Archery for Actors in Toronto

It seems as though I am building a growing reputation for training actors how to shoot and doing occasional work for TV shows / etc.

To date I have:

Trained two television actors how to shoot longbows for a period piece television series about the French monarchy.

Trained a theatre actress to shoot a recurve bow because part of a script required her to shoot an Olympic recurve bow out a window off of the stage.

Shot all of the trick shots during some slow-motion film work on behalf of Rice Krispies. (That was a lot of fun by the way. I would totally do more slow-motion filming in the future again.)

Did all of the archery shots for a sports documentary made by TSN.

Trained a Quebec musician how to do archery for an episode of a French language television show.

Appeared on an episode of Storage Wars Canada (OLN) because of my knowledge/collection of antique bows. (The bow they had me identify was not actually an antique. It was a circa 2000 Bear Grizzly.)

Doing various TV clips for CBC, CTV and CityTV.

All this work training theatre/TV actors and appearing on television has got me thinking however. Maybe I should offer lessons designed specifically for actors, which is what I have done in the past when teaching actors - tailored the classes to suit their needs. Longbow lessons for the actors who are doing period work, Recurve / Olympic Recurve lessons for the threatre actress who is shooting an Olympic recurve on stage.

Toronto does have a vibrant film, television and theatre industry after all. There is certainly a demand for more actors who can do archery properly, as opposed to the current standard which is actors who barely know how to shoot appearing in films/etc and looking like they don't even know how to shoot. So if you are an actor in Toronto and looking for archery lessons in Toronto then I am certainly available to teach you how to shoot properly.

Note - I think movie directors should also get archery lessons. Joss Whedon (director of The Avengers) could certainly use a lesson because he apparently wanted the actor (Jeremy Renner) to look "heroic" while shooting, no matter how mistakes the actor was making. Hawkeye's archery style was rather ridiculous. His drawing elbow is too high, his bow arm elbow is locked when it should be relaxed, he is squeezing the bow when his fingers should be relaxed, he is wearing TWO armguards on his bow arm because apparently the actor kept hitting his arm (due to his locked elbow) [if you look closely you can even see bruises on his bow arm], he is pulling to his chin when he should be pulling to his mouth, he has both eyes open when he should be closing his right eye since he is left eye dominant, his finger positions on the string are uneven and curved inwards when they should be even and aligned, and it looks like he is leaning backwards a bit - a sign of bad posture. There is a lovely article on GeekDad titled "Hawkeye, World's Worst Archer" which doesn't go in to all the details I just did, but the idea that people are calling him "Hawkeye, World's Worst Archer" is rather amusing.

There is a long history of professional archers teaching actors how to shoot. Below are a few examples.

Howard Hill teaching Errol Flynn for "The Adventures of Robin Hood".

Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight received archery training prior to their roles in "Deliverance".

Fred Bear remarked that Burt Reynolds caught on quickly and was a natural.

Sometimes the professional archers would also appear in cameo roles in the films or be tasked to perform any of the trick shots during the filming, like Howard Hill who did all of the tricks shots for "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and appeared in the competition scene of the film.

What bothers me (and many archers/film critics) is when a new film comes out and the actor/actress clearly doesn't know how to shoot or someone taught them the wrong way to shoot that style of bow. A famous example of this is Jennifer Lawrence of The Hunger Games franchise. I have already explained in a previous post why Jennifer Lawrence's shooting style is wrong and thus I am instead going to point you to that older post and the video below, in case you are curious about learning why that particular style is wrong.

See The #1 Mistake made by Amateur Archers: Not Anchoring Properly to learn more about why Jennifer Lawrence was trained wrong.



Happy Shooting!

Archery Equipment in the Niagara Region

Q

"Hello!

 

I live in the Niagara area and I am going to start attending an archery range as the weather gets warmer. What stores do you recommend that are closer to my home? Also should I shop on Amazon to get things?

Do I need an archery glove? Is it really necessary?

- Y"

A

Hello Y!

Well let's see... there is:

Doc's Archery Sales and Services on the American side of the border, north of Buffalo. Mostly sells crossbows and compounds.

Erie Tracker, SW of Niagara, mostly a gun shop / fishing store but also sells archery equipment - mostly compounds.

The Archer's Nook in London Ontario, which is comparable to the Bow Shop below. Depending on who you talk to some people prefer Archer's Nook.

The Bow Shop in Waterloo Ontario, which is considered by many to be the best bow shop in all of Ontario. Their selection is good. I was a little disappointed the first time I went there because I was expecting it to be bigger.

And yes, an archery glove is pretty much a necessity. Some archers prefer thumb rings or tabs, but the basic concept is to protect the fingers. Not doing so causes permanent nerve damage to the fingers to people who shoot regularly and yet refuse to wear some kind of protection.

If you decide to buy online the store I would recommend is Three Rivers Archery, at 3riversarchery.com. Very similar to Amazon, but specializes in archery products.

Stringwalking vs Facewalking at Traditional Archery Competitions

Awhile back a friend on Facebook showed me the following document for a competition he is taking part in. On it the organization has clearly laid out that Stringwalking and Facewalking will not be allowed during the competition and will basically be considered cheating.

I will never understand why some people like Stringwalking and making their arrows slower, less accurate and more unstable during flight. Sure it allows them to be lazy about how they aim, but the negatives to their accuracy far outweigh any benefits due to laziness.

Stringwalking follows the principle that if the arrow is angle differently by changing the position of the arrow on the string that is will travel at a different speed and thus land in a different spot. Advocates of Stringwalking use it so they can avoid changing their aim so much and instead just change where the arrow is nocked on the string. However doing so causes the arrow to be off-center on the bowstring, resulting in top and bottom limbs of the bow doing different amounts of work during the shot - which in turn changes the speed and acceleration of the limbs bouncing back to their non-drawn position. That change of speed hurts the speed, stability and accuracy of the arrow and ultimately results in an inferior shot.

Stringwalking Amateur

Facewalking in contrast at least makes some logical sense and doesn't reduce arrow speed or accuracy. The arrow maintains its level of accuracy during flight, the only thing that has changed is the anchor point drawn to on the face of the archer.

eg. A low anchor point for targets further away. A higher anchor point for targets closer to the archer.

The problem with Facewalking is that it involves a lot of guesswork for determining the distance to the target. The archer would have to deliberately train and practice doing Facewalking at many different distances in order to get even a semblance of accuracy.

An Amazing Example of What Not To Do

As opposed to the traditional method of shooting which is to use the same nock point on the string during every shot, the same anchor spot all the time, and the only thing changing is where you aim based on the distance to the target.

Stringwalking and Facewalking are basically old archers tricks for adjusting their aim, but they are problematic because they are not that accurate, and notoriously frowned upon by veteran archers. They are commonly used these days by amateurs who think, mistakenly, that it will somehow improve their accuracy. Amateurs who haven't yet figured out how to gauge distances and adjust their aim accordingly. Which unfortunately is no good for Facewalkers, because they still haven't learned how to gauge distances and are just guessing at the distance or are relying on being told what the range to the target is.

Thus when I saw the above rule for the archery competition above, I laughed.

Why did I laugh?

Because they are basically banning inferior methods of adjusting your aim. Stringwalking is notoriously bad for the accuracy and arrow flight, whereas Facewalking is notoriously problematic because it still requires the archer learn how to gauge distances, a skill they have deliberately avoided learning and have wasted their time trying to learn a way to "cheat" that doesn't actually work.

As an analogy lets ask what would happen if the Summer Olympics banned sprinters from wearing extra weights on them while sprinting.

Extra weight isn't going to help sprinters to go faster. It will make them go slower. It isn't cheating, quite the opposite it is a negative.

It would be like golfers not being allowed to hop on one foot while attempting to whack the golf ball with their favourite driver. Hopping on one foot certainly wouldn't be cheating, it would be a severe disadvantage.

Or it would be like a professional boxer not being allowed to take 10 sleeping pills before going in to the ring. Chances are likely the boxer will either be knocked unconscious, he or she will likely fall asleep mid-fight when the pills kick in.

