Archery Requires Aim, Balance, and Coordination

2374 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Archery in pre industrial Britain

The arrow flies across the screen seeming to travel a hundred miles per hour, but it must be much less coming from so far away. The arrow misses the bull’s-eye, but darts somewhere in the nine point ring. Dissatisfied with this shot, the archer from Team USA breathes a sigh while preparing for the next arrow. He nocks his final arrow, pulls back and anchors near the crevice in the center of his lips. Ready to release, he holds for a few seconds longer to ensure an improved shot. The archer sighs slowly, then releases. The arrow seems to move through time in slow motion spiraling toward the target. His last shot has to hit the ten point ring or USA will forfeit its silver medal placement. The camera zooms in on the 70 meter target- bull’s eye! Team USA receives the silver medal.
Popularized by the Olympics and other media such as comic books, movies, and novels, archery has experienced a renewal of interest in children as well as adults during the past decade. Katniss Everdeen inspires girls to pick up a bow while comic book heroes like Hawkeye spur young men to shoot. Elements of culture such as these display archery as a difficult, intense sport that also includes an element of fun. Archery is an enjoyable and challenging sport with a rich history that provides people of all ages with rewarding health benefits.
Archery began as a method of hunting employed all over the world. The first written accounts of bow hunting appeared in 1200 B.C with the Assyrians and Hittites (Archery Equipment). Using a bow allowed hunters to kill game from greater distances, reducing the risk of scaring the prey away. These predecessors to the modern bow were constructed from animal bone and wood. Along with pursuing animals, bows were used in batt...

... middle of paper ...

...ctually be pretty good at this.”

Works Cited
"Archery Equipment and History." Olympic.org. IOC, n.d. Web. 27 Oct 2013.
Archery Team Meets and Practice. Personal experience. October 2013-March 2013
Arrington and Marshall. 11 Steps to Archery Success: WMMS Dragon Time. 2011. Video. Youtube.com, Stanardsville. Web. 2 Dec 2013.
Byers, Scott. "A Brief History of Competitive Archery." Articlesbase.com. ArticlesBase.com, 16 Aug 2006. Web. 10 Nov 2013.
Cannon, John. "archery." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Oct. 2013 .
Casteele , John. "What are the health Benefits of Archery?." healthyliving.azcentral.com. azcentral.com. Web. 27 Oct 2013.
Deschaine, Robert. "11 Steps to Archery Success." lps.org. Robert Deschaine, 25 Oct 2013. Web. 26 Oct 2013.
Odom, Shondra. Personal Interview. Sept. 2013-November 2013.

Show More
Related

  • Commentary On The Essay 'Why I Hunt' By Rick Bass

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    For many people, hunting is just a sport, but for some it is a way of life. In Rick Bass’s “Why I Hunt” he explains how he got to where he lives now and what he thinks of the sport of hunting. There are many things in the essay that I could not agree more with, and others that I strongly disagree. Overall this essay provides a clear depiction of what goes through the mind of a hunter in the battle of wits between them and the animal.

    Read More

  • The Powhatan Tribe

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    Another fact is Powhatan warriors used tomahawks or wooden war clubs. They also carried shields and hats. Powhatan hunters use bows and arrows. If you would like to learn more about the Powhatan tribe, please continue reading this paper. You will learn all about the Powhatan and how they lived.

    Read More

  • How to Talk to a Hunter by Pam Houston

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    Houston, Pam. “How to Talk to a Hunter.” Cowboys Are My Weakness. Boston: W.W. Norton &, Incorporated, 2005. 14-17. Print.

    Read More

  • Zen in the Art of Archery

    870 Words  | 2 Pages

    Zen in the Art of Archery, by Eugen Herrigel describes the ritualistic arts of discipline and focus that the Zen religion focuses around. In this book, Herrigel describes many aspects of how archery is, in fact, not a sport, but an art form, and is very spiritual to those in the east. The process he describes shows how he overcame his initial inhibitions and began to look toward new ways of seeing and understanding. In the beginning of the book Herrigel tells us that he is writing about a ritual and religious practice, “whose aim consists in hitting a spiritual goal, so that fundamentally the marksman aims at himself and may even succeed in hitting himself.” (Herrigel p. 4) Through his studies, the author discovers that within the Zen ritual actions, archery in this case, there lies a deeper meaning. Herrigel explains throughout this book that it is not through the actual physical aspect of shooting arrows at targets that archery is Zen, but through the art and spirituality through which it is performed. It is not merely shooting an arrow to hit a target, but becoming the target yourself and then, in turn, hitting yourself spiritually. By meeting this spiritual goal, you will then meet the physical goal. The struggle then is, therefore not with the arrow or the target but within oneself.

    Read More

  • The Most Dangerous Game Analysis

    566 Words  | 2 Pages

    To Mr. Rainsford, hunting is like football to a NFL player. Hunting plays a huge role in his li...

    Read More

  • The Diversity of American Colonial Societies

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    A significant factor in the transformation of the land of the New World was trading and hunting. Before Europeans arrived, the natives had manipulated the land themselves to create herds of buffalo and other animals for food, clothing, and other resources. After European colonization, the hunting and trade systems of both groups of people changed. The natives acquired guns and hors...

