MY FIFTH ENTRÉE..

**The 10 basic steps to shoot a bow **

1. STANCE

§  The archer stands upright in a comfortable, relaxed position with one foot each side of the shooting line. The feet should be about shoulder width apart with an even amount of weight taken on each foot and an even amount of weight between the ball and heel of each foot. This will maintain balance and help keep the body steady.

§  During the shooting sequence, the body position must remain as steady as possible with no shifting of weight or leaning of the body.
If there is a problem with bowstring clearance to the arm, then a open stance may be required.

§  Once the stance position has been established, then it must be consistent from shot to shot. Using foot markers can help maintain a consistent stance.

2. NOCKING THE ARROW

§  Nock the arrow by placing the nock of the arrow onto the bowstring under the nocking point locator.

§  Make sure that the Index Fletch on the arrow is facing towards you and the nock is pushed firmly onto the bowstring.

§   The arrow shaft is placed onto the arrow rest.§  For Target Archery style the index, second and third fingers are used.

3. DRAWING HAND AND BOW HAND

§  For Target Archery style the index, second and third fingers are used.
The index finger is placed above the arrow nock and the second and third fingers are placed below the arrow nock.

§  Curl the fingers around the bowstring so that the first joint of all three fingers are aligned on the bowstring.

§  Keep a space clear between the index and second fingers and the arrow nock, so the fingers do not touch the nock. (This will prevent 'pinching' of the arrow.)

§  Keep the back of the hand as flat as possible. (Relaxed.)
The thumb is tucked into the palm so it can be placed against the neck at full draw.

§  Place a slight pull on the bowstring to set the fingers in position ready for the draw. During the draw and anchor maintain an even amount of pressure on all three fingers.

§  Place the bow hand into the grip of the bow with the centreline of the vee between thumb and index finger in line with the centre of the bow as shown in the top view.

§  The base of the thumb muscle should rest on the centreline of the grip.

§  During the draw, the pressure should be taken on the thumb muscle and directly into the wrist. (Low wrist position.)

§  The thumb and fingers should remain relaxed. If a finger sling or bow sling is not used, then the tips of the fingers are curled around until lightly touching the bow.

§  This will stop the bow falling out of the hand on release. A consistent hand position on the bow grip is necessary.

4. BOW ARM AND PREDRAW

§ 

Push out with the bow arm to set the hand position into the bow grip, 

then raise the bow arm and drawing arm together, up to the position shown in the picture on the left.

§  Keep the front shoulder in its normal low position.
(The shoulder must not be allowed to rotate up or back as this shortens the draw length.)

§  Keep the elbow of the drawing arm high, as this will help bring into action the back muscles needed to draw the bow to full draw.

5. DRAWING THE BOW

§  From the Pre-Draw position, use the back muscles to pull the elbow of the drawing arm backwards in one smooth motion until the drawing hand is placed against the jaw.

§  The position of the head and body should not move. (Pull the bowstring to the face, not move the face to meet the bowstring.)

§  An equal amount of push on the bow hand and pull on the drawing hand will keep the body balanced.

6. THE ANCHOR

§  The Anchor is where the hand is positioned on the jaw and the bowstring touches the face.

§  It is vitally important that the index finger is firmly placed against the jaw, the thumb is tucked into the palm of the hand so it can be placed firmly against the neck and the bowstring is firmly touching the chin (and nose, if possible.)

§  The relationship between all these positions is important as it acts as the rear sight, so it is vital that it be as consistent as possible.

§  It also acts as a consistent draw length position. Any variation in the position will effect the amount of force the bow will impart to the arrow.

7. HOLDING AND AIMING

§  Holding is where the tension is maintained in the back muscles and then the bow arm is moved to align the sight pin into the centre of the target.

§  As the sight pin is moved into the centre of the target, the string alignment should be checked. String alignment, as shown in the picture on the left, is the alignment of the bowstring with the vertical alignment of the bow and the alignment with the sight pin. (As the bowstring is just in front of the eye, it will appear blurred.)

§  When the bow is held in the correct vertical position, then the bowstring and edge of the bow will be parallel. If it is not, then the bow is tilted away from vertical.

§  Just before full concentration is made on aiming, all the previous steps should be checked to make sure that everything is in the correct position.

§  If any part of body feels out of place, then it is best to stop now, let the bowstring down and re-start again, rather than make a bad shot. When aiming into the centre of the target, it is natural for sight pin to move around, as the muscles try to hold it steady. With practise, aiming will become more steady.

