In archery, a stringed bow is used to shoot arrows towards a target.  Archery was a serious activity long before it became a sport.  Thousands of years ago humans used bows and arrows to hunt food and to make war. 

The first recorded organized archery tournament took place in England in 1583.  Archery became an Olympic sport in 1900.

Competitive archery has various forms, but all have the same goal: to shoot arrows as close to the center of a target as possible.  In the Olympics, competitors stand 230 feet from the target.

The equipment needed is limited to a bow, bowstring, an arrow, and a bow sight. The athletes’ arrows should all be marked with his or her name or initials on the shaft.

There are different size targets for different tournaments.  Targets used in Olympic archery events measure about four feet across and contain 10 rings within rings which represent the different scoring areas.

Scoring in archery is very simple: you just add up the number of points based on where your arrows hit the target.  The highest score for a single arrow is 10 for hitting the center of the target.  Arrows missing the target altogether do not score at all.

In an archery competition, the winner is the person who has the highest total score after a set number of arrows. Archers must shoot a round of three arrows in two minutes or less.  If they are shooting six arrows, they can have a maximum of four minutes.

An arrow that bounces off or hangs from the target will still score based on the mark it makes on the target face. Arrows that stick, like Robin Hood-style, in the end of another will score the same as the arrow in which they are embedded.

Archery takes a keen eye and steady hand.  Do you have what it takes to be a good archer?