Innehållsförteckning för Issue 188 från Bow International

Welcome to Issue 188, Traditional Special. This issue’s features are wide-ranging. We have reports, from this year’s Conquest Cup in Türkiye, and from the NFAS 3D Champs here in the UK, followed by an article about the archaeological research that pushed back the history of archery in Europe by some 40,000 years! We address the renewed interest in the Traditional ILF takedown riser, suggesting some beautiful risers, and that is followed by an insightful and inspiring piece by Alex Tyler on the appeal of the Bodnik style field shooting. Adam Miller talks basic traditional gloves and the importance of waxing your string. Lucy O’Sullivan brings a super feature on training heavy, outlining periodisation principles for archers aiming to progress up the poundage scale, supplemented by a case study on how…

The new yellow-teal targets will be trialled at the World Games in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China, August 7 – 17, 2025. The traditional yellow-black Field target face will offer a subtle change to enhance the spectator experience, as spotting the thin black arrow shafts is problematic even for the archers and the broadcasters. A range of colour options was tested by the residents of the World Archery Excellence Centre in Lausanne, and Pantone 4185C was selected. For now, the teal target face will be tested out at the World Games only, with the possibility of changing the standard for other future field events. The World Games is a multi-sport event that takes place every four years. The first Games were held in London in 1985. Interestingly, the event features…

The 13th International Conquest Cup was held between May 25 and 29. The finals always take place on the 29th, which date has profound historical significance for the Turkish people, marking the date of the fall of Constantinople in 1453 after a fifty-five-day siege, and commemorating the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. Customarily, the tournament features modern and the traditional archery events; compound, recurve and Turkish traditional puta (target) took place in its usual venue, Istanbul’s largest target facility - the Okçular Vakfi, the Archer’s Foundation. The target events were accompanied by various seminars, including a paper marbling workshop, and a special exhibition about the development of Turkic archery. The weather was surprisingly mild, at around 21-23 Celsius, with clouds, scattered showers and sunny spells. A second venue, a Flight…

Today’s traditional archery trends encompass many kinds of bows, and it may seem like single-piece bows are running the show - but it is not so. There is another growing trend, especially here in Europe – the Traditional ILF recurve takedown (Trad ILF). The reasons are many, but portability, ease of use, elegant design and affordability are the main deciding factors. WHAT’S THE APPEAL? Archers who opt for single-piece bows (myself included) are generally interested in learning about the history, the ancient techniques, rituals and cultures of their chosen bow. These archers like to obtain bows from the countries of their historic origin, made out of authentic materials, and like to use authentic accoutrements in “the way they were meant to be used”; ancient techniques, even those from the relatively…

See Bow’s Issue 187 (pp. 45 – 47) for Part I of this article. There are several horizontal controls, each with their own level of impact on arrow movement. The first act of tuning a bow is to select arrows appropriate for the bow they will be shot from. The spine of the arrows will depend on the weight at which you will be shooting. An archer will normally select slightly stiffer arrows, allowing room to manipulate the tune, i.e. for strength growth. “It’s easier to weaken an arrow than to stiffen it”. The next thing is to set your bow poundage to match the arrows’ spine, for which you will need to know your limitations, your form and strength, to determine how much arrow you can shoot (Form and…

On June 19th Archery GB announced Badminton England’s Mark Beecher as the new Performance Director for the AGB’s World Class Programme (WCP). Mark has successfully demonstrated his skills with Badminton England in many ways; he led the delivery of GB and Badminton England’s performance programmes, achieving World, Commonwealth and European medals (even during periods without funding). He was instrumental in securing WCP funding for the Paris Games cycle, which enabled the re-establishment of a centralised GB Badminton programme. Moreover, Mark established the Para Badminton World Class Performance Programme from scratch which led to multiple successes at Para Games in Tokyo (1 silver, 1 bronze) and Paris (2 silver). Mark Beecher commented to AGB: "I'm looking forward to supporting the programme, the talented staff and athletes as we build towards sustained…

LOCATION AND VENUE The Thoresby Estate in Nottinghamshire is a busy place. Across April and May, the site hosted a rally for classic vehicles, a market for crafts, and a living history event. The last May bank holiday weekend was the turn of the National Field Archery Society’s (NFAS) 3D championship, which also included plenty of classic equipment, a wide range of crafts, and people using tools from previous eras across the society’s 13 recognised bow styles. NFAS last used the wood for a championship in 2022. Richard Wright, Field Officer for NFAS commented: I wanted to go back because Thoresby has been a solid venue for us in the past but the ground’s a special area of conservation which affected the access and usability. Practicality is important because it meant…

