As a sport, archery is blessed with many subtle complexities that appeal to a wide range of people. Getting an arrow to repeatedly land on target is a mind game requiring skill, understanding and determination. Few people understand all the technical details yet acquire skills by practice, learning from mentors and reading.
FlyingSticks is designed to provide all archers with a better understanding of the technical aspects of archery, with emphasis on "why" rather than "how". In particular, the effect of marking small changes to the archer's kit or environment can be seen. While some of FlyingSticks analyzing capability will have little or no practical application, the awareness can be useful. For example, knowing the effect of changing altitude or air temperature in not particularly useful while knowing the effect of wind gust is very helpful.
The dynamic behavior of the bow and arrow is complex - so complex that there is still no complete theoretical model that explains the fine detail of an arrow's journey from release to target. For this reason, there is little point in exploring the very fine detail, but again, having an awareness of the issues can help dramatically when trying to improve one's performance.
Because of the complexity, there is a great deal of miss-information circulating, especially on internet blogs and forums. I would hazard a guess that 80% of internet archery talk is unhelpful - so be warned. The other 20% can be excellent and truly enlightening in resolving problems and gaining real understanding. However, some knowledge is required before one is able to filter the useful from the rubbish.
The source material for this article is derived from the author's personal experience and numerous books, articles, academic papers and, dare I say, internet sources.
The section on hunting may trigger some controversy as it introduces the probability of an ethical kill. This is the distillation of the archer's performance, the bow, arrow, wind conditions, range and game type into a single probability number.
In a sense the whole commercial side of the archery industry is built on scarce information, intentionally making it difficult for customers to make informed product choices. Instead personal aesthetic values become the deciding factors. Color schemes often receive more promotional focus than the technical capabilities of the kit. One can conclude that the meaningful technical differences between products in a category is minimal. I would hazard an opinion that the gold medals are more a result of the archer's tenacity and skill than one sponsor's bow capability over another's.
The booklet makes the assumption that the reader has at least a basic understanding of archery and the terminology used. A "feel" for things mechanical can also help.
The book's goal is to comprehensively cover the physics, math and statistics of archery. No attempt has been made to cover the processes of acquiring the skills of an archer - plenty has been written on the subject by others.
It is possible that aspects of this book and FlyingSticks are too nerdish and technical for some - that's ok, just skim through those sections to get a feel. You may be tempted to return in the future.
This booklet is but a collection of thoughts and ideas that may be of value to some. It is not a major component of FlyingSticks, but it may be enlarged in future releases.