2. Archery is the art, practice, or skill
of propelling arrows with the use of a
bow.
Historically, archery has person who participates
A
been
in archery is typically known as
used for hunting and
an "archer"
combat,
or a "bowman“.
while in modern times, its
main use
is that of a competitive sport
3. The bow seems to have been
invented in the later Paleolithic or
early Mesolithic periods. The oldest
indication for its use in Europe
comes from the north of Hamburg,
Germany and dates from the late
Paleolithic, about 10000/9000 BCE.
The arrows were made of pine
and consisted of a mainshaft
and a 15-20 cm long fore shaft
with a flint point. There are no
definite earlier bows; previous
pointed shafts are known, but
* The earliest proof of bows and arrows
may have been launched by
being used
4. The oldest bows known so far come from
Denmark. Bows eventually replaced the spearthrower as the predominant means for launching
shafted projectiles, on every continent except
Australia, though spear-throwers persisted
alongside the bow in parts of the Americas.
Bows and arrows have been present in Egyptian
culture since its predynastic origins.
5. The 1840s saw the first
attempts at turning the
recreation into a modern
sport. The first Grand
National Archery Society
meeting was held in York in
1844 and over the next
decade the extravagant and
festive practices of the past
were gradually whittled
away and the rules were
standardised as the “York
Round”.
Horace A. Ford helped to
6. Towards the end of the 19th century, the sport experienced
declining participation as alternative sports such as croquet and
tennis became more popular among the middle class. By 1889,
just 50 archery clubs were left in Britain, but it was still included
as a sport at the 1900 Paris Olympics.
From the 1920s, professional engineers took an interest in
archery, previously the exclusive field of traditional craft
experts.
Modern game archery owes much of its success to Fred Bear
an American bow hunter and bow manufacturer.
7. Types of bows
While there is
great variety in the
construction details
of bows , all bows
consist of a string
attached to elastic
limbs that store
mechanical energy
imparted by the
user drawing the
string.
Directly drawn
bows may be
further divided
based upon
Compound bows are designed to
reduce the force required to hold the
string at full draw, hence allowing the
archer more time to aim with less
8.
9. Types of arrows
The most common
form of arrow
consists of a shaft
with an arrowhead
attached to the front
end and with
fletchings and a
nock attached to the
other end. Arrows
across time and
history are normally
carried in a
container known as
a quiver, which can
take many different
The arrowhead is the primary
functional component of the arrow.
Some arrows may simply use a
sharpened tip of the solid shaft, but it is
far more common for separate
10. Bow string.- Dacron and other modern materials offer high
strength for their weight and are used on most modern
bows. Linen and other traditional materials are still used
on traditional bows. Almost any fiber can be made into a
bow string.
Most archers wear a bracer to protect the inside of the
bow arm from being hit by the string and prevent clothing
from catching the bow string.
Some archers (mostly women) also wear protection on
their chests, called chestguards or plastrons.
The drawing digits are normally protected by a leather
tab, glove, or thumb ring.
11. To shoot an arrow, an
archer first assumes the
correct stance. The body
should be at or nearly
perpendicular to the
target and the shooting
line, with the feet placed
shoulder-width apart.
To load, the bow is
pointed toward the
ground, tipped slightly
clockwise of vertical and
the shaft of the arrow is
placed on the arrow rest
or shelf.
Typical arrows with three
vanes should be oriented
such that a single vane, the
"cock feather", is pointing
away from the bow, to
improve the clearance of the
arrow as it passes the arrow
