My Guinea Pig Journalism experience of Target Archery
Another activity that I partook in to see what it was like was target archery. I knew that at £16 for an hour the price may be too steep for some people but I will give you an insight into what to expect.
When approaching the field, it generally looks nothing more than a field with six targets in it but when you are a part of it, the place transforms to a world of complicated teaching.
 |
| Target Archery and Clay shooting at Elveden Forest Center Parcs |
When you arrive you get taken into the holding and sat down for a chat on what is going to happen. Following that you get kitted out with all the safety gear and tools necessary to make you safe at all times,
You get put in pairs and you both have a target to aim at. The target has five colours on it ranging from White through to black, blue, red and gold, your aim is to hit one of those colours. Sound simple? Think again.
You get three arrows at a time but before you even pick them up you are shown in detail how to hold the bow and how to aim. A lesson that was in dire need to be taught to me especially who cannot hit a dart board very often.
Our first task was to aim at the target and see where the first few arrows went, mine of course did not go past the second way point let alone past the first and onto the target board. After a few more instructions, we went forward to the front target point and shot from there. Unsurprisingly I was ten times better and actually hit blue.
We played a game of bingo where we had to hit each colour once and see who got there first. It took all of us about four rounds to complete the bingo and we just had the gold to hit! So that was a milestone and a learning curve for me!
After a few attempts on this target we moved back to the middle way point we started to hit more often and so the instructor put us into a competition where we were against each other couple in the field and worked towards three rounds then there was a final battle between the three highest contender couples.
The first couple of rounds me and my partner did quite well, the final part not so much but we tried. It turned out we qualified for the final in third place! I was in shock and then it hit me. I actually have to compete with people who can actually aim consistently!
All we had to do for the decider was hit gold. I think I hit white, and my partner hit what we thought was gold but it turned out to just be on the borderline between red and gold, the same as another couple so there was a rematch.
Second time around the other coupe won but we came second which was fantastic considering I cannot aim to save my life!
It was a fun morning out and I learned a lot, I learned how to aim, how to shoot and how hard it is for archers to hit a target!
I have a new found respect for anyone who can consistently hit gold. It was fantastic and I urge everyone to have a go! I did leave with a couple of war wounds though but that was going to happen!