§  Move the sight pin up if the arrow lands high, move down if the arrow lands low, move left if the arrow lands left and move right if the arrow lands right.


8. THE RELEASE

§  The Release of the bowstring is the most critical step in the sequence. If it is not done correctly, then all the effort in the previous steps is cancelled out.
§  To release the arrow correctly, the fingers holding the bowstring must allow the string to slip off the fingers.
§  All three fingers must release at the same times.
§  This will let the bowstring pull away from the fingers with the least amount of deflection.
§  When the release is done correctly, the hand should move backwards, as the back muscles will pull the arm backwards and the fingers should come to rest beside the neck
§  If the finger muscles are flexed open to release the bowstring, then the hand will usually come to rest about 5cm backwards from anchor position.
§  Flexing the finger muscles will deflect the bowstring sideways and the arrows will have a horizontal spread across the target.


9. FOLLOW THROUGH

§  The Follow Through is maintaining the position of the bow arm on release until the arrow hits the target. As the arrow slides along the arrow rest any movement of the bow will move the arrow.

§  The position of the head and body should remain steady, while the drawing hand moves backwards after the release.

§  It is important to not let the bow arm fall after the release, as this can become a problem when the bow arm actually starts to fall on the release, making some arrows land low on the target. Also moving the head to see where the arrow went too soon after the release can make the bow arm move sideways.

10. RELAXING

§  The archer must relax after each shot to allow the muscles to recover from their effort.

§  About 20 to 30 seconds should be enough time for the muscles to recharge, ready for the next shot.

§  If not enough time is allowed between shots, then the muscles will tire rapidly and may even become sore. Tired muscles will not be able to perform consistently.

* As with all new skills, it is best to learn correctly under the guidance of a qualified Archery Coach.The coach can help you learn the correct body positions and actions required, and provide advice when modifications are required to suit the individual.
As every person is not exactly the same in body shape, the body positions as shown above, may have to be modified to suit. This is where the Coach is best able to help the individual.

THIS IS A VIDEO TO TEACH THE BEGINNERS TO SETUP A BOW. 

MY FOURTH ENTRÉE..

SCORING SYSTEM

• The scoring system is based on a 10-ring target.
• Each section of the target is worth from one to 10 points, with 10 being the best.
• Arrows on the dividing lines are given the higher score and deflections score where they land.
• Arrows that bounce off the target or pass through are also counted.
• The target face is set 70 meters (229 feet, 8 inches) from the shooting line and the
  center gold of the target is set 130 centimeters (4 feet, 3 inches) above the ground.
• The target is usually made of paper and has a diameter of 122 centimeters (4 feet).
• The target is divided into five colored rings and each ring is divided in half.
• The width of each color zone is 12.2 (4.8 inches) centimeters and the width of each scoring zone -- half of a color zone -- is 6.1 (2.4 inches) centimeters. 

Gold inner	10 points
Gold outer	9 points
Red inner	8 points
Red outer	7 points
Blue inner	6 points
Blue outer	5 points
Black inner	4 points
Black outer	3 points
White inner	2 points
White outer	1 point

MY THIRD ENTRÉE..

ARCHERY IN OLYMPICS

Ø  Archery first appeared as a sport in the 1900 Olympics Games in Paris and was held at the Games of 1904, 1908 and 1920. However, international rules had not yet been developed and each host country used its own format. As a result, archery events in these early Olympic Games varied widely. Because of the lack of uniform international rules archery was then dropped from the Olympic Games.

Ø  The Federation Internationale de Tir a l'Arc (FITA), the international governing body of the sport, was founded in 1931 and implemented standardized rules for competition. It allowed the first World Championship to be held that same year. After countries adopted the new rules, archery returned to the 1972 Games in Munich.
Initially, only individual competition took place - the team competition was added in 1988.

There are four archery events held at the Olympics: Men's Individual, Women's Individual, Men's Team and Women's Team. Archers used to shoot a double FITA round of 288 total arrows, with the championship decided by the highest total score. In an effort to make the sport more exciting, the format was changed to head-to-head elimination for the top 64 competitors beginning with the 1992 Olympics.

