Every Barebow Rule Explained | World Archery Rules

Okay, welcome back to another rule video. Last time we covered the recurve division, and a few thousand people watched that, so apparently people want to know about this. So, welcome to barebow. Now, I would cover compound, but compound really has very few rules. So, if you want to talk about compound, we can, but I don't shoot compound. I also don't shoot barebow, ironically. I shoot, like, traditional, and I shoot recurve, but I don't shoot barebow. So, as a disclaimer, I might miss a few of the nuances with the barebow division. That said, I'll try my best to explain the specifics and exceptions based on my understanding of competition and rules. Bear in mind, I don't shoot barebow. I'm also not a judge or an official, so I know of the rules, but I haven't had much experience actually competing in barebow. So, let's talk through barebow. The first thing I want to clarify is barebow kind of isn't real. Bear with me here, right? So, barebow, in terms of target archery, is a fairly recent addition. It's only been a few years, and that's why when you see the rules, it's kind of weird. So, here we have 11.1 is recurve, 11.2 is compound, 11.3 is equipment, and then 11.4 is barebow. That's because barebow, traditionally, has mostly been used in field and 3D archery. So, they've been in the field 3D rule set for quite a while, but it hasn't translated into a target division. So, technically, world archery never had a target category called barebow. Now, that said, most local, regional, state, national level do have barebow as a division, and the barebow rules are pretty much taken from world archery's field 3D rules. So, yeah, that's because, again, world archery primarily has compound and recurve as their primary divisions. They don't really have barebow as an event in virtually every major event. And that kind of causes some issues when it comes to qualifying pathways and competition. There's also another complication where barebow and traditional, especially, are also covered as divisions in other competitions which are not world archery. So, things like the IFAA, or the International Field Archery Association, or NFAA in the US, they have different rules, kind of, so they're not always compatible. So, when I'm talking barebow here, and if you watch a competition like the Lancaster Classic, which actually isn't world archery, you might find some differences in what isn't allowed. So, not 100%, they're about 80%, 90% similar, but not 100%, so some things might be off. So, again, I'll do my best to cover the barebow division in world archery. I'll primarily go off the target rules. I think there are some differences in field 3D, but I won't go through both of them because they're basically the same. And because I don't shoot barebow, there won't be much background footage or B-roll footage just because I don't have a barebow, which I regularly showcase. But, let's talk through the oversimplified version. And this should be easy because all you have to do to shoot barebow is basically take a modern recurve, have no sights, no clicker, no stabilizer, and that's a barebow. That means you can use a wood riser, you can use a tradbow, you can use a modern recurve with no accessories, and that's basically barebow. And that's the oversimplified version. But, barebow has some of the most complex nuances. Because it is a limited category, that means there are more rules over what isn't allowed. Ironically, compound and recurve have the least limitations because they are freestyle divisions. So, as long as they don't break certain requirements, for example, in recurve you can't have magnified lenses or electronic aids. Compound, you can virtually use anything that's not electronic. That's actually pretty open, and certain things work, therefore it's self-regulating. Barebow is not self-regulating. People will do everything they can to get every advantage they can in order to be more competitive. And barebow is kind of a wild west in terms of rules and things get thrown up all the time. So, there's a general understanding of what barebow is, but there are lots of areas where people try and push things. Now, the primary distinction of barebow is what we see in 11.4.1. And that's the very bottom of the screen there. You'll see that the bow, when unbraced, that's unstrung, must be able to pass through a ring of 12.2cm in diamond. That is the prime definition of barebow as a competitive discipline in terms of what is allowed. So, you can have weights on your barebow. They can be on the riser, they can be sticking out, as long as they can pass through that 12.2cm ring. Now, we actually have examples of that here. These are commercial rings. You can buy them from Lancaster and other websites. So, basically, the judge and inspection will pass this ring through your unbraced bow. And if it can't pass through, then it's not legal. You have to remove whatever accessory or thing sticking out in order to qualify as a barebow. I want to share a funny story. So, one of our archers, Thorin, who's a bit of a club legend now, he actually engineered a very infamous