Do I need to be a good archer to join an indoor league?

No. Under NFAA league rules, league shooting is open to all archers, though the host may require membership, and club leagues set their own entry rules. Where a league uses handicaps, they even out matchups between archers or teams of different levels. Ask the club about its format and handicap before your first night.

What round is shot in an indoor league?

It depends on the league. An NFAA-sanctioned league chooses the NFAA Indoor, Freeman or Vegas 450 round at its first meeting. A club league outside NFAA sanction sets its own round and face, so check with the organiser.

What happens if I miss a league night?

It depends on the league's rules. Under NFAA league rules, each league chooses whether to allow an alternate or an absentee score shot in advance, which cannot exceed your average, and it may also use a blind score of five points below your average. A team with too few archers present forfeits the series. Club leagues set their own rules.

Indoor League

An indoor league is a run of weekly competition nights at a club or archery range, usually through the winter, where archers or teams shoot the same round each week and standings build over the season. Formats vary from club to club; the NFAA also sanctions indoor leagues under its own league rules.

Details

A typical league meets on the same night each week for a set number of weeks. Archers warm up, shoot a full indoor round, and the scores are posted before everyone goes home. Formats vary: some leagues score individuals only, some put archers in teams, some split the field by bow style, and many use a handicap so that newer archers can compete with experienced ones. Ask your club how its league works before the first night.

The NFAA publishes a full rule set for the leagues it sanctions. The league chooses its round at the first meeting, the NFAA Indoor, the Freeman or the Vegas 450, a 45-arrow round shot in ends of three, and each round is shot as three games. Teams of two or more archers compete in match play: a team earns a point for each game it wins and one more for the higher three-game total, and a tied game gives each team half a point. The league period is split into halves, and the two half winners shoot off for the league championship.

Where a league uses handicaps, they even out matchups between archers or teams of different levels. Under the NFAA's league rules the league chooses a team or an individual handicap: an archer's average is taken from the last six games, an individual handicap is 80 percent of the gap between that average and a perfect game; a team handicap is 80 percent of the gap between two teams' averages. The league also decides how to cover a missing archer, with an alternate, an absentee score shot in advance, or a blind score five points below the archer's average.

For a newer archer, a league is the easiest step into competition: the same range, the same round and the same night each week. For an experienced archer, it is a weekly benchmark through the indoor season. Because the round never changes, a league average is one of the cleanest measures of progress an indoor archer has.

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Common questions

Do I need to be a good archer to join an indoor league?: No. Under NFAA league rules, league shooting is open to all archers, though the host may require membership, and club leagues set their own entry rules. Where a league uses handicaps, they even out matchups between archers or teams of different levels. Ask the club about its format and handicap before your first night.
What round is shot in an indoor league?: It depends on the league. An NFAA-sanctioned league chooses the NFAA Indoor, Freeman or Vegas 450 round at its first meeting. A club league outside NFAA sanction sets its own round and face, so check with the organiser.
What happens if I miss a league night?: It depends on the league's rules. Under NFAA league rules, each league chooses whether to allow an alternate or an absentee score shot in advance, which cannot exceed your average, and it may also use a blind score of five points below your average. A team with too few archers present forfeits the series. Club leagues set their own rules.