Second Wave of COVID, still open?

 At this time I am still accepting new archery students, but I am being pickier about who I am accepting with respect to students.

Depending upon what happens with future lockdowns I may end up suspending lessons until after any such lockdown. I am expecting the schools to get shutdown any day now because it is obvious that the province of Ontario has not figured out a safe way to reopen schools.

If they shut down the schools but maintain Stage Three then I will continue to offer lessons. If the province decides to do another big lockdown, going back to the same conditions we had in March then any remaining lessons might end up being delayed until Spring 2021.

Knowing this I totally get why some potential archery students might just decide to delay their archery lessons until 2021 in the first place... Whilst some others might prefer to have them now because they're hoping to learn archery for hunting purposes, in which case the argument is the sooner-the-better. A percentage of my students these days want to learn bowhunting because they're worried about the COVID shutdowns causing the equivalent of the Great Depression and food shortages.

Basically everyone has their own reasons for learning archery. Some people are just bored of being at home all of the time because they work from home these days and they just want to get outside and do something fun.

Fun and potentially useful? Yep, good to go.

Of course there is also the people who just have always wanted to do archery and they just keep procrastinating. Always a new excuse for procrastinators. If you're a procrastinator then you're probably thinking of an excuse right now while reading this.

But if you cannot think of a good excuse maybe now is the time to do.

Email cardiotrek@gmail.com to sign up for archery lessons in Toronto today. :)

In unrelated news check out the interesting and cool decorative arrowheads below. One of the archers I know makes them as a hobby.



Archery Trick Shooting


 My new article for Archery Focus Magazine is now available as of September 1st 2020. The topic is "Archery Trick Shooting". Unfortunately I am not posting it here. You will just have to visit the Archery Focus website and read it there.

Also kudos to fellow Toronto archer Crispin Duenas for his review of the BOWdometer.

An one year subscription to Archery Focus Magazine is $32 USD and gets you access to their back catalogue of magazines. Learn more by visiting archeryfocusmagazine.com.

Happy Shooting!





PS. You can also view my past articles for Archery Focus Magazine in the following issues:

  • "Marketing Strategies for Archery Coaches", July 2017.
  • "A Lesson in Adaptive Archery", July 2018.
  • "Teaching Archery Through Narratives", November 2018.
  • "Rinehart Target Balls (and Alternatives)", January 2020.

Pain in Middle Finger after Archery Lesson

 Q

"Hi Charles, 

After the lesson today I noticed the last joint (closest to the tip) of my middle finger is quite sore. I noticed the same thing the last time I shot with my new glove, bow, etc. Is this normal for a new glove or is it an indication of something wrong, either with my form or the glove? 

Regards,
-Brian H."

 

A

Hey Brian!

That happens sometimes when the glove is either not protecting the fingers enough or the person is not used to pulling a higher poundage.

In your case however I did notice that you sometimes pulled the bowstring unevenly, wherein your middle finger was usually about half an inch further across the bowstring and the bowstring was then on the joint itself (as opposed to halfway on the fingertips). You were only doing it with your middle finger (and you didn't always do it so at the time I wasn't too worried about it because I felt you would eventually stop doing it) and you are not experiencing pain in any other fingers, correct? In the future I recommend making an effort to only use half your fingertips and see if that solves the problem.

You may recall me saying "Half your fingertips is twice as accurate." In this case however it could also be "Half your fingertips is twice as accurate, but also less painful." Half your fingertips also reduces the chances of plucking the bowstring during the release. Definitely something to build into a positive habit.

See you at the range!

Sincerely,
Charles Moffat
CardioTrek.ca