weight, which was exactly the size of the outer ring when put on his bow, and it had a rounded dome shape. So, it would actually slide, the ring would slide over it. It was the maximum possible length, and the round shape would help the ring slide over it. Did it give that much of an advantage? No. But, like, it was kind of funny because it would obviously qualify by the slimmest of margins. It was sold to somebody else, and sold to somebody else, and came back to us somehow. It's floating around. I don't have a photo of it, but those are the rules that can be pushed for barebow. So, you have to fit your bow in this ring to qualify as barebow. That is the basic version of the rules. And now, the complexity begins. And right away, we have a rule clarification. This is the subconscious trigger rule. So, we'll go through the long definition a bit later, but one of the biggest distinctions between recurve and barebow, apart from the obvious sight stabilizers, is the use of a clicker. Now, you could argue that a clicker's primary use is a draw length indicator, so that you always release at the same spot. But, that's really not why we use clickers. Clickers are used as a subconscious trigger. It allows us to shut off the active part of our thought process, so we don't have to guess or decide when to release the arrow. We keep on expanding, the clicker goes off, and we release. It's an automatic response. For those who are doing, like, pistol or rifle shooting, it's like squeezing the trigger and being surprised by the shot. So, you're not meant to force or punch the trigger. And that's the same thing with recurve and barebow. You're not meant to pluck the string or punch the trigger in the same kind of way. So, if it's subconscious, you can have a very clean release. So, barebow's biggest challenge is you can't use one of these. For animal shooting, recurve to barebow, that's one of the biggest difficulties to switch over. So, by definition, you can't use anything resembling a subconscious trigger. So, this first rule, the first clarification on the rulebook from USA Archery is this. So, I'll read it verbatim here. So, USA Archery has requested an interpretation whether a thumb pad activated release trigger developed to act as a subconscious trigger to release the arrow during the expansion phase of an archery shot is legal in the barebow division. So, basically, can you use something to act as a subconscious trigger? According to the request, it is a small, unobtrusive piece of spring steel wrapped under a vinyl covering that is carefully placed on the bow grip where it contacts the hand and thumb pad. It's served to activate a subconscious release while increasing pressure on the bow string. When positioned and used properly, a small increase in pressure on the grip during the expansion causes the trip's tangible movement of the device, which is used through training to trigger the subconscious release. There's a picture of it down here. So, this bow is legal. It's a wooden, traditional bow, but it's legal in the barebow division, obviously. So, they're referring to this, and there are two different versions here, but basically, you have a tiny spring that's covered in vinyl, and you basically keep squeezing the pressure point of the grip until the spring goes off, and then you release. It's basically tactile feedback. So, when you release enough, or when you expand enough, you know when to release. We'll have to decide when to release. So, that's the idea there. The ruling is basically no. You can't use that. So, the specific wording here is, it is the majority decision, the device in the photo set below is not legal in barebow division. No draw check device may be used. This is the explanation, which I've summarized earlier, but quite important to clarify for the ruleset. Although the argument in the interpretation request differentiates between a draw check and a subconscious trigger device, the two have always been determined under the spirit of the rules being the same thing. So, basically, clickers and draw checks or subconscious triggers are the same thing. You might argue, yeah, they kind of use different things. We functionally use them as the same thing. A standard clicker is both a draw check and a subconscious trigger device. It is well understood that the main advantage of a clicker is as a subconscious trigger device, not as a draw check. The common clicker was the only device at the time that was called a draw check, even though any experienced recurve archer knew the advantage of the device was that of the subconscious trigger action. What it was called in the rules and what it provided in the archer's dual purpose device were aspects of the device being legal in the recurve division and illegal in barebow. In the barebow division, it was specifically disallowed because this division is to be one of having far less additional aids. Additionally, there has been significant precedent set by the technical committee over many years in disallowing many similar devices, all geared towards limiting subconscious trigger devices for the barebow division of world archery. And