1 Reply by N.Vodden

(13 replies, posted in Philosophy and Etiquette)

This reminds me very much of a moment in The Last Samurai when Katsumoto's son is explaining to Tom Cruise why he keeps losing the fight training with the sword.

"Too many mind. Mind the sword, mind the enemy, mind the people watching..... NO MIND"

I especially liked what Jiao said about it not being about the cup, awards, bonus, becoming a champion etc, it is just about you, the bow, the arrow and being one with the whole process. This is a major part of the reason why I have abandoned modern competitive Archery and moved full time to the traditional style. There is no pressure to compete, for everything to be perfect, to have the latest and greated equipment, tuning to perfection etc, the focus for me is on enjoying the shot and relaxing into it. It has completely changed my outlook on Archery as a whole and has brought a whole new enjoyment to the sport that I felt was being crushed by competetive natures in modern shooting.

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2 Reply by N.Vodden

(28 replies, posted in Bows)

The Kaya arrived on Wednesday and I have now had the opportunity to try it out.

Initial impressions, the finish of the bow could have been better, there is a glue thumbprint on the top limb covering,  and several other areas of glue seepage marring the leather. The handle covering is quite poorly done, the piece cut to cover it is not large enough to cover the rubber so there is a gap at the top and bottom, and the edges are not even straight, they are jaggedly cut and covered in glue. The leather arrow pass is also poorly glued on and overlaps. Not much care was taken in coveringthe handle, it looks rushed with scrap material.

However, bows are made to shoot and it does that very well indeed. It is very fast with pretty much no handshock compared to the TRH Crimean Tartar bow I have been using at the same draw weight. The arrows are quite heavy and they are leaving with impressive speed and grouping well, the bow is very nice to shoot so it redeemed itself.  The cosmetic issues I can resolve and chances are I just got a bad one. I already intended to change the arrow pass and wrap the handle anyway so overall I am pleased.

It doesn't feel as smooth/fast as ~HUN~'s Hwarang but the reason for that is obvious, you get what you pay for. But for an entry bow into Korean archery, i'm impressed.


*edit* image of the new Kaya at full draw http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c92/I … ayaKTB.jpg *edit*

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3 Reply by N.Vodden

(23 replies, posted in Technique)

First post, go easy on me smile

I've experienced a bit of a quandry when it comes to aiming, shooting with a thumb ring. ~HUN~  has brought me into the light and introduced me to this style of shooting and Korean archery which I am really enjoying, leaving behind my Hoyt recurve to gather dust ( I could sell and order a Hwarang...hmmmm ).

It has been a total reintroduction to archery as the style is so different and feels a lot more natural that the rigid form of modern recurve archery, but I have had a lot of bad habits transfer over, stance, anchor etc but mostly in aiming. The recurve has imbued in me the need for a consistent aiming point that I can place on the target time and time again but the more I try this, the less it works.

However when I abandon this, and just 'feel' the shot, it works a lot better. I maintain focus on the target, draw the bow as smoothly as possible and then settle into the shot. When it feels right, off it goes and the results are always far better than deliberately aiming. I can honestly say when I do this, I am not deliberately aiming at all just staring down the gold.

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