Individual Competition

• The format of the men's and women's individual competition is the same and consists of a ranking round followed by the FITA Olympics round.
• In the ranking round, archers shoot 72 arrows at a target 70 meters (229 feet, 8 inches) away in 12 ends of six arrows each. A perfect score is 720.
• The same set of shots is used to seed teams for the team competitions.
• The FITA Olympic round is divided into the elimination round and the finals round.
• The 64 competitors, seeded from the ranking round, advance to the elimination round, a single-elimination, head-to-head style of competition (seed No. 64 vs. seed No. 1, 63 vs. 2, etc).
• Six ends of three arrows -- for a total of 18 -- are shot at a target 70 meters away with a 40-second time limit per arrow.
• Winners of each match move on to the next round. 
• The finals round is held when the field has been narrowed to eight archers.
• It begins with the quarterfinals and continues with the semifinals and final.
• In the semifinal and final rounds, archers shoot four ends of three arrows each -- for a total of 12 -- with a 40-second time limit per arrow.
• The losers of the semifinals shoot in the bronze medal match and the two winners shoot in the gold medal final. 

Team Competition

• The format of the men's and women's team competition is the same and consists of the ranking round, followed by the FITA Olympic round.
• In the ranking round, archers shoot 72 arrows at a target 70 meters (229 feet, 8 inches) away in 12 ends of six arrows each. A perfect score is 720.
• The same set of shots is used to seed competitors in the individual competitions as well.
• In the men's and women's competitions, the top 16 teams -- seeded from the ranking round -- are selected using scores from the ranking round.
• If there are less than 16 teams, the top teams will be given byes. 
• Each team consists of three archers.
• In all matches in the team event, each team shoots three ends of nine arrows each with each archer on the team shooting one end.
• Each of the three archers is required to finish their end within three minutes.
• Only one archer of the team shoots at a time.
• When the first archer finishes shooting his end, the second archer starts. The third shooter follows the second one.
• The arrows are scored and pulled after each team shoots nine arrows. 
• The winners of each match move to the next round.
• The first round or eighth-finals consists of 16 teams on the line shooting in eight matches.
• The second round or quarterfinals consists of the eight winning teams shooting at the same time in four matches.
• In the semifinal round, the four winning teams meet.
• The losers of the semifinals shoot for the bronze medal.
• The winners shoot for the gold. 

MY SECOND ENTRÉE..

Today, there are three main types of bow - the traditional longbow, the recurve bow, and the modern compound bow.

TRADITIONAL LONGBOW:

The preferred wood for longbows was traditionally yew, but today they may be made of several other woods, e.g. hickory or lemon-wood.

• Longbows do not put as much energy into the arrow as other bows, which is why they have to be more powerful. 
• In medieval times, draw weights could reach up to 150lbs, but today longbows generally rarely exceed 50lbs. 
• They are less accurate and more difficult to shoot than a modern bow, but more and more archers are changing to them today because they are fun to shoot, and you know that you are shooting in the traditional way.  
• You don't use any arrow rests with a longbow, as you support the arrow on your forefinger when shooting.

RECURVE BOWS:

• A recurve bow is so called because of the side-view profile; in contrast to the simple longbow a recurve bow has tips that curve away from the archer when the bow is unstrung.  
• This style of bow stores more energy than an equivalent straight-limbed bow, and therefore gives a greater amount of 'cast' to the arrow. 
• By contrast, the traditional straight longbow tends to "stack" - that is, as the string is drawn further back, the required draw force increases rapidly.
• Recurved limbs also put greater strain on the materials used to make the bow, and they may make more noise as they are shot. 
• Many beginners are confused by the shape that the bow should be before being strung - it should look like the bow pictured on the right.  

MODERN RECURVE BOW:

·         A typical modern recurve bow, as used by archers in the Olympics and many other competitive events, will employ advanced technologies and materials and will have been made by a professional company such as Hoyt, or Win and Win. 

• The limbs are usually made from layers of fibreglass, carbon and/or wood on a core of carbon foam or wood. 
• Carbon limbs will shoot the arrow faster for a given draw weight when compared with wooden limbs, but they are much more expensive.  
• The riser (the handle section of the bow) is generally separate and is normally constructed from aluminium or magnesium alloy. (Risers for beginners are usually made of wood or plastic). 
• An Italian manufacturer now also produces a very lightweight but expensive carbon fibre riser.  
• The limbs of the bow will fit into pockets on the ends of the riser, and will be held in place by the tension of the bowstring. 
• The modern recurve is the only form of bow allowed in the Olympic Games, and is the type most widely used by European and Asian archers.