Archery is a great sport that has been around for centuries. It's main purpose was to hunt and battle, now it has become a recreational activity that many around the world love and enjoy. It has also become quite popular after the portrayal of many characters in movies and shows.
In my case I can say I was interested after watching Japanese competitions. But aside from looking awesome, archery is a beautiful sport that takes time and practice to master. So whatever the case may be for wanting to learn about archery, we will go over some of the basic information to get you started on the right way.
Types of Bows
There is a wide variety of bows as well as arrows far from that we see in the Olympic Games, Netflix miniseries, or Hollywood movies. We can categorize them into 3 types of bows according to their design, with this being the following:
Recurve Bow
Compound Bow
Longbow Recurve Bow
Recurve Bow
The recurve bow is the one we see in Olympic games, and the most commonly used in European and Asia countries. The reflex/deflection design of the limbs allows a recurve to shoot arrows quickly.
The larger size of the riser makes it stable in the hand so that there is no handshake (a sort of vibration that hurts the hand). A recurve bow stores more energy and delivers energy more efficiently than the equivalent straight-limbed bow, giving a greater amount of energy and speed to the arrow. They are also usually very accurate, as they typically cut to the center, so the arrow points directly to where you are shooting Used by amateurs, and professional archers, they are usually made from multiple layers of fiberglass, carbon and/or wood on a core of carbon foam or wood.
Compound Bow
Mainly used for hunting and target shooting, compound bow uses a levering system, usually of cables and pulleys, to bend the limbs, the pulley system grants the user anl advantage, and so the limbs of a compound bow are much stiffer than those of a recurve bow or longbow. Compound bows are usually made up of aluminum, magnesium alloy, carbon fiber and fiberglass, just to name a few. In the most common types, there is a cam or wheel at the end of each limb.
The shape of the cam may vary somewhat between different bow designs. Compound bows store more energy and shoot faster than an equivalent peak weight recurve bow or longbow.
Longbow
This is the type of bow that we mainly see in movies such as Robin Hood, the wooden bow. This bow can be as big as the user with the traditional D shape that we commonly think of when some says bows. Longbows for hunting and warfare have been made from many different woods by many cultures.
The historical longbow was a self-made bow of a single piece of wood, but modern longbows can also be made from modern materials or by combining several types of wood into one. These bows can be manufactured by an amateur bowyer in a day or two, but professionals can build one in a matter of hours. Technique It is necessary to distinguish between the technique elements, referring to the body management of the archer or form, and the instrumental technique, referring to the equipment used depending on the type of shooting style.
There are two types of technical forms in archery used in the world: the Eastern which is the most traditional, and the Western who's is the most modern. But what is the difference? The elements of the form such as position, shoulder height, face, upright position of the body, are all relatively similar, the difference between the Eastern and Western form, stands from the use of fingers to pull the string.
While in the East, the rope is grasped with the thumb protected by a thumb ring, the Western would focus on the English thumb, that used two and now three fingers of the tensioning hand (index and ring, and later the middle finger was added), assisted by gloves, finger protectors, or rope or mechanical sling.
At the beginning stage, the greatest rigidity in the training must be associated with the knowledge of the protocols and safety rules, which must be strictly respected, the basic knowledge of the material, the common language with the instructor and colleagues, and the handling of a basic rigid form.
The objectives to be achieved are for the shooter to face the activity in a pleasant way, with safety for third parties and without physical incidents; hence the importance of knowing the safety rules and the use of a rigid and uniform shooting form, giving the shooter the elements to decide whether to continue in the sport.
