Ch. 1: The Time I...Became a Wannabe Legolas (Feat. My Very First Archery Lessons)

    You know that feeling when you want something SOOOOOO bad and it takes forever to convince your parents to let you have or do that? Well that was for me with archery.

    And it took me a year to persuade them to let me try it out. 

    It all started in the Fall of 2019 with the famous Katniss Everdeen. Wait, wait. Nope, it was even farther back. It REALLY all started a several years ago with a good ol' episode of LEGO Friends. (Not that I expect anyone to recognize that show--I barely even remember the name of it myself.) XD BUT ANYWAY. I think I was 10 or 11 at the time, and I remember watching one episode where Olivia and her friends went to a summer camp. 

    And they did archery.

    And I was jealous. 

    Of them. I was jealous of ANIMATED LEGO PEOPLE WHO WENT TO A MAKE BELIVE SUMMER CAMP. The pure absurdity of it is *slightly* humiliating. But eventually, my 11 year old Dory brain completely forgot about my misfortunes of not being a bow-wielding, cartoon character and I proceeded with life not sparing another thought towards archery.

    Until 2019. And it was then when my obsession for archery officially kicked off with the dystopian story of a teenage girl who was thrown into an arena with 20 other kids out to kill each other and was caught up in the love triangle of a century.

    This, my friends, was the Hunger Games.

    And when I watched Katniss shoot that arrow like nobody's business, archery captivated my mind and this time it didn't let go. (Especially after I kept watching all these other shows or movies that happened to have archers in them. The dream to become one of them was inevitable.) 

I mean, JUST LOOK AT HER FIERCE DETERMINATION!!!

 

And HIS TOTALLY EPIC SHOT!!!

And HAWKEYE'S MID-AIR AIMING!!!

And LEGOLAS' AWESOME FIGHTING SKILLS WITH THE SHOT AT DA END!!!
(Needless to say, he's one of my favorites)

And, and, and...MY LIL' OLIVER TRAINING WITH TENNIS BALLS!!!
(Yeah, probably should've ended with Legalos...) XD

    BUT YOU GET THE POINT. So I talked to my parents about it (i.e. slyly bringing it up every now and then when they were in a good mood) XD and on Christmas morning they gave me a coupon/certificate/thingy-doodle telling me I would get two private archery lessons to see if this would be something I'd want to pursue! It was just recently that I actually got to do those lessons, so today, I've decided to share with you my first-time archery experience as well as a few tips that I learned!

    Therefore, I present to you...

    I would've done "The Time I...Became a Wannabe Katniss Everdeen" but we can all agree that would be too much of a mouthful. XD (Besides, Legolas is just as awesome!) 😉 "The Time I..." is actually a new series I'm gonna be starting that features me retelling several different adventures I've experienced every so often! So find a comfy place to sit and make sure you have plenty of time to read this 'cause I literally have no idea how long this post is gonna be!!! 😃 ('Cause up until now, everything you've read is just the intro...*cough*)

    The day of my first archery lesson was one exciting Saturday! I woke up, rolled outta bed, looked out the window and...

    ...it was rainy. It wasn't currently raining at the moment, but it was dreary. And cold. And windy. And it turns out my archery coach doesn't like to do shooting in that type of weather ('cause we do it outdoors in her backyard). 

    Yaaaay. So we rescheduled, but just for the following day. And thankfully Sunday was nice and sunny (let it be known that God is definitely good)! XD So mom and I drove to Coach's house, met the woman herself, she got out our archery equipment, showed me how to put it on, then she turned to my mom and said, "Do you want a bow too?" 

Wait wut?

    To say Mom was surprised was an understatement. To say I was surprised...well...I think the gif says it all. But when it comes to archery, my coach doesn't take no for an answer. Like, at all. So Mom suited up too, we brandished our weapons, and Coach took us to the targets. 

    YES! I thought. Finally time to shoot!

    Did we shoot?

    Hah. No. We stretched. But lemme tell ya, as cliché as is sounds, always, ALWAYS stretch before doing archery. If you don't, well, good luck. Your muscles might murder you the next day, but that'll be on you! After we stretched, Coach then instructed us on safety. And guys. Do not, I repeat DO NOT try shooting a bow and arrow without some form of safety instruction. If you do, it might result it injured arms, injured equipment and injured death. Which...doesn't even make sense. But overall, it probably wouldn't be good. 

    Here are a few tips of advise I learned:

        1. Never dry-fire a bow. This means pulling back and releasing the bowstring without an arrow nocked. If you do, you could damage the bow and yourself.

