Have you ever tried your aim? Was it perfect? If yes, you had unintentionally played casual Archery. It is believed that the game dates back to 20,000 BC. In the ancient times, people had mastered the art of archery to save themselves from ambush, protect their spaces and hunt animals to get food. Later, it became a complete game itself.
How old it is, shouldn’t bother us because it’s an exciting game that involves tremendous levels of concentration, practice and perfection. It involves the use of a stringed bow to send arrows dead straight towards a target.
Object of Playing Archery
In professional archery games, you have to shoot your arrow as close to the center of the target as possible. In games like olympics and professional tournaments, the distance between the competitor and the target is 70 meters. The closer you get to the intended target, the more points you score. If both players or teams have the same score in the end, then the game ends as a tie.
How to Play?
Archery is played by hitting arrows on the target. This target is usually a board of black colour. Both players get alternative turns in which they aim the best part of the board surface, i.e. usually the most middle part. The player who hits closer to the middle part or precisely hits at the middle section wins the game.
There are time limits which players have to follow alongside maintaining legal aiming positions. All the rules regarding time and aiming are mentioned below.
Rules of Archery
- There is a limit given in which athletes have to complete shoots. Three arrows in two minutes and six arrows in 4 minutes.
- Athletes cannot raise the bow before the signal. If they do, they can be penalised.
- Officials penalise players by forfeiting a certain number of points.
- If the arrow falls from the bow before being shot, extra time is given to the player to complete the shoot.
- You can only use those equipment that are according to the rules of the game, otherwise you can be disqualified or banned from the game.
- If any of a player’s equipment is damaged during the game, he can replace them.
Playing Equipment for Archery
The game of archery requires a decent number of equipment and without any of them, it would be impossible to play it.
Bow: A bow is a weapon for shooting arrows.There are three types of bows – recurve, compound and longbow. The bow size can vary from 64” to 72”.
Bracer: A bracer is a must have thing, it is used for keeping the loose clothing from getting in the way of string. It fits to the inside of the arm keeping bow, between the wrist and elbow joint.
Quiver: A quiver is used for holding an archer’s arrow.
Finger Tab: It provides protection for the finger which draws the string.
Bow Stringer: It is used to string and unstring a bow.
Target: This is where you are supposed to hit the arrow. It can be of various sizes and made of different materials.
Arrows: Arrows are normally made of wood, alumunium, carbon or a combination of any of these. Arrow length in archery can be between 20 to 32 inches.
Officials in Archery
In Archery, judges take care of the infield matters including fair conduct of competition, fair performance and point scoring.
Famous Archery Tournaments
Numerous Archery tournaments take place yearly or within the gap of two year.
- World Archery championship
- World Outdoor target championship
- World Indoor target championship
- World Youth Archery Championship
Governing Body
The international events of archery take place under the banner of The World Archery Federation which was established in 1931 in Poland.