Archery & Golf
November 28th 2005 -
It turns out that archery is not at all affected by rainy weather, but golf is. Surprise! I started recording my scores in archery, and managed some fairly good scores: a best round of 53/60 (10, 9, 9, 9, 8, 8 though not in that order), and a score set of 287 from the total of six rounds, which is an average of just under 48. I also did a score set of 265 and 247, which means that I shot rather a lot of arrows. The lowest score was last, when my arms were getting tired and when I changed bows from a 20lb bow to a 30lb one.
The heavier bow seemed a bit *too* heavy for me – I was wobbling a bit – but the instructor assured me I’d get used to it, and that it would be better in the long run and prevent bad habits from forming. Apparently, when you use a bow that is too light for you, it’s easy to release the bow in different ways (eg. pulling it further back at the last second, twisting it, etc.) When you have a heavier bow, it pretty much forces you to release correctly, ’cause it’s all you can do to hold onto the string for more than a few seconds anyway. Also, you have to be more efficient in your aiming technique.
Thus began a new phase in my archery: learning to aim much more quickly, ’cause otherwise the wobbles get too bad to shoot straight!
So, that was Saturday morning: shooting from undercover, and walking out into the rain to get the arrows out of the target (and having to put the umbrella down for arrow extraction, since they were too wet and slippery to do one-handed).
I almost forgot: one of the kids accidentally shot a bird, which hopped away indignantly with an arrow in its wing as the instructors chased it. Eventually, they caught it and drove it away to the RSPCA. The hit really was a fluke – the bird flew down just as the kid loosed his arrow (which was a wildly off-target shot anyway). Apparently, this is a very rare event, something that only happens once every couple of years. I found it rather encouraging that the instructors didn’t find it funny at all, and were quite outspoken about shooting animals for sport (they’re very much against it).
Then, the next day, golf. Woke up at 5:00am, found that it had stopped raining overnight and that I would probably have to actually get up and play. Got to the golf course at 6:00am, and discovered that there was a tournament on, and that we wouldn’t be able to play. Swore eternal revenge on Owen, who was supposed to be organising, but was mollified by his suggestion of an alternate course nearby, which turned out to be open, and quite nice. Until the rain started again. We played six holes in mild on-again off-again drizzle, but then the lightning started and we decided to pack it in. We were playing rather poorly anyway.