First Impression: Archery

Happy Tuesday everyone! 

If you've been following me on Facebook, you might have seen me trying out my hand at archery this month. Me and my bf did it twice: Once at La Mesa Ecopark for trial and a formal basic training at Gandiva Archery in Ortigas. I have only attended one session so I wanted to post a first impression here.

Here's a collage picture done by my bf. He likes to play around so I laughed when he showed me this photo ala Hunger Games ^_^

It's actually my bf who wanted to learn archery but he really really wanted me to join him because according to him it wouldn't be much fun if we're not gonna learn together haha ...I think it's just because I don't have any kind of physical activity except hiking and camping. Anyway, I gave in and it's so much fun! I really enjoyed our one hour session of basic training at Gandiva Archery. In that one hour, I learned the proper posture/position, how to hold the bow and arrow, and I also learned the rules like when to fire and when to get your arrows from the target board. I thought it was gonna be simple but I was wrong. It was actually hard to get your arrows hit the target. Luckily, my hands are stable so almost majority of my arrows hit the target paper and it didn't go everywhere. I was able to hit bulls-eye 3x during my practice which is great! 

Although, thinking about it, I still need to strengthen my arms because after 30 mins, my arms were already tired and I can't hit the target anymore. I also ended up with red hands and fingers because I was not used to holding a bow that long and also 3 fingers are used to pull the string and you need enough strength to pull and make your arrows fly far away. I will definitely practice a lot harder next time. My bf thought I have natural talent for archery because I was so stable and my arrows always hit the target paper even though I don't hit the bulls-eye mark. I love it when he feels so proud of me LOL ^_~

On the side note, I also enjoyed the food served in their cafe. That is definitely a plus since you get hungry after practice. I ordered a vegetarian putanesca and it was so good. I can't wait to try out the other food on the menu when we came back for our next session :)
 You should try it too! Gandiva Archery can be found at J. Vargas St. in Ortigas at One Corporate Center. They offer a per session rate of Php600 and this includes one hour use of the facility with trainer and the rent of the bow and arrows. You can also avail their module (a lot cheaper) which is best if you decided you really wanted to learn this properly.

By the way, our second session will probably be held at Benel Archery because we wanted to check which one has better facilities before deciding where we would permanently go for formal training with modules.

So yeah, those are my thoughts and I really hope I can learn more techniques and get enough skills to be able to compete in the future. It's nice if I can have archery as my sports since I never had one :)