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Ready, aim, fire: Archery lessons for Katniss wannabes
I squinted at the target and raised the bow. I pulled the string back, ready to shoot. I shook the hair away from my face, wondering how Orlando Bloom's Legolas managed to maintain his shampoo advertisement hair. I wondered if this was how Jennifer Lawrence felt as Katniss Everdeen.
"This is it," I said to myself, right before the instructor told me my arrow was facing the wrong way. So much for that, I thought, laughing because I was silly, and in relief that I had not ended up injuring anyone.
Bows vary in pull weight. The heavier the weight, the more difficult it is to pull back. Carmela G. Lapeña
I was nervous, and neither the supportive instructor nor the pop music in the background could help me relax. I had an hour to learn, and that meant I had an hour to hurt someone, probably myself. In college, I took walking for P.E., because that was the only subject I couldn't possibly fail, being the klutz that I was.
Me with a bow and arrow was probably not a good idea, but the people at Gandiva Archery range seemed used to beginners. To their credit, they weren't acting judgmental, even when I missed the target 90 percent of the time. On the other hand, we had paid the fee — P600 for an hour of archery, plus P30 for the target sheet.
Beside me was a young boy who was training for a competition. His bow was different from the one I was using, a 16-pound beginner's bow. After a few rounds of shooting, his target was moved twice as far. Our targets stayed put at 10 meters, which was only right, as we were having enough trouble hitting the sheet as it was.
On my second try, I hit the yellow spot in the middle. "'Yun o!" my instructor, Manuel, said. "Ano po yun?" I said, clueless that I had actually hit the target. The truth was, I couldn't see anything, and I spent the rest of the hour aiming at what I guessed was my target. My husband was faring better, but after half an hour we were both tired.
The background music, which began with songs from the 90s, had already reached songs from the early 2000s. Before we could find out if the playlist went all the way up to songs that were currently getting airplay, another shooter arrived and the music was turned off. Apparently, four people plus music would mean too much noise for the archery range, which had signs reminding us to "Shoot in silence."
The lessons for beginners took less than ten minutes. Manuel showed us how to stand 90 degrees to the target, how to lock our arrows on the string, how to aim, and how to pull the string back until our hands were beneath our chins. For the first few minutes, he hung back and let us shoot, offering advice when we needed it.
"Chin up lang," he had to tell me several times. "Relax lang," he told my husband.
We each had three arrows at a time, and after every round one of the instructors would whistle and shout, "Okay, clear. Retrieve!" I laughed, thinking we were like obedient puppies, immediately running to pull our arrows out of the target sheets that exposed how badly we were doing.
We later found out that Manuel had won medals in past Palarong Pambansa competitions. Many of the regulars at Gandiva were on archery teams, or were training individually for competitions. Some artistas who had to shoot arrows in films or television shows also practiced at Gandiva, Manuel shared.
Kids as young as seven could try their hand at archery, he told us, adding that they had different packages. Thirty hours of individual training cost P22,000, but there were discounts for groups of five or eight. One of the walls was covered with an illustration from the epic story "Mahabharata." Perhaps to inspire beginners like ourselves, the illustration showed the hero Arjuna with his celestial bow, Gandiva.
The gym is adjacent to a vegetarian café, with a glass partition that allows diners to watch the archers while trying the food. The menu includes pizza, pasta, and mock meat dishes like buffalo wings and a veggie burger. My husband looked at the menu suspiciously, insisting that the chicken couldn't possibly not be actual chicken.
With the mock meat shaped like chicken parts, complete with a barbecue stick "bone," the buffalo wings did look very much like the real thing. In terms of taste, this was clearly not chicken, but the texture came quite close.
The veggie burger, on the other hand, was actually two burgers, each with a very thin patty of mock meat and fresh vegetables in a bun.
Although neither dish tasted like their meat counterparts, the food was very good, and there were no leftovers. We later thought it was just as well we had eaten before going to the gym, because there was no way you could shoot on an empty stomach.
