archery, one shot per page
Twenty-four lessons on what archery is: the bow as a pair of springs and the arrow as its honest passenger, the parts named from riser to tip nock, the neutral stance, nocking, the Mediterranean hook, the draw to a fixed anchor point, aiming with a sight and by feel, the release and the follow-through, the face with its ten rings and inner X, scoring an end, the seventy-meter Olympic round, clout flags and field woods, the recurve, the compound and its let-off, barebow and longbow, caring for string and shafts, safety on the line, bowhunting named but not taught, practicing alone in ends of six, and teaching a friend their first six arrows in one sitting.
One shot, one honest page. That's a lesson.
archery, one shot per page
Twenty-four lessons on what archery is: the bow as a pair of springs and the arrow as its honest passenger, the parts named from riser to tip nock, the neutral stance, nocking, the Mediterranean hook, the draw to a fixed anchor point, aiming with a sight and by feel, the release and the follow-through, the face with its ten rings and inner X, scoring an end, the seventy-meter Olympic round, clout flags and field woods, the recurve, the compound and its let-off, barebow and longbow, caring for string and shafts, safety on the line, bowhunting named but not taught, practicing alone in ends of six, and teaching a friend their first six arrows in one sitting.
Set in Space Grotesk, Inter and JetBrains Mono (SIL Open Font License).
Every fact in this book is as the primary source states it, fetched and read during this build: the Wikipedia articles Archery, History of archery, Bow and arrow, Arrow, Bowstring, Bow draw, Recurve bow, Compound bow, Bowhunting, Modern competitive archery, Archery at the Summer Olympics, Archery at the 2020 Summer Olympics and Clout archery, plus the Nock disambiguation page, all cached at build time and cited in each lesson's source line.
Honest redirects, disclosed: the requested title Bow string is a 23-character redirect stub, so its facts come from Bowstring, which was read in full; Nock is a disambiguation page, so the nock facts were read on Bow and arrow, Archery and Arrow; a card magic probe cached at dispatch is also a redirect stub, irrelevant to this subject, and was not used. No cached article gives a practice habit, a breathing ritual, a range etiquette order or a one-sitting teaching order, so those rituals are this book's plan. An honest no-demo book: no arrow was loosed and no range was visited by this machine. Bowhunting is named and not taught. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation. No facts from Reddit, forums, vendor blogs or search engines.
Your purchase is for personal use only. You do not have redistribution rights: please do not share, resell, or republish this book or its pages.
© 2026 Steve Hodgkiss. All rights reserved. Personal use only; no redistribution rights.
Edition 1.0 · stevehodgkiss.net
Contents
Per the Wikipedia article Archery, archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows; the word comes from the Latin arcus, meaning bow; historically archery has been used for hunting and combat, in modern times it is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity, and a person who practices archery is typically called an archer, bowman, or toxophilite, the last word deriving from Roger Ascham's book Toxophilus of 1545. Per the Wikipedia article History of archery, the oldest known evidence of arrows comes from layers 20-21 in Obi-Rakhmat Grotto, Uzbekistan, some 80,000 years ago, and in the South African Sibudu Cave likely arrowheads have been found dating from approximately 72,000-60,000 years ago. Per the Wikipedia article Archery, the earliest remains of complete bows and arrows are found in Northern Europe, including evidence at Mannheim-Vogelstang dated 17,500 to 18,000 years ago.
What archery is
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows, from the Latin arcus, bow. Its practitioner is an archer, bowman, or toxophilite, the last from Ascham's Toxophilus, 1545.
Arrowheads reach back 80,000 years at Obi-Rakhmat, and 72,000 to 60,000 at Sibudu. The earliest complete bows, 17,500 to 18,000 years, are Northern European.
Hunting and combat built it; today it is mainly a competitive sport and recreation.
Say the archer's three names this week, and tell someone how old the arrow is.
Per the Wikipedia article Bow draw, the most common method in modern archery is the Mediterranean draw, accomplished by the forefinger on the string above the arrow and the middle and ring finger on the string below the arrow, with the nock of the arrow held on the bowstring between forefinger and middle finger to stabilize the arrow before loosing; the modern thought on the draw is to keep effort in the hand at a minimum, the only work being the effort required to keep the bowstring on the fingers; barebow and longbow archers often have all three fingers below the arrow, a method referred to as three under; and other methods include the pinch draw and the Mongolian or thumb draw. Per the Wikipedia article Archery, the drawing digits are normally protected by a leather tab, glove, or thumb ring, and most modern archers wear a bracer to protect the inside of the bow arm from being hit by the string and to prevent clothing from catching the bowstring.
Grip and hook
Both hands have one job: as little as possible. The bow hand holds the grip; the string hand hooks, one finger above the arrow, two below, the Mediterranean draw.
The rule of the hook: keep effort in the hand at a minimum, only what holds the string on the fingers. Tradition varies: three under, or the thumb draw.
