About Archery

Archery is the sport of shooting with a bow and arrows at a target. It is one of the oldest sports known to mankind. For centuries, the bow and the arrow have been used for food hunting and as a defense and weapon during war. Today, archery is played all over the world. It has evolved into a competitive sport especially in Britain.

There are two main categories of competitive archery, field and target archery. Target archery is the most common form of archery. It is played outdoors or indoors. Shooting distances vary from 18 meters (indoors) and 90 meters (outdoors), with target sizes of 40 to 60 centimeters (indoors) and 80 to 122 centimeters (outdoors). There are a number of “rounds” or main events. Each round consists of a specified number of arrows shot from specified distances and specified target faces. The target is circular and has rings around a center or bull's eye. Ranging outward from the center ring, the colors of the rings are gold, red, black, and white. The innermost ring (in the center of the gold) has a value of 10 points, down to the outermost ring (in the outer part of the white ring) with a value of 1 point.

In field archery, a course is set up in a bush land setting wherein archers shoot different arrows at different targets or different distances. It is a simulated hunting game. Archers may be shooting at ordinary target faces, animal silhouettes or outlines or lifelike three-dimensional plastic animals.