Archery may look easy, especially when you watch the pros shooting arrows gracefully into the wind.
It's not easy.
The bow is heavy, and no matter how hard you squint at the target, your arm will shake. After a while, your fingers will be raw from pulling the string back. The next day, your shoulder will hurt. A lot.
Despite all this, you'll want to go back. Your arms will feel strange without the bow and arrow. It's as if some mysterious force has taken over your thoughts, convincing you that there's nothing you'd rather be doing than trying to hit that bull's eye. — BM, GMA News
Gandiva Archery is on the seventh floor of One Corporate Center Building in Ortigas Center, Pasig City. For inquiries, call (02) 638-8771.
Me with a bow and arrow was probably not a good idea, but the people at Gandiva Archery range seemed used to beginners. To their credit, they weren't acting judgmental, even when I missed the target 90 percent of the time. On the other hand, we had paid the fee — P600 for an hour of archery, plus P30 for the target sheet.
Beside me was a young boy who was training for a competition. His bow was different from the one I was using, a 16-pound beginner's bow. After a few rounds of shooting, his target was moved twice as far. Our targets stayed put at 10 meters, which was only right, as we were having enough trouble hitting the sheet as it was.
On my second try, I hit the yellow spot in the middle. "'Yun o!" my instructor, Manuel, said. "Ano po yun?" I said, clueless that I had actually hit the target. The truth was, I couldn't see anything, and I spent the rest of the hour aiming at what I guessed was my target. My husband was faring better, but after half an hour we were both tired.
Archers are reminded to "shoot in silence." Manix Abrera
The lessons for beginners took less than ten minutes. Manuel showed us how to stand 90 degrees to the target, how to lock our arrows on the string, how to aim, and how to pull the string back until our hands were beneath our chins. For the first few minutes, he hung back and let us shoot, offering advice when we needed it.
"Chin up lang," he had to tell me several times. "Relax lang," he told my husband.
We each had three arrows at a time, and after every round one of the instructors would whistle and shout, "Okay, clear. Retrieve!" I laughed, thinking we were like obedient puppies, immediately running to pull our arrows out of the target sheets that exposed how badly we were doing.
We later found out that Manuel had won medals in past Palarong Pambansa competitions. Many of the regulars at Gandiva were on archery teams, or were training individually for competitions. Some artistas who had to shoot arrows in films or television shows also practiced at Gandiva, Manuel shared.
Kids as young as seven could try their hand at archery, he told us, adding that they had different packages. Thirty hours of individual training cost P22,000, but there were discounts for groups of five or eight. One of the walls was covered with an illustration from the epic story "Mahabharata." Perhaps to inspire beginners like ourselves, the illustration showed the hero Arjuna with his celestial bow, Gandiva.
The gym is adjacent to a vegetarian café, with a glass partition that allows diners to watch the archers while trying the food. The menu includes pizza, pasta, and mock meat dishes like buffalo wings and a veggie burger. My husband looked at the menu suspiciously, insisting that the chicken couldn't possibly not be actual chicken.
The mock chicken. Carmela G. Lapeña
The veggie burger, on the other hand, was actually two burgers, each with a very thin patty of mock meat and fresh vegetables in a bun.
Although neither dish tasted like their meat counterparts, the food was very good, and there were no leftovers. We later thought it was just as well we had eaten before going to the gym, because there was no way you could shoot on an empty stomach.
Archery may look easy, especially when you watch the pros shooting arrows gracefully into the wind.
It's not easy.
The bow is heavy, and no matter how hard you squint at the target, your arm will shake. After a while, your fingers will be raw from pulling the string back. The next day, your shoulder will hurt. A lot.
Despite all this, you'll want to go back. Your arms will feel strange without the bow and arrow. It's as if some mysterious force has taken over your thoughts, convincing you that there's nothing you'd rather be doing than trying to hit that bull's eye. — BM, GMA News
Gandiva Archery is on the seventh floor of One Corporate Center Building in Ortigas Center, Pasig City. For inquiries, call (02) 638-8771.
