Today is Halloween. At the traditional Madeira School Halloween Parade, my daughter dressed up as a college sports professor who was shot in the leg by a student who did not listen to the archery instructor’s safety instructions. While the teacher and the student both recovered, the serious message here is to LISTEN TO THE SAFETY RULES and wait until it is safe to start the athletic activity.

Although archery is a sport with a low reported incidence of associated injury to the archers themselves, injury does occur because of the repetitive nature of the action of drawing a bow and the force levels required to accomplish correct shooting form. The International Archery Federation (or “FITA”) medical committee launched a survey to try to determine the incidence of sports injury in archery. https://www.qsl.net/gi4fum/page5.html

Archers do not appear to recognize chronic aches and pains as being due to injury. Injury reports relate to overuse or damage of muscles and tendons of the upper limb relating to the shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger joints. According to the survey results, far the most frequently injured area is the shoulder. A small number of reports relate to direct trauma. It has been surprising to note that only under half of those reporting injury seek help from a physiotherapist.

A breakdown of injury reports gives the following results –

• Shoulder injuries (including rotator cuff) 47%
• Elbow injuries (common flexor & extensor tendon origin problems) 17%
• Wrist injuries 12%
• Finger injuries 6%
• Back injuries 5%
• Forearm injuries 4%
• Other injuries 9%