Target archery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Modern competitive archery is governed by the International Archery Federation, abbreviated FITA (Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc). Olympic rules are derived from FITA rules. FITA is the IOC (International Olympic Committee) recognized governing body for all of archery. Currently 142 nations are represented by FITA archery governing bodies. The largest of these are the FFTA (French archery federation) with approximately 60,000 members, FITARCO (Italian federation), DSB (German federation), AJAF (All-Japan archery federation), and the GNAS (Grand National Archery Society) of Great Britain, with approximately 30 000 members. In the United States the FITA affiliated governing body is USA Archery (National Archery Association of the United States) which dates to the 1870s, making it the second oldest archery governing body after GNAS, which dates to the 1860s.

Target archery is the most popular form of archery, in which members shoot at non-moving circular targets at varying distances. All types of bow - longbow, barebow, recurve and compound - can be used. In Great Britain, Imperial rounds, measured in yards, are still used for a lot of tournaments and these have slightly different rules to FITA (metric) rounds, which are used internationally. Archers are divided into seniors and juniors, with juniors being those under the age of 18.

Contents 1 Rules 1.1 FITA Rounds (FITA rules) 1.2 Imperial Rounds (GNAS rules) 1.2.1 GNAS Classifications 2 Scoring 3 Tournament Rounds 3.1 How to use the tables 3.2 Imperial Rounds 3.2.1 Senior Outdoor Rounds 3.2.2 Junior Outdoor Rounds 3.2.3 Indoor Rounds 3.3 Metric Rounds 3.3.1 Outdoor Rounds 3.3.2 Indoor Rounds 4 Olympics 5 Fun Variations 5.1 Card Games 5.1.1 Pontoon 5.1.2 Poker 5.1.3 Pairs 5.2 Darts 5.3 Four In A Row 5.4 Lucky Dip 5.5 Monopoly 5.6 Picture Shoots 5.7 Raffle 5.7.1 Balloon raffle 5.7.2 Sticker raffle 5.8 Snakes and Ladders 5.9 Treasure Hunt 6 See also

[edit] Rules

Archery competitions may be held indoors or outdoors. Indoor rounds are normally shot at one distance, whereas outdoor competitions normally consist of several distances. For lists of tournament rounds, see section entitled Tournament Rounds. Since archery involves the use of potentially lethal equipment, much attention is paid to order and safety. All competitors must wait for the command to start shooting and are not allowed to collect arrows while other people are shooting. These rules apply to all forms of target archery. Other rules, or points of etiquette, include:

• The command Fast means stop shooting immediately and return the unshot arrow to the quiver. It is used when the situation becomes suddenly and unexpectedly dangerous
• Do not distract another archer when they are shooting. If an archer is at full draw, wait before taking your place on the shooting line.
• If an archer damages another archer's arrows (or other equipment), they must offer to pay for any damages.

[edit] FITA Rounds (FITA rules)

For FITA rounds, standard indoor distances are 18m and 25m. Outdoor distances range from 30m to 90m for senior archers, with juniors being able to shoot closer distances. In the Olympic Games, 70m is used.

Competition is divided into ends. An archer shoots either 3 or 6 arrows per end, depending on the type of round. After each end, the competitors walk to the target to score and retrieve their arrows. There are 20 ends of 3 arrows in a standard round of indoor competition (i.e. the FITA 18 or the FITA 25).

Archers have a set time limit in which to shoot their arrows. For indoor competition, under FITA rules this is 2 minutes for 3 arrows. Signaling devices such as lights and flags inform the archers when time is up.

[edit] Imperial Rounds (GNAS rules)

For Imperial rounds, the standard indoor distance is 20yds, with 5 dozen arrows being shot in a round known as a Portsmouth round. Outdoor distances range from 40yds to 100yds, for seniors, and 10yds to 80yds for juniors.

Competition is divided into ends. An archer shoots either 3 arrows per end (indoors) or 6 arrows per end (outdoors). After each end, the competitors walk to the target to score and retrieve their arrows.

At all record status tournaments, archers must adhere to the GNAS dress code, which consists of wearing dark green and white clothing, or 'club colours'. Club colours are those which are unique to a club and registered on the GNAS shooting colour register.

In a tournament, awards are normally split into categories according to sex and, for juniors, age. All registered GNAS archers also have an indoor and an outdoor classification, and classification awards may also be presented - this allows archers to only shoot against those of the same ability.

[edit] GNAS Classifications

The Grand National Archery Society runs two systems of classification: the main Classifications (for indoor and outdoor shooting) and Handicaps. To do this, they produce tables of scores for all recognised rounds and an archer's classification and handicap can be worked out from their scores, normally by a club's Record Officer.