    Read More

  • The Cherokee Indians

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    They also hunted small game with blowguns that were accurate from up to 60 feet

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay: Why Shooting Traditional?

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    Modern advances have reduced the need for archers to have perfect form and complete control over their body. This translates to a sport which is more accessible and immediately fulfilling compared to the time-honed training of the past. Nonetheless, the foundations of good archery remain unchanged regardless of the make and model that you hold in your hands. Possessing the skill to shoot well with traditional bows directly translates to the ability to shoot well with modern bows. The opposite is not true; those who have relied entirely on modern gadgets to shoot often have to start fresh when using a traditional bow.

    Read More

  • Whitetailed deer

    1935 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are many different ways in which these hunters killed the whitetail deer in the past and still use some of these objects and methods today. Blunt objects, clubs, spears, knives, axes, harpoons, bow and arrow, traps, snares and guns are some of the objects used for hunting. The Native Americans’ main way of killing deer was bow and arrow. Native American’s methods of hunting were used for centuries. The arrival of the Europeans vastly altered the hunting process. The Native Americans understood hunting, and that is what they did best. Native Americans only hunted what they needed. The entire carcass was used and the other resources were not wasted. From the web site Le Moyne Pictures, a French explorer describes the Native Americans, "The Indians, when hunting deer, used ingenuity such as we had never seen before…” (Le Moyne Index 1994). A clever invention of these Indians was to modify the carcasses of the deer into disguises (1994). This innovation allowed the Indians to get very close to the deer. The disguises made killing them a lot easier with bows and arrows. According to the article, “How the Indians Hunt Deer,” the Native Americans were described as being skillful, “they were able to remove the deer skin and prepare it without any metal knife, just shells, with such skill that I doubt there was anyone in the whole of Europe who could do it better” (1994...

    Read More

  • My First Time Bow Hunting for Elk

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    On a cloudless September afternoon, a hunter stands with a defeated look upon his face. He sighs in disappointment as he watches a bull run through the aspens. He is still shaking in excitement and frustration. He did everything he could, but the bull didn't live that long by being stupid. I had never had that type of rush before, even though I had been defeated I was hooked on bow hunting.

    Read More

  • Essay On Hunting

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    Buffalo have been hunted for many years, but the “Plain Hunters” would be able to butcher about ten to fifteen a day. The “Plain Hunters” were not able to slay as many before the 15th century, but when the rifle came the hunt became easier and more productive. “The first matchlock was created. Before the matchlock, weaponry was fired by grasping a flaming wick to a "touch hole" in the barrel igniting the gunpowder within the “flash pan”. The shooter uses one hand to fire and another hand to hold the prop to stable the firearm” (http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/technique/gun-timeline/). As the years go by, the improvement of hunting weaponry would sky rocket.

    Read More

  • Interpreting Choy's and Taylor's Short Stories: Issues of Modern Racism and Prejudice

    1382 Words  | 3 Pages

    At the time when humans were learning to use spears constructed out of sticks and stones and the

    Read More

  • Weaponry during the Elizabethan Period

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    Long distance weapons were essential to European combat. The main long distance weapons used by Europeans during that time were the longbow and the crossbow. Each form of weaponry had its unique advantages and their pejorative. The long bow (shown in figure 1) was the original form of distance weapons. The term ‘bow’ means to be made from wood, iron or steel. The Welsh, who inhabited England, were the first people to use longbows. Longbows were 6-7 feet long and had a range of 250 yards, and still had the ability to pierce a knight’s armor (Byam 12). A well trained archer could shot 10- 12 arrows in a single minute. Despite these pro’s the longbow had a lot of disadvantages as well. One draw back was only skilled archers, who were costly to train, could use a longbow. Another disadvantage was it didn’t have a ready loaded arrow (Edge 34). The crossbow (shown in figure 2) on the other had been emphatically different. The crossbow had a span of 2-3 feet and could kill a knight on horseback with one shot, because of good aim (Byam 30). Crossbows had ready loaded projectiles, while the longbow didn’t and the crossbow could be used by anyone since it didn’t require any skill. The crossbow did have a down side though, it had slow reloaded because of a crank and it was expensive. Crossbows were also used for other thi...

    Read More

  • What Kingdom Of Heaven Did Wrong Essay

    464 Words  | 1 Pages

    The first thing I would like to talk about would be the use of the longbow. The longbow was invented around 1180 C.E..According to fourriverscharter.org, it was built by a man named Celts in Wales. The

    Read More

  • History of Hunting through the Ages

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    In conclusion I have been studying hunting and I can say that what many people think is hunting is right but that wasn’t always the way that it was. Everything has a history and hunting has a big one little things happen but toughs little things make ideas that grow into bi ones that make the true history of hunting. That history make everything understandable and make the history of hunting true and pure I love hunting and now I can make it a part of my history like I am a part of it.

    Read More

More about Archery Requires Aim, Balance, and Coordination

Open Document