01 Jul Kids these days

My name is Patrick and I’m the Treasurer for Lincoln Park Archery Club. I first started shooting competitive target archery in the early 2000’s through my local JOAD (Junior Olympic Archery Development) club. In those days, things were… different. USA Archery was NAA (National Archery Association), World Archery was FITA (Fédération Internationale de Tir à l’Arc), and social media wasn’t a thing. #relevant

If you can’t already tell, I’ve become one of those “back in my day” type old head archers. 

Back in my day, archers could only wear navy or white trousers and a white collared shirt when competing. No exceptions. It was not uncommon to see an archer turned away at the registration desk because they didn’t know the rule and showed up in blue jeans. 

Back in my day, archers shot real distances. Outdoor FITA Rounds were used for qualifications. 144 arrows over 2 days. 36 arrows at each distance (90m, 70m, 50m, and 30m). It was grueling. Assuming you made it into the top 64, the third day consisted of single elimination head-to-head matches. Last archer standing wins. 

BUT, change is inevitable. And in most cases, it’s for the better. As the Tik Tok generation grows their love for the sport it may be time for even more changes. Something us old heads need to embrace. #mid

The unprecedented growth we’ve seen in 3D and Field archery coupled with new broadcasting opportunities creates an interesting dynamic shift. Do we as archers and event organizers format shoots the way we always have? Long, grueling shoots where the spectator is likely to fall asleep out of boredom. Or, do we adjust the formats to cater towards the viewer? The short-attention-span-having youths who are the future of our sport.

Let’s take a quick look at the Archery Shooter’s Association (ASA). The current format, as is, has the top 5 qualifiers after 2 days of shooting facing off in what’s called a shootdown to decide the winner. Archers rotate through 5 3D targets at 5 different distances (known or unknown, depending on class). After the 5th target, any archer within 10 points of the leader gets to shoot one last target for a chance to win. The last chance arrow.

Sounds exciting doesn’t it? It does. Until you’re trying to watch it on livestream. 

For those first 5 arrows, every archer shoots at the same time. As they would in any other tournament. The problem? The ASA doesn’t have enough equipment, time, or production budget to show every arrow being shot. As a result the livestream is a haphazard mess of commentators guessing who’s shooting at what target and which arrow is being called. Not good TV.

In an effort to make the livestream more audience friendly, the ASA experimented with having each archer shoot sequentially so that the viewer (and commentators for the matter) could watch every arrow being shot and actually follow the action in real time. This format showed promise. But ultimately, it was abandoned due to a variety of reasons. 

I hate to say it, but back in my day, archery wasn’t fun to watch. And if we’re going to grow the sport… we need to find and fund ways for it to be.