There are three main types of bow. In the beginners course you get to try all three types of bow, so it will help you decide what style you would like to shoot.

Recurve Bow

The Recurve bow is the style that is used in the Olympics (hence being sometimes known as an Olympic bow). The bow will normally consist of three parts, the handle (called a riser) and two thin flexible parts (called limbs) that slot into the top and the bottom of the riser that hold the string. The riser can be made from a variety of materials, but normally from either a lightweight metal alloy or wood. The limbs are made by laminating a combination of several different types of materials together, including; wood, fibre-glass, ceramic and carbon.

The bows that the club use in our beginners courses are wooden bows called ‘take down’ bows. This means that they can be dismantled easily to pack away into a small bag. Recurve bow limbs come in many different strengths, so we will always be able to find one that suits you. As you get stronger you can change your bow limbs so they have more power. This is one of the reasons why purchasing a bow takes time as you may outgrow the limbs you start using in a beginners course very quickly. Because of all the different combinations of risers and limbs, this means that the Recurve Bow is very adaptable and can be tailored to suit your exact needs as you develop as an archer.

Pic of recurve bow.

Compound Bow

This type of bow looks very different from the Recurve bow. It is shorter in length and the limbs and the riser are all-in-one with a wheel or ‘cam’ at the top and the bottom. There are more than one string (three normally). This bow operates in a completely different way and uses a levering system to bend the limbs.

One of the advantages of the compound bow, is that due to the shape of the cam’s, as the string is drawn (not with the fingers, with a special mechanical release aid attached to your hand or wrist) a constant pressure is needed until a certain point, where it suddenly becomes easier. This enables the archer to have more time to aim and easier to hold at full draw.

Pic of Compound Bow

LongBow

This is the type of bow most traditionally associated with archery. The longbow is just a single stem of wood with notches carved in the top or bottom to hold the string. The handle grip is normally made from leather and there is no sight or other equipment on the bow itself. When the bow is unstrung it returns to being a straight shaft of wood.

Pic of longbow.

Arrows

Arrows are matched to you and the strength and type of bow, so you can see that choosing the bow comes first, followed by the arrows to go with it.

The basic design of an arrow is a straight shaft with vanes at the top end (usually three) to aid flight and stability and a sharp pointed weight at the other end. Longbows tend to have traditional arrows made from wood with real feather vanes, and Recurve and Compound bows have arrows that are made from a variety of materials including aluminium and carbon.