Some archers train every day, others a couple of days a week or month, and others only a few days a year. Depending on what type of archer you are, you may feel the need to train more and more frequently. The area where you live and the proximity of archery facilities may affect your frequency of practice. Some lucky people live very close to the range and others are so far away that they have to plan their travel to train and because of this don’t get to train as often. Regardless of where you live and your distance from the range, it is much easier to set up a home range. Learn all about how to practice archery at home in this guide.
If you are just starting in archery, you will find it easier to practice and train if you can do it at home, since at home you will have fewer impediments to regular training.
– When practicing at home, safety should be the first concern. Find a place with no windows or accessible spaces behind the target. Make sure that there is no risk of an accident if an arrow misses the target or is shot unintentionally (when the clicker sounds and the arrow is reflexively shot).
– Make sure that no one in your house can accidentally cross in front of the shooting area or the target, or open a door and cross the shooting area. If possible, limit and secure the shooting area with plastic tape or other means to stop any direct access to the target from either side or behind the target.
– When practicing, inform everyone in the house of this and indicate areas to avoid.
– Do not wear headphones while archery training. You need to be able to hear if someone is approaching so that you are forewarned not to shoot the arrow.
– Make sure the foam (the target-parapet) is in good condition and stops the arrow. Verify that the target is well fixed so that it cannot fall.
– Keep a minimum distance of 50 cm from the back of the target to the wall or any furniture behind it.
– Before starting the training, perform a proper physical warm-up.
Safety First: Home is NOT a Shooting Range
– When using the bow at home, make sure that the ceiling is high enough to prevent the top of the bow from touching the ceiling or any other element when the arrow is shot (furniture, plants, lamps, etc.).
– Maintain the necessary distance between your shooting position and the target, to prevent the long stabilizer from hitting the arrows when they are stuck in the target.
– Use appropriate materials for the target and make sure that the arrow cannot pass through the target.
– Before shooting, check that the sight is adjusted for close-range shooting.
– If training outdoors, make sure you have a wall or safety net behind the target to avoid a possible accident if the arrow misses the target. Place a panel or a wooden defense (the wall is better than a net) or keep a distance free from people passing by about 50 to 60 m after the target (a safety wall is always better).
– Each person is responsible for the necessary safety measures when shooting an arrow, regardless of where it is practiced and in what conditions.
How To Practice Archery At Home: Physical Conditioning
General or specific
This set of exercises is intended to work the muscles specific to shooting, keeping them in shape and ready for archery practice.
As was the case with the technical exercises, the physical exercises are also identified with a logo indicating their level of difficulty. Again, this is for guidance only. Before executing them, check if your physical condition is following the difficulty of the proposed exercise. For each of them, we suggest several repetitions. Decide individually to adapt the repetitions, recovery time, and sets according to your fitness level.
Never forget to warm up properly and to maintain total control of your posture and movements during the execution of the exercise.
You can alternate physical exercises with shooting exercises. As much as you feel like it, as much and as often as you can, as long as the executions are performed correctly and with control. And as often as the time available for training allows. The important thing is to spread the loads throughout the week. It is better to work more days a week for a short period than one day a week for a long time.
How To Practice Archery At Home: Types of Arches
Recurve Bow
The recurve bow is precisely the one in the picture above. If you notice, the blades (the upper and lower part of the bow) do not go backward, but at the ends, they make a counter-curve concerning the curve of the bow itself. It is precisely this second curvature that gives it its name.
Pulley Bow or Compound Bow
The name “Compound Bow” comes from the English translation of “Compound Bow”, but in reality, a compound bow would be any bow made with sheets of different materials and whose appearance can be quite similar to the Recurve.
However, for whatever reason, the Pole Bow is better known as the Compound Bow, so we are going to refer to it that way, without getting into linguistic technicalities.
On the right, you have a picture of a compound bow. As you can see, the string is not directly attached to the blades, which are not technically speaking bow-shaped either, but these end in a pulley through which the string to be shot circulates.
Differences Between Recurve and Compound Archery
In reality, the real differences refer to quite technical aspects with which it is necessary to have some familiarity to understand them and that is why we are not going to go into detail. We will only focus on the most obvious differences for the spectator of the sport:
Differences Between Recurve and Compound Bows.
The shape and the string tensioning system, I think I don’t need to tell you that. Also, the size, since the compound bow is much shorter, although at the same time it is usually heavier (photo on the right).
Age. The recurve bow, although much less technician than the current ones, has been around for centuries, while the compound bow was invented in the ’60s of the last century.
The compound bow provides much more power and speed. It also allows for greater precision.
Recurve archery is part of the Olympic program. The compound is not.
If you want to know the technical differences we were telling you about, we recommend this specialized page.
Rules of Archery – Competitions
There are many sport modalities of archery. From the practically unknown Popinjay, which consists of shooting almost vertically at wooden birds placed at a certain height to shoot them, to Sky Archery, which is a kind of biathlon where the carbine is substituted by the recurve bow.
However, the most recognized and most practiced modalities at the competition level are those of target shooting either outdoors or indoors (indoor).
Outdoor Archery
This modality is disputed, as its name indicates, outdoors. The international rules of archery establish a distance of 70 meters to the targets in recurve archery competitions and 50 meters for compound archery.
The size of the targets is also different. Although both are composed of 10 concentric rings scored from 1 to 10, with 10 being the inner ring, the recurve bow measures 122 centimeters in diameter, and the compound bow 80. In the latter case, for international competitions, it is common to eliminate the 4 outer rings.
Indoor Archery
In this case, the distance to the target is 18 meters for both recurve and compound bows, and the target is formed by 3 vertical targets with 6 inner rings each. Each archer will shoot one arrow per target at a time.
In both modalities, there is individual and team competition.
How To Practice Archery At Home: Archery Targets
How To Practice Archery At Home: Individual Archery Rules
Whether it is an outdoor or indoor competition, there are individual and team competitions. In individual championships, the most common is to start with around where each competitor has 72 arrows (60 indoors) launched in batches and whose score is accumulated. The final score determines the seeded competitors, who do not participate in the first elimination round.
Once the elimination rounds are reached, they are played in pairs of 2 contestants, where each one has 5 rounds of 3 arrows. However, depending on the type of bow, the scores will be different.
In recurve archery, setpoints are assigned. In other words, the score of the 3 arrows is added up. The archer who scored the most points is awarded 2 points. In case both archers have the same score, they add one point each. The archer who scores 6 points first wins the elimination round.
In a compound bow, the points obtained in each round are added up. At the end of the 5 rounds, the winner is the archer with the highest score.
In both cases, if there is a tie at the end, it is broken by one arrow. Each archer has one shot and the winner is the one who places the arrow closest to the center.
The winners of these rounds continue to advance as in any other type of competition (eighth, quarter, semifinals, and final, which also includes a B final for 3rd place).
Rules of Team Archery
When competing in teams, whether of the same sex or mixed, the events are developed in the same way but accumulating the scores of the two members of the team.
In the case of recurve archery, the scores of the two members of the team in each round of shots are added up, whoever has scored more points, adds two set points. If both teams tie, one each.
There are other competition formats but these are the most common and the ones we usually see in the Olympic and World Cup events, of which we broadcast the finals live on many occasions.