How To Play Paralympic Archery Video

People with various levels of disabilities can compete in archery. Your mind is the most important aspect of the sport. Learn how to play Paralympic archery in this sports video.

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4 classes
Bows with modifications
Mental ability is key

About this Author

Jeff Fabry was injured in a motorcycle accident at the age of 15, leading to the loss of his right arm above the elbow and his right leg above the knee. He took up archery in 1997, and was introduced to Paralympic archery by Aaron Cross, who would be a teammate of Fabry's at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. Along with Kevin Stone, the trio won the bronze medal in the team competition in Athens, and Fabry won an individual bronze medal, as well. Fabry's biggest successes thus far have come at the IPC Archery World Championships, where he was won three gold medals, including the most recent event in 2007. Looking ahead to Beijing, he'll hope to add a Paralympic Games gold medal to his collection. Jeff assists in promoting archery particularly through organizations like the National Ability Center.

JEFF FABRY: My name is Jeff Fabry, paralympic archer. Archery is a great sport for anybody, no matter if you're able or disable. But for the disabled individual, there are several categories for each. No matter what you disability is you're going to be on a level-playing field with your other opponents as far as your disability. There are basically four classes that you could compete in. That starts with W1 which is basically 50% disability or more. W2 would be basically from your waist down, lower-extremity disability, confined to a wheelchair, and W3 would be a disability where you can actually stand. And then they also have what is called open compound, which anybody can shoot in it. This is my competition bow. Basically, it's a compound bow made by Hoyt. I've got a sight, stabilizer and it's basically the exact same bow that an able body would shoot. The only thing that's different is my mouth tab. This is what allows me to draw my bow back. Basically, it's just a dog leash that's tied around, sew it together and this is what I bite on to draw my bow. When I'm at full draw, that's when I can relax my jaw and the string goes and that's will cast the arrow. The sport archery like I've been saying is basically anybody can do it. The greatest thing about archery is it's not so much your physical ability, it's your mental ability. Archery really makes you use your mental powers to compete in. Anybody can do this and it's such a great challenge that you need to give it a try because I believe you'd enjoy it.

How to Play Paralympic Archery Video

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