Imperial rounds (measured in yards) are mainly shot in the United Kingdom. Metric rounds, also known as WA rounds, measured in metres, are used for most other tournaments. These are the main rounds that are able to be shot in target archery: If an archer damages another archer's arrows (or other equipment), they must offer to pay for any damages. The only type of bow allowed to be used at Olympic level is the recurve bow. Since the 1984 Games at Los Angeles, South Korea has dominated the women's event. At the Sydney 2000 games, the Korean women won bronze, silver and gold in the individual competition and won gold in the team event. They also won the gold team medal in the 2004 Athens games, the 2008 Beijing games, and the 2012 London games. The command Fast means stop shooting immediately and return the unshot arrow to the quiver. It is used when the situation becomes suddenly and unexpectedly dangerous.

For a 1440 round, known until 2014 as 'FITA Round', outdoor distances range from 30 to 90m (33 to 98 yards) for senior Gentlemen archers, and 30 to 70m (33 to 77 yards) for Ladies. The juniors have shorter targets to shoot at. In Olympic archery, 70m (77 yards) is the standard range. Indoor distances are either 18 or 25m (20 or 27 yards). In qualification each individual archer will shoot 72 arrows to be ranked on their total score. The highest scoring man and woman decide seeds for the mixed team events and seeds for the team events are decided by ranking the highest scoring three archers of the same gender from one country. Recurve and barebow matches are decided using the set system - whereby archers shoot the points required to beat their opponents - while compound matches are decided on cumulative score.

Competitions consist of individual, mixed team and team events. A mixed team consists of one man and one woman archer, shooting with the same bowstyle, whereas a team consists of three archers of the same gender shooting with the same bowstyle. centimetres (48in) faces are used in Olympic competition. A variant of the 80-centimetre (31in) face, called a "Spot" may be used when shooting WA rounds. This variant shows only the inner 6 rings of a full 80-centimetre (31in) face. There are also versions of the 40-and-60-centimetre (16 and 24in) targets known as the "3 Spot". The targets contain 3 instances of the inner 5 rings of the 40-and-60-centimetre (16 and 24in) faces arranged in a line or an equilateral triangle. This is to stop competitors from damaging their own arrows by shooting a "robin hood". In Japanese archery, known as Kyūdō, the bullseye is called "zuboshi". [5] The term is also used as idiomatic slang just as it is in English, to note that someone has done or said something that hits "right on the nose."

There are two parts to a target archery competition - the qualification stage and the matchplay stage.Target archery involves shooting at stationary circular targets from set distances. Target archery is the kind played at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and is the type that most beginners or "Have a go" archery session participants try first. Archers shoot at distances of between 10 metres and 90 metres in outdoor competitions. Archery GB rounds can be up to 100 yards. Indoor target archery distances are a maximum of 18 metres or 20 yards depending on the round. Target archery involves shooting at stationary circular targets from set distances In a tournament, awards are normally split into categories according to bowstyle, gender and, for juniors, age. All registered AGB archers also have an indoor and an outdoor classification, and classification awards may also be presented - this allows archers to only shoot against those of the same ability.

Competition is divided into ends. An archer shoots either 3 or 6 arrows per end, depending on the type of round. After each end, the competitors walk to the target to score and retrieve their arrows. An indoor competition is usually 20 ends of 3 arrows. The Grand National Archery Society runs two systems of classification: the main Classifications (for indoor and outdoor shooting) and Handicaps. To do this, they produce tables of scores for all recognised rounds and an archer's classification and handicap can be worked out from their scores, normally by a club's Record Officer. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.The bullseye or bull's eye has, since 1833, [1] been the name for the center of a target and, by extension, since 1857, [1] has been given to any throw, toss, or shot that hits the center. Archery competitions may be held indoors or outdoors. Indoor rounds are normally shot at one distance, whereas outdoor competitions normally consist of several distances. For lists of tournament rounds, see section entitled Tournament Rounds. Archers have a set time limit in which to shoot their arrows. For indoor competition, under World Archery Federation rules this is 2 minutes for 3 arrows. Signalling devices such as lights and flags inform the archers when time is up. For a 1440 outdoor round the archer has 4 minutes to shoot 6 arrows at the two longer distances, and 2 minutes to shoot 3 arrows at the remaining two shorter distances. Internationally, longbow is only recognised in 3D competitions but can be used in all other types of archery domestically. Different rounds and distances use different size target faces. Common sizes (and example rounds they are used in) are: