Week 35 - learning archery

I think its only too fitting that while I've been utterly fixated with and compelled by both the Olympics and the Paralympics on TV,  while it was still going on, I ventured to try archery last week.  Ironic really, as archery is not one of the sports that I have ever been drawn to watch, but somehow I liked the idea of trying it out.  Maybe its the Robin Hood thing or perhaps its the fact that I have always liked games where you have to aim and hit something specific.  Whether its bowling, darts, or throwing scrunched up bits of paper into a dustbin.  Anyway, the point is whilst browsing through the very useful website, Funzing, I discovered an evening archery class which sparked my thirst for learning something new.

As I strolled along to the 2020Archery club based in South London, I wondered who else might be there and what type of people you might find at an introduction to archery class.  Turns out, all sorts and a group that is hard to define.  I quite liked that - it was just totally random, from a couple of hipsters to a Dad with his daughter or some Spanish male nurses versus some old(ish) Grannies or a professional woman in her heels.  All sorts.

There was a large group of us but our two teachers, Steph and Diccon wasted no time and got us all geared up super quickly.  Everyone had to wear a leather bracer (arm-guard) on their archer's arm to protect them while shooting.  We also got given a leather finger tab for the other hand that grips the bow string.  They then measured each of us for our arrows and took us through a simple demonstration.

Other than a few technical bits and pieces like where to hold the bow, the placement of the arrow and how far back to pull the string, in layman's terms, it pretty much is just a case of "point and shoot".  Obviously, you do have to have a slight knack for it and know how to aim but in the first instance, this is definitely something that anybody can do.   There were some useful tips, of course, that we were given such as keeping your shooting arm raised and straight, keeping your less dominant eye closed to aim better and aim slightly lower than where you want to shoot because the bow goes up when it fires out.

I was a bit of a mentalist at first because I couldn't quite let go of the bowstring, somehow I felt like it was going to explode and twang in my face and so with me being all clumsy and careful, the arrow would just fall to the floor.  But after a few moments I stopped being such a loser and realised what I had to do.  There were a couple of errant misses at first, but then I was fully switched on and firing right on target.  I really enjoyed it and definitely felt a bit of a rush as I stood there aiming and firing what is essentially a deadly weapon.  Is that worrying?!

After we'd all had a good go and shot around nine or ten arrows, we raised the stakes with a bit of a competition.  Everyone got to shoot 12 arrows and would get a score based on where each arrow hit on the circles of the target.  The outer ring was worth one point and would increase by one the closer you got to the bullseye which was worth ten points.  I felt quietly confident based on my earlier shooting but I could see some very competitive boys to my left that were whispering and being very serious.  I started off well and was getting mostly seven and eights, but then in my cockiness I fell at the final hurdle, ending with two misses, meaning my final score was a disappointing 69.  I was right about the boys to my left, who both got 102, the highest scores of the group.  They looked pretty pleased with themselves!

Regardless, I had such a fun time.  I love doing these silly, random, different things on an evening - it makes me feel good and alive and happy to be living in London.  There is an absolute multitude of activities and experiences all over the city and it is so easy to find them, it just takes a weeny bit of effort, but the rewards are great and good.  And you look like a badass.