There’s a conundrum in the sport of archery. The size of the 10-ring effectively sets the size of the measuring stick for the term ‘perfect’. It doesn’t matter where the arrow lands in the central circle, as long as it hits the area designated as 10 points…
…except in shoot-offs – where ‘perfect’ is absolute. Dead-centre.
“I think because I’m a competitive person, I will always find it unfair to go out with only perfect scores when somebody else goes through with many dropped points,” says Mathias.
The word ‘many’, of course, is contextual. At the top of the modern compound game these days, three points over 100-plus arrows is noticeable.
“But in the end, that is the game. And you have to play by its rules,” he continues. “One day I might get all the luck.”
There was a period in which 10 points in a tiebreak, no matter where it hit, would result in a re-shoot. But only 10s, not nines or eights or any other value. It didn’t work – and the shoot-off lost some of its drama.
Deviation exists in every sport. Athletes hit streaks of luck and periods of frustration.
The (older) long formats of archery reduced that deviation within a large quantity of arrows. The new and modern and spectator-friendly matchplay formats, which are more entertaining to watch precisely because there is a little more jeopardy, do not.