There’s something undeniably primal about drawing a heavy bow. In medieval England, warbows, pulling 120–180lbs, weren’t just weapons—they were a way of life. Boys trained from adolescence, slowly developing the strength and the skeletal adaptations necessary to wield such force. Their bones tell the story - thicker shafts, reinforced joints, and worn-down shoulders—evidence of a lifetime under tension. Today’s aspiring warbow-user has a lot of evidence-based methods and science to fall back on. But they must also be careful - without proper training, your body will let you know—and not in a good way. In this article I would like to share a template, providing a realistic layout for how an archer can approach training for a poundage increase. Suggestions concerning transition to excessively high poundage must be taken with…

When was the last time you waxed your string? Or a better question, have you ever waxed your string? Regardless of the bow you shoot - recurve, longbow or compound – you must take care of your bowstring. WHY WAX YOUR STRING The wax will help prolong the life of your string. How often do you need to wax yours? That depends. If your string is dry, or beginning to get a little fuzzy, apply some wax before you shoot. A properly waxed and cared for bowstring should be smooth and slightly sticky. Depending on the string material and frequency of archery practice, some archers wax theirs every few weeks, some less frequently. However, if your string is beginning to fray, you might simply need a new string! Get into…

Archery GB invite you to nominate the unsung hero in your archery community. Amongst the categories for the Recognition and Performance awards are Club of the Year, Coach of the Year, Inclusive Coaching Award, Judge of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, as well as the High Performance Athlete of the Year. Three nominees will be shortlisted for each of the award categories this year, and the winners will be announced at the official award ceremony at the Performance Archery Centre in Lilleshall this November. To nominate a candidate go to the news section of www.archerygb.org/news. Nominations close at midnight on Monday, September 15.…

EDITOR’S NOTE Many archery history and archaeology fans will recall the exciting news that emerged a couple of years ago, that the history of archery had been pushed back by 40,000 years. The news came from the Grotte Mandrin, the rock shelter overlooking the valley of the Rhone in Southern France. This exceptional cave was once inhabited by ancient peoples who left behind them a wealth of remains, some dating back to 80,000 years BCE. The Mandrin site was first excavated in 1990, where the process of stratigraphical analysis of the site was begun. “Stratigraphy” is the plotting of distinct horizontal layers of rock and soil, each with unique characteristics like colour, texture and signs of past human and other activity. Stratigraphy is crucial in historical reconstruction and forms the…

This short piece is for my fellow Korean Traditional Archery practitioners. Many of you will be aware that I am a keen KTA practitioner and travel to South Korea regularly. My passion for Korean archery extends beyond practice, competition and coaching – it extends to the learning of the native language. I hope that those of you who share the same passion, will benefit from learning the native terms for the Korean traditional bow anatomy. In this transliteration I have spaced out the individual syllables for ease of use and have opted for the more universal basic Romanised phonetic breakdown, adding a few tips; be advised to combine all the syllables when pronouncing a word in its entirety. Please enjoy and practice you pronunciation!…

After finding a suitable venue, the biggest challenge any club faces is setting up their course. I am going to look at some of the challenges in setting a course for a mixed class competition. Course-laying is not about making things difficult for the archers, but delivering an enjoyable and challenging day. Since I started shooting, I’ve been interested in course laying: How are shots perceived by different people? How do different bow styles perform? What makes one shot work for one style but not another? How do these factors and others impact the design of a shot for it to work? I freely admit I’m no expert, but over the years I’ve been very fortunate to be involved, initially in setting one or two shots on club courses, and…

Some value traditions for their own sake, whilst others are continually seeking the new, wanting change. Either view has its supporters. But why are people drawn to the traditional? Traditional things evoke nostalgia, they speak of history, they have memories of their own. They may also contain intrinsic value. What traditions can offer to those who uphold them is comfort, safety, a foundation, a sense of belonging to a certain community or cultural identity. Traditional practices consist of rituals which provide certainty and a greater sense of being present in the moment. What is more, and this is pertinent to traditional archery practices, regardless of the level of rigidity of ritual involved – from the strict rules and codes of conduct of the Japanese Kyudo, to shooting a progressive round…