Archery - Robin Hood bah i could beat him anyday (Archery - General)

Member Name: loulou129

Product:	Archery - General
Date:	21/04/09 (162 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: relaxing

Disadvantages: can be quite expensive

i feel quite strange sitting here now about to write about my greatest passion, which deffinatly sounds strange coming from a girl in her late teens.

I personally have been and archer for 8 years and i love it. Its the most relaxing sport i have ever participated in and i have tried a few. Basically there are two main types of archery; Field or Target.

---Field Archery---
Im not going to pretend i know what im talking about here because ive only participated once or twice in this discipline but it involves using your bow to hunt in the wild. However you do not have to hunt live targets. In most field events you are in the woods and there will be a target of either the image of a creature of a sculpture the size of a creature which has score markings all over. You are not given the distance of the creature from your position so in my opinion field archery takes a lot more skill than taget archery which you can practice on one distance for months before a competition. Once you have mastered distance you then have to try and hit the part of the animal which will ga\ive you the highest score (usually the eye or the heart). Overall i quite enjoy field archery as it makes you feel quite rugged and like your going back to the older days where you had to hunt for your food, not just hunt the shelves at the supermarket.

--- Target Archery---
This is my passion!
Target archery is participated in by hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people throughout the world and is the main sport of Korea (which is why they always win at the olympics hehe). There are many different disciplines of target archery and competitons differ throughout the world for example in England you can participate in a York/Hereford competition where you shoot at 100/80/60 yards or 80/60/50 yards for basically an entire day. The international body of world wide archery is F.I.T.A (Federation of International Target Archery) and they have their own competiton called a FITA in which the entire world shoots. A FITA is almost like the world cup in football its the highest competition you can take place in and is usually record status meaning at any competiton you have the chance to win a world/national/ county or club record. A FIta is split into males and females. Males shoot 90m, 70m, 50, 30m and females shoot 70m, 60m, 50m and 30m however i have seen males shoot a ladies FIta and visa versa.
The Olympics - In the olympics archers shoot 3 dozen arrows at 70m and then go onto head to head competitons, the best can fall however as it is very difficult to hold your nerve in stressful situations especially with a dangerous weapon in your hand.

Well thats the main competiton talk over and done with now to the fun bit, Equipment.

There are many bows and all are different
---Recurve---
The bows you will see at the olympics, these bows have a 2 limbs and a riser in which you place the limbs, you then attach a string to the holding places at the end of the limbs and hey presto you've got a bow. The recuve is the most common bow in the world and the only one allowed to be shot at the Olympics.

---Compound---
The traditional huntng bow
This is the bow you will see hunters out with. Unlike the recurve you do not need to re-build it every time you shoot as i beieve if you took it apart it is so complex you would not be able to put it back together again. The compound bow has 3 strings 1 for shooting and 2 pullys to hold the how at a certain draw length which is comfortable for the shooter, these extra strings also mean if an archer is shooting 50 pounds at full draw they will only hold around 20 as this makes it easier and less tiring for the archer, Recurve shooters hold the full weight.

---Long Bow---
Robin hoods bow
Basically a twig with string, only kidding. Longbows are actually pretty complexe. They are made form the straongest woods around usually willow or bamboo and are very difficult to shoot as you have no sight to aid you. If you can shoot a longbow and hit your target every time you are a very talented archer.

there are other bows like crossbow and barebow but they are rarely shot so i wont bore you with their workings.


---Price---
The important bit

im not going to lie to you and tell you this is a cheap sprot as it really isnt. A beginners recurve will set you back about 150 pound and a beginners compound about 250 to 300. Following on you can sped up to 900 on a bow and thats without arrows, a sight and all the other equipment you need. I think my equipment must have cost around 2500 all together so it is a very expensive sport and not one for people who just feel like playing robin hood.
The competitions can also be quite expensive to enter for around 3 pounds for county to 25 for a days FITA to 300 to enter the world championships so you have to be certain you want to enter.

Archery in the UK is run by GNAS (Grand National Archery Society) who opperate in Lilleshall nation sports centre but if you search GNAS on google you can normally just get straight on their website. To be a member of theGNAS (which you really need to be to be fullly insured) its around 25 a year which isnt bad.

To begin archery you have to do a 6 weeks course with a qualified GNAS coach but there is one in almst every club so its not to hard to start
Overall i have loved archery every day since i first stated shooting as a child and i believe i always will.

Summary: archery