The one and most impactable game archery sport, practice or skill of using a bow to propel arrows. The word comes from the Latin arcus.

Archery : Meaning | History | Equipments used

Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern times, it is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity.

Archery : Meaning | History | Equipments used

A person who practices archery is typically called an archer, bowman, or toxophilite.

There are two main forms of aiming in archery: using a mechanical or fixed sight, or barebow.

Mechanical sights can be affixed to the bow to aid in aiming. They can be as simple as a pin, or may use optics with magnification. They usually also have a peep sight (rear sight) built into the string, which aids in a consistent anchor point.

Meaning of Archery 

Archery is a sport demanding a range of skills from a steady hand, strong shoulders, flexible muscles, a keen eye and a cool disposition.

Also Archery has a number of health and fitness benefits, as well as being an enjoyable and social sport.

Archery : Meaning | History | Equipments used

Archery equipment has improved in its technology since its humble beginnings, but the sport remains essentially unchanged.

Modern bows are made of a combination of wood, coated with carbon fibre, fibreglass or ceramic. The arrows consists of a carbon or aluminium shaft with a steel head, and can travel at speeds of around 149mph (240kph.)

History of Archery 

From prehistoric times, the bow was a principal weapon of war and of the hunt throughout the world, except in Australia.

Recreational archery also was practiced, along with military, among the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, one instance of the latter being the competition in which Odysseus won the hand of Penelope.

Archery : Meaning | History | Equipments used

History of Archery as the Huns, Seljuq Turks, Mongols, and other nomadic horse archers dominated large parts of Asia for about 15 centuries from the 1st century CE. English longbowmen achieved glorious military victories in the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453), while on continental Europe the crossbow became widely used, especially in Switzerland, parts of Germany, France, and the Low Countries. In Europe the bow and arrow were displaced by firearms as a military weapon in the 16th century.

By the time the Spanish Armada attempted to invade England in 1588, an English county troop levy consisted of one-third bowmen to two-thirds soldiers with guns, and by century’s end the bow had been almost abandoned as a weapon.

The bow was retained as a hunting weapon, and archery continued to be practiced as a sport in England by both royalty and the general public. The earliest English archery societies dated from the 16th and 17th centuries.

The prince of Wales, afterward George IV, became the patron of the Toxophilite Society in 1787 and set the prince’s lengths of 100 yards (91 metres), 80 yards (73 metres), and 60 yards (55 metres); these distances are still used in the British men’s championship York round (six dozen, four dozen, and two dozen arrows shot at each of the three distances).

These recreational activities with the bow evolved into the modern sport of archery. In 1844 the first of the Grand National Archery Meetings—the British championships.

Equipments used

  • Types of Bows

While there is great variety in the construction details of bows (both historic and modern), all bows consist of a string attached to elastic limbs that store mechanical energy imparted by the user drawing the string.

Archery : Meaning | History | Equipments used

Bows may be broadly split into two categories: those drawn by pulling the string directly and those that use a mechanism to pull the string.

Directly drawn bows may be further divided based upon differences in the method of limb construction, notable examples being self bows, laminated bows and composite bows.

  • Types of arrows and fletchings

The most common form of arrow consists of a shaft, with an arrowhead at the front end, and fletchings and a nock at the other end.

Arrows across time and history have normally been carried in a container known as a quiver, which can take many different forms.

But Shafts of arrows are typically composed of solid wood, bamboo, fiberglass, aluminium alloy, carbon fiber, or composite materials. Wooden arrows are prone to warping.

  • Bowstring

Dacron and other modern materials offer high strength for their weight and are used on most modern bows.

Archery : Meaning | History | Equipments used

Linen and other traditional materials are still used on traditional bows. Several modern methods of making a bowstring exist, such as the ‘endless loop’ and ‘Flemish twist’.

  • Protective Equipment 

Most modern archers wear a bracer (also known as an arm-guard) to protect the inside of the bow arm from being hit by the string and prevent clothing from catching the bowstring.

The bracer does not brace the arm; the word comes from the armoury term “brassard”, meaning an armoured sleeve or badge.

The Navajo people have developed highly ornamented bracers as non-functional items of adornment.

By Rishabh

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