Archery
Jan 20, 2025 by @turgon@dosgame.club
I tried archery a few times as a kid and don't remember being particularly good at it. Once in middle school P.E., once during a summer camp, and I remember making crappy bows with some friends from leftover project wood and string. I do remember thinking it was fun, and a lot harder than it looks in the movies.
My wife was making plans to take the girls and their friends there and asked if I wanted to come. That's a heckin' yes from me! So she arranged for us to have a group lesson from Ed and Bonnie of Santa Cruz Archery Lessons, and today we met them at the entry gate of Delaveaga and went into the range.
Ed and Bonnie first took us through safety stuff and the basics of shooting, then set us up at the 6 yard line and had use shoot against the wall (no targets) while they gave us each pointers. In fact they shared so much with me I wanted to write this blog post just to capture some of the detail of it.
First about the equipment, we were using flat bows with carbon fiber arrows. We all had arm guards (definitely saved me), and we also wore a partial glove on our drawing hand. There was also a small strap that you loop your bow hand's index finger through, wrap around the bow's grip, then loop over your thumb. Bonnie explained this allows you to hold the grip properly without worrying about dropping the bow.
To prepare to shoot, I straddled the shooting line and squared off, with good posture. Ed immediately helped me by reminding me to drop my shoulders, squeeze my shoulder blades together, and tighten up my core. This is an easy position not to be in for computer people like me.
To nock the arrow, I lay it across the outside of the grip with the different colored fletching pointing out and pull the nock into the string until it clicks into place. The arrow will hang on the string then.
One really interesting thing Bonnie showed me was that you don't really grab hold of the grip while you shoot. It's more like the bow wants to pull toward me and my extended arm prevents that while it rests on my hand, so my middle, ring, and pinky fingers don't even wrap around the grip and my index finger just sort of loosely points. I found this an odd feeling at first but it actually made aiming a lot easier for me because I could keep my wrist tight and just point my arm.
Then to draw, I'd raise the bow, hold the string with first three fingers all just below the arrow, and draw back with an elbow high until my draw hand comes up to my cheek where I can sight right down the arrow. I wear glasses so I felt like they would fly right off my face when I shot, but Ed said not to worry, and indeed it never happened.
We moved on to shooting at targets from 6 yards. I was shooting really well. I mean, 6 yards is hardly anything so I'm not bragging but I did land eight or nine bullseyes and that's probably record-breaking. And I felt awesome and the girls were doing really well too!
Ed suggested since my aim was pretty good that I practice my follow through, which is basically maintaing the bow's position as the arrow moves through it.
We moved out to 10 yards and things got harder, but I just focused on following the steps and making sure my body position was good. I asked Ed if I would have to adjust my aim much to correct the distance and he laughed and said not really. So I think I will have to shoot from a lot further out if I want to earn anyone's respect.
They started placing balloons on the targets for us, and everyone had a blast popping them. The girls were awesome at this. I got them all except one, which was bracketed in by three arrows so close that the balloon hovered out between them from the static charge. There's a lot of physics in archery it seems.
In the photo below you can see I nailed a balloon dead on, and then hit that arrow with another. I feel like Robin Hood, except I'm not a fox. I'm not that cool. Womp womp.
The two and a half hours or so we were there went by really fast. I really had a good time. Ed seemed like he was hoping I'd join the archery league, and said I was naturally good. Honestly I probably would very much like shooting arrows again!