Jennifer Lawrence, who plays heroine Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" movie series, was described as the "real deal" by sports engineer and Olympic archery commentator George Tekmitchov.

But it was not the usual reference describing the sincerity of personality in a Hollywood Oscar-winning actress. He was attesting to her skill with a bow and arrow.

"She actually knows how to shoot," Tekmitchov said regarding her performance with the Buffalo Recurve bow that is used in the upcoming movie "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," and her firing of Easton X7 Eclipse arrows. This bow and arrow combination is quite different from the one Lawrence trained with for the first movie, in which she used a wooden bow with a more stereotypical wood arrow trimmed with feathers.

It took considerable training to achieve the level of credible skill Lawrence displays using archery equipment. Khatuna Lorig, a five-time Olympic archery competitor worked with Lawrence.

"I was told only that I needed to make the 20-year-old actress look like a professional archer so she could play the role of a 16-year-old character named Katniss Everdeen," Lorig said. "Jennifer was much like any other archery student I've taught, except for the fact that we were more concerned with how she looked than whether or not she was hitting her targets (that's what special effects are for).

"As it turns out, she was surprisingly strong and good with the bow. With her physique — she's 5-foot-7 with long limbs — Jennifer had an easy time drawing the bowstring back, and she had a natural release that some archers only dream about."

Since the first "Hunger Games" movie hit theaters, there has been an increased interest is the sport of archery. Membership in USA Archery has increased by close to 50 percent, and many new enthusiasts are at the competition level. For the average archer there are two types: target and field.

Target involves archers shooting arrows at set targets, while field has archers taking aim at different targets, different distances with a variety of arrows. Archers may walk up to five miles during a day of competition, making the sport a healthy option.

But it is not as easy as it looks. The ease and grace with a bow and arrow that Lawrence's character Katniss Everdeen displays is much more difficult and complex than is seems. The equipment is complicated, and each shot requires an incredible amount of strength, endurance, dexterity and concentration.

Pulling back on the bow string requires strength. The action impacts the muscles of both arms, the chest, shoulders and back. Accurate aiming requires balance on strong legs and well-developed core muscles — all while using precise hand-eye coordination.

The physical actions occur simultaneously with an intense amount of concentration — so intense that the body’s physiology is dramatically changed, impacting heart rate and brain activity. Sports vision specialist Dr. Walter Potaznick describes seven steps of rhythmic motion all while fixating a target: taking stance, gripping bow, nocking arrow, drawing bow, anchor string, final visual fixation through bowsight, loosening of grip to release the bow and watching the arrow hit the target.

The aspects of focus and aiming are well-described in sports vision literature, but the physical aspects of archery are underappreciated. The intensity of the physical demands of repetitive aiming and firing of arrows is such a grueling task in formal venues such as the Olympics that comparisons are made to distance running, rowing or riding.

No doubt Katniss Everdeen will be depicted repetitively aiming and firing arrows with an intensity that goes far beyond any biathlon or triathlon we have seen.