Archery Types
Bath Archers shoot two main types of Archery: Target Archery and Field Archery. Target archery is shot at our home ground in Batheaston. Field Archery is shot at our site in Hunstrete.
Target Archery
World Archery was founded in 1931 as FITA (Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc) with the mission of getting modern competitive target archery back onto the Olympic Programme. It changed its name to World Archery in 2009 and, through its 160-plus member associations, regulates, promotes and encourages participation in the modern sport of archery.
Target archery competitions may be held indoors or outdoors. Indoor distances are 18 m and 25 m. Outdoor distances range from 30 m to 90 m. Competition is divided into ends of 3 or 6 arrows. After each end, the competitors walk to the target to score and retrieve their arrows. Archers have a set time limit in which to shoot their arrows.
Targets are marked with 10 evenly spaced concentric rings, which have score values from 1 through 10 assigned to them. 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. Archers score each end by summing the scores for their arrows. Line breakers, an arrow just touching a scoring boundary line, will be awarded the higher score.
Different rounds use different sized target faces and distances. These range from 40 cm (18 m FITA Indoor) to 122 cm (70 m and 90 m FITA, used in Olympic competition).
Field Archery
Field archery involves shooting at targets of varying (and sometimes unmarked) distance, often in rough terrain. Three common types of rounds (in the NFAA) are the field, hunter, and animal. A round consists of 28 targets in two units of 14 (until the early 60's two rounds of 28 were shot for 56 targets). Field rounds are at 'even' distances up to 80 yards (some of the shortest are measured in feet instead), using targets with a black bullseye (5 points), a white center (4) ring, and black outer (3) ring. Hunter rounds use 'uneven' distances up to 70 yards (64 m), and although scoring is identical to a field round, the target has an all-black face with a white bullseye. Children and youth positions for these two rounds are closer, no more than 30 and 50 yards (46 m), respectively. Animal rounds use life-size 2D animal targets with 'uneven' distances reminiscent of the hunter round. The rules and scoring are also significantly different. The archer begins at the first station of the target and shoots his first arrow. If it hits, he does not have to shoot again. If it misses, he advances to station two and shoots a second arrow, then to station three for a third if needed. Scoring areas are vital (20, 16, or 12) and non-vital (18, 14, or 10) with points awarded depending on which arrow scored first. Again, children and youth shoot from reduced range.
