IFAA Bow Styles and Categories
The aim of the IFAA bow styles is to ensure you have fun with your bow, so a large range of bows are catered for, each having their own characteristics and called “styles”.
When you shoot in competition, the style of bow will depend on your equipment. For example, if your use a compound bow without a release aid, no sight adjustment and levelling or sights on your string (amongst others), then your bow style would be a “Barebow Compound”, abbreviated as BBC.
When competing, you will form a group of archers who have similar equipment to yours to ensure that no archer has an unfair advantage. In addition, you will fall into a “class” where archers of the same gender and age will shoot.
These classes are abbreviated (e.g.: A = Adult and F=Female). Together they make up your shooting category (e.g.: Adult Female Barebow Compound = AFBBC). To cater for local development there are a number of local classes. These age groups and criteria are unique to South Africa and do not qualify members for international team selection.
There are a number of bow styles that are used to compete in the IFAA rounds and the various styles although listed and detailed in the rules are also depicted here in a pictorial manner to show what can be used ( a red tick) and what cannot be used ( a red cross).
The summary below shows what is allowed for the specific bow style.
Source: SANAA
