Archery!
Just call me Katniss Everdeen. But not really, 'cause I had a love of archery before The Hunger Games. Yes, it was a love that began in middle school, when we had an archery unit in gym class. I probably loved it then because a) It's not a team sport, and b) It was one of the only activities I didn't completely stink at in P.E.
I forgot about it for a long, long time, and then "Lord of the Rings" happened. Who didn't want to be Legolas? I just never did anything about it, though. Until Saturday.
My friend Gretchen and I signed up for a beginner archery class. We used recurve bows and started shooting from 15 feet. Take a look at what I accomplished:
This is Take 1, the first five shots of my adult life. Before you say, "But Sara, you weren't even close to the bullseye," let me tell you that I was still pretty dang good. My teacher said the best thing to be in the beginning is consistent, and if those arrows aren't consistent, I don't know what is!
More consistency. I was so consistent, in fact, that my teacher gave me tips to work on accuracy.
This, for example, is what happens when you move your anchor point up. Accuracy! (The anchor point is the place on an archer’s face where the hand and the bowstring come to rest consistently at full draw.) But check out that precision, too!
I started getting a little sloppy on consistency . . .
This was my last set for the day. I think we were about 25 feet away at that point.
Let me tell you something about archery and me. I love it. And I am good at it. When I have a bow and arrow in my hands, I am sure of myself. That doesn't happen very often, so I'll revel in it for the next four Saturdays. :)
Here's Gretchen looking ridiculously cool. I'll add that she was good as well, especially given that she was shooting with her left hand, even though she's not a lefty. (Gretchen is right-handed, but her left eye is dominant, so she shoots with her left hand.)
After the beginner class, I'll take the intermediate class, and then who knows? I may be killing orcs by year's end. :)
Thing I'm thankful for: discovering new interests!
posted by Sara @ 11:21 PM
6 Comments:
Hahahahahha Consistent! You are! I am glad you have found something you are very confident in. I would love to have you along on a walk in the woods. I am sure you would kill that bear, which would chase us. Maybe you should also try fencing! I think you would do well at that sport also. AND swimming! Love YOU Interesting, very interesting girl!
Whats with you people and having schools with cool PE activities. Gretchen mentioned she also had an archery unit in school. Another friend had fencing. Like the state of California would have payed for anything like that or even trusted its students with training them with a weapon. I'm just lucky I grew up just outside of town on a couple acres where we regularly had an archery range setup. Unfortunately we moved and I've only gone shooting once or twice since elementary school.
I'm so excited for our next lesson!
There are a few boys here who saw this post and are BEGGING for lessons now ;)
That's so awesome. I've always been interested in archery too, but sadly I've never really pursued it. My parents let me get throwing knives when I was younger, but I was pretty horrible at it (you have to be able to throw before you can throw *knives*). It was still fun to try.
Archery? you just got even hotter.
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