Shoot Like A Girl

When she was in 7th Grade, my daughter took an elective called Physics Of Sports.  It was taught by a teacher who also taught math and physics.  The elective wasn't very high on her list of preferences and so initially my daughter was not very impressed about being the only girl in a class of sport obsessed boys.  However, the teacher was wonderful and the class turned out to be interesting and full of practical experiments.  It ended up being one of her favorite middle school electives.  At the end of the year the class spent a morning at a local archery range learning the basics of shooting a recurve bow.  She found she loved to shoot, and persuaded us to buy her a recurve bow which came with some free lessons from the shop owner who competes and is successful in international competitions.  It wasn't long before the rest of us wanted to learn too and archery has become a family hobby.  We discovered two archery ranges in local County Parks.  There are practice ranges and then there are targets set up in the woodland so it becomes a hike and a challenge to shoot on different terrain.  It is beautiful in the trees, quiet, with dappled light, and you can imagine yourself in a different time, that of Robin Hood perhaps.  The whoosh of the arrow as it leaves the bow, the thwack as it hits the target, these are very satisfying.