Is field archery the future of the sport?

The discipline has some way to go to match target as a live and TV draw. The television presentation for finals fields for the biggest field competitions, while constantly improving, has not delivered an experience that matches something like the Olympics. 

It seems that the real magic and the most exceptional backdrops are in the forest; a harder place to deliver a televised event. There are significant additional challenges and costs when you need to put many more cameras in a remote location.

But field might just have the most opportunities, going forward.

Perhaps improvements in technology, such as miniaturised TV cameras and live tracking arrow data might create a new experience; and give audience the experience of the natural environment along with visualised data. 

There are some other issues to tackle. Target archery has essentially a standard set of rules around the world. However, field and 3D have some minor but important differences in rules in different countries. There is also a plethora of bowstyles, with some field societies having over a dozen categories.

This is great news for archers, being both more inclusive and adding variety, but it might be too confusing for a TV audience. 

The real joy of a field course, as anybody who has shot one will tell you, is the stillness and the almost profound silence, broken only by the crunch of twigs, the sounds of birds and wind, and of course the breaking of that silence by the sound of an arrow hitting a target.

You’re a temporary team of three or four archers of the same bowstyle, each on their own separate adventure. There is much ‘slow time’ and waiting.