In order for an archer to be successful at their sport, they must have a general understanding of geometry to reach their peak performance. From knowing elbow and bow arm angles to the calculating the Draw Weight, these uses of geometry are crucial to ensuring the arrow will land center of the target. Because most archery tournaments take place in the outdoors to replicate the history of the sport, there are several independent variables that the archer cannot control. But to ensure that the archer can control all other manipulatable variables, it is crucial that they understand basic geometric angles along with a key formula to ensure that they will achieve the ultimate goal of the arrow reaching the ten-point ring. According to M. Schottenbauer, …show more content…
In archery’s hunting days, archers would not be afforded the luxury of what is known as Nocking Point. A Nocking Point provides the archer a fixed spot to place the nock of the arrow on to your bow string. In light of this, some archery tournaments ban the use of Nocking Point in order to show the archer’s ability to load the arrow in the proper position without the assistance of Nocking Point. To do this correctly, the archer must string the Nock Grove in the center of the bow string. After, the archer must pull the bow string back to the corner of his/her mouth to be in proper body alignment as stated above. M. Schottenbauer mentions in his book The Geometry of Archery and Fencing that in ideal circumstances, the arrow would create a perfect equilateral triangle on both the top half of the bow along with the bottom half (Figure #4). These triangles would each have a measure of 60o along with sharing a similar side; that of which is the arrow (Figure #4). While most Olympic archers are more than capable of stringing the bow correct the first time without the use of a Nocking Point, beginner and intermediate archers typically have difficulty getting it correct. If they do string the bow incorrectly, they are at high risk of arrow landing above the ten-point ring or below the ten-point ring based on where they placed the arrow. It is important for archers to know how to correctly string the bow and have a geometric understanding of triangles associated with it due to the occupation where they will be asked to string their bow without the help of a Nock Point. A knowledge of the basic geometry connected with stringing the bow can be the difference between a good archer and a great