Archery is defined as the use of a bow to shoot arrows. It was developed about 50,000 years ago and used as a means of hunting and later as a sport. This sport has been found throughout history all over the world except Australia. In the early years archery was believed to be used for hunting and then used for warfare.

History of Archery

Archery was used most notably by ancient Greeks, Persians, Indian and the Chinese and used in early forms of warfare. Later in the middle ages, archery was used a in warfare still, but only with peasant or poor soldiers as it was consider a lower class weapon. One group of Europeans, which made archery a success, was the Vikings. There use of archery made them successful in raid all over Europe. In medieval Europe during the hundred years war, the English had learned to use massed archery as a useful warfare tactic. In Asia Mongols used archery to dominate Eurasian Steppe. Horse archers would shoot while approaching their target and then turn around in their saddle and shoot again.

Recurve target archery

A recurve bow is the only type of bow currently allowed to be shot in the Olympics. The bow is held in the opposite hand to the archer??s dominant eye. This hand is referred to as the bow hand and it??s the bow arm. The opposite hand is referred to as the drawing hand. One normally wears an arm guard to protect the inside of their bow arm and a tab to protect fingers of the drawing hand. To shoot the bow, the body should be perpendicular to the target and shooting line with the feet shoulder width apart. The more advanced an archer becomes a more open stance maybe used. To load a bow must be pointed toward the ground while the shaft of the arrow of the arrow is placed on an arrow rest, which is attached in the bow window. The back of the arrow is attached to the bowstring with the nock. This is referred to as nocking the arrow. The bow and arrow are held with three fingers with the index placed above the arrow and the next two fingers below. The string is usually placed in either the first or second joint of the fingers. The bow is then raised and drawn and then released by relaxing their drawing hand. An archer should also make sure they follow through after they have released the arrow.

A compound Bow Technique is used to increase the overall energy stored by the bow. The archer usually uses a release to aid hold the string steadily and release it precisely. This attaches to the bowstring and permits the archer to release the string with a pull of a trigger.

Hunting

Individual provinces and states regulate Bow hunting in North America. To coincide with specific regional hunting regulations, special archery season is set aside to interfere with rifle hunters. Hence the bow hunter must be closer to the target and pay closer attention to the animal??s sense of the hunter being close by, making it more difficult to hunt.

Modern Competitive Archery

Involves shooting arrows at a target for accuracy from a set distance. Often called target archery this form of archery is more popular in Europe and the Americas. Archery was introduced to the modern Olympics in 1920. The only bow used at the Olympics is the recurve bow. Since the 1984 games South Korea has dominated the event. In recent years other countries have come to the forefront of the sport. They are China, Chinese Taepai and Japan. The International Archery association now governs modern competitive archery.

Rules

Archery can be held both indoors and outdoors. Indoor distances are 18m and 25m Outdoor distances range from 30m to 90m Competition is divided into ends and an archer shoots either 3 or 6 arrows per end, depending on the type of round. There are 20 ends of 3 arrows in an indoor competition.

Archers have a set time limit in which to shoot their arrows. For indoor competition it is normally 2 minutes for 3 arrows. All competitors must wait for the command to start shooting and are not allowed to collect arrows while others are shooting.

Scoring

Targets are marked with 10 evenly spaced concentric rings, that have score values from 1 through 10. There is also an inner 10 ring, sometimes called the X ring. This becomes the 10 ring at indoor compound competitions. Outdoors, it serves as a tiebreaker with the archer scoring the most X's winning.

In archery, targets are coloured:

Archers score each end by summing the scores for their arrows. Line breakers, an arrow just touching a scoring boundary line, will be awarded the higher score. Values scored by each arrow are recorded on a score sheet and must be written in descending order (e.g. if an archer scores 5, 7, 6, 10, 9, 8, this must be recorded as 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5.) No one is allowed to touch the arrows during scoring. A judge may be called and make a ruling on how the arrow lies, if there is disputed arrow score. After scoring, each hole is marked before arrows are retrieved. In the event of a "pass through" (the arrow passes straight through the target) or "bouncer" (arrow hits the target and bounces out), points may be awarded to an unmarked hole.

122 cm faces are used in Olympic competition. There are also versions of the 40cm and 60cm targets known as the "3 Spot". The targets contain 3 instances of the inner 5 rings of the 40cm and 60cm faces arranged in a line or an equilateral triangle. This is to stop competitors from damaging their own arrows by shooting a "robin hood".

A composite bow is made from lamintate materisl applied under tension. Such materials include horn antler and compression resistant woods. Used on the back of the bow are materials such as sinew, silk tendon cables or tough wood like hickory, which are use don the back of the bow.

A compound bow is a bow, which uses pulleys or cams at the end of each limb. When the bow is pulled back the pulleys or cams turn and reduce the force needed to draw the bow. They are made of aluminum composite matrial and were developed by Holless Wibur Allen during the 1960??s in the USA.

A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a bow mounted on a stock that fires arrow-like projectiles. A mechanism in the stock holds the bow in its fully-drawn position until it is fired by releasing a trigger. During the warfare in the middle ages crossbows played a significant role, aswell as in China.Today they are mainly used for hunting and target shooting.

A flat bow is a flat, with realtively wide limbs that are retnagular in cross section.

They usually are narrow and become deeper at the handle with a rounded handle for eay gripping. Flatbows are usually wooden selfbows which are made of one solid piece of wood.

A longbow is a long recurved bow that is the hieght of a person or taller. It has narrow limbs and is made with a thickness of 3/4 of its width. It is normally widest at the handle. Used by the English during the middle ages longbows have been used for hunting and warfare in the past.

Oposite from th elong bow is the recurve bow. It has tips that curve away from the archer, when being shot. When strung the string touches the limbs of a recurve bow. It allows for a lower bracing height with the same limb length. More spring force over the frist few inches of draw, along with a smoother draw. It is widely used at the olympics and by european and asian sporting archers.

A refelx bow is oftern made entirely of wood and has curved arms that tunr away from the acher. When strung and subsequently fired the curves assist in making a greater forces to fire the arrow. When un strung the bow length curves forward from the belly. This bow was used by omardic tribes of Asia (Monguls) and Magyars during their ealry hsitory before 1000 AD.

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