that's basically the idea. So, when the rules were first written many years ago, there was only one thing being used, and that was the clicker, and everyone knew that the clicker was a subconscious trigger. Yes, you could measure draw check or draw length, but everyone used it as a trigger device. And because the point of barebow is to remove these additional aids, then it uniformly, as an umbrella, bans all kind of clickers or subconscious triggers. So, no trigger device, no clicker. This one's a more recent, I guess, invention where it's not a clicker, but something you press. It's still against the spirit of barebow. So, no to subconscious triggers, no to clickers. Okay, and finally, on to the rules. So, 11.4.1 goes through the definition of a barebow. In other words, a bow that meets the conventional definition of a bow. Single string, two flexible limbs, a handle or riser. And you can have a takedown model, one piece, it can be wood or metal, there's no definition of what it has to be made out of. It does define, it can't be shoot through. So, again, it's trying to avoid the compound distinction. So, no shoot through risers, no cams, no wheels, no multi-string. It's a single string bow held in one hand, the fingers on the string, that's the bow. As described above, all should be bare, except for the arrow rest, and free from protrusions, sights or sight marks, marks or blemishes or laminated pieces within the bow window area. So, in the section of the bow where you put the arrow, there can be nothing which can be used to aim. The unbraced bow, complete with all the accessories you can use, must pass through the 12.2cm ring inside diameter of plus minus 0.5mm. So, it basically fits through that ring we showed you before. As a clarification, you can use the thumb to draw. For those of you shooting a thumb draw, you can use the thumb. This is clarified in the recurve as well. So, thumb draws are allowed. You can use fingers. The thumb counts as a finger, so you are allowed to use a thumb. However, you are not allowed to use a thumb ring. That is the metal or plastic ring, which we use for Asiatic archery. That is not allowed. That counts as a release aid in world archery rules. You can use leather, but again, I'll just reiterate that this is not something we normally shoot in world archery competition. Traditional Asiatic archery is its own thing. It competes in separate competitions. It's not a national or international competition, at least at world archery level. So, no one shoots thumb draw in this kind of barebow archery. It just interferes with the local level, where you can't compete thumb draw Asiatic with modern rig and modern barebow. But in the competitive scene, it's a different sport entirely. So, it doesn't interfere that much at the world level. 11.4.1.1 Multicolored bow risers are allowed. Trademarks are allowed on the limb and the riser. However, if the area within the sight window is colored in a way which can be used for aiming, then it must be taped over. So, this mostly applies to multicolored risers. Originally, a long time ago, you weren't allowed to have manufacturer branding on the limbs, because you could use certain logos as an aiming reference. Now, that's allowed, because no one's really using those as references. But, unique to barebow is the riser design. So, with recurve, there's no limitation on the pattern used on the riser, because you're allowed to use the sight. Therefore, you don't have any advantage using a multicolored riser. However, for barebow, certain riser designs, which might have stripes or multicolors, or two-tone colors, if there's something there that could be used to gain a certain elevation or sight marking, that is not allowed, and therefore must be taped over. For 11.4 and .1.2, risers including the brace are permitted, provided the brace does not consistently touch the hand or wrist. This covers for a certain recurve. You can have designs of risers with, like, tech bars or additional supports, but you can't hold that frame. The structure of the bow cannot be used to brace the wrist, or the elbow, or the arm. You can only hold the bow in the grip, and have nothing supporting it. 11.4.2, a bowstring can be used with any number of strands. No limit there. Most bows use between 16 to 18 or even 20 to 24 strands, but there's no rule on what strands or what color you can use. 11.4.2.1, I just said that, it can be multicolored strands and serving and material chosen for the purpose. It may have a center serving to accommodate the drawing fingers, one or two nocking points, to which maybe add servings to fit the arrow nocker as necessary, and to locate the nocking points. No lip or nose mark is permitted. This is quite different from recurve. You are not allowed to use a kisser button, which is a plastic bit which people touch on their nose or their lips. You cannot do that in barebow. The bowstring should not have in any way assist aiming through the use of a peephole, marking, or any other means. The end of the center serving where it transitions to bowstring material should not end within the athlete's plane of vision at full draw. This is, again, different from recurve. Your center serving cannot be within your eyeline. That's the basic version of this. Again, anything which allows you to do extra aiming using the bow or the string is not allowed. In recurve, it is because, again, you have a sight. There's no advantage to having an extra color or extra length string or serving, but in barebow, you cannot have that. It's actually quite strictly enforced. That's why you have on the tools here, like measurement rulers, different diameter circles that are often used to clarify the length of certain protrusions or measurements. Alright, back to rules. 