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April 27, 2012
And the wind cried NO MERCY
Every archer has a Bad Day. I imagine even the great Howard Hill had a Bad Day every once a decade. (Maybe.) My Bad Day was spread over three shooting sessions and only rain and bugs could have made it worse. It was a week of practices where I just wanted to give up completely and take up bowling, 'cause there ain't NO WIND at the bowling alley.
Here's how it went, three Bad Practices:
The wind blew. My arrow went sideways and stuck pathetically in the wooden frame of the target. The next two disappeared into the leaves behind as they floated up and over. The next draw I pulled back way past my anchor point (to put a little more OOMPH! into the shot and speed it up a bit) and pulled a shoulder muscle. Only true Christian temperance prevented me from unleashing oaths, blasphemies, and other unladylike verbal tropes.
With traditional (SCA) archery, here are your starting points:
You're probably using a bow that can only handle Dacron B-50 bowstrings. Dacron B-50 is notoriously "moody."
You're using wooden spines, which are notoriously inaccurate.
You're not allowed stabilizers but you *can* have a wrist sling. Oh whoopee.
And THEN the wind starts blowing.
And the wind blew for practice on Sunday; it was still blowing for practice on Tuesday, and it was positively gleefully punitive on Thursday, when we were tired and beat-down, bankrupt in spirit and completely convinced of the futility of the whole archery endeavor. Our helpful Forester was there to console us by honing his skills left-handed, when he's a right-hand shooter. He totally whupped our barnacles.
When we got home, we burst into one of the worst domestic disputes I've ever experienced. Outside the backyard fence attempted to unravel itself from its supports. It was all going horribly wrong.
Two days passed. The mood in the household improved. We went downstairs the following Saturday and plinked away at our state-of-no-art 11-yard basement target. There was no wind.
There was a smile in my release again.
:)
Like three Bad Practices never happened.
Posted by lizcal at April 27, 2012 11:41 AM