Archery Update - Day 3

After two days of safety training and learning proper technique, the NHS Archers had a full day of practice at the range in the lower gym. All archers have made solid progress, as shown by improving target scores. The instructors have been impressed by the focus of each new archer. Along with improving archery skills, we have been learning about a variety of bows and shooting equipment. The students have also been working on individual research projects during the afternoon, and we will start presenting those tomorrow.

Today I tried to hold the bow in a more appropriate way, using only two fingers instead of my whole hand. This way I could hold the bow better by using a better grip. This improved my aim and scores.

I learned how to shoot with my head down, so I improved on my accuracy and grouping arrows.

We get to look at how our partners shoot and correct them if they had any mistakes.

I can tell that we all improved by looking at the arrows in the target.

We are still working on our listening skills, but other than that it is all good.

The past three days of the Archery Project have brought a lot of excitement and new knowledge! On the first day, we met our instructors, Vicky and Dana. Dana is the head instructor at the Art of Archery, a private business he founded. On the first day we learned the mandatory safety regulations, shooting form, and that archery is not as easy as it is shown in the movies. On the second day we had lots of shooting practice, and we started our research projects. I am researching the way archery is portrayed in modern film. We shot about 30 arrows and my accuracy improved each round, and by the end of the day at least one shot hit the X in the middle of the target. Today my accuracy was worse, even though we shot over 45 arrows. Egor has been filming us with his GO PRO camera as we shoot, and he made a slow motion video, including different perspectives, which we will show at the Project Symposium.

In this project, we have learned how to shoot an arrow with a bow. We set up 10 meters away from the target so we could each practice shooting. We first learned the position of shooting, including: you only use your index finger and thumb to hold your bow; you only use your index finger, middle finger, and your ring finger to hold your arrow; you need to have a correct way to put your arrow on your bow for your safety.