11.4.3 An arrow rest which may be adjustable and if more than one of those was permitted. In other words, you can have an elevated arrow rest with an arm, and there are some unique barebow rests which are more preferred by barebow shooters, but basically you can have an arrow rest. You don't have to shoot off the shelf. Time for another clarification. This one is from Indonesia Archery. Placement of rest interpretation. We go to the PDF version of this, which is over here. They've asked whether the placement of the arrow rest on the right as shown below is permitted in the barebow division, and this is the picture here. What is that? I'm going to zoom in. What is going on there? Oh! Oh, okay. Can you put the rest way above where it should be? Normally, the arrow rest goes on the plunger hole, the burger hole here. That's just above the shelf. That's where basically everyone puts the arrow rest. Are you allowed to put the arrow rest somewhere else on the riser? This is interesting. What's the rule? I don't know these sort of things, but it's actually really cool to watch. What is this? It is unanimous that the arrow rest may be placed above the arrow shelf at any height within the sight window. There are no rules restricting variations in arrow rest height. The only restriction on arrow rest placement is the distance forward the face side of the bow, creating an overdraw. The pressure point may be placed no further back than 2cm from the pivot point of the grip. You are allowed to put the rest anywhere you want. There are limitations on how far forward or back you can draw. You can't overdraw it, but you are allowed to put the rest above the normal placement. There's no rule against that. What advantage you have? I don't know. It might be a tuning thing, so if you're shooting a particular distance, if you require the rest at a certain height to get your crawl, I'm guessing it might be a sighting thing. I'll explain string walking later, but it might be that you may have to use a high elevation to get a certain point on distance, and that is allowed. I did not know that. If you do this, let me know. I've never seen this before. This is fascinating. 11.4.3.1 an adjustable pressure button, pressure point or arrow plate may be used on the bow, provided they do not offer any additional aiming. In other words, you can use a plunger button. That's allowed. That's the same in recurve. It's a tuning thing, not an aiming thing. Therefore, it's not really an aid. It's just meant to help you match your arrows better and mitigate some of the extra variations between shots. It's not really an aid. It's just a tuning tool. So, you can use a plunger button. It's completely fine. 11.4.4. No draw check device may be used. We've gone through the draw check rules already. So, again, no clickers. Clickers are not allowed. It doesn't matter if you say, oh, it's only used for draw length. You can't use a clicker or draw check device. It is a subconscious trigger. So, we've gone through that interpretation already. Now, there is an extra clarification here. It's a sear tab interpretation. Now, this shouldn't really be here. I think it should be in a different rule that covers finger tabs. I think there are more finger tab clarifications down here. Ugh, I have a lot of clarifications. But, this one here, we'll talk about sear tab. This is the sear tab documentation. Once again, hello to USA Archery. I guess there's a very big scene of barebone in the USA. There's more which people have done to try and get more advantages in barebone shooting. Now, the rules have to be clarified. Basically, there are several different pictures of finger tabs and different modifications. Some of these have a function. This is the unmodified tab. So, this is your typical barebone tab. We'll explain this a bit later. But, you can have a marking. Originally, you couldn't have these. People used the stitching of the finger tab as a guideline for your string crawl. You can't mark like a 20m, 30m, 40m mark. You have to know how to count these out yourself. Which is quite hard. You can't have pre-marked sight distances on your finger tab, but you are allowed to have these markings. Now, these ones are the questions. We'll go through what you're looking at. The spirit of this rule is that you can't have something on your tab which can be used as a draw check or a subconscious trigger. In other words, you can't have something which can be used as a clicker-like tool on the finger tab. It may be, for example, positioning