There are six classification grades for seniors:

• 3rd Class
• 2nd Class
• 1st Class
• Bowman
• Master Bowman
• Grand Master Bowman

There are five classification grades for juniors:

• 3rd Class
• 2nd Class
• 1st Class
• Junior Bowman
• Junior Master Bowman

For indoor rounds, an archer has a Classifcation represented by a letter from A to H, with A being the best and H the worst. This applies for both seniors and juniors.

[edit] Scoring

Standard FITA targets are marked with 10 evenly spaced concentric rings, which generally have score values from 1 through 10 assigned to them, except in outdoor Imperial rounds under GNAS rules, where they have score values 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. In addition, there is an inner 10 ring, sometimes called the X ring. This becomes the 10 ring at indoor compound competitions. Outdoors, it serves as a tiebreaker with the archer scoring the most X's winning. The number of hits may also be taken into account as another tiebreaker. In FITA archery, targets are coloured as follows:

• 1 ring & 2 ring - white
• 3 ring & 4 ring - black
• 5 ring & 6 ring - blue
• 7 ring & 8 ring - red
• 9 ring & 10 ring - gold

Archers score each end by summing the scores for their arrows. An arrow just touching a scoring boundary line, known as a Line Breaker or Line Cutter, will be awarded the higher score. Values scored by each arrow are recorded on a score sheet and must be written in descending order (e.g. if an archer scores 5, 7, 6, 10, 9, 8, this must be recorded as 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5). During and before scoring no one is allowed to touch the arrows. This is so that if there is disputed arrow score then a judge may be called and the judge will make a ruling on how the arrow lies. The archer in charge of scoring on a target at a tournament is known as the ''Target Captain'' and in larger tournaments, they may be assisted by a ''Target Lieutenant''; a Target Captain will make an initial judgement on all disputed arrows. Under FITA rules, in major tournaments, after scoring, each hole is marked before arrows are retrieved. In the event of a "pass through" (the arrow passes straight through the target) or "bouncer" (arrow hits the target and bounces out), points may be awarded to an unmarked hole. Under GNAS rules, and in some smaller tournaments, in the case of a bouncer, the archer must step off the shooting line and hold their bow in the air. A judge will then make a decision as to whether the archer is permitted to shoot a replacement arrow. If an archer accidentally shoots more arrows than they are allowed, the highest scoring arrow is not counted.

Different rounds and distances use different size target faces. Common sizes (and example rounds they are used in) are:

• 40 cm (18m FITA Indoor)
• 60 cm (25m FITA Indoor)
• 80 cm (30m and 50m FITA)
• 122 cm (70m and 90m FITA)

122 cm faces are used in Olympic competition. There are also versions of the 40cm and 60cm targets known as the "3 Spot". The targets contain 3 instances of the inner 5 rings of the 40cm and 60cm faces arranged in a line or an equilateral triangle. This is to stop competitors from damaging their own arrows by shooting a "robin hood".

[edit] Tournament Rounds

Imperial rounds (measured in yards) are mainly shot in the United Kingdom. Metric rounds, also known as FITA rounds, measured in metres, are used for most other tournaments. These are the main rounds that are able to be shot in target archery:

[edit] How to use the tables

Go down the first column of the relevant table, until you get to the round you require. Go across this row, to find out how many arrows you shoot at each distance (yds=yards, m=metres, doz.=dozen). --- means no arrows are shot at this distance.

[edit] Imperial Rounds

[edit] Senior Outdoor Rounds

These rounds use 5-zone scoring, as opposed to the usual 10-zone scoring. The points are awarded as follows: 9 for a gold, 7 for a red, 5 for a blue, 3 for a black and 1 for a white. Arrows are shot at increasingly closer distances - for example, in a York round, an archer would shoot 6 dozen at 100 yards, followed by 4 dozen at 80 yards, followed by 2 dozen ay 60 yards. Senior rounds are for archers aged 18 and over.

