What Happens during a Competition

This weekend we are hosting an American competition in celebration of the 4th of July. However, we can guess that many new archers will be a little lost, having no experience about what happens during a comp. Rather than the actual shootie parts, which is really just practice in a more formalised format, lets look at the framework inside which the actual archery bit exists. We'll break it down into the various phases of the archery competition happening throughout the day. First off ..

HOW HARD IS A 3 4 BLOODY 5 TRIANGLE?

Pre Competition: The field party arrives early. Really early. These are the people who will set up the field in preparation for actual shooting. They will mark out the field using a 3-4-5 triangle to make sure the field is square. This can be quite a fraught moment when the measuring goes wrong. Tourette's inducing sort of wrong. Once happy with the squared field, bosses will be placed at set distances worked out in advance for the distances defined in the particular round and number of archers attending. These bosses will be precisely aligned via the use of mystic terms like "up in the head" or "left leg couple of kicks". Once the field has been set up and the judges have approved, the field party retire for a lie down.
In days gone by ... natures perfect food would have been enjoyed.

Tournament Organiser: At this point the tourney organiser (TO) takes over roughly around the time the competitors start to appear. The TO should be your first point of call when arriving at the shoot. Get your name ticked off as having arrived and get a look at the target list. Next to your name will be a number and a letter. The number is the target you are assigned to. The letter will denote left or right on the boss and first or second detail. A/B is the first detail, A on the left, B on the right. C/D is the second detail, C on the left and D on the right. Shooting in pairs, these details will alternate who shoots first through out the day - A/B up first odd number ends, C/D even number ends. Once you have this info, go set up your tent, deckchair, bow (take special care setting up), have caf, warm up, relax and gossip til shootie time.

In serious "record status" shoots, the judges would probably examine your bow and personal equipment about now (no Ooooh Errrr! intended) making sure everything in your kit is legal. Compounds 60lbs or less draw weight .. Bare bows pass through a 122mm ring .. Recurves are all gorgeous .. Trads (especially longbow) have the required beard and real ale fetish.

Assembly: The organiser will call everyone to an Agile compatible meeting 5-10 mins before kickoff time called assembly. He will welcome you to the shoot, tell you were the bathrooms are, what to do in case of a fire and then hand the shoot over to the judges. The prince of darkne ..... errr ..... the head judge will now run through the basic format of todays shoot ending his address with "we'll commence shooting in 2-3-5 minutes". Now is the time to get your game face on. Use this time for one last kit check.

Shooting phase: At the start of the competition you get two ends to get yourself and your kit sorted out. This is called practice or sighters. This is the only practice you get so you needed your sight marks for all distances already worked out. Focus on making strong confident shots here even though they don't count, this will settle the nerves. Now, its on ..

Moving a boss is not normally this dramatic

<competitive shootie bit happens here>

During shooting there may be a change of distance .. Here you and your target partners need to move your boss to its new position. The field party will usually help in the case of junior or smaller lady archers but they can't do all the targets. In a normal American its 30 arrows at 60yards, then move the boss to 50yrds. 30 arrows at 50yrds then move the boss to 40yrds. Finally 30 arrows at 40yrds and we're done. Ensure its pegged down properly after each move. If it falls over its going to be onto your arrows or even you.
REMEMBER to change your sights at a change of distance. Do this first before anything else once the last arrow is shot at the completed distance.

Brady Ellison wins chocolate at GA!

End of shoot: Once the competition is done, the scorers will wander off to have a numerically challenged panic attack as they tally everyone's points. Those of us not demonstrating an inability to do simple addition need to help clear the field. Break the bosses down and get everything over to the container to be packed away. Final thing to do is walk the field and look for anything that was dropped or forgotten.

Normally after everything is put away and you have signed your scoresheet .. its kick back time. Time for a caf, goss and whinge till prize giving. Once numbers are checked and invariably corrected - medals will be distributed, people will clap, happy dances will be done and seething homicidal rages are one step closer for everyone who didn't shoot well. Then we all go home. In the case of our American, once we get the field cleared its food time thanks to Captain Sausage.

Specifics might change from shoot to shoot but what you see above is a representative sketch of a days shooting in competition be you Brady Ellison or noob in your first shoot*. Welcome to the competitive scene.

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Iwo-Jima flag raising by tislas from Pixabay
* Admittedly we're not sure how often Brady competes for chocolate.