Archery is a sport of shooting at some type of a target using a bow and arrow can be done lots of different ways in India. Each way has its own unique style and techniques. This ancient sport originated from historic war tactics and has evolved a lot in present time.
Archery Association of India
Archery Association of India (AAI) decided to do away with the National camp system and encourage the individual academies, in 2001-02, with a view to shake off the prevailing stagnation in Archery in India. The Archery Association of India is now encouraging the SAI centres to take up the mantle of training the Indian Archers.
Categories of Archery
There are several kinds of Archery games are played in India. Broad-head Round is a kind of Archery game that features Archers shooting broad head-tipped arrows. They shoot the arrows through single-sheet or 2-D cardboard cut-outs of animals that remain hung between two wooden poles, and strung in the air by bendable wire, with a large dirt mound behind it as a backstop.
Bionic Buck
In the Bionic Buck kind of Archery game, the Archers attempt to shoot through a small hole (varies from two to four inches in diameter) in the kill area of a cast iron steel deer target. The Darts is a kind of Archery game that is like a big darts game. It has a greater distance and use a proportional segmented target.
Golf Archery
Another kind of Archery game is Golf Archery that is actually a variation of clout archery. This form of Archery uses the same rules and field as the classic golf, except the ball replaced by an arrow and the clubs replaced by a bow.
Night Shooting
The Night Shooting form of Archery game consists of Archers going out on a short, one round course. The Archers use flashlights to light their way through the course and also to shine the targets which often have reflective tape or paint on them.
Padded Arrow Sport
Padded Arrow Sport is another kind of Archery game in which actual bow and arrow is used. The head of the arrows are wrapped in open-cell foam padding to make it a `safety arrow`, in this kind of Archery game.
Running Buck
In the Running Buck form of Archery game, the main objective of the Archers is simply to hit a moving 3D animal target.
Turkey Tester
There are another kinds of Archery game is the Turkey Tester. It is actually a contest to see who can take the head off the target. A durafoam 3-D target is used in this form, with a detachable head on its body.
Field Archery
The rules of shooting for field archery as adopted by the FITA are now generally recognised as the standard form. There are two types of field archery-Freestyle and Barebow.
Freestyle
In Freestyle, the equipment for target archery may be used but in Barebow competition no artificial aiming devices are allowed.
Range of Archery
The range is laid out on a natural terrain in sequence in two courses. Direction and shooting distances vary.
Duration of Archery
A tournament consists of two rounds - a field round and a hunter`s round.
Targets of Archery
There are four circular targets are used with 60 cm, 45 cm, 30 cm and 15 cm diameter. All these targets are divided into three parts- spot, inner ring and outer ring. Except the competitions held FITA rules, the target may be drawn on animal figures, where the centre spot is clearly visible.
Rovers of Archery
Rovers type of competition is held in the rough country where the stances are unspecified. This has similarities to field archery. Clout Shooting: In clout shooting arrows are shot high in the air to fall on a target at a distance of 146.30-182.8 m for men and 109.72-146.30 m for women. The target is marked with a flag. The diameter of the target is 24 ft and has five scoring areas defined by rings of 1 Y2 ft (0.457 m), 3 ft (0.914 m), 6 ft (1.829 m), 9 ft (2.743 m) and 12 ft (3.658 m) respectively.
Flight Shooting of Archery
This type of shooting envisages reaching maximum distance. There are three classes of competition- Target Bow class, flight Bow class and Freestyle class.
