Archery – The skill of shooting an Arrow using a Bow was in the bygone ages a military weapon
and also a hunting method before the invention of gunpowder. It is mainly
confined now as a competitive sport used for target shooting.
A bow is a weapon
that shoots arrows using the elasticity of the bow. The bow is made of a strip
of flexible material with a cord linking the two ends of the strip to provide
tension from which is propelled the arrow which is a straight shaft with a
sharp point on one end or have flints and usually with feathers attached to the
other end.
The modern-day
'Target Archery' involves shooting arrows at a target from a pre-set distance.
A Recurve bow is the only type of bow allowed to be used. Archery competitions
may be held indoors or outdoors. Indoor distances are 18 m and 25 m. Outdoor
distances range from 30 m to 90m depending on the seniority and 70 m is being
used in the Olympic Games. Competition is divided into ends where an archer
shoots either 3 or 6 arrows per end, depending on the type of round. There are
20 ends of 3 arrows in a round for indoor competition, but outdoor rounds
generally involve more arrows per round. At the end, the competitors walk up to the target to score and retrieve their arrows.
Targets are
painted with 10 evenly spaced concentric rings, which have score values from 1
through 10 assigned to them. Targets are coloured as follows:
Outermost 1 ring
& 2 ring - white
3 ring & 4
ring - black
5 ring & 6
ring - blue
7 ring & 8
ring - red
Innermost 9 rings
& 10 ring - gold
There is an
innermost ring sometimes called the 10X ring or the Bull’s-eye.
The score for
each arrow depends upon where it hits on the target. The highest score, a ten,
is awarded by shooting an arrow into the two innermost circles. The bull’s-eye ring is typically as a tiebreaker with most X’s winning. Missing the rings on
the target results in a zero score and in case of Line breaker where an arrow
just touches a boundary line will be awarded the higher score. Scores are
tallied at the end of each round or volley of arrows by summing the scores for
their arrows which are recorded on a score sheet.
Archers have a
set time limit in which to shoot their arrows. For indoor competition is 2
minutes for 3 arrows. Signalling devices such as lights and flags prompt the
archers when it’s time to shoot.
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