the finger tab in a way where if you keep on moving the hand or expanding, there will be some kind of tactile feedback that will trigger you to release. It might be the shape of the finger tab. It might be using the thumbnail to move up and down the tab or some kind of physical thing on the finger tab which allows you to subconsciously release. You can't modify the tab in a particular way. These are the pictures. Number one, the tab looks as if the thumbnail on the athlete's drawing hand could be placed in a notch. This is number one over here. When you're holding the finger tab, you might be able to put your thumbnail in that notch there. It's very subtle, but you could squeeze that and then once the thumbnail hits past that notch, you release. Again, it's subconscious. All you need to do is expand, move your thumb, and the release is very clean. Kind of cheating the spirit of barebow. Number two has a button. At full draw, the thumb is placed on the button and when draw pressure is increased, the button is depressed and the tab has an audible click. Here we go. That's the button there. You could use the thumb to push the button. Once there's enough pressure, it clicks and then you just let go. It's not automatic. You have to manually do it, but again, it allows you to just push it until it clicks and then you subconsciously release. Pretty big advantage. Number three is the tab has a ledge that is machined on the outside edge so the thumbnail could ride up until it clicks off the ledge. That's this one over here, so it's been modified. You could put your thumb here and as you expand, the thumbnail will glide up the edge over here and then you release once it reaches the top of something. And the last one is unmodified tab. Now, which bits are allowed? Number one is legal. So this one here, nothing wrong with this. It's legal as long as it does not have any beautiful parts that create tactile or audible response. This one appears to have a notch at the back of the plate and it's supposed to be used as a sear. People might use this as a sear. In other words, the thumb acts as a subconscious release, but because there's nothing here which is mechanical or audible or tactile, this is actually okay. And again, a lot of tabs have designs which may have shapes which do this naturally. It might be damaged or it might be intentional, but this is legal. So nothing actually wrong with this sort of thing. That's completely fine. Okay, number two. Not legal. There is a button at the back of the tab. If that button is movable in any way and creates a tactile or audible response, it's not legal. So if this button moves or makes a sound, can't use that. And number three, the tab is legal. The ground ridge notch is not movable and is possibly just a thumb rest and is therefore legal. So, this one here, that's completely fine. It's obviously machined or modified to make it more usable by the archer. They may be using it as a subconscious guide, but there's nothing mechanical or moving or audible, therefore it's legal. So, there you go. These are allowed. If you can make this work, then it's great. So anything which moves or makes a sound, can't be used. But if it's not movable or not tactile or not audible, then it's fine. So these are legal. 11.4.5. Face and string walking are permitted. There's no definition here, but this is unique to barebow and barebow's most distinguishing feature. I don't have a video on it yet. I'll do it one day. But basically, and I'll use footage from someone else just to demonstrate this for clarity purposes. Shout out to whichever video I'm using. Basically, you can't use sights, but string walking and face walking are basically using a rear sight. So you can't use a front sight or forward sight, but you can use a rear sight. So with string walking, and we used the image of the tab before, you move your fingers up or down the string to change the elevation. What you do is you put the tip of the arrow on the goal. That's your point on. So because you can't adjust the front sight, you keep the front of the bow static. Instead, you change the rear elevation. So you can change your distance by moving the back of the bow. That's the string up or down. So if you want to aim a closer target, you move your fingers lower on the string. If you want to aim a further target, you move your fingers up the string. And face walking, similar principle, you change your anchor point. With string walking, you normally use the same anchor point, but you change your finger placement. With face walking, you also change your anchor point. This may be necessary for some distances where you can't quite reach. So you might anchor at the cheekbone or at the corner of the mouth, but at long distance, you might anchor further down the jawline or something. So basically, this is allowed. That's why you see barebow shooters with unusually large gaps in their anchor point. So you might see them hold three under, but their three under is like a whole hand down, especially indoor. But outdoor, it tends to be quite close. That's allowed. This is quite different from traditional. So with trad divisions, normally the rules say you must have a finger touching the nock. So you can shoot split or three under, but you can't move it off the nock. This is to stop string walking. This is one of the controversial things with competitive trad or barebow. String walking is really accurate. Not as accurate as using a sight, but it's so close in terms of function that at close distances, a barebow shooter who's very good can out shoot an average recurve shooter. It is that consistent to a degree. But it's basically using a sight. So if you're shooting trad, it's kind of an unfair advantage if you're doing gap shooting because of some of the string walking. But with barebow, string walking is allowed, and virtually everyone string walks. 