Archery blog of Toxophilus

Hi

My name is Andy and shoot medieval style archery at my localclub, Companions of the Longbow, which is based near Swindon, Wiltshire UK. Welike to have as much variety as possible in our shooting and over the yearshave devised loads of archery games and challenges. Its almost impossible tofind them in the web since Googling key words such as "archery games"only brings up computer games. Over the weeks I hope to compile them in thisblog for you to try out and hopefully, enjoy. They can be played by all stylesof archery but may need tweaking to suit different types of bow. For thosearchers who shoot seriously, these games will give some light relief frompounding arrows into a butt and can be helpful in honing your skills.

Anyone who knows an enjoyable game are very welcome tocontribute to this blog - the only proviso is that it has to be safe! (I oncesaw one for blind mans buff......). 

For Fun & Games, Bare is Best. 

Hitting anything with a longbow is pretty tricky, notsurprising since it is basically a length of bent wood and a piece of string.So when you do hit the target, you really get a sense of achievement. At theother extreme we have the modern recurve and compound bows with their sights,stabilizers and release aids. In the hands of a decent archer, their accuracyis phenomenal. When it comes to playing archery games, their accuracy becomes abit of a problem in that most games would be over very quickly. For games to befun and competitive, a degree of randomness is required which these shootingaids take away. Now I'm not against modern archery, its just that it is gearedtowards one thing - accurately hitting a FITA target. 

Removing all these aids - shooting barebow - means you have to shoot intuitively in order to hitthe target. By intuitively, I mean that you look at the target, draw and shoot- the eye and brain guides the shooting arm without you thinking about it. Itis similar to throwing a stone at a tin can. You don't aim as such but simplyfocus on the can and throw the stone. With (lots of) practice, what you see iswhat you hit. Some of the games have targets at different distances which meansyou need to rely on binocular vision to judge the distances. Shooting indirectis also a common technique  - shootingthe arrow high into the air to that it lands near the target.

So, if you try out any of these games, I recommend you playthem barebow style. 

Game 1 - Colours 

A team game that requires both speed and accuracy. 

Equipment

• One 80cm FITA style target face per team, mounted on a buttand stand.
• Each archer has 6 arrows.

Game Details

• Archers are divided into teams, each archer having 6 arrows.I advise no more than 6 archers in a team otherwise there is a strongpossibility of arrow damage.
• One archer from each team shoots up to three arrows at thewhite ring of their target. If they hit it, they then withdraw from theshooting line (even if they have not shot all three arrows) and the next memberof the team steps up to the shooting line and aims for the black.
• When the black is hit, the next archer steps to the line andaims for the blue.
• The game continues until the team has hit all the colours inorder from white to gold and then from gold to white.
• If an archer misses the colour having shot three arrows, thenext archer will continue to aim for that colour.
• During the game, as soon as all the archers have shot twiceeach (6 arrows), then "Fast" is called and the game is paused so thearchers can retrieve their arrows from the targets. The game then continueswith the next archer to shoot.
• The winning team is the first to go from white to gold andthen gold back to white.
• If a team member is unsure where their arrow has landed(e.g. very near the line between two rings), then they can alert the rangecaptain who will shout "Fast". All shooting stops immediately whilstthe range captain checks the position of the arrow. If the arrow cuts the line,it is the higher scoring colour that counts. The range captain then resumes thegame.

Variations

Speed Colours

• When an archer in the team hits a colour, they continue tothe next colour (assuming they have any arrows left). The team attempts to getfrom white to gold and back again as quickly as possible.
• The first team to have all their archers shoot twice calls"Fast" and the game is immediately paused and all the other teamsmust stop shooting. Arrows are collected and the game resumes.
• The winning team is the first to go from white to gold andthen gold back to white.

Individual Colours

• Although colours is a team game, there is no reason why itcan't be played individually.
• Each archer shoots six arrows, beginning with the white,then black etc.
• An archer can only go for the next colour once the previousone has been hit.
• As soon as an archer has shot all 6 arrows, they shout"Fast" and everyone else must stop shooting even if they have notshot all their arrows.
• Arrows are collected and the game resumes.
• The first archer to go from white to gold and then gold backto white is the winner.

Game courtesy of www.blackcatarchery.com</span>