Round	100 yds	80 yds	60 yds	50 yds	40 yds
York	6 doz.	4 doz.	2 doz.	---	---
Hereford	---	6 doz.	4 doz.	2 doz.	---
St. George	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	---	---
Albion	---	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	---
Windsor	---	---	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.
New Western	4 doz.	4 doz.	---	---	---
Long Western	---	4 doz.	4 doz.	---	---
Western	---	---	4 doz.	4 doz.	---
American	---	---	2 ½ doz.	2 ½ doz.	2 ½ doz.
New National	4 doz.	2 doz.	---	---	---
Long National	---	4 doz.	2 doz.	---	---
National	---	---	4 doz.	2 doz.	---
New Warwick	2 doz.	2 doz.	---	---	---
Long Warwick	---	2 doz.	2 doz.	---	---
Warwick	---	---	2 doz.	2 doz.	---

[edit] Junior Outdoor Rounds

These rounds use 5-zone scoring, as opposed to the usual 10-zone scoring. The points are awarded as follows: 9 for a gold, 7 for a red, 5 for a blue, 3 for a black and 1 for a white. Arrows are shot at increasingly closer distances - for example, in a Bristol 1 round, an archer would shoot 6 dozen at 80 yards, followed by 4 dozen at 60 yards, followed by 2 dozen at 50 yards. Junior rounds are for archers under the age of 18.

Round	80 yds	60 yds	50 yds	40 yds	30 yds	20 yds	15 yds	10 yds
Bristol 1	6 doz.	4 doz.	2 doz.	---	---	---	---	---
Bristol 2	---	6 doz.	4 doz.	2 doz.	---	---	---	---
Bristol 3	---	---	6 doz.	4 doz.	2 doz.	---	---	---
Bristol 4	---	---	---	6 doz.	4 doz.	2 doz.	---	---
Bristol 5	---	---	---	---	---	6 doz.	4 doz.	2 doz.
Short Windsor	---	---	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	---	---	---
Junior Windsor	---	---	---	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	---	---
Short Western	---	---	4 doz.	4 doz.	---	---	---	---
Junior Western	---	---	---	4 doz.	4 doz.	---	---	---
Short Junior Western	---	---	---	---	4 doz.	4 doz.	---	---
St Nicholas	---	---	---	4 doz.	3 doz.	---	---	---
Short National	---	---	4 doz.	2 doz.	---	---	---	---
Junior National	---	---	---	4 doz.	2 doz.	---	---	---
Short Junior National	---	---	---	---	4 doz.	2 doz.	---	---
Short Warwick	---	---	2 doz.	2 doz.	---	---	---	---
Junior Warwick	---	---	---	2 doz.	2 doz.	---	---	---
Short Junior Warwick	---	---	---	---	2 doz.	2 doz.	---	---

[edit] Indoor Rounds

These rounds use standard 10-zone scoring. To use this table, go down the first column to find the round you want. Then, go across the row; the second column tells you what distance you shoot at (most indoor rounds are shot at only one distance) and the third tells you how many arrows you shoot at this distance.

Round	Distance	No. of arrows
Portsmouth	20 yds	5 doz.
Worcester	20 yds	5 doz.

[edit] Metric Rounds

[edit] Outdoor Rounds

These rounds use standard 10-zone scoring. Arrows are shot at increasingly closer distances - for example, in a Gents FITA round, an archer would shoot 3 dozen at 90 metres, followed by 3 dozen at 70 metres, followed by 3 dozen at 50 metres, followed by 3 dozen at 30 metres.

Round	90m	70m	60m	50m	40m	30m	20m	15m	10m
Gents FITA	3 doz.	3 doz.	---	3 doz.	---	3 doz.	---	---	---
Ladies FITA	---	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	---	3 doz.	---	---	---
Metric II	---	---	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	---	---	---
Metric III	---	---	---	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	---	---
Metric IV	---	---	---	---	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	---	3 doz.
Metric V	---	---	---	---	---	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.	3 doz.

[edit] Indoor Rounds

These rounds use standard 10-zone scoring. To use this table, go down the first column to find the round you want. Then, go across the row; the second column tells you what distance you shoot at (most indoor rounds are shot at only one distance) and the third tells you how many arrows you shoot at this distance.

Round	1st distance	No. of arrows shot	2nd distance	No. of arrows shot
FITA 18	18m	5 doz.	---	---
FITA 25	25m	5 doz.	---	---
Combined FITA	18m	5 doz.	25m	5 doz.
Bray I	20y	2 ½ doz.	---	---
Bray II	25y	2 ½ doz.	---	---
Stafford	30m	6 doz.	---	---
Vegas	18m	5 doz.	---	---

[Source for tournament rounds: Dave Pritchard and Phil Hale, Bowmen Of The Tors: Handbook For New Archers DRP Publications, 2001]

[edit] Olympics

Archery was in the Olympics (and the 1906 interlocated Games) between 1900, the first modern Olympics, and 1920. The sport was dropped from the program because there were no internationally recognized rules for the sport- each Olympics through 1920 held a different type of event. With the creation of FITA in the 1930's, set international rules were created. However, it was not until 1972 that Archery was re-introduced with the individual event, and in 1988 the team event was added to the program. Further competition rules changes were made for the 1992 Olympic Games which introduced match play to the program.

