Archery is an activity that involves a bow and arrows. This activity is mainly considered as an art, a sport, a skill, and even a tradition. There are several types of archery based on their aims and practices. They include target archery, field archery, flight shooting, and clout shooting. To conduct those types of archeries, certain sizes and constructions of the archery field are required.

Setting Up The Ideal Archery Ground

Target archery is the commonest archery to compete. Olympic and other sports competitions usually hold target archery. This type of archery can be practiced in an outdoor and indoor place. The field should at least have 40 meters of length for shooting in an 18 meters distance. The shooting range can be in various ranges such as 40 meters, 80 meters, and 100 meters. The longer the shooting range is the longer the archery ground should be.

The width of the fields follows the number of shooting targets. For ten shooting targets, the field should be 20 meters in the minimum. The field must be flat and not bumpy. If the outdoor archery fields have grass, it should be well-trimmed and drained. The field can be surrounded by a backstop net. Put a notice and do not allow the public to access spots near the target unless in safe and defined moments.

For indoor fields that have windows, the windows must be layered by protecting shields or covered by a backstop net. The floor is even and not slippery. Additional mats can be placed behind the shooting area to make the archers steady. Starting from the waiting line, shooting lines are drawn to the target stands for archers’ shooting guidance.

Setting Up The Ideal Archery Ground

Whether indoor or outdoor, the archery field should at least consist of competitors area, equipment line, waiting line, shooting line, shooting lane, and shooting range. For the wide fields, the overshoot area can also be added. The safety zone on both sides of the archery field is also essential to have.

The open, level, and grassy fields are suitable for clout and flight archery. The field does not need to be bordered by nets or other barriers. Yet, the field must be controlled tightly to forbid any humans or animals trespassing during the shooting time. The field length for the clout archer ranges from 150-180 meters. The length can be wider up to 250 meters in the traditional clout archery.

Flight archery requires the widest field of all. It is because it aims to shoot as far as can be. The longest shot is 441 meters. Therefore, the archery field can be hectares. The dry and grassless field is good for this type of archery because the arrow landing position can be spotted easily.

Fingertips are the most susceptible body part to get hurt while shooting. Therefore, archers use archery gloves to protect their hands especially the fingers. Shooting with bare hands once or twice in a time might be safe and less hurting. However, the nerve may get wrecked or blisters are mostly formed on the finger when people pull the tight bowstring for many times in a long duration.

All About Archery Gloves That Archers Need To Know

The pressure and the stiffness of bowstrings that meet the finger skin directly can be reduced by wearing archery gloves. That is why the thicker the gloves are the better quality that the gloves have. The thickness usually comes from their materials. Leather is the most common material of archery gloves. Nowadays some gloves are not made purely from leather but from latex or synthetic materials.

Besides the material, archery gloves also vary in different styles. The gloves are designed to secure the two up to four fingers that are used to anchor and release while shooting. It makes archery gloves from a brand look different from other brands. The number of fingers covered is also that make the gloves different from the usual gloves.

Usual gloves cover all the five fingers. Meanwhile, archery gloves only cover two up to four fingers. The covered fingers relate to the sensitivity of the archers. Shooting with bare hands helps the archer to aim and anchor accurately because the archer can ‘feel’ the arrow directly through their skin. Therefore wearing gloves is safe but giving the archers less control while aiming.

All About Archery Gloves That Archers Need To Know

The least finger covered i.e. two fingers archery gloves enables the archers to feel more the arrows but less safe compared to four fingers gloves and vice versa. Another effect or wearing archery gloves is sweating. Due to being covered for several minutes, sweat often happens and sometimes it makes an uncomfortable feeling. Shooting under the sun for a long period of time might also leave tan lines.

Then which one is the best? The best one is the one the archer feels comfortable the most. Find the gloves that fit into the fingers. Tight or loose gloves will make an uncomfortable feeling. It is suggested to try archery gloves before buying, so the archers could check whether the gloves are fitted or not for the fingers. Archery gloves from buying online sometimes do not match the finger sizes. Besides the finger areas, the strap also needs to be well adjusted to the wrist.

Traditional or recurve bows make the archers anchor with the wrist on the cheek. Wearing gloves will make hands and cheeks felt more comfortable. That is why traditional or recurve bow users prefer archery gloves that finger tabs. Meanwhile, Olympic recurve bow and compound bow users are more likely to wear finger tabs that are smaller than gloves.

People might see archery from movies such as Robin Hood, Merida from Brave, Katniss from Hunger Game, Legolas from The Lord of The Rings, and others. Some countries even have their own traditional archery like Bhutan, Indonesia, Turkey, Japan, and more. Archers from different places wear different outfits. As movies are more popular, people often get a resemblance of an archer from the movies.

What Is The Right Archery Outfit?

Yet, do archer resemblances from the movies wear the right and proper archery outfit? The answer is both yes and no. Some of their outfits are good for shooting but there are some components of their outfit that need to be avoided for archery. Shooting competitions like Olympic and other national events even have certain rules regarding the outfit.

What Is The Right Archery Outfit?

In general, an archer outfit should be simple and comfortable to wear. Additionally, there are some rules that the archery outfit needs to follow. Those rules aim to ease archers while shooting and to protect them from any possible incidents. Archers should apply those in any shooting occasions whether in a shooting competition or just casual shooting exercises. The rules include:

1. No gown or any long, flowing and loose outfit

Merida from Brave movie gives a wrong resemblance of an archery outfit. The outfit should be simple and not get in the way of the bow or arrows. This rule is intended to avoid outfit stuck or hinder the shoot. Some competitions even prefer sleeveless tops. Sometimes long sleeves are still allowed as long as the sleeves are fitted to the body.

2. No hair down

Katniss from Hunger Game movie always braids or does her hair every time she goes hunting. This is the correct example for girls during shooting. Loose hair is easy to move by wind or body movements. Hence, there is a big chance for hair to get in the way archer sight while anchoring. Long hair is even possible to get stuck in the arrows.

3. No jewelry and accessories

Especially in the field or outdoor shooting, pieces of jewelry such as necklace and earrings are easy to get tangled in wood branches. Some shiny jewelry might attract wild animals. Therefore pieces of jewelry and accessories are recommended to be left at the locker room or home.

4. Wear shoes

Many archery shooting competitions are serious about this rule. Flip flops, sandals, or other open-toe footwear are not allowed in the competitions. Sports shoes, walking shoes, and even skate shoes are allowed as long as they are covering toes. If archers do not have any shoes, bare feet are welcomed.

5. Hats are allowed under circumstances

Hats have many different shapes. Cowboy, pirates, floppy, or other wide hats are not suggested to wear during archery shooting. The wide brim will impede the bowstring during the aiming process. Flat cap, visor, bycocket hat just like Robin Hood’s hat and other short brim hats are good to wear. Hats can also prevent hair from blocking archers’ sight.