Archery

As part of the School Games programme, archery provides more competitive opportunities for young people. The sport developed competition formats for both intra- and inter-school competition at primary and secondary levels. that by supporting schools and their networks to deliver the School Games, more young people will be introduced to archery and enjoy further opportunities through clubs.

Find out more about how to run archery competitions.

Equipment needed

• Indoor or outdoor range
• Free-standing targets
• Bows and arrows
• Arm braces
• Cones

A brief history of archery

Whilst archery dates back 60,000 years, archery as a sport has its roots in 18th century London where the aristocracy revived it as a competitive sport. By the mid-19th century, the rules of the sport were standardised and a Grand National was formed in 1844. It became an Olympic sport in 1900 for several Games, but was not featured after 1920.

By the 1920s, the archery bow underwent a redesign courtesy of professional engineers, and this led to the modern compound and recurve bow. Archery has been a Paralympic sport since 1960, and it returned to the Olympics in 1972.