The only type of bow allowed to be used at Olympic level is the recurve bow. Since the 1984 Games at Los Angeles, South Korea has dominated the women's event. At the Sydney 2000 games, the Korean women won bronze, silver and gold in the individual competition and won gold in the team event. They also won the gold team medals in the 2004 Athens games. However, recently, China, Chinese Taipei, and Japan have emerged as serious challengers to the domination of the Korean women.

[edit] Fun Variations

Further information: archery games

Most archery clubs, especially those with large numbers of juniors, occasionally shoot fun variations on target archery. These fun shoots are generally shot at 20 yards and are designed so that it is not always the 'best' archer who wins. The most common of these are listed below:

[edit] Card Games

[edit] Pontoon

Playing cards are stuck to the target face, face down. Archers shoot 2 arrows, to hit two different playing cards, with the winner being the one with the best hand.

[edit] Poker

Playing cards are stuck to the target face, face down. Archers shoot 5 arrows, to hit five different playing cards, with the winner being the one with the best hand.

[edit] Pairs

Playing cards are stuck to the target face, face down. Archers shoot 2 arrows, to hit two different playing cards, with the winner being the first archer to hit two cards which make a pair.

[edit] Darts

Instead of shooting at a FITA target face, archers shoot at an enlarged dartboard target face, which can be purchased from most archery dealers. Normal dart rules apply, with archers being divided into teams and taking it in turns to shoot at the target. After three arrows have been shot, they are collected and the score recorded.

[edit] Four In A Row

Archers shoot at a 4-by-4 board drawn on a large piece of paper and pinned to the target face. They compete head-to-head, shooting in turn, and must try to get arrows in four consecutive squares (vertically/horizontally/diagonally) before their opponent. This can also be done as a team game or a competition between more than 2 archers.

[edit] Lucky Dip

This is best done outdoors, at a longer distance. Each archer shoots six arrows and then, before scoring, a piece of paper with scoring instructions is pulled out of the bag containing several different slips of paper. This means that an archer has no idea what their score will be when they are shooting. Scoring instructions might be:

• Normal scoring applies
• Reverse scoring
• Ignore all golds
• Whites score 20
• Two or more arrows in the same colour score nothing for those arrows
• Missing the target scores 10
• Negative scoring (you lose the number of points that you have scored)

[edit] Monopoly

An archery variation on Monopoly involves pinning chance and community cards to the target face. Archer shoot to try and hit these cards, which have positive or negative scores on. They might say things such as "You have scored a personal best! Award yourself 20 points" or "You miss the target, damaging one of your arrows. Lose 20 points".

[edit] Picture Shoots

Pictures are drawn on a large piece of paper and stuck to each target face. The picture should be simple, using 5 different colours, with each colour being assigned a score (9, 7, 5, 3, 1), depending on how frequently it appears in the picture. Archers shoot as normally, except when scoring.

[edit] Raffle

[edit] Balloon raffle

Balloons with raffle tickets inside are pinned to the target faces. Each raffle ticket corresponds to a particular prize. Archers shoot at the targets, until they burst a balloon. Then, all archers stop shooting while the archer who has burst the balloon collects the raffle ticket from beneath the target face. This continues until all archers have won a prize.

[edit] Sticker raffle

Stickers with numbers on are stuck to the target face, with each number corresponding to a particular prize. Archers shoot at the target until all the prizes have been won or, alternatively, all archers can shoot a predetermined number of arrows at each target. If two archers hit the same sticker, it is either the first to do so or the one closest to the centre of the sticker that wins the prize. A variation on this involves covering the target and stickers with newspaper, so noone know if they have won a prize until the newspaper has been removed. In this situation, each archer would shoot 3 arrows at each target.

[edit] Snakes and Ladders

A Snakes and Ladders board is drawn on a large piece of paper and pinned to the target, with each square being numbered in ascending order. Each archer shoots a set number of arrows at the target; if they hit a snake, they take the score of the square at the bottom of the snake and if they hit a ladder, they take the score of the square at the top of the ladder. If they hit the target anywhere else, they just take the score of that square.

[edit] Treasure Hunt

A treasure map is drawn on a large piece of paper and pinned to the target. The map is divided into numbered squares and a non-archer chooses a square and writes this number secretly onto a piece of paper that is sealed in an envelope; this is where the treasure is. Archers shoot one arrow each at the treasure map, with the archer that is closest to the 'treasure square' winning a prize.

[edit] See also

• field archery
• history of archery