Archery World

There are many types of competitions, the three major ones are field, FITA and 3D. Both field and 3D will have you walk around a course shooting at targets setup at unknown distances. FITA will have you shoot from predetermined distances. FITA is also the one I’m most familiar with. There are many other less popular forms of archery, flight, run archery, ski archery, archery golf, etc.

In FITA, you have the two major divisions of compound and recurve. Then under each of these you are split into gender categories, then age. Anywhere from 18 to 50 years old, you fall into the senior category. Under 18, there’s a division for every 2 years I believe. Over 50, you have Masters 50+, Masters 60+ and Masters 70+. There’s also the odd ball divisions like College and Executive. Executive is basically for adults(18-50) who are not quite ready yet to shoot the full adult distances.

FITA tournaments also vary by season, indoor and outdoor. Indoor season, you shoot from either 18m or 25m depending on the tournament, regardless of gender or age.

Outdoor tournaments, you shoot from different distances depending on gender and age. Adult/Senior male will shoot from 90m, 70m, 50m, and 30m. Adult/Senior female from 70m, 60m, 50m, and 30m. The two longer distances are shot at a 122cm target, the two shorter distances at 80cm target. A full FITA tournament will have you shoot 144 arrow, maximum score of 1440. 36 arrows per distance. At the two longer distances you get 4 minutes to shoot 6 arrows, 6 ends per distance. At the two shorter distances you get 2 minutes for 3 arrows, 12 ends per distance.