Featured News, Battle Sports

Battle Sports, to the Victor goes the Spoils

August 3rd 2015

As 'archery tag' heats up in Toronto we have decided to put the spotlight on one of the archery tag locations which has been heating up the industry and leaving the other archery tag locations in their dust. Archery District may have the honour of being the first location in Toronto, but Battle Sports is quickly becoming the best location for people to spend their $$. With eight locations to choose from, Battle Sports in the clear victor when you consider the glaring differences between Battle Sports and other locations.

Battle Sports is located at 26 Ashwarren Road, North York / Toronto. Visit BattleSports.ca to book time in a game of archery tag or to book time at their indoor archery range.

10 Reasons Why Battle Sports is So Good

#1. Battle Sports offers a more unique experience by adding throwing weapons (foam axes and throwing stars) to the list of weapons players can use during the games. (Maybe they will even add foam spears to the mix in the future too?)

#2. Battle Sports also provides molded vests for added safety, anti-fog masks so you can see who you are shooting at easier, and has walls / other obstacles that be moved / stacked into fortifications so that archers can crouch / stand behind the obstacles for added protection.

#3. 30 minutes of practice time before the game begins (most archery tag locations only offer 10 to 15 minutes of practice time), with an instructor - as opposed to other locations where staff barely even explain proper archery form.

#4. The various games during the 60 minutes of game time include narrative stories. (Note - Some other locations only provide 50 minutes of actual shooting time.)

#5. Battle Sports offers archery lessons for large group events (up to 20 people). So if you are looking for a place to host a large group archery lesson, Battle Sports is the place to go.

#6. The "Rage Room", a place destroy stuff if you are the type of person who wants to engage their anger management side. As opposed to chopping wood with an axe in your backyard. But lets pretend you don't have a backyard, don't have an axe, and you are really upset you don't have either and want to destroy stuff to vent some anger.

#7. A pro shop where you can purchase bows, arrows, paintball masks, vests, arm-guards and more. After all, lets pretend you try archery for first time doing archery tag and decide you want to do it more often.

#8. A rewards program that offers free games, discounts on buying archery equipment and other activities at Battle Sports.

#9. A 20 yard indoor archery range for normal target shooting which is open on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays - 6:30 PM to 11 PM; + Sundays - 9 AM to 12 PM. The archery range time is for people who just want to practice their aim / archery form. (To our knowledge Battle Sports is the only archery tag location currently with a proper indoor range just for target practice.) The drop-in rate is $15 if you have your own equipment or $25 if you want to rent equipment.

#10. Last but not least, Battle Sports is price wise one of the best locations in the GTA and currently offer a 20% discount code: "VIP" off their regular $24.99 price, bringing the price per person to a mere $19.99 + HST. (The only place cheaper than that is way over in Brampton.)

Thus it is no surprise that we have declared Battle Sports to be the clear winner in terms of both quality of service and price. (Plus we've been wanting to see an archery tag location with a proper archery range, so it is about time one of the locations finally did it. This means archers will be able to go practice in the middle of winter, or on rainy days, or on super windy days. We will come back to this topic further below.)

Five Archery Tag Tips

#1. Bring something to drink with you, preferably something like Powerade or Gatorade, because playing archery tag is very thirsty work and you will want the extra sugar and electrolytes.

#2. Pace yourself. Archery Tag involves a lot of running and dodging of arrows, and as such is very cardio intensive. Because you are having so much fun however you don't necessarily realize how tired you are, so try to pace yourself by giving yourself a minute or two once in awhile hiding behind obstacles and providing cover fire for your friends.

#3. If someone knows you are aiming at them, they are likely going to be able to dodge your arrow easily. The arrows fly super slow. Instead aim at someone who isn't expecting it and you are more likely to obtain a hit.

#4. Practice, practice, practice! You can really tell which people have had a lot of archery practice because they're the best shots in the arena. So if you get a chance to get proper archery lessons you should do so.

#5. Learn how to Shoot Instinctive. It is a particular style of shooting and the practice is well suited for archery tag because it works well for people shooting short distances at moving targets.

BONUS TIP - Line up two enemy targets and then shoot. If one enemy dodges, you might still hit the second target.

Toronto's First Indoor Archery Range

Battle Sports is effectively Toronto's first indoor archery range that is open to everyone (unlike Hart House, Ryerson and York which are geared towards student memberships). We at ArcheryToronto.ca have been waiting (impatiently) for someone to open an indoor range that offered either a fee-based system or a membership rate. Maybe in the future Battle Sports will start offering a monthly or annual membership for access to their archery range, but for now the drop-in rate is a good start.

The problem with opening an indoor archery range is essentially first getting money to rent a location and then promoting it to the masses. Since the location is both an archery tag location and an archery range, it means they can use the space as an archery tag facility on weekends (excluding Sunday morning) and use it as archery range on certain weekdays / Sunday morning. This allows the location to be used as an archery tag location during peak times when people want the space for archery tag (mostly weekends), and use it as an archery range during non-peak times.

Over time as demand grows and more dedicated archers start using the Battle Sports Archery Range available range time can be expanded. Compare that to the Toronto Archery Range at E. T. Seton Park which has no bathrooms (E. T. Seton Park does technically have bathrooms near the Overlea parking lot, but they're often broken), no air conditioning, no pro-shop, etc and it is suddenly a great option for people who want to be able to practice shooting in comfort.

And since Battle Sports also provides archery lessons it means that Torontonians now have a new option for where to go for archery lessons - and it means they can do so in the dead of winter.

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