An Olympic recurve bow has three parts without which it would not be a bow: the riser, the central body with the grip; the two limbs, which bend as you draw and store the energy; and the string, which passes that energy on to the arrow. Everything else is there to make the arrow leave the bow the same way every time: the arrow rest and the pressure button support it, the nocking point gives it a fixed place on the string, the clicker signals a complete draw, the sight gives a reference and the stabilisers are there to keep the bow steadier. The archer, finally, wears a finger tab to protect the fingers and an arm guard to protect the forearm.
You hear these names on the range from day one, and here they are in the order a beginner meets them. The rules I quote come from the World Archery rulebook of 15 August 2026, which national federations generally adopt for target archery; the references are at the end.
The body of the bow: riser, limbs and string
The riser (also called the handle) is the rigid central section, usually aluminium alloy or carbon. In the middle of the riser is the grip, where the bow hand pushes; above the grip is the window, the cut-away section the arrow passes alongside, with threaded holes for the accessories. The rules do not allow a shoot-through riser on a recurve: the arrow passes beside the riser, not through it.
The limbs are the two arms fitted above and below the riser, which bend as the string is drawn. The bow is called a recurve because the limb tips curve forward, towards the target, and each ends in a groove, the string nock, which holds the loop of the string. Each limb is also marked with its draw weight, the force held at full draw, measured at a reference draw length chosen by the manufacturer: draw shorter or longer and you hold a little less or more. In the registry, the claim that the draw weight marked on the bow differs from what the archer actually pulls at their own draw length is contested: the two studies that measured it seem to contradict each other, but read together they suggest that the gap grows the further the draw length is from the reference. How much draw weight you need at the start is covered in the guide on choosing draw weight.
The bowstring is made of strands of synthetic fibre, with a loop at each end and a protective wrapping in the middle, the centre serving, where the fingers sit. That is where the nocking point is fixed: one or two small stops that show where the arrow nock goes. The rules allow one more attachment on the string, a lip or nose mark, the kisser. The distance between the string and the deepest point of the grip is called the brace height, and it is one of the first measurements an instructor checks.
A common idea is that nocking point height has to be set to the millimetre. The only calculation, a model of a single bow, points the other way: a millimetre changes the flight very little, whereas a centimetre shows at once. In the registry, then, the claim that nocking point height needs to be set to the millimetre is contradicted, with a serious limitation: nobody has tested it with archers shooting. What a beginner needs, in any case, is a nocking point that stays put: if it slides, it has to be fixed again.
Where the arrow sits: arrow rest and pressure button
The arrow rest is the small support the arrow lies on while you draw, a thin arm fixed to the riser at the level of the window.
Next to the rest, beside the arrow, is the pressure button, which many archers call a plunger: a small cylinder with a tip that presses against the shaft and an adjustable spring inside. As the arrow leaves and flexes, the button gives a little and absorbs the sideways push; adjusting it matches bow and arrows. The World Archery rules set a measurement here: on a recurve the pressure point may be no more than 4 cm back, towards the archer, from the pivot point of the grip; on a barebow the limit is 2 cm.
In the registry, the claim that on a recurve there is no single right centreshot or button tension, but a range is transferred: it rests on models of the bow, in which different settings offset one another, and nobody has yet measured it on an arrow group. The centreshot, the arrow's sideways position relative to the centre of the bow, is part of bow tuning, a job that usually comes after the first few months.
The clicker
The clicker (the rulebook's draw check indicator) is a thin blade fixed to the riser, or to a short extension that sticks out in front of it, with the arrow point sitting under it. When the archer completes the draw, the point slides past the blade, which snaps against the riser or the extension with a click: the signal that the draw has reached the set point. The rules allow only one, provided it is not electric or electronic; on a barebow it is not permitted.
The clicker usually comes once the draw is already stable, because its job is to make an existing draw length consistent. You often hear that without a clicker you lose draw length: the only study that measured it, on nine elite women archers, found no difference, and in the registry that claim is contradicted, within the limits of a single indoor session and of archers who had used a clicker for years. The rest is in the article on the clicker.
The sight
The sight is screwed onto the riser above the window, extends forward on a bar and carries a small ring with an aiming point, which the archer lays over the centre of the target. It adjusts vertically for distance and horizontally for wind. For the recurve the rules allow one sight with a single sighting point, without magnifying lenses, prisms or levels, and the part you look through may not exceed 2 cm along the line of sight. A scale with distance marks can be mounted on the sight. A barebow has neither a sight nor stabilisers.
The stabilisers
Stabilisers are rods screwed into the riser below the grip, with weights at the end. The most visible is the long rod, pointing towards the target; behind it, a V-shaped bracket, the V-bar, holds the two side rods, which point back towards the archer and slightly down. Their job is to increase the bow's inertia, its resistance to moving and turning, the idea being that it then moves less while aiming and reacts more evenly at the release. The World Archery rules allow them as long as they do not serve as a string guide, consistently touch the archer's body while aiming, or present a danger or obstruction to others; the Italian federation's text says they must touch nothing but the bow.
The registry keeps two questions apart. That they reduce the bow's lateral movement while the arrow is still on the string is reported: a single experiment, on one national team archer, found smaller and above all more consistent movements, all under a millimetre. That they improve shooting accuracy is not studied, because the only comparison with and without stabilisers, on seven archers, is too small to rule out an effect. For a beginner they are not the first thing to buy; I discuss them in the article on stabilisers.
The arrow
The arrow has its own parts: the shaft; the point; the nock, which clips onto the string at the nocking point; and the fletching, the vanes or feathers at the back. In target archery the shaft may not exceed 9.3 mm in diameter and the point 9.4 mm. For a beginner what matters most is spine, the stiffness of the shaft, which has to be matched to the draw weight and to the arrow length: I explain it in the article on the archer's paradox.
What the archer wears: finger tab, arm guard and the rest
Protection is worn by the archer, not fitted to the bow. The most important is the finger tab, a flap of leather or synthetic material that slips over the fingers of the string hand and protects them from pressure and friction. It can have a plate that serves as a reference at the anchor and a separator between the index and middle fingers, which stops them pinching the nock; it may not, however, help to draw or release the string, or extend beyond the wrist.
| Accessory | Also called | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Finger tab | Shooting tab | Protects the fingers of the string hand and gives the string a smooth surface to slide off |
| Arm guard | Bracer | Protects the forearm of the bow arm if the string brushes it |
| Chest guard | Chest protector | Keeps clothing away from the string and protects the chest |
| Bow sling | Wrist sling, finger sling | Ties the bow to the wrist or fingers, so the hand stays open without the bow falling |
| Quiver | Belt or ground quiver | Holds the arrows, on the belt, at the hip, on the back or on the ground |
After the tab, the most useful item at the start is the arm guard: a string that hits the forearm hurts and makes you want to bend the bow arm, which is the last thing you need while learning. The bow sling goes with a relaxed bow hand that does not grip the handle, which I discuss in the article on the bow hand.
What you need to start
A first course needs very little of this. Clubs often lend a training bow: a simple riser, light limbs, a string with a nocking point, an arrow rest and sometimes a basic sight, plus a finger tab and an arm guard. The pressure button, the clicker and the stabilisers come later, one at a time, once the basic technique holds and the new piece solves a specific problem. Before buying a bow of your own, then, shoot for a few months with the club's: your draw length settles, your draw weight goes up, and the first mistakes to correct turn out to be almost always about technique. On how much equipment matters to your score, see does better equipment add points?.