Individual or team sport?

[clickerati]

I did a search for threads on archery as a team sport vs. individual sport, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so am starting a new thread.

When one is in a club and goes to competitions, you represent yourself and your club. In my experience, there are occasionally "team" awards for the highest scoring four club archers, no matter how many club members attend a shoot. There are also team shoots, when a club will put forward named people as representatives. But I find the former is more common than the latter.

I do not know how common club teams are. Are there clubs whose top shooters make up a team and that team are the only club members who can enter a competition as representatives of a club?

Then you have county and area teams that represent the best archers from a wider area, who have proved themselves during the year at individual competitions.

Then you have the GB team made up of the the very best in the land.

But in between, you are shooting as an individual who happens to be a member of x club, right?

So what I want to know...is archery an individual or team sport? Is it both?

[King Custard]

If drinking alone is ones forte - then archery can be purely individual..
Personally I prefer the team event.
each to his own!

[speed]

Archery is a team sport as well as an individual sport but the fact is even when you represent a team or go head to head it is one of the few sports were the true competition is against yourself not your opponent.

In tennis for example a perfectly placed serve/shot is almost impossible to return as the object is the hit the ball in such a way/manner as to land within the boundary lines and yet be as difficult or impossible for your opponent to return but the best shot by your opponent in archery does nothing to stop you physically from making the exact same level of shot only your own mental approach to making that shot.

I hope I have not confused anyone with this reply but this is my own personal view as I believe when I stand on the shooting line the only person stopping me hittng the 10 is me!! What my opponent/opponents do is irrelevant.

I would still like to see clubs though organise friendly comps between each other as say do football teams pre season as this will help tune your competative edge ready for the indoor/outdoor season. Lastly though it is amazing what a bit of pos encouragement will do to your score.

[geoffretired]

I don't think archery is a team sport even if there is a team prize. To me, a team sport would have several people working together in such a way that they interact with each other during the game,with different roles to reach a result, rather than do their own thing and add up the totals at the end.
A hockey game cannot be played by one person; nor could you select the team after the game had finished.Archery team events are so often a matter of selecting the highest scoring four or five archers on the day.The individuals won't know they'd be chosen till after the event.

[Dougal]

I've shot as a member of a team for Civil Service championships where the team has to be nominated before the end of sighters, that certainly concentrates the mind as you don't want to be the person who scores less than the "team" member not selected!

I've also shot in a team head to head competition at squad training, where there is an element of working together as one person spots while another shoots and the third person focusses (?) on getting ready to shoot.And my 9 means you have to get a 10, that sort of thing.

Generally though , its about the individual IMHO.

[worthipa]

Archery, like all the shooting sports, is an individual pursuit, it's just you against the target.

Even when you're shooting as part of a team you're a group of individuals shooting together. Your aim of course is to shoot a good score, but nothing your "team mates" can do can influence it.

If you want evidence, watch Ms Park shoot her last arrow in the 2004 Olympics Team Event Gold Medal match against China. She couldn't have been more alone!

[bkupris]

I have been involved in a bit of team event practice. If the archers are not all working together it can fail miserably by getting timed out or falling foul of when you approach the shooting line after your team mate has shot etc.

[geoffretired]

Team head to heads, yes, I see the working togetherness in that. A bit like a relay race in athletics. The interaction is there too.

[Robert]

Whilst you are facing the target the sport is an individual one , its (just) you with a bendy stick trying to get small pointy things into a coloured circle some distance away ... yeah... just...

Before you get to face that target (and at that point you are alone) your team has been working with you:

Provider of bow hardware
Set-up of bow
Stringmaker
Arrowmaker
(GNAS / NFAS )
Coach
Coach you went to because you didn't like what the 1st coach was telling you
Encouragement from peer group
Authors of books
Teamaker
Club Organisation

I would suggest that whilst many archers sort out the first few by themselves ( don't trust anyone else ?) the best archers have a wide source of the second half of my list.

There are some great F1 / MotoGP pilots but they cant win races without the team they have behind them.

[Lowfat]

you are an individual as you shoot but you are a team if a few from your club go to the same shoot as you support each other , feed each other , advise/coach each other and have a bit of banter with each other and if you are lucky help your club get a team award.

This indoor season at least a dozen of us from the same club are shooting the same local competitions all in the same session and it is more enjoyable , so far 2 competitions , 2 team awards and numerous individual awards and medals......................................see how we get on tommorrow