Now you understand why I find the banning of Stringwalking / Facewalking laughable. The organizers of the event clearly want to discourage such an amateur method of aiming, not because it is cheating but because they know how notoriously bad those two styles are and instead choosing to discourage those styles in an effort to encourage beginner archers to learn how to gauge distances and adjust their aim the traditional way.

Going to the Toronto Sportsmen's Show

This Saturday myself and several other archers from the Toronto Archery Club will be attending the Toronto Sportsmen's Show at the International Centre at 6900 Airport Road.

The 5 day event started today, March 16th, and continues until Sunday March 20th.

2016 Ticket Prices are:

Adult: $20.00
Seniors (60+): $13.00
Juniors (13-17 yrs): $13.00
Kids (12 & Under): Free!

The Toronto Sportsmen's Show features many exhibitors / speakers on topics such as archery, hunting, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, boating, falconry and many other outdoor activities.

The photos below are from the 2015 Toronto Sportsmen's Show.

Lots of compound bows for sale.

Recurve bows too!

I want to get one of these someday.

Or build one.

I have never seen men so fascinated with clothing before.

Owls and falcons are awesome!

Watching the kids try archery.

Last year they didn't just have one archery range, they had two.

I Love Eggs

Back on January 5th I was contacted by CBC's Marketplace regarding being a taste tester for an upcoming episode on the topic of eggs...

Mmm... eggs...

[The episode in question, "The Egg Crackdown", aired on March 11th on CBC and can currently be seen on the cbc.ca website or if you have a TV streaming service.]

Basically what they want to determine is whether eggs have any nutritional differences or taste better if they are:

Organic / Pesticide Free
Free Range
Pasture Fed Hens
Grass Fed Hens
Grain Fed Hens
Antibiotics Free
Steroids Free
Hormone Free
Etc
Etc

And I said, sure, absolutely. Free eggs to eat? Certainly I shall take part in this taste test.

Apparently they found my website because they were looking for people in Toronto who really love eggs. And they found my website because of some past comments I made about the number of eggs I eat in a week.

During and after the filming of the episode I had a number of thoughts concerning the whole issue of the "welfare of chickens", primarily in relation to an egg farmer who was also one of the taste testers in our group...

Let me put it this way...

Egg farmers are not Satan worshipers who torture chickens in order to get them to lay more eggs and kill chickens maliciously - or whatever PETA / animal rights activists are claiming that they do to chickens.

Quite the opposite.

Happy Chickens Lay More Eggs.

That was the egg farmer's chief contention. If chickens are kept warm, well fed, protected from the elements and predators (foxes, raccoons, etc) then they lay more eggs. The happier and more well fed the chickens are, the more eggs they lay.

So from the egg farmer's perspective his goals are to keep the chickens inside where they are both warm and protected from the elements / predators (because sick or dead chickens don't lay eggs) and to keep them well fed.

Cleanliness was also an issue for him. Not just because clean chickens are healthier and lay more eggs, but because the smell of chicken **** is not something very pleasant to be smelling.

During the blind taste test we were asked to rank the eggs by how good they tasted (and in my case I also ranked the eggs by how salty they tasted, how bland they tasted and any other notes I felt was important) and which ones we thought were conventionally laid in egg factory barns where the chickens are kept safe in cages, and which eggs we thought were organic, free range and pasture-fed.

Now lets explain the differences...

Conventional eggs are laid in modern egg barns, wherein thousands of chickens are kept in cages and their eggs are collected daily. They are kept warm, watered and well fed through automated feeders and have their cages cleaned daily. They are also often subject to antibiotics to keep them from getting sick.

Organic eggs are from chickens are still kept in cages just like conventional chickens, but are fed organic-grown chicken feed which is supposedly free from pesticides, but might still have pesticides on the chicken feed in the event that neighbouring farms sprayed their crops with pesticides and the wind carried the pesticide.

