[shhh-thunk]
Hey guys, this is NUSensei. As you're probably aware by now
there's been a huge buzz with the Olympic Games kicking off in Rio, and already in
the archery events
there's been a lot of excitement and success. The South Korean men's team and
the women's team taking the gold medals in their respective events. The USA men's team
taking silver, and the Australian men's team making history by being the first
Australian team to win a medal at the Olympic games having scored
bronze over their Chinese opponents, and of course, there will be more excitement in the days
to come as we bear witness to the individual events.
Now, for people who are watching archery on TV right now and are completely new to
the whole sport,
there might be a lot of confusion as to exactly what's going on. What's happening?
What equipment are they using? How far are they shooting? And how does the whole
thing work?
Perhaps by answering these questions this might inspire you to take your first steps
in archery and perhaps become a future Olympic champion.
Firstly, let's talk about archery equipment. For many people, the image of
an archer is based on the figure of Robin Hood shooting a wooden longbow, but
the archery you see in world competition on TV is much different.
The bows are much fancier, looking nothing like those used in times of olde,
and you might say that these bows
are heavily sport-ized. Just as the modern competition pistols and rifles used in
the shooting events
look nothing like their military counterparts, modern target sport bows are
far different in design and materials compared to historical war bows.
The materials today include fiberglass, carbon, and aluminium as used in
bows and arrow designs.
Additionally, modern target bows have more accessories to make aiming and
shooting a bit more consistent and easier,
including sights, stabilizers, and clickers. These additional items
don't necessarily make it easier to shoot, but it does make it more consistent for
the archer to achieve tighter groupings and higher scores over longer distances.
Fundamentally, the function of the bow is still the same. You pull it back, and you let go.
The archer still has to do the work.
It's also important to note that the archery you see at the Olympic Games is
only one classification. In World Archery
there are several different types of bows that can be used. The one you see in
the Olympic Games, and the only recognized Olympic discipline, is
Freestyle Recurve, which describes the type of bow and accessories used. The other major
classification which is used at a competitive level is Compound. Now
compound bows are far more technical, they're far more consistent, and they're far more
competitive in terms of scores. That said, it's currently not recognized as an
Olympic event so you only see this in other World Archery events.
Another question that is frequently asked is "how far do they shoot?"
Now, the target you see here is a standard Olympic target. It is 122cm across.
Now, the distance I'm standing at is 7m.
Now, on TV, these targets look really big, and
it looks really easy. You do get to see the arc of the arrow going over the target and
slamming into the bullseye, but it isn't actually that easy.
While this 7m line it looks nice and big, the actual distance shot in the
Olympics is 70 meters.
Let's see what that looks like outside. So this is the 70 meter shooting line at
my archery range. Now the target you see at the end is actually smaller, an 80cm
target face, but you should get a fair idea of how far this is. If
this doesn't make sense to you
I'm going to actually walk the whole distance.
Yep, it took me nearly a minute to cover the distance.
It's definitely not as close as it looks on TV, and, for the record, an arrow
could probably cover this distance in around two seconds.
The final question, and the one that fascinates me the most, is how do you
actually get there?
How do you compete on the world stage at the Olympic Games and get a gold medal,
and the answer is starting in places like this.
We are a long way from Rio, but the true dreams
begin in grass roots clubs like this one.
So how does one go from never holding a bow to becoming a world champion.
The first step is at club level. What you should do is look for your closest local
clubs and find out when they run their introductory sessions for beginners.
They will teach you how to shoot using basic equipment and teach
you good form and good habits. Once you acquire a taste for archery
you may then opt to look at going for a more advanced course, or becoming a member,
and lookng to buy your own equipment. Getting your first bow kit is a huge milestone.
Archery is a very personalized sport, and owning your first bow means you can
change things, swap things out, find out what works for you, and owning your own bow means you take the
first step in owning your archery journey.
This journey is not a short journey.
Don't expect to become an expert marksman within weeks or even months.
Expect to spend years learning and honing the skills needed to become a consistent
archer. Archery is one of those sports which take a short time to learn but a long
time to master. You will go through the highs and lows of archery as you
practice practice and practice, and going through those highs and lows is part of
the archery journey. Even at an early stage start looking at participating in club shoots.
This may be a regular, casual club shoot, or maybe a club tournament. Even
inter-club tournaments, and low state level tournaments aren't that daunting.
