Anyone who saw archery at the last Olympics (or anywhere else for that matter) must have come to realise how drab a spectator sport this is.

I've been giving this some thought and have identified the following major flaws from a watcher's point of view;

* The arrow is too small. You can't see where it is on the target with the naked eye. We need something more visible. * You can't tell either visually or aurally whether the arrow's been released. We need some smoke and noise to tell us when something's actually happening. * It's boring for kids. We could do with some cuteness.

The solution I propose, therefore, is that a new viewer-friendly form of archery is developed involving the firing of penguins from bazookas.
-- Scotty, Feb 27 2001

I never found archery dull when we did it in school sports but then my class always made me play catcher.
-- sirrobin, Feb 27 2001


Yes, it's OK doing it, but it's hell to watch.

We had catching the javelin and heading the shot when I was a nipper.
-- Scotty, Feb 27 2001


Scotty - Perhaps it could be the penguins who are firing the bazookas. That has potential.
-- mark_t, Feb 27 2001


My answer to an archer spectator sport would involve two opposing teams of WWI era cloth and wood biplanes and wing-walking archers.
-- Prof Manitou, Apr 14 2003


You could have whistles attached to the arrows and baseball-style scoreboards:

<Phweeeeeeeeee> <thoCK> <TadaTaDAAAA> <BULLSEYE!!!!!>

Or make it a contact sport. You could have archers face each other wearing kevlar body armor. At the whistle blow, each archer draws and fires a volley at the opposing team. Those contacted by an arrow are eliminated. Both teams then step a pace foreward.

Or a combination of the above.

With regards to the javelin, this should be done combined with the sprint. The winner is the one that can throw the cumulative longest distance within 5 minutes. For events broadcast after the 9:00pm watershed, javelins would be painted black and have barbed tails and throwers would not be required to run on a track separate from the flight path of their javelin.
-- FloridaManatee, Apr 15 2003


I got hit in the head by a discus once.

*drool*
-- thumbwax, Apr 15 2003


They have clay pigeon shooting at the Olympics, so why not clay pigeon archery?
-- hippo, Apr 15 2003


Dartery. A Dartboard set up 50 yards away thats the same size as an archery board. Usual rules stand. Finish on a double.
Oh I've made a boring sport more boring. Sorry.
-- sufc, Apr 15 2003


[FloridaManatee] -an arrow would concentrate it's force on one or two threads of kevlar and thus easily penetrate, a common military ball round would spread it's force over a larger area which would prevent penetration.
-- whatastrangeperson, Mar 26 2004


Indeed, [whatastrangeperson], metal plate armour wuld be much better. A normal target arrowhead would just dent sheet steel bit an amusing clonk, you can still penetrate steel armour, as the French discovered, but you need a specialised arrowhead (a bodkin).
-- squigbobble, Apr 25 2005


//firing of penguins from bazookas//
Goldam. No need for the beauty of Zen here!
I wish I had more than one bone to give for my beliefs.
-- Zimmy, Apr 25 2005



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