Universal Archery Ranking System

Lets say different archers - using different bows and shooting different distances - wanted to compare themselves statistically. How would they do it?

What you need is an Universal Archery Ranking System that compares archers based on how well they can shoot and the distance they are shooting.

The end result is this:

Joe B. Olympic Recurve - 23,550

Gary D. Compound Bow - 42,100

Sarah H. Traditional Recurve - 41,220

But how do you get that result?

Well it is actually pretty simply. You pick the longest distance you feel comfortable shooting at. So for example Joe picked 30 meters, Gary picked 50 meters, and Sarah picked 60 meters.

Then you shoot 100 arrows (10 rounds x 10 arrows or 20 rounds x 5 arrows, however you do it) at a FITA 122 cm target and record your score each time until you get a total score out of 1000.

Then you multiple the score you got by the distance you shot in meters.

Thus

Joe shot 785 out of 1000 at 30 meters. 785 x 30 = 23,550.

Gary shot 842 out of 1000 at 50 meters. 842 x 50 = 42,100.

Sarah shot 687 out of 1000 at 60 meters. 687 x 60 = 41,220.

Thus if you were really good at shooting longer distances you might try shooting at 100 meters, and if you scored 605 out of 1000 you would get a score of 60,500.

Anything above 50,000 and you could be shooting competitively. (Shooting 715 at 70 meters is a score of 50,050. Shooting 900 at 70 would garner a score of 63,000 - putting you in a class of top Olympic recurve shooters.)


The score is only valid if you shot it within the last 6 months. Shooting really well 2 or 3 years ago doesn't count.

The Universal Archery Ranking System rewards archers with higher scores the further distance they shoot. Thus even if they shoot a low score at the distance, they are still rewarded with a higher number if they managed to beat their overall score at a lesser distance. Your goal essentially is to beat your own best score at lesser distances, by pushing yourself to shoot further and more accurately.

And what do you do once you have your UARS? Meh, bragging rights. That is about it.

Arguably it is just an excuse to ask "Hey, whats your UARS?" because it sounds like "you arse".

In the end it is just numbers. The big trick is to remember which type of bow you are shooting with. Compound shooters will evidently have a much larger number if they are shooting at 50 yards or more and have good shooting form.

Note that this system differs from the World Archery Ranking system which awards points based on how many other "top archers" you compete against and uses a very convoluted point system wherein the more you compete and the more score, the higher your ranking is. This ignores the possibility that the best archers in the world either don't compete, or don't compete that often.