Sports have always been popular and everyone is familiar with the mainstream ones like football, rugby, cricket, and basketball. However, we tend to miss non-conventional sports like archery as it isn’t covered much in mainstream media. Archery has many types: we have the modern competitive archery which is the most practiced sport in America, European countries, and even a few places in Asia. There is even a FITA, now known as the World Archery Federation, having 156 countries under its wing and spans all the archery associations in the world.
Basic Rules of Archery
Basic archery can be done both indoors or outdoors with variations in distances. Around 3 to 6 arrows can be used and after shooting, the archers have to collect their arrows again. The shooting is done within a time range where 3 arrows have to be shot in two minutes and 6 in four. Such rules exist and can vary from competition to competition.
The targets also tend to differ with 10 equidistant circles valued at ratings 1 to 10. The inner ring scores 10 points and is called the X ring and the people who hit the X most number of times, win. In case an arrow lands on the boundary of two circles, the higher value is considered. The points are summed up and winners are decided.
Source: medium.com
Types Of Archery
- Field archery: This is held on rough terrain and identical to how the raw form of archery was meant for: for hunting.
3D archery: The targets are artificial models of targets like animals to give an actually hunting feel. - Flight archery: Here, the distance is relevant, accuracy and penetrating power are not all considered. This requires very specialized equipment.
- Popinjay or Papingo: This is archery meant to shoot wooden bird targets. His targets generally consist of one cock, some hens, and 25 or more chicks. They have different points assigned to it too.
- Clout archery: This is competitive and conducted seamlessly in one place and the distances are fixed. Any type of bows can be used. This was the popular form in Elizabethan times.
- Field-Crossbow Archery: This is the indoor archery form held in sports halls with fixed distances set for shooting.
- Traditional archery: This differs in different regions and consists of older practices of archery like Roving Marks and Wand Shoot. They generally focus on precision and accuracy and require minimal equipment.
Is Archery that popular across the world?
There are many organizations present all across the world that tries to keep the spirit of Bowhunting alive. Some major groups are based in the US and are called International Bowhunting Organization (IBO) and American Shooters Association (ASA). Even European countries like Germany have a large organization like the IAU which is the Internationale Armbrust Schuetzen Union, technically for crossbow target shooting.
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There are the IAU Cups held and it’s a huge tournament. We’ve also seen Popingo in Belgium which is a very famous tournament held in the summer. There is also the Bersault held in France and Belgium which is reminiscent of soldier shooting of the older ages. Many championships are held in Austria, Finland, England, and even in Asian countries like Taiwan and Japan.
Is it worth traveling across the world for Archery?
Archery is slowly getting popular and many people now are more aware of the competitions that are held. Many shrines in Japan still have archery taught to children to keep the way of the bow alive. Other countries are known for practicing their own styles of archery and have different versions of it.
In Europe, archery classes are even offered as an elective in schools. Professional archers have their own sets of archery equipment that they consider sacred and good luck and practice a lot with these. They even treat the equipment with lots of care and purchase quality bow cases to preserve it. So, traveling would give a lot of insight into the various techniques used all across the world.
Archery has come a long way from just having a wooden bow, twine as bowstrings, and wooden, rough arrows. The bows are made of tensile metal, bowstrings are made of fine fiber that is durable and versatile and arrows are now lightweight and stable. Accessories like bow stringers, bow stands, and bow cases are now getting highly modernistic.
As archery in other countries is booming and requires a lot of travel, purchasing this would be a huge help. We see footballers, athletes, etc. travel to many countries to excel at their sport, doing the same to pursue archery would be just as satisfactory as that.
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The importance of keeping archery equipment safe
You’d think archery equipment would just consist of a bow and arrows, but that’s not the case. There is extensive equipment involved while practicing archery. A normal archer, in the beginning, requires some arrows, a bow, the bowstring, a quiver, a bow stand, and bow stringer, and a target. Bows are actually delicate and require extremely careful handling and storage, so bow cases are now well-invested in to keep your bows in great condition. Hunting accident statistics are implying that mistreatment of your equipment can lead to serious injuries.
Bows are made of carbon fiber or glass fiber and are sturdy, but a simple physical blow to it can alter the structure ever so slightly and this can affect professional archers. There are mainly three types of bows: recurve, longbow, and compound. Recurve bows are for beginners and are very versatile. The other two are more specialized. To protect their features, using bow cases is very important.
With many archery tournaments now growing in popularity, traveling to the locations of those competitions become important. While traveling it is mandatory to have efficient packing and storage of your archery equipment. Professional archers tend to purchase effective bow cases. They look for bow cases that are light.
Many good companies now offer custom and basic bow cases with cushioned padding and shock prevention packaging to safely travel with your bows. You can check for travel bow cases here.
Conclusion
So, with all this in mind, you can ensure that you learn a lot about archery and keep all your equipment in tip-top shape. This sport has elegance and has so many traditions attached to it, that it is considered quite a classic sport. Don’t let the fear of equipment safety stop you from gaining so much knowledge about the sport across the world.
