How the ATA’s Bow Technician Certification Courses Benefit Retailers

A glowing A-rating from the BBB in a restaurant’s window, a bold checkmark or badge on social media, a banner in your retail shop; these things signal that you have a credibility other bow technicians don’t. Since 2023, the ATA has constantly been tweaking, evolving and adding courses to make the Bow Technician Certification courses as efficient and valuable as possible to add that credibility to your work. Each of our three courses covers a different bow style and will have you walking away with an industry stamp of approval and a high-level knowledge of bow tuning.

Our courses include video content, quizzes, and additional resources covering the following:

Essential background knowledge of:

- The basics of proper shooting form
- Bow parts, design and function
- Arrow selection and paper tuning
- Cam, draw length and draw weight adjustments
- Understanding proper bow fitment

Our modules will demonstrate how to complete a bow setup for the following archery styles:

- Recreational archery
- Traditional hunting
- Traditional 3D
- Barebow
- Target recurve
- Crossbow
- Compound

These online modules are open to individual shop employees, or your entire staff of bow technicians, and are designed to be done on your own time. Once you’ve completed them, the certification will help you better serve your customers. The in-depth knowledge you’ve gained will have you servicing the bows more efficiently, giving you more time to have that long conversation with a first-time archer about their goals and shoot the breeze with a fellow bowhunter, trading stories from this year’s hunts. “The format of the Bow Technician Certification Program courses puts an emphasis on self-directed learning and skills practice,” Kurt Smith, ATA’s director of industry relations, notes. “Students are able to watch the online content at their own pace, but that also means they need to decide how much time they need to devote to practicing skills to adequately prepare for the practical assessment. New technicians who successfully complete the certification are those who have equipment on-hand throughout the online course and spend time building confidence about completing each task of the bow setup and tune.”

Users who are taking multiple courses will need to reserve separate in-person practical spots for each course. Each practical takes four hours. Some events will allow time for two sessions in one day. If you’re taking all three courses, you will need to sign up for three different sessions to complete all three. For example: You can take the compound bow practical in the morning, the crossbow practical in the afternoon and the recurve practical the following morning. To register for your in-person practical, go to the Learning Center and select your desired date and time from the “Upcoming Sessions” section. Please note that to preserve the integrity of the certification program, all ATA instructors reserve the right to pass or fail participants as dictated by the grading rubric. If you fail the course, you may register for another practical slot for one retake at no additional charge.

All three courses are designed to help you sharpen your skills and provide the best service possible to any archer or bowhunter that enters your shop. Once you have passed the practical, you will receive several marketing items to help showcase your new trusted and ATA-certified status to your customers, including a banner, window clings, decals, and iron-on clothing patches.

Interested service technicians can purchase each course individually for $600, two courses for $995, or all three courses for $1,395. Course bundle pricing will automatically be applied to your cart when you purchase more than one.

If you have a group of 10 or more technicians who would like to enroll in the course, you can reach out to learn more about hosting a practical in your area. Additional dates are added to the calendar on a rolling basis. Reach out to Kurt Smith to register as a host for the bow technician practicals.

The next rounds of in-person practicals will be held at GAS Outdoors, May 15-17. Then, we’ll be at a public expo at the Mobile Hunters Expo in Wilmington, Ohio, July 31-Aug. 2. There will be one session on July 31, two sessions on Aug. 1 and one session on Aug. 2. The event is a public expo, so you’ll also need to get a pass to the event for access to the practical. Spots are sure to fill up fast! Make sure you register with enough time to take the online modules before you attend the in-person practical. Visit the ATA’s Learning Center to register today.