The results of a new survey of students currently involved in the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) contracted by the Easton Foundations in 2013 reveals a substantial increase over the previous year in the number of student archers who have their own bow and arrow gear.
More than three quarters of the students polled during the May 2013 NASP Nationals in Louisville, Ky. (81 percent, to be exact) said they have their own bows. An online survey of NASP participants in 2012 indicated 46 percent (nearly half) owned archery equipment.
That's a significant shift over a one-year period, and certainly good news for those in the bow and arrow business, considering about 2.2 million young people now take part in an NASP program somewhere in the U.S.
The survey, conducted by the Walker Research Group (WRG) evaluated archery motives, outcomes of archery participation, future archery behaviors, awareness of archery programming, satisfaction with NASP, purchasing behaviors, media influences on archery and NASP website content.
To gather the requisite data, 7,000 surveys were distributed at the Louisville event, including 5,000 coaches packets and 2,000 at the Easton Foundations booth. The data were analyzed using descriptive and frequency statistics, predictive analyses, and thematic analyses.
A total of 3615 surveys were subsequently received, yielding 3343 complete and usable surveys, from 1,734 boys and 1,442 girls, representing 35 states.
Several of the responses will prove particularly interesting to archery equipment retailers.
At total of 72 percent of the respondents said they have visited an archery store, and 87 percent said they would return to that store. Further, a total of 90 percent indicated they would purchase equipment from that store if it offered special discounts or incentives for those students who participate in NASP.
Further accrued data from the National Archery in the Schools Program Survey found more than 90 percent of the participants said they think archery is a fun sport, and a third (30%) said taking part in the program has led to improvement in their grades. More than a third (39%) said NASP participation has improved their school attendance.
Nearly two-thirds (61%) of those student archers taking part in the 2013 poll indicated they would like to participate in 3D archery, and 67 percent said they would like to take part in additional shooting sports.
View the complete survey results at: http://www.esdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/NASP-Report-2013-Walker-Research-Group.pdf