Free range or free run eggs come from chickens that are allowed to roam around inside the barn and part of the farmyard that is fenced in. The idea here is that the chickens get more variety into their diet, but are still being fed chicken feed in addition to whatever they manage to eat outside.

Pasture eggs are from pasture-fed chickens who get all or most of their food from living outdoors. This means they are more prone to diseases and predators, but they are getting the most abundant variety of food.

Next, my results during the blind taste test.

A - Tasted bland. This one came last in terms of taste.

B - Saltier and tastier. Tied with D for 3rd place.

C - Way tastier. This one came in 1st in terms of taste.

D - Saltier and tastier. In my opinion B and D tasted almost exactly the same, tied for 3rd. D tasted slightly less saltier than B.

E - A little bland. I ranked this one 5th place.

F - Way tastier. Practically tied with C in my opinion, but I could only pick 1 so I gave this one 2nd place.

And now the results...

A was a conventional white egg grown in a factory barn.

B was a free run brown egg. This explains why it tasted better than A. It was 3rd best nutrition wise.

C was a pasture-fed brown egg. It was actually the 2nd best in terms of which was the healthiest.

D was a conventional white egg grown in a factory barn, but from a different brand than A.

E was an organic brown egg, and the 3rd worst in terms of nutritional content.

F was a pasture-fed brown egg. It was the #1 healthiest of all we tested, although almost tied with C.

So my taste buds felt vindicated at least. I had chosen the top two tastiest and healthiest eggs.

I was expecting A and E to be the conventional eggs, but I was surprised to learn it was A and D who were conventional, and that E tasted so bland that it is basically indistinguishable from conventional eggs - proof that feeding chickens organic chicken feed doesn't make their eggs taste any better.

The three best tasting being the free run and the pasture eggs were also the tastiest and healthiest. However they are also the most expensive.

All of the eggs from the different brands were also tested in a lab and the lab results showed that they were all accurate as to their labels with respect to fat content, sodium content, protein content, etc.

So there are health reasons and culinary reasons why you might choose tastier/healthier eggs to eat.

However for people on a budget, regular conventional eggs are still pretty healthy anyway. They're still good for you regardless.

And as for the chicken lovers who want their chickens to be able to roam free, to be organic, hormone and antibiotics free, I am sorry, but you people need to realize that making chickens sick and having them die of diseases or being eaten by foxes is only going to make the foxes happy. Yes, the eggs are healthier and tastier, but you need to be praising these eggs for the right reasons.

Also if your primary goal is the ethics of "animal cruelty" maybe you should stop eating eggs and meat altogether and just become a vegan. I have past posts on this topic if this is something that interests you. eg. See my 30 Days as a Vegetarian posts from 2015.

Worrying about these things when egg farmers know the truth is clearly not going to help you.

Having both participated in the filming / taste test, and also having seen the show after it aired, it is clear that how much free space chickens need to be happy is a matter of debate.

Happy Chickens Lay More Eggs.

So really it all comes down to personal preference. Do you want to pay more for tastier eggs or are you on a budget and just want more eggs for your dollar?

My logic goes like this: If I can get twice as many conventional eggs for the same price people pay for other eggs, I will probably choose the double-eggs approach. More protein for me.

If clients ask me "Which eggs are the healthiest?" I will of course answer that pasture-fed chickens have the tastiest eggs and are healthier, however I will also ask them how many they like to eat at once and whether they can see themselves eating extra just for the extra protein. In which case, they have a decision to make. Healthier eggs or extra protein? Or both? Or maybe supplement your diet with multivitamins?

I am less worried about the taste because I always add spices anyway.

Which begs a good question... How healthy are spices? Which spices are the best for you to eat? Which ones taste the best? Is there a correlation between the healthiest spices and the tastiest spices? Is too much pepper bad for me?

On a side topic, maybe CBC's Marketplace could do an episode in the future about sheep farms in Canada and the practice of butchering lambs for food. I currently eat lamb maybe once every two months, but given the option of eating mutton instead I would prefer to eat mutton. I may not be worried about the welfare of chickens, but I am curious about these young lambs being killed.

Happy and Healthy Eating!