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.

Archery gear basically covers five components. They are a bow, arrows, a target, and accessories. For those who are still learning, a bow, arrows, and a target are enough. Meanwhile, some pro archers might need more than those components. They could even have several types for each component. These are further explanations.

The Complete Archery Gear For Pro And Beginner Archers

1. The bow

Viewed by the style, there are a dozen types of bow. Traditionally, each region can have its own bow style. Yet, for the global archery competition, there are two common types of bow i.e. recurve and compound bows. At a glance, the biggest difference between those two is that compound bows have more complex bow parts than recurve bows.

Those complicated parts in compound bows ease archers to shoot at an incredible speed with the exact accuracy. When the bows get broken, they are easy to be repaired. You can change several parts to fix the damage. However, these bows are heavier and quite difficult to shoot for beginners.

The recurve bows have fewer parts and those make the bows are lighter and easier to shoot by beginners. Many coaches suggest recurve bows to beginners who are still learning how to shoot. The less complex parts on the contrary are more expensive to repair when there are damages.

2. The arrows

Just like the bows, the arrows have two types in general. The arrows can be made from fiberglass, wood, aluminum, or others, and they might belong to the light and heavy arrows. Light arrows are suitable for outdoor shooting. The slim build and lightweight could pass through the wind easier and faster than heavy arrows. Hence, the heavy ones are preferable for indoor shooting. With less resistance and short distance, indoor shooting will be safer with heavy arrows.

3. The target

A target functions to stop the arrows and also to train archers’ accuracy skills. Archers usually use layered foam block targets, hay bales, solid foam block targets, bag targets, or 3D targets. Indoor or outdoor shooting places, types of bows, shooting times can be the determining factor to choose the rightest target. The commonest target range includes yellow, red, and blue spots. The field archery target might include two colors only. Meanwhile, some 3D targets can move in certain motions.

4. The accessories

Accessories cover many tools with their specialty functions including quivers, arm guards, release aid, shooting glove, bow sight, bow stand, bow case, binoculars, nocking points, rangefinder, arrow lubrication, arrow removal tools, and silencers. Different types of shooting require some of those accessories. The examples are arrow lubrication and arrow removal tools that are needed in an outdoor field shooting.

The Complete Archery Gear For Pro And Beginner Archers

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.

People have been practicing archery for centuries. It was considered to be a rather essential skill to master since hunting was one of the main ways to obtain food. Nowadays, though, archery is treated more as a leisure activity. The development of archery into a sport activity that we know today is gradual. You can see how it evolves from various aspects. One of them is its bow designs. Factors like materials and construction process contribute a lot to the variety of bow designs.

Variety of Bow Designs in Archery and How They Perform

Bow is a pivotal instrument for an archer because its mechanism is the one that propels arrow to move towards target. Thus, the design aspect of a bow must be taken heavily into consideration. The bow’s limb must be in effective length. If it is too short then it will not produce much power. However, if the limb is too long, archer will have a hard time trying to navigate the tool. In addition, the material chosen should be able to withstand the tension that will arise. A bow should be able to keep energy and release it immediately when necessary.

Perhaps the simplest bow design known is longbow. It is made of one continuous wood strip that forms inward curved limbs; which is why the construction process does not take so long. Longbow is called so because its length is normally leveled with the archer’s stand or at least measure at 1.5 meter or 5 feet. Due to its length, though, it becomes rather tricky to aim at certain spot. The simple construction also does not enable the bow to produce great velocity. To become an expert in longbow archery, ample amount of practice is needed.

Variety of Bow Designs in Archery and How They Perform

Recurve bow is another common design in the field of archery. It is characterized by the two tips which curve away from the archer. There are three main parts that constitute recurve bow. There are the limbs which are connected by riser. The riser is placed in the middle of bow’s entire construction. A part on the riser, named grip, is used by the archer’s to hold the bow. Traditional recurve bow is constructed out of a single strip of wood, while the modern one tends to be composed of multiple parts. The velocity is not that high with this bow. However, the arrow can be released a lot easier than when using longbow.

A more modern design of bow is compound bow. Its mechanism involves a distinctive levering which consists of cable and pulley. This levering mechanism enables archer to draw the string with minimum effort. Because less energy is needed to maintain the full draw of string, archer http://45.77.241.123 can aim more accurately with this bow. There are several types of compound bow depending on the cams with single cam bow being the friendliest one for beginner.