bows and arrows are provided for intro classes. You don’t need to buy a bow to find out whether your kid likes archery.
Finish the class, and JOAD is the natural next step.
Intro class dates and details: Youth Intro to Archery
Practice and how to join
JOAD meets on Tuesday evenings. New archers come through an intro class first — after that, email us and we’ll get you on the line. JOAD itself runs to age 20, but adults who want to shoot along with us are welcome to as well.
- When
- Tuesdays, 6:30–7:30 pm
- Where
- The Archery Center at Lower Providence Rod and Gun Club
- Ages
- 8 to 20 for JOAD. Adults are welcome to shoot along with us if they’d like to join in.
- Starting out
- Complete an intro class first — club bows and arrows provided
- Cost
- Included with your Jr club membership. A USA Archery membership is needed to earn pins.
- Bow styles
- Recurve, compound, barebow, basic compound and fixed pins
- Coaches
- USA Archery certified instructors, levels 1 to 3
Email lprgcyoutharchery@gmail.com
Looking for the competitive team? Our S3DA team takes archers by invitation, and JOAD is one of the ways in. Not a club member yet? Start with membership information.