A little background about my journey...
I know it sounds like a cliche to say that some of us are just warriors at heart. I think that is true, but some of us have the time and opportunity to address the issue, while others haven't had that chance yet. I know a horse archer who is well into her 60's with bilateral hip replacements. She is finally addressing this. I Say Good for her!
I first came to archery as a form of conflict with myself in which I fought to overcome my own inability to hit a target. Later, much later, I learned that it was not about conflict, but about focusing and movement.
After too many sore shoulders, I encountered thumb ring archery, which allowed me to push the bow and string apart rather than pull them apart, and suddenly I was using my back much more, and hardly using my shoulders at all. In turn, this allowed me to shoot about 200 arrows per practice rather than a two dozen. I'm sure you can imagine what this did for my accuracy! I have never killed a pig or deer, but I have picked off a quail and a couple of squirrels using the bow you see me using on the horse (see above). I enjoyed many years of doing this on foot, using a thumb ring, with never a wish for anything else. Some people don't like them, but for me a thumb ring was the beginning of the virtuous cycle. Heavy bow, using back muscles, lots of practice, better archery! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Then the doctor told me I had Leukemia one Tuesday morning. Suddenly all of this self improvement was set aside as I found myself in a real death match that I might not win. As I focused everything upon winning that fight, I began to wonder what would come after Leukemia. It was because of this that I realized I was planning to survive, because I was setting new goals. The obvious next step for me was to put my archery "on steroids", to use a metaphor, and learn horse archery. After all, everywhere in the world, it is considered the pinnacle of archery ability and discipline. That is why it is also considered to be a bit of an elite sport. Not being an elitist myself, I find that happily, it is for ordinary people too. I will end this history of my journey into self improvement by saying that it has altered my opinion of my abilities.
I first came to archery as a form of conflict with myself in which I fought to overcome my own inability to hit a target. Later, much later, I learned that it was not about conflict, but about focusing and movement.
After too many sore shoulders, I encountered thumb ring archery, which allowed me to push the bow and string apart rather than pull them apart, and suddenly I was using my back much more, and hardly using my shoulders at all. In turn, this allowed me to shoot about 200 arrows per practice rather than a two dozen. I'm sure you can imagine what this did for my accuracy! I have never killed a pig or deer, but I have picked off a quail and a couple of squirrels using the bow you see me using on the horse (see above). I enjoyed many years of doing this on foot, using a thumb ring, with never a wish for anything else. Some people don't like them, but for me a thumb ring was the beginning of the virtuous cycle. Heavy bow, using back muscles, lots of practice, better archery! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Then the doctor told me I had Leukemia one Tuesday morning. Suddenly all of this self improvement was set aside as I found myself in a real death match that I might not win. As I focused everything upon winning that fight, I began to wonder what would come after Leukemia. It was because of this that I realized I was planning to survive, because I was setting new goals. The obvious next step for me was to put my archery "on steroids", to use a metaphor, and learn horse archery. After all, everywhere in the world, it is considered the pinnacle of archery ability and discipline. That is why it is also considered to be a bit of an elite sport. Not being an elitist myself, I find that happily, it is for ordinary people too. I will end this history of my journey into self improvement by saying that it has altered my opinion of my abilities.