I took my first archery lesson at a sports complex in Bangkok today.
I hit the target (a piece of paper with round circles about a foot across) every single time in over an hour of continuous practice. Never missed, not even once. After I got done, the poor bullseye was in shreds. Decimated. The stuff of Robin Hood and then some.
And now a confession: The target was set about five short steps away from me. OK, four steps. To miss a target that close, I would have had to shoot the arrows straight up at airplanes flying overhead. In real competition, the target is between 30 to 90 meters away. Imagine hitting the bullseye right on from 90 meters!
The mystique of archery is what draws me to this sport. At it's best, archery is a seamless blending of mind and matter, and of body and spirit. You do the exact same thing over and over again until what you do becomes meditation, not physical effort. Your fixed focus is all inward, not out there where the bullseye is.
It's Zen.
Of course, on this first time out, I was all shaky body and disquieted spirit, all zits and no Zen.
The friendly young man who was my instructor observed me from a safe distance and tried to correct all the things I was doing wrong: right hand not tucked underneath the chin when string is fully pulled, aiming with the wrong eye, not releasing the string smoothly, lurching forward at the moment of release, not breathing in and out regularly when the bow is lifted into position, aiming by using the tip of the arrow instead of the target guide, wrong feet position, making unnecessary body movements whent the idea is to hold still. The instructor was too polite to add: having nervous ticks, eyes bulging out more than they already were, and sweating blood.
It was great, great, great and I'm hooked! Will go back for more. I look at this photo and all I see is a bullseye. Nothing is safe around me now.
Photo location: Baan Salaklong, Uthaithani province
I hit the target (a piece of paper with round circles about a foot across) every single time in over an hour of continuous practice. Never missed, not even once. After I got done, the poor bullseye was in shreds. Decimated. The stuff of Robin Hood and then some.
And now a confession: The target was set about five short steps away from me. OK, four steps. To miss a target that close, I would have had to shoot the arrows straight up at airplanes flying overhead. In real competition, the target is between 30 to 90 meters away. Imagine hitting the bullseye right on from 90 meters!
The mystique of archery is what draws me to this sport. At it's best, archery is a seamless blending of mind and matter, and of body and spirit. You do the exact same thing over and over again until what you do becomes meditation, not physical effort. Your fixed focus is all inward, not out there where the bullseye is.
It's Zen.
Of course, on this first time out, I was all shaky body and disquieted spirit, all zits and no Zen.
The friendly young man who was my instructor observed me from a safe distance and tried to correct all the things I was doing wrong: right hand not tucked underneath the chin when string is fully pulled, aiming with the wrong eye, not releasing the string smoothly, lurching forward at the moment of release, not breathing in and out regularly when the bow is lifted into position, aiming by using the tip of the arrow instead of the target guide, wrong feet position, making unnecessary body movements whent the idea is to hold still. The instructor was too polite to add: having nervous ticks, eyes bulging out more than they already were, and sweating blood.
It was great, great, great and I'm hooked! Will go back for more. I look at this photo and all I see is a bullseye. Nothing is safe around me now.
Photo location: Baan Salaklong, Uthaithani province
No comments:
Post a Comment