11.4.6, no stabilizers are permitted. Stabilizers are long rods and side rods, which recurve has. You can't have them. Now that said, it doesn't mean you can't have anything sticking out. So the next rule, 11.4.6.1, you can have vibration dampeners. Now what's the difference between a dampener and a stabilizer? They're kind of the same thing. The long rods of a stabilizer help change its center of balance and add more stability, hence stabilizers. If you make them short enough, they don't really do any stabilizing. They basically absorb vibration. That's allowed. So technically, you could say a stabilizer is a vibration dampener, but by the rule here, there's one limitation, and that is it must fit inside that 12.2cm ring. So you can put vibration dampeners on the limbs. You can attach it to the riser. You can use any weight you want. You can have weights. You can have vibration dampeners, but they must pass inside a 12.2cm ring without having to move or bend or flex dampeners. So you are allowed to have weights. That's the biggest thing. So weights can be added below or above the grip, but you can't use them to aim, and you can't have them dampened. So you'll see the unique thing with barebow risers is a lot of the purpose-designed risers will have weights either in the riser itself or on the side of the riser, and they're often adjustable. You can add or remove weights. There's been some changes in rules over what can be removed or what device you can use to stick them on, but basically, as long as it fits inside that ring, it's allowed. Most people have a weight screwed in the front stabilizer bushing, but a stabilizer is just a weight, but most risers designed specifically for barebow will have side mountings for weights because they have to fit inside that ring. Alright, 11.4.7 arrows can be used. Basically, target arrows, no definition of material. Most people use carbon or carbon-aluminium alloy or a combination of both, but you can use an arrow as long as they don't do any undue damage to the target. In other words, no broadheads. The definition of the arrow goes even further. Basically, it must have a tip, nocks, fletching, and if you want cresting or the wrap, you can have the coloured wrap if you want to. Most recreational low-level competition do have wraps because they're pretty nice and colourful. You'll see the top archers in events tend not to because they tend to go through arrows quite often, so it's a bit of a pain to keep on making wraps and crestings, but for those of us who have one set of arrows, we tend to really pimp them out and make them look really nice and personalised, so that's allowed. Max diameter 9.3mm, and this is primarily because indoor shooting, if it's too thick, then it basically cuts every line. We don't want that. Outdoor, we don't really want a thick arrow anyway, we want thinner ones, but the max diameter is 9.3mm. All arrows need to be the same in appearance, so same colour fletching, same colour nocks, you can't mix and match, and they all need to have the archer's initials or name on the shaft. You can't put them on the vane. Vanes can fall off. You must write your name or print your name on the shaft itself, and they specifically here, no tracer nocks, so therefore, no electronic lighted nocks are allowed. 11.4mm, .8mm, finger protection in the form of finger stores, or tips, or gloves, or tabs, or tape are allowed, so you can protect your fingers. They can't have any device that can be used to assist the athlete to hold, draw, and release. We've come to sear tabs, so the tab can't have any mechanical tools or audible tools to help release subconsciously, and no thumb rings, which is for your thumb rings, the metal and plastic ones. Many designs do have a lip which can be used to hold the string, so by definition, on the world archery, you can't use a thumb ring. A leather thumb tab, or a leather ring, probably allowed. This is kind of judge's call, but definitely not solid rings, and again, people don't shoot thumb draw in barebow, so this is not really a thing. It's mostly a clarification for those who are competing in a joint division. 