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In February I did a new trick every day. Some asked why do different forms of archery instead of proper archery? But that is the wrong question, the real question is: why have we ended up believing in a single type of proper archery? we know that historical archery was very varied and in most cultures archers trained many different variations and no one back then would understand proper archery For example in the book Arab archery it is written an archer must have 4 bows: one for war, one for train, one for target, one for trick. Until modern times, there are still different variations of archery but after archery is thrown out of the Olympics after 1920 The outcast archers then standardize archery in 1931 which is smart to make a modern sport They decide to use the English round colored target that everyone knows today and that has become iconic for archery Anders Hovgaard Møller says “the round colored divided target is an English garden game invented somewhere after the year 1500 by the English upper class, who also invented a number of different games such as tennis, polo and croquet. The colors for croquet are the same that were used for their archery game. Bede Dwyer suggested to me that it was actually the Hollywood movie “The Adventures of Robin Hood“ that really popularized archery in this new standardized form and at the same time made everyone, including me, believe that the round colored target was the widespread historical target So this movie may be where the widespread perception of propper archery arises In Denmark, where I live, archery started with clubs in the years after this film, if so it is certainly a reasonable explanation that the film created the modern perception of proper archery we never know the truth about history, and it is probably more complicated how archery became standardized and how some began to believe that real or propper archery exists. Remember archery is really many different things and it can be more fun to do many variations Sincerely Lars