        2. If shooting in a group setting always follow instructions. There's usually going to be an instructor telling the archers what they can do and when to do it. These instructions include:

• "Archers to the line" or two whistle blows. This means that the archers can go to the shooting line.
• "You may shoot" or one whistle blow. This means archers can begin shooting. When an archer is done he/she needs to step back and wait for the "pull" command.
• "Pull" or three whistle blows. This means all archers must stop and pull out their arrows from the target.
• "Stop!" or multiple whistle blows. This means there is an emergency and all archers must stop IMMEDIATELY.

        3. If you drop an arrow while nocking it (a.k.a. putting it on the bowstring) DO NOT pick it up unless you can do so WITHOUT moving from the shooting line. If you can reach it by bending down that's fine, but if you can't pick it up without taking a step, then leave it be until you're allowed to pull. This is important because if you step away from the shooting line to pick it up then...well...there may be a possible chance of accidentally getting shot yourself. And that doesn't exactly sound pleasant, does it?

        4. Always be alert. Let's be real, if you're in an environment with sharp objects that have been featured in several films over the years as a weapon used by superheroes, elves, and rebels then this would proooobably be a good one to keep in mind. Most accidents actually happen when archers are pulling their arrows, because they might stop paying attention to their surroundings and, I dunno, pull their arrow out of the target and accidentally stab someone with it or something. *shrugs* Lotsa things can happen (in any situation, really), but with archery, being alert will probably be what keeps you alive. XD

    After hearing those rules (plus a few more) IT WAS TIME TO SHOOT. So we picked up our bows, Coach showed us how to nock the arrow, she helped us get the correct form (which, mind you, requires a lot more strength than you'd think--I still can't do it completely right), we pulled back our bowstrings, aimed, and Coach said "shoot!" 

    Aaaaaand I didn't shoot. Er...to better phrase that, I couldn't shoot. 

 

Tell me about it.

    "Just let it go!" Coach said. And I tried, really I did. But I just...couldn't. Maybe it's because I didn't know how to release it and move my arm the right way or maybe it's just because I was so nervous of not hitting the target--but either way, after a few failed attempts, Coach brought me this rubber thing-y that I practiced my arm movements with. I will say, it was quite humbling having to learn how to merely release the arrow when I may have imagined doing all sorts of epic Legolas shots for the first time, but lo and behold the magic rubber thing actually worked! 

    Once I got the hang of the movements, I picked up the bow and arrow again, pulled back the bowstring and let that baby fly!

    And guys.

    I obviously didn't hit the bullseye, but I did hit the red!!!

 

Here's one of the targets we practiced on to see where that is.

    Honestly, I could've gone home right then and there, happy that I didn't kill anyone with my first shot, but c'mon. Where would the fun be in that? 😉 We kept shooting and even went overtime with the lesson, but overall, we had an awesome first archery lesson! Never mind that my whole body felt like it was being gnawed on by a pack of Orcs the following day even though we stretched. 

    My next archery lesson wasn't super different (although this time my dad came too and was almost wrangled in to shooting also if it weren't for the fact that Coach didn't have a left-handed bow ready for him). XD Instead, he sat back and occupied himself with the important task of taking pictures! Which I may or may not have forced him to do...  For some reason, I feel like I didn't do as well with this lesson (and my mom did way better than me most of the time--she even scored a 10 pointer) XD but at the end we both finished the lesson with a satisfying hit in the yellow! (I even pulled a Robin Hood a couple times and shot an arrow in the same hole another arrow was in! By accident, of course.) XD

    Here are a few pictures my dad took (they're all from the second lesson and a few of them are edited):

Yours truly, nocking an arrow.

Yours truly, about to shoot the arrow.

If ya look closely you'll see two different colored sights (the sideways "T" lookin' thing)
on the bow at different points. XD 

Oh, look! Some lovely grass!

Oooh, a new type of arrow this time!

Let's see how bored you get looking at my not-so-photogenic arm. 

A satisfying group of arrows, if I do say so myself!
Not that I'm showing the ones that didn't hit the target...

    So there we go! A trip down memory lane about my first archery experience!! I'm honestly not sure yet if I actually wanna pursue this sport ('cause as fun as it is, there are a LOT of factors to consider--especially prices. The amount of money you gotta put in for good archery equipment is slightly scary.) XD But for the couple lessons I did do, it was super cool!!! 

    I guess that wraps it up then! I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about this and possibly learning some new things about archery! (I also hope you enjoyed those pictures because Blogger was being very stubborn with me on getting them up correctly. 😑) 

Tally-ho, chaps!

    Sooooo, what did ya think??? Was this post hopefully interesting? Would anyone want to read more chapters in my new series? Does anyone out there know how to shoot a bow and arrow? Does anyone want to learn how to shoot? Who liked my gifs? Were those tips interesting? (I'm 99% sure they were correct.) XD Do you have any archery role models (e.g. Katniss, Legolas, Robin Hood)? Are these too many questions? How photogenic are your arms? Don't worry, I'll stop now. 😉