Target Archery
Target archery consists of shooting at stationary circular targets set at specific distances. Target archery uses the yellow, red, blue, black and white targets – the colours having different scores – and in competitions these are usually set at distances of up to 70 metres for recurve archers and 50 metres for compound archers although this can be shorter or longer depending on the round and category you have entered. Barebow and longbow archers also tend to shoot up to distances of 50m and 70m but longbow men can shoot up to 90m in some competitions.
The earliest known target archery competition was held in Finsbury Park in London, in 1583.
The archery competitions at the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and some at the World Games use the target archery discipline.
Indoor archery
Indoor archery is target archery when practised indoors – many clubs in the UK will practise indoor archery over the colder months when poor weather conditions would make target archery difficult.
Competitions at international events use smaller versions of the yellow, red, blue, black and white targets, usually set at a distance of 18 metres or 20 yards for recurve, compound, longbow and barebow archers.
Field archery and 3D archery
3D archery consists of shooting at stationary foam targets in the shapes of different animals set at varying distances, heights and angles around a course. The course may be in a forest, or on rough terrain. Each foam animal has scoring rings which denote different scores and between one and three arrows may be shot at each target.
Since 2003, World Archery has organised the World Archery 3D Championships every two years.
Field archery involves shooting at stationary circular targets of different sizes set at varying distances, heights and angles around a course.
The competition rounds used at international events use a yellow and black target set at distances of between 5 and 60 metres for recurve, compound, longbow and barebow archers.
Clout
Clout archery is a form of archery in which archers shoot arrows at a flag (known as “the Clout”) from a relatively long distance and score points depending on how close each arrow lands to the flag.
Scoring zones are defined by maximum radii from the flag pole. Each arrow scores points depending on which scoring zone it enters the ground in. An arrow embedded in the flag pole is counted as being in the highest scoring zone. If an arrow is lying on the ground, it is considered to be in the scoring zone in which its point lies.
The scoring zones may be marked on the ground. Where this is not practical, a non-stretch rope or chain marked with the radii of the scoring zones is attached to the flag pole and swept around it to determine which arrows are in which zones.
A designated person collects the arrows in each zone, sorts them into sets, and lays them on the ground. Each archer in turn points to his or her arrows and calls out the scores in descending order.
A single clout round consists of three dozen arrows, shot in ends of 6 arrows. Tournaments typically consist of a double clout round, in which a total of six dozen arrows is shot.