2019年12月13日金曜日 - 
Jason's Archery Adventures - Continued
So, the last time I wrote a
blog, I talked about going to Hamadera Park to practice archery. That was in
April 2018, and a few months after that I bought a new carbon fiber recurve
bow, one of the best on the market, but I only got to practice with it one
time. It was way too hot to practice in summer, so I was going to take classes
again in October 2018, but the Archery Practice Range was damaged by Typhoon
Jebi in September last year, and I wasn't able to get time off until October
this year to resume, so in total it's been about fifteen months or so since I
was able to practice.
My first practice was back
on October 5th, and I was just happy the arrows tended to fly in one particular
direction! I got a couple of arrows in the yellow (the bullseye), but mostly
the black and blue rings (the outer edge of the target). I did have a few bad
shots, one hit the target next to the one I was aiming at, and one sailed over
the target altogether.
My next few practices were
much better. I met a coach named Yoshii, who gave me four tips to improve my
performance: 1) keep my right elbow up to pull the string with my back and not
my bicep, 2) anchor my ring finger on the corner of my mouth, 3) peer down the
arrow with my right eye to see if the string is aligned with it, and 4) don't
do a deep hook of the string with my tab, have the string resting on the tips
of my fingers. Since then, I went on to shoot my best round ever, 50 out of a
possible 60 points.
The real challenge now is
to get 200 points shooting at 30 meters, and at the time of the writing, I have
two weeks to do it. If I succeed, I'll have earned my proficiency badge and can
practice on my days off. If I fail, I'll have to wait another nine months
before I can take time off on Saturdays again.
archery：アーチェリーcarbon fiber ：カーボン繊維の
recurve bow：競技で使用される弓
be damaged by：～によって被害を受ける
resume：再び始める
in total：全体で
arrow：矢
tend to～：～の傾向にある
particular：特定の
bullseye：中心部
aim:狙いをつける
tips：ちょっとしたテクニック
bicep：力こぶ
peer down：覗き込む
align：一直線にする
proficiency：熟練