Competitions
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Competition is an important element of most sports, and archery is no exception. Many people find that the challenge of competing against themselves provides all the satisfaction they need, while others enjoy competing against other archers at various levels of the sport.
This part of the website will deal with the various methods of competition and will provide information about how you can monitor your own progress within the sport.
Background
The Federation Internationale De Tir A L'arc, or FITA as they are usually referred, is the governing body for Olympic archery worldwide. FITA provide a standard set of rules that cover all aspects of shooting, from safety on the shooting line, to the way that competitions must be run. The Grand National Archery Society, or GNAS, are a member of FITA, and they govern Olympic archery within the UK.
The Gentleman & Lady Archers of Darlington are affiliated with the GNAS and must therefore adhere to their rules of shooting, which can be downloaded in full from the documents page of this website. All members of the Gentleman & Lady Archers of Darlington are also members of the GNAS, and this provides benefits such as insurance cover when shooting.
Round Types
A round is made up of a given number of arrows shot at set distances away from the shooting line, and shot at a certain size target face, sometimes different size target faces are used at different distances. For FITA competitions the distances are measured in metres, while GNAS rounds are traditionally measured in yards, although there are some metric GNAS rounds.
The tables in the links below show the number of dozen arrows that are shot at each distance, to make up a particular round, and where necessary they also show the different size target faces that are shot at. All outdoor GNAS rounds are shot at 122cm target faces, other rounds vary, but this is shown in the tables.
Example: In the "Imperial Rounds" table you will see a "York" round consists of 6 dozen arrows at 100 yards, 4 dozen at 80 yards, and 2 dozen 60 yards.
You will need adobe PDF viewer to view these tables.
There are two main methods of scoring used in competition, and in general all outdoor imperial rounds use "Five Zone Scoring", while outdoor metric rounds, and indoor rounds use "Ten Zone Scoring". The two exceptions to this rule are the indoor imperial "Worcester" round, which uses "Five Zone Scoring", and the indoor "vegas" which has a special type of scoring, and a different target face. The difference between the two main types of scoring is illistrated below.
Scoring
When using either method of scoring, if an arrow touches the line of the higher scoring ring, then the higher score is awarded.
