The Novice Handbook
Competitions
Competitions are the best way to develop your archery skills and meet archers from other clubs. It's important to attend as many as possible!
There is a limited number of events we compete in throughout the academic year so each one really is a great opportunity to challenge yourself as an athlete.
Furthermore, every competition is also a fun social experience and usually includes spending time with the other clubs over a drink or a meal!
If you've got a competition coming up, click on the title text on the left to know how to prepare!
Student competitions
Scottish Student Sport Archery:
In SSS events we compete against archers from other university clubs in Scotland. These events are all organised locally, so we mostly only have to travel to Heriot-Watt or St Andrews.
Throughout the year we usually attend and/or host:
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Five League Matches (three in semester one, two in semester two)
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Indoor Championships & Head-to-Heads
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Outdoor Championships & Head-to-Heads
BUCS:
In BUCS events we compete against student archers across all of the UK. In order to be able to attend, we have to shoot a qualifying score in other events first.
In Semester Two we attend:
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Indoor Regional Qualifiers
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Indoor Finals
And in June we travel to Lilleshall to compete in:
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Outdoor Championships, which take place over a few days.
Rounds
At competitions we shoot a specified number of arrows at specified distances, at a specified size of target face, which is called a round.
This website provides a good read for beginners to get them introduced to the concepts and information of competition rounds.
The most common student indoor round is the Portsmouth:
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20 ends of 3 arrows, 60 total
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20 yards distance
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60cm target face
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ten-zone scoring (1-10)
At SSS indoor competitions we sometimes shoot the Worcester round:
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12 ends of 5 arrows (60 total)
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20 yards distance
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16 inch target face
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five-zone (1-5)
Another common indoor round is the WA18, used for almost all non-student competitions:
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20 ends of 3 arrows, 60 total
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distance of 18m
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40cm target face
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ten-zone scoring (1-10)
Outdoor rounds are a bit more complicated, and are usually different for different categories of archers. The ones we will mostly shoot and practice are WA900, WA720, and Head to Heads rounds.
Other competitions
Field archery is where you go around a forest usually and shoot a mix of targets. Most of the time half of the targets are unmarked, which means you need to estimate the distance. Also unlike indoors and outdoors, there is no requirement that the terrain be flat! You might be shooting up a hill or down into a quarry.
Currently there is very little field archery in Scotland, this is hopefully changing!
Open competitions are competitions that anyone can compete in, and are a great opportunity to prepare for other competitions and meet new people! There are multiple across Scotland, and we highly encourage attending. Check out Scottish Archery for local options and dates. As these approach make sure you keep an eye out for any information from us if there's a group of students planning to attend!
Archery Institutions
There are several institutions that we get involved with as a university Archery Club in Scotland. The two main institutions you should know about are Scottish Student Archery (SSS) and British University and Colleges Sport (BUCS). Read below to find out more.
The main organisational body for Archery in Scotland. Our Secretary has registered you for it already!
Scottish Student Sport (SSS/Triple S)
The main organisational body for all student sport in Scotland.
Scottish Student Archery (SSA)
Working as a part of Scottish Student Sport, they organise the majority of the competitions we attend.
British University and Colleges Sport (BUCS)
They organise the major national student competitions we attend.
The national governing body for archery in the whole of the UK, they provide us with official guidelines, rules, and regulations. Our Secretary has registered you for it already!