You may think "no, I'm not good enough," but don't worry.
Many people take their first competitive steps in archery through local tournaments.
The more you do, the more experience you get, and the more hunger you feel in trying
to do better in your archery. When you start doing regular events, including
state championships and ranking events, you'll start accumulating ranking
points. You may then start to appear in state and national rankings, and your
performance will be tracked by your national archery association. If you
perform exceptionally well over a period of time you may be identified as a
person of interest, and this may open up opportunities for state team selection,
high performance training, or even national team selection, and let's say
you do make it on the national selection shortlist,
what then? What events do you do to get into the Olympics? The Olympic tournament
features 128 athletes.
64 men and 64 women. A national Olympic committee or country
has the ability to send a maximum of six archers, three men and three women, but the
exact number depends how many spots have been allocated based on previous qualification. A number
of spots is allocated to the host nation, in this case
Brazil is allowed to send the maximum number of three men and three women.
Additionally, a number of spots is also given at the discretion of the
tripartite commission. The remainder of the spots is allocated based on national
team performance in prior events. Each event has a certain number of spots up for grabs,
Which means that a country can qualify from one to six archers based
on how well their individual athletes perform. The biggest allocation comes
from the World Championships followed by several World Cup events which happen
throughout the year.
Normally, the team spots take precedence. What that means is that a national team
that ranks highly in the team event, will be given team spots. Now, a
team consists of three archers. So, if a team qualifies for the team event, all three
archers also qualify for the individual event. Once the team-based spots are given
away, the remainder go to the individual events. So individual rankings in these
events will qualify the nation for individual spots in the Olympic Games.
This is why some countries
will send three archers. Others will send only one.
It's based on whether the country's qualified for a team spot or an individual spot.
Outside of the World Championship and the World Cups,
there are also regional and continental events, such as those based in Oceania,
Africa, Europe, Asia, and so on.
It's important to note that an archer does not earn a spot for themselves, they
earn a spot for the national team. For example, if I were to represent Australia
at the next World Cup, and I finish second,
that means I might qualify Australia for the next Olympic Games.
That doesn't mean I get that spot. The selection process is purely based on the
National Olympic Committee, who might have criteria such as ranking, recent
performance, and so on.
It's not uncommon for an archer to earn a spot for the national team but not get
that spot.
So, let's fast forward a bit, and let's say I've been selected to represent
Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Hmm, what happens then? The first part of the competition
usually isn't broadcast on TV. Not many people know about this.
What you normally see on TV is the knockout elimination round,
which is in match play format. The first event, however, which normally
happens on day zero, before the Games begin,
is a ranking round. This is shot at 70m, and all archers shoot 72 arrows
for a maximum score of 720. Your performance in this ranking round will
give you a seed. This will, therefore, match the best athlete
against the lowest ranked athlete, and, ideally, that means that the best athletes don't
face each other in the initial knockout rounds, saving the competition to the very end.
It is worth noting that you do need a minimum qualifying score in this
particular ranking round to even get into the Olympic event.
Now, that said, if you don't perform well on the day, you still get ranked and seeded,
but you might not get a very high place, which means you might face harder opponents or
more higher ranking opponents, much earlier in the knockout round.
Additionally, this ranking round is where the world records are drawn from. Unlike
sports like running and swimming, where records
are smashed in the actual race, the final elimination round in archery
are knockout only based on set points, similar to, say, tennis.
So the only scores which are valid for world record claims are the ones in the
ranking round. Once the ranking round is done, and all the athletes are seeded,
it proceeds to a traditional knockout format. The round of 64, the round of 32, the round of 16,
and finally the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the grand final.
The knockout rounds are shots at 70m using a set point system. The archer who
shoots a higher score in each three arrow end
will win two set points. If it's a drawn end, it's one point each. The first archer to reach six points
wins the set, and then goes through to the next round.
Should neither archer reach six points by 5 ends, it goes down to a one arrow shoot off.
The person who is closest to the center of the target wins.
That's basically how archery at the Olympic Games works. From the very bottom
at the grassroots club level rising up to the very top of the podium at the Olympic Games.
So, hopefully, that answers most of the questions you might have about Olympic archery.
Of course, if I haven't covered something that you want to know about, feel free to ask below.
This is NUSensei. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time.