Steady. Breathe. Release. Thwack. Wow, I actually hit the target with the first arrow.
Seeking shelter from the recent downpours and accompanying humidity, I decided to have a little outdoor fun indoors and rekindle my love for archery with the help of an instructor.
Walking into Robinson Archery Products is like stepping into rocker/bowhunter Ted Nugent's basement. You can tell these guys mean business with a bow. All of the big-game animals hanging on the walls were taken by patient hunters with an arrow.
But archery is not all about hunting here. It's also about marksmanship and having fun without preying on wild game.
"It's fun and it teaches you honesty because you score your own points," said Stephen Heins, who has been an instructor for nearly two years.
It's evident that Heins knows what he's doing with a bow. He's the No. 1-ranked shooter in the state 4-H program, and a plaque on the wall holds two arrows that he pierced the back of with two other arrows, a la Robin Hood.
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"Patience is a big thing with archery," he said. "It's an individual sport that you can do just about anywhere."
Heins is also a patient instructor. It had been almost seven years since I last picked up a bow and arrow, and he unassumingly walked me through the proper safety steps and techniques needed to fire a good grouping at the target.
With each arrow fired he first points out what I did well, then suggests how to improve the next shot.
"That's the advantage of one-on-one instruction. I can talk to the students and not at them," he said. "Kids don't tend to listen as well in a group."
His next student, Grant Jahn, 13, is a good example. This is Jahn's second lesson, and Heins is praising him for recalling the proper techniques from the first.
For inexperienced shooters such as Jahn, Heins starts the lesson by placing a target 10 yards away.
"I give them a bigger target at first so they can get comfortable. After hitting that consistently, start shooting the 20-yard targets," he said. Jahn has no problem hitting the target with all six arrows and begins grouping them closer together until fatigue starts to set in. "Everyone gets tired. Everyone. It's a hard workout. You are using muscles that you normally don't use," Heins said.
I forgot how tiring it can be pulling back a string with 60 pounds of tension over and over again. Fortunately, Robinson's offers a few different types of bows to use.
We are using compound bows that are rigged with pulleys that release the tension by up to 85 percent when pulled back. And they have weaker bows for the smaller students that can be adjusted up to 25 pounds of tension.
After a brief rest period, Jahn is back on the shooting line and readying to fire a half-dozen more arrows. But this time Heins places a balloon on the target for him to aim at.
"I like for the students to end with a bang," he says.
With a little more instruction, it doesn't take Jahn long to hit it.
His last arrow flies out of the bow. Bang.
QUICK TAKE
Archery lessons
Where: Robinson Archery Products, 8358 E. Broadway, east of Pantano Road
When: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Call for reservations.
Cost: $20 an hour includes all equipment, instruction and use of the indoor shooting range. Bring your own equipment if you want.
Information: Contact Tom Robinson at 298-6501.