Ready...Aim...Shoot!

Archery has always fascinated and interested me for as long as I can remember. It's the old movies and stories of heroes like Robin Hood and reading historical accounts of people living in the medieval era. There are so many influences that draws each of us to archery and what better way to learn this beautiful art than in England itself.

I went looking on the internet to see if there are any one day classes or even an archery lane where I can learn even just the basics of archery and perfect it later on down the road. I thought since England and Europe in general has so much history with archery that there must be more options to choose from and I found the perfect class in London called "Have-A-Go At Archery" at the 2020 Archery. It was only £20 (very reasonable) and the class was for an hour and a half (plenty of time to learn the techniques). It was even better that I can book this class in advance online which is highly recommended as they sell out fast and early. The great thing was that my 2 sisters were also up for it despite thinking how geeky I am and can be!

The place was easy to find and the way there was nice as we passed the Tower of London on the way and crossed the London Bridge. The area itself was in construction but the detour gave us an opportunity to check out the other streets we may have never have gone to. When we arrived, we signed in at the front desk and a lovely gal helped guide us up to the rooftop area.

Our instructors John and Dickson were very nice. We shared the archery area with some advanced shooters who pretty looked pro to us with their shiny recurve bows and their accessories. We watched them shoot the targets as we waited for the rest of the class to show up. We were in awe on how great their technique was and hoped we wouldn't make a fool of ourselves when it was our turn to go.

When all us were accounted for, John and Dickson gave us the important safety rules we needed to know and a bit about archery. We then put on our arm guards on and finger tabs for protection. I automatically felt pro just having them on! We were paired up based on our heights as we need  to share the same bows and our arms measured for the height of arrows we would use. They taught us how to put in the arrow, pull and release. We each took a turn and had 3 arrows each though I did wish we had more! It was quite fun and all of us did really well. My sisters and I even had a bulls eye each at one point! But the fun took another turn when the instructors announced that we would have a competition of 3 rounds Dun-dun-DUN!

Jenn, Michelle and I looked at one another - GAME ON! We decided to have a side bet - winner gets a shirt or whatever we find at the Chelsea Sample Sale we were going to the next day. Well one round after another, Michelle and Jenn were doing very well almost to the point where I started to wonder if they have done it before. I did well on the practice rounds but they must have saved their best for the competition. This was when I thought to myself that I would suck at the Olympics if I had to compete! But it was wonderful to see my sisters doing well and actually enjoying it more than  they thought. In the end, Michelle was on top at 2nd overall but really should be first considering the guy at first place has been there a couple of times ;) And Jenn said she would be game to do more shooting once we get back home - Awesome! I can see myself adding archery to my hobby list thanks to John, Dickson and 2020 Archery.