Contact us
  • A blog about archery in Toronto. Fresh posts every Wednesday.
  • Where will archery lead you?
    • Pathway to History
    • Pathway to Storytelling
    • Pathway to Craft
    • Pathway to Science
    • Pathway to Sport

Rob's Guest Post:  Point of Aim

2/19/2014

0 Comments

 
"Shoot with your eyes closed."
What?  Huh..?  How will I hit the target?
"Shoot with your eyes closed."

In my head, all I am seeing is Star Wars with Luke on the Falcon, light sabre training.  Yes, I am that much of a geek.  I hear Obi Wan's voice. "Your eyes can deceive you; do not trust them.." 

Archery is all about hitting the bulls eye right?  Actually, I have come to learn it isn't;  in fact, what and where you are aiming is of so little importance that is actually barely matters at all.  

I tell you:  the "Ahhhh" moment when I actually understood that was..... Well it was epic... And it was in my 2nd year of shooting. I had heard it from day 1 but it didn't make any sense in my head.  If you are trying to put an arrow in gold then aiming for gold is part of the process.  Right? 

I started shooting with my eyes closed and at first it was nerve wracking - arrows were going everywhere.  So I gave up.  There was this little voice at the back of my head (It might have been in a raspy 800-year-old little green guy's voice) "You must unlearn all that you have learned".  So I did it again, and then again.  I started paying attention to my breathing, I started feeling the balance of the bow in my hand, feeling the release of the string. I started paying a lot of attention to my body and how it moved from relaxed to draw to anchor to stretch to release and back to relaxed. Suddenly I was back on the target block and the group was closing.  

Now, I am no Olympian and I don't shoot every day for hours.  I am lucky if I get to shoot twice a week for a few hours at a go but I was seeing change and I understood.  Point of aim isn't what is important.  Consistency, the feel of the draw and stance, the - keeping with my geeky self here - "force" (Yes, I went there. You'll get over it.) matters more.

So there you have it, a point of interest on point of aim.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    NEW: Book archery lessons!
    Picture

    Author

    Tara Vaughan lives with Rob Cruise and their pooches, Artemis and Louis in the East end of Toronto.  They sort of dabbled in archery for a long time but actually got equipment a couple of years ago.  Tara's loving it and Toronto and - Hey, look!  She has a blog about them.

    2013 Canadian Weblog Awards nominee

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @ArtemisNFriends

    Archives

    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Categories

    All
    Pathway To Craft
    Pathway To Craft
    Pathway To History
    Pathway To History
    Pathway To Sport
    Pathway To Storytelling

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.