11.4.8.1 A separator between the fingers to prevent pinching the arrow may be used. That's the finger spacer. You see this more often on recurve shooters. So, barebow rarely use the finger separator. This is because most barebow shooters will shoot three under due to string walking, so you're not pinching the arrow anyway. Therefore, the separator is meaningless. For those of us shooting barebow, you probably want to remove it and start practicing three under. It's really unique to split finger shooting, which is a recurve thing, not a barebow thing. The anchor plate or some device can be attached to the finger protection. You can have uniform stitching in size and color. You can have marks or lines added directly to the tab, or on a tape. So, you can have this pre-marked spacing, we saw before on the clarification. So, you can have pre-made marks, you can put a tape on your finger tab, but the marks must be uniform in size, shape, and color, and may have up to two different lengths. In other words, you can have a ruler. You can have equally ruled spacings on your finger tab, but you can't use them as pre-written notes. You can't have a 20 meter mark specifically highlighted. You have to know how to measure it. You are not allowed to pre-write or have any indicator that these are the exact distances for that finger tab. So, that's a thing. You can use marks, but you can't write what they are. You can use a glove if you want to, or a mitten, or a similar item, but you can't attach anything to the grip of the bow, but you can wear any hair protection. And now, the barebow finger tab interpretations. Alright, if you're confused by the finger tabs, this is where things get spicy. So, hello to Germany. What do the Germans want? The German shooting sport and archery federation requests this clarification. So, is the following allowed? It's this one. What? What is that? Let's just see what it is. So, the question is, is this allowed? It doesn't say what it is, but is the tab shown below legal? Is this legal? Let's use our judges cap here. What's wrong with this? Is there anything wrong with this? Now, my uninformed brain tells me that this is not equally spaced, right? In a normal finger tab, you have equally spaced markings. Is this legal? I think this is a good clarification. So, what's the ruling? Let's read. the majority decision, the finger tab is legal. There is nothing in the current rule that indicates the marks are uniformly spaced. Hang on a moment here. Did I get something wrong? Hang on. This is actually interesting. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh! Oh, hello here. So, these marks should be uniform in size, shape and color. Oh, I was wrong. No, no, no. I get it. Okay. So, the line itself, where's the rule book here? So, the lines must be uniform in length and size. You can have two different sizes, but you don't have to have them equally spaced. This is why we have this rule complication. Sometimes these rules are mixed up, and people kind of retell through telephone what the rules are. So, there's nothing in the rules which say that the distance between each line must be uniform. So, you can have irregular distance markings. The lines are the same size, but the gaps are different. Oh, that changes things a lot. I mean, it's not really that advantageous, because you still have to adjust anyway. But the rules don't say that. I reckon they should say that, but I guess in the world of rules, no one can change it. So, there we go. Alright. So, that is allowed. There's nothing in the rules that have to be uniform spacing. Okay. More complications. It's the same thing with the finger separator. They've commented this one here. So, it's a complication? What's the question? This is the same rule as what it was said in the rule book. So, you can't have uniform stitching in size and colour. They don't have to be uniform spacing. No memoranda. So, no written notes or markings. Federation, meta-interpretation, recurring spacing. Okay. This is the comment. Okay. So, the wording might be misunderstood to mean that the spacing must be uniform, and that's my mistake before, but no. The spacing does not have to be uniform. That was not the intent of the rules committee. So, therefore, as long as a tab that only has one or two different lengths of lines is used, the spacing doesn't matter. I've learned something. There you go. Alright. Hello to Germany again. Second complication. So, the context here is the definition of the finger tab spacing. We said before you can have different spacing, but the markings must be the same size or no more than two different sizes. So, the example which the Germans have asked here is you can have long, short, long, short as a pattern for the marking. Can you also have different colours? Yellow, red, yellow, red? The answer is no. So, the rules do specifically say the stitching or the thread must be one colour. Therefore, a tab with different colour stitching is not legal in barebow. Okay. Rule complication number three. I think this one covers the change in the finger tab marking. So, we'll read this out verbatim. The judges committee noted that in an interpretation dated 2017, the aesthetic committee said that if tabs are produced with more than two different line lengths for the barebow division, the aesthetic committee and the film and 3D art committee would need to consider whether these tabs would be permitted