Rules and Etiquette for a Reason

This last week has not been a good one for Glasgow Archers because our usual rules and conventions weren't followed. So what went wrong and why were these issues significant .. lets take a look:

Problem 1: Shooting beyond your skill. Archers long to shoot distance. There's something about arrows flying through the air to strike distant targets that speaks to us. The problem comes when you don't strike the target. Now few of us never miss, it happens. But when a significant number of your arrows miss the boss, its time to rethink what you are doing. This distance is beyond your ability and problem 4 (read that one last) is eventually going to be the result. This is why we have the 252 award, to gently walk people up the distances til they reach Olympic distances and beyond. You shoot a round at a set distance. Practice til you achieve consistency at that distance. Get the badge for averaging seven over two rounds then move onto the next distance confident that the next distance is not beyond you. What you don't do is keep shooting into the grass where people lose shooting time looking for your arrows. Everyone should be chasing 252 badges, its how you get better in a controlled and safe way.
You can read about the 252 Award, hopefully going on to chase these badges, here and here.

If your spine is this shape at full draw ... you might be overbowed!

Problem 2: Overbowing. When buying limbs for a bow its important that you select a draw weight that is inside of your body's ability to draw without hurting yourself. This is why club bows start at 18lbs and go up to 28lbs draw weight. So as to allow you to start at a comfortable weight then slowly progress up to more and more significant weights as you work that back. Overbowed archers, that is drawing too high a weight, will strain things, get tired quickly and will not be accurate. Drawing to anchor will have you shaking like a leaf in a hurricane wrecking accuracy and leading to problem 4. Ultimately you will quit archery in frustration. The approach is simple. You creep up the poundages, 2lbs at a time. The first, second, even possibly your third set of limbs will be cheap because you will outgrow them. That is till you buy your first set of good limbs at a decent weight say around 30/32lbs for a woman and 36lbs for a bloke. For more information, we looked at overbowing and draw weights here.

Problem 3: All Carbon Arrows. All carbon arrows are the coming thing these days. Cheaper than most aluminium carbons, lighter and therefore faster .. they are making inroads into A/C's traditional markets. However, there is an issue that exacerbates problem 4. There is very little metal in an all carbon arrow. Its generally just the point and that's not enough to find an arrow in the grass. Metal detectors struggle to get any sort of signal from only a point and on a field with a lot of false positives, arrow finding is murder. You can add collars front and back or use inserts for screw in points but its not a fool proof solution. With all carbons, you now have no room for error in missing the target. How are you going to find the thing in the grass if its longer than a buzz cut? In the US this isn't a big deal because their archery ranges tend to be dedicated spaces. However, in the UK, all carbons are pretty much banned from mixed use UK archery fields outside of specific competitions. As we said, the reason for this is .. once again .. Problem 4.

1 in a 1000 is fine, 1 in 3 not so much!

Problem 4: Arrows vanishing in the Grass. All roads above lead to problem 4. Almost all target archery clubs in the UK have mixed use fields and leaving an arrow in the grass unfound is about as heinous thing that can happen to an archery club. Clubs can lose their field because of this. This is why we have an arrow register. This is why you need to let everyone know there's an arrow in the grass. They need to be found. If the target is too far. If its an all carbon arrow that's missing. If you can't get stable because draw weight is too large .. the reason doesn't matter. An arrow in the grass is a problem that we cannot have over and over. If the line captain tells you you can't shoot all carbons or you have to shoot a shorter distance .. its not negotiable, there is no argument. There's even a song about this over on our music page .. its called Lost at 50 (track 3)

So to sum up this uncharacteristically humourless* article .. Occasionally in the grass is fine, it happens. However repeatedly, as the Python guys said in Holy Grail, "Is Right Out!"

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Probably worth reviewing the two etiquette articles we posted earlier this year ... Etiquette part 1 and Etiquette part 2
* Normal levels of dodgy humour will return in the next GA article