Archery

Ready, Aim, Archery

The earliest marking of archery on the world can easily be traced back well over 50,000 years. The use of the bow was something that more than likely came from hunting and was later used in war times as a long range weapon. The success and popularity of the bow at this time stemmed from it being such a basic weapon with deadly effects. It has remained for the most part still a hunting tool in North American even today. However today, bow hunting is regulated by states and provinces. These regulations often involve such things as when you can hunt, where you can hunt, and what type of animal you can hunt.

Archery as it is known today is more of a competitive sport. This sport involves the use of bows and arrows and they are used to shot a target from a set distance of distances. This is called Target Archery and is the most popular form of the sport in the world. The sport was an Olympic event from 1900 to 1920 and then it was cut from the games all together. Over five decades later, it was put back in as a sport in 1972 on an individual basis and as a team basis in 1988. A match play format was used for the first time at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. The International Archery Federation is the governing body for all archery competitions, even the Olympic rules are created from them. There are over 142 nations recognized as archery bodies by the FITA.

Competitions of this nature can be held both indoors and outdoors. The distances that are used for the competitions that are held indoors are 18m and 25m. The competitions outdoors are anywhere from 30m to 90m, where 70m is used in the Olympics. There are usually three to six arrows per end and there are usually 20 ends per match with time limits per end, usually around two minutes. There is a set scoring system used in archery. To score depends on where inside the target your arrow hits. The target consists of 10 evenly shaped rings within larger rings. The score goes up as the circles get smaller. For example the largest white circle is 1 point and the smallest gold circle is 10 points. The team the highest number of points at the end of the match is declared the winner.

There is also what is known as field archery. This is a derivation of target archery in that you are shooting at targets but they are fake animals such as deer and turkey. They are placed varying distances apart and the ones that are the farthest away are usually given the larger number of points. This is the most popular form among hunters because it provides them a way to manage their skills when hunting season is not open.