in the barebow division. The judges committee has asked whether or not a tab with more than two different line lengths would be permitted in barebow. So, we said before that the tab can have different size lines but no more than two different ones. Again, typical rulers, you can have long and short. Be kind of like long, medium, short. It must be pretty uniform. So, there's a long, well, not long, but there's quite a few detailed things here. So, the judge found the question presented, blah, blah, blah. The committee has determined that the following interpretation is not contrary to the existing rules of congress decisions. The technical committee of the consultation with the film and 3D art committee, so the three committees here technical and the 3D art field would like to answer the question asked for addressing issues. So, the As of this year, 2020, this interpretation now applies to athletes' personal marks allowed up to two lines of length. Oh, that's a big one. So, the athlete can make their own marks. So, the original interpretation covered manufacturer's marks and currently athletes can have their own marks, but they must conform to the same rules. So, no more than two lengths of line are permitted. You don't require uniform spacing and the same applies to stitching. You need to have up to two lengths of stitching with no regulation of spacing. The stitching must be the same color. You can have stains, so if it gets dirty, that's okay, but you must be clearly using the same color stitching. So, the personal marks can be made on the tab. They don't have to be manufacturer's marks, but you can only use two different lengths of line. The spirit here is half the rules are for the finger tab rather than the bow itself, right? So, you can't have too many aids on the tab to help you aim specific distances, but you can have markings. It gets really messy here, but yeah, those are the rules. You can mark your tab within these guidelines. So, your tabs we've already mentioned, so, same rule there. Other rules, 11.4.9, binocular scopes in Asian allowed, we've seen it before. 0.4, 0.9, 0.1, provided they're not used for ranging or obstructing other athletes. So, if you're shooting target, you can have scopes on tripods, you can have binoculars, but you can't use them for sighting or ranging. You can use them to spot arrows. 0.4, 0.9, 0.2, you can use prescription glasses, shooting spectacles, sunglasses. You can't have those micro hole lenses or those really fancy shooting glasses or those meme glasses now. So, no special shooting glasses, but you can use normal glasses or sunglasses. You are allowed to cover the non-sighting eye using plastic or film or tape. So, if you are shooting cross dominant or you just want to cover one eye, you can block it with a patch or any kind of solid filter. That's fine. 0.4, 0.10, you can use the following accessories, arm guard, chest guard, bow sling, finger sling, belt, back, hip, quiver. These are fine. So, basically, you can use accessories on the line, and as per usual, no electronic devices, no communication, no phones. I've also covered the hearing aid thing in the recurve rule set. Basically, you can have hearing aids, but you can't have hearing loops. So, the difference is the hearing loop is tuned into a particular channel, and the idea is that you can't be able to communicate with a specific person through your hearing aid. So, a hearing aid which elevates all sound levels is okay, but you can't have one plugged in where you can listen to a particular person talking to a speaker or a phone. So, no personal communication there. And that's the rules for bare bow. Yeah, bare bow is interesting. There's a lot of rules over what isn't allowed on the bow, but more particularly the finger tab, and I've learned a lot there as well. There are a lot of things I didn't realize were particular rules on the use of particular marks. Again, the spirit of bare bow is they want you to be able to shoot without aids. Therefore, no sight, no clicker, no stabilizer. People will push what is allowed by having heavier weights, using string walking or face walking as a sighting tool. It's not as accurate as shooting with sights, obviously, or stabilizers, but a very good bare bow shooter can be competitive, especially indoor 18 metres. They're very competitive. Outdoor, up to 50 is a standard, and past 50, you don't really match the recurve consistency. If nothing else, because of the clicker. Stabilizers help a lot too, but the clicker is the biggest advantage that recurve has over bare bow. But that's it. That's the bare bow rule set. I hope you found that interesting and helpful. If you want to go to something else, let me know. There are so many rules we can talk about, like archery, shooting conduct, and a lot of things here, all the rule books. Not all of these are particularly interesting. The amount of them, curious. But that's the equipment side. We've done recurve, we've done bare bow. Compound is compound, but we can do that next time if you want. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for watching. We'll see you all next time, hopefully.