Turkish Archery-Kepaze Bows, Purpose and Making




Kepaz(d)e bows were weaker bows that have been used in pulling exercises to acquire the muscle memory and good shooting form as well as maintaining this muscle memory. An old Ottoman phrase says “If you leave pulling a bow for one day archery leaves you for ten days”. Similar recommendations can be found in other arts in the Turkish world, like caligraphy, for instance. According to our experience, kepaze helps recover after long breaks or injuries and might have further benefits with modified resistance-rep-set combinations. Under Tirendaz we use plastic pipes for making kepaze and it seems to have worked fine in teaching archery to a vast number of people within years.