Innehållsförteckning för Issue 189 från Bow International

Welcome to Issue 189, our World Cup Round-up. Instead of regurgitating what has already been said in the newsreels, Bow brings you its own take on the season. We start with Duncan Busby’s meticulous number-crunching for all four World Cup Stages. Felicity May continues with her W. C. host venue history, highlighting most spectacular backdrops to archery’s most important matches. Sophie Meering catches up with Ella Gibson, who shares her thoughts on the 11-point-score system. Our gear fans will be treated to top picks for target and field archery footwear, a selection of the most useful arrow gadgets to help tuning and arrow building at home, as well as another useful article by Duncan Busby on compound arrow rest types. Andrew Smith, a long-time archery shop manager, starts off a…

Since its launch in 2006, the Hyundai Archery World Cup has transformed international competition, bringing Olympic-level sport to some of the world’s most great cities and cityscapes. Designed to give the world’s best recurve and compound archers regular top-level exposure, and spectators a chance to see the world’s best in action, the World Cup has become a staple of the international calendar. But which cities have shaped that legacy? Which venues are now part of archery folklore, and which have faded into relative obscurity? In this brief survey, we look at the event’s journey so far, and the cities that have hosted the most, those that haven’t appeared in years, and the new contenders hoping to earn a permanent place on the map. HISTORY When World Archery launched the Archery…

Your arrow rest is one of the most essential pieces of equipment on your bow; it would be impossible to accurately shoot let alone achieve tight groups without one. The function of an arrow rest is simple — it supports your arrow throughout the drawing and aiming process and upon release provides a straight trajectory without interfering with your arrow flight. A good rest will undoubtedly improve your accuracy and success in competition but with so many different makes and models available how do you know which one is best for you and your style of shooting? There are several different styles available, all of which support the arrow and affect its trajectory in different ways; each style comes with its own range of adjustability and price so you should…

Iam not sure how many of you have been watching the World Cup, but I must say this year’s Stage 4 in Madrid was a real treat; I would highlight the recurve men’s and women’s individual matches, which treated the viewer to not just one, but two nail-biting shoot-offs. There were two matches that stood out. First, the bronze finals match between Korea’s Kim Je Deok and Chinese Taipei’s Tang Chih-Chun – a seesaw of a match which culminated in a tie-break and a shoot-off. Both young men were a great match-up and it could have easily ended in the favour of Chinese Taipei. What this match demonstrates for me is that Kim Je Deok, the two-time Olympian and Olympic gold medallist - (first ever Olympic mixed team gold and…

With six stages behind us, the Archery GB National Tour finals are almost here. The individuals’ highest top four National Tour stage results are added together, and the archers are then ranked in their categories. The top 8 ranked National Tour archers within the Recurve Men (RM), Recurve Women (RW), Compound Men (CM) and Compound Women (CW), and the top 4 Barebow from Barebow Men (BM) and Barebow Women (BW) divisions will be invited to the National Tour. The Finals take place at Wollaton Hall on the weekend of 30th and 31st August, Compound and Barebow Saturday and Recurve Sunday. For latest results and updates visit: www.archerygb.org. To book visitor tickets and to learn more about the event go to: www.nationaltour.co.uk…

PRECISION ARROW PREP KIT This is a super kit for all of those who work on their arrows from scratch. The kit includes all the necessary mini-tools: five brushes for roughing up the inside of any arrow shaft (sizes: .375, .35, .30, .223, and .17 for micro shafts), three swabs for clearing loose carbon dust (sizes: .30 - .35, .24 - .27, .20), a deburring tool for clearing rough edges, a thread adapter for tools with smaller threads, and a handle designed to help you hold and use all the tools in the kit. The handle is particularly useful for archers with bigger hands or limited dexterity. This convenient handheld kit comes in a sturdy zipper carry case and will only cost you $30. Individual swabs and brushes can be…

Park Kyung Rae (69) is known to many as the founder and CEO of one of the world’s leading archery equipment companies, Win & Win, established in 1994. But besides that, Mr Park is one the early South Korean archery pioneers, who can boast many other firsts. BEFORE WIN & WIN Park Kyung Rae started archery in 1972, winning and setting a new Korean record at the 1974 All-round championships. This led him to be selected as the first Korean national team player in 1975. That same year, the Korean National Team first entered the National Training Centre to prepare for international competitions. For several reasons Mr Park could not compete internationally and soon after switched to becoming a coach. In 1984 he was selected coach to the Korean men’s…

Please explain your area of ​ interest to those who may not know you? I am interested in ancient, ethnologically documented, historical, and prehistoric bows and arrows. That is, bows and arrows made in the traditional way, purely from natural materials. I too, use only natural raw materials and try to make my bows as authentic and as close to the originals as possible. My selection ranges from the Mesolithic flatbow from the 8th millennium BC to the Korean horn composite bow of the 19th century. Modern bows made of carbon or fiberglass materials hold no fascination for me. When did you discover your passion for bow making? That must have been around the mid-1980s. I was a young student of prehistory and early history in Cologne, and, since I…

The Hyundai Archery World Cup is the sport’s biggest international tournament circuit, bringing together over 1000 competitors and spanning over 21,000 miles! Beginning in April and covering a total of four stages and four countries, the World Cup is where the best of the best take aim for a chance to reach the grand final, which this year is in Nanjing, China, in October (17th – 19th). The circuit offers the largest prize purse of any outdoor target competition, totalling more than 400,000 Swiss Francs (£370,000/$497,000); with the final four champions each receiving a cool 30,000 Swiss Francs (£27,800/$37,000). Now that’s a good pay day for any professional archer. Each stage hosts individual, team and mixed team categories, and finals are broadcast worldwide on World Archery’s subscription channel Archery+ and…

When it comes to archery, most of the focus rightly goes on bows, arrows, and technique. But there’s one crucial piece of equipment that often gets overlooked - footwear. Whether you’re shooting in a flat field for target archery or navigating the unpredictable terrain of a field archery course, what’s on your feet can significantly impact your performance, stability, and comfort. Let’s take a look at some good products that could help! GENERAL FOOTWEAR TIPS FOR ARCHERS Your feet are your foundation in archery. Stability, comfort, and confidence start from the ground up. Whether you're standing on the shooting line or trekking through woodland courses, appropriate footwear can improve consistency, reduce fatigue, and prevent injuries. Invest in quality footwear; it’s an essential part of your archery kit that supports your…

Q I see a lot of archers spending hours meticulously making their arrows and weighing all the components, even the glue mixing and matching the components to have all the arrows the same weight with no consideration to FOC. I have never had to do this (having made tens of thousands) and find that all made up arrows, especially at the top end, are the same weight or within a grain or two, something that hardly registers. Which is more important, all the arrows the same weight or all the same front of centre balance (FOC)? ARROW MASS VARIATION: A A perfect archer would have a group the size of an arrow hole, centred on the target. As we add the archer’s score loss mechanisms the average group will grow…

Bows and arrows have played a big part in the lives of the Turks, both before and after the advent of Islam. In this article the terms “Turks” and “Turkic peoples” are used to denote ethnic identity, and “Turkish” to denote the nationality of modern-day Türkiye citizens. Traditional archery amongst the Turks throughout its history remains one of the most popular, gender-neutral and (almost) uninterrupted activities - a great case study for anyone interested in the maintenance or revival of traditional archery. The pre-Islamic Turks led a nomadic lifestyle, and nomadic cultures are notoriously problematic to document or analyse, but there is still material for historians to get their teeth into. OVERVIEW: HISTORICAL TIMELINE The practice of archery in pre-Islamic times covers thousands of years, all the way back to…