Leather between skin and string: a tab, glove or thumb ring for the fingers, a bracer for the bow arm against the string.
Check both hands this week: bow hand soft, string hand a hook, not a grip.
Per the Wikipedia article Archery, the arrow is typically released by relaxing the fingers of the drawing hand, or by triggering a mechanical release aid; usually the release aims to keep the drawing arm rigid, the bow hand relaxed, and the arrow is moved back using the back muscles as opposed to just arm motions; a smoother and more fluid release of the string will produce the most consistently repeatable shots and therefore greater accuracy of the arrow flight; a release aid is a mechanical device designed to give a crisp and precise loose of arrows from a compound bow, in the most commonly used type released by a finger-operated trigger mechanism held in the archer's hand or attached to the wrist, and in another type known as a back-tension release the string is automatically released when drawn to a pre-determined tension.
The release
The release is a disappearance: relax the fingers of the drawing hand and let the string leave. Never throw the hand open.
What stays: drawing arm rigid, bow hand relaxed, the pull still in the back muscles. A smoother release makes the most consistently repeatable shots.
Compound archers may loose by machine: a trigger release aid for a crisp and precise loose, or a back-tension one that fires itself at a set tension.
Loose one arrow this week thinking only of the relax, and watch where the hand ends.
Per the Wikipedia article Clout archery, clout is a form of archery in which archers shoot arrows at a flag known as the Clout from a relatively long distance and score points depending on how close each arrow lands to the flag; scoring zones are defined by maximum radii from the flag pole, and where marking the ground is not practical a non-stretch rope or chain marked with the radii is attached to the flag pole and swept around it to determine which arrows are in which zones; each flag is a 12 inch square piece of colored fabric on a short softwood pole; and per the Wikipedia article Modern competitive archery, gentlemen shoot 180 yards and ladies 140, the rope scoring runs Gold 5 points, Red 4, Blue 3, Black 2 and White 1, a Clout round usually consists of 36 arrows, field archery involves shooting at faces of varying and sometimes unmarked distance often in rough terrain, and 3D archery focuses on shooting at life-size models of game made of rubber.
Clout and field
Clout is archery's long drop: arrows onto a flag from 180 yards for gentlemen, 140 for ladies, scored by how close they land.
A non-stretch rope sweeps the zones: Gold 5, Red 4, Blue 3, Black 2, White 1. The flag is 12 inches of cloth on a softwood pole; a round runs 36 arrows.
Off the flat field: field archery, unmarked distances in rough terrain, and 3D, life-size rubber game.
Try one clout-style long lob at a safe flag this week, and walk the rope.
Per the Wikipedia article Recurve bow, barebow is another type of modern recurve bow that usually uses the same riser and limbs as a recurve but lacks a sight, stabilizers, and a clicker, tuned differently with a negative tiller because the archer's anchor point is on the corner of the mouth instead of below the chin. Per the Wikipedia article Bow and arrow, a longbow is a self bow with limbs rounded in cross-section, about the same height as the archer so as to allow a full draw, usually over 5 ft long, and the traditional English longbow was made of yew wood; a self bow is a bow made from one piece of wood; and a flatbow has limbs approximately rectangular in cross-section, traditional in many Native American societies. Per the Wikipedia article Archery, instinctive shooting, eschewing sights, is often preferred by traditional archers.
Barebow and longbow
Barebow is the recurve undressed: same riser and limbs, but no sight, no stabilizers, no clicker, anchored at the corner of the mouth.
The longbow is older and taller: one piece of wood, rounded limbs, about the archer's own height, over 5 ft, yew in the English tradition.
And the flatbow, rectangular limbs, Native American tradition. All three shoot by feel, sights eschewed, and none of them is lesser.
Name the three sightless bows this week and say what each gives up, and what it keeps.
This book's plan for teaching a friend in one sitting, stated honestly: the teaching order on this page is this book's plan; the sourced parts it rests on are, per the Wikipedia article Archery, that in the modern stance the body stands perpendicular with feet shoulder-width apart, that loading means pointing the bow toward the ground and attaching the arrow's nock to the string, that the Mediterranean draw places one finger above the arrow and two below, that a bracer protects the bow arm from the string, that a bow should never be released without an arrow nocked because the energy directed back into the bow damages the limbs, and per the Wikipedia article Modern competitive archery, that an end of six arrows is a lawful scoring unit. Six arrows in one sitting is the whole first lesson.
Teaching a friend
This book's plan, one sitting, four sentences: stance, nock, hook, first end. Stand sideways, feet shoulder-width. Load with the bow pointed at the ground.
Hook the string one finger above, two below. Strap on a bracer before the first draw, and say the iron rule once: never loose without an arrow.
Then let them shoot one end of six, score it together, and say one true thing about the best arrow. That is the whole first lesson.
Take one friend out this week for six arrows, and let the end be the whole lesson.