Amy Kennebec responded to my request for personal stories about how a love of archery’s been supported by genre pop culture. How does her path compare to yours? Thanks Amy!
I got into the archery “concept” ages ago. When I was a kid, caught up in the idea of medieval weapons; the fact a longbow would punch through plate armor was amazing to me. I also think a lot of books gave female characters bows when they wanted to fight at all—the Narnia books, etc. My brothers had bows when I was a kid, but I never got to play with them. When I was a reporter in MN a few years back I did a story on a gentleman who made compound bows and that really piqued my interest as well.
When I play fantasy video games like Diablo, WoW, and Skyrim, I always play an archer. ALWAYS. I love the distance shots, and I’m always mad at games that don’t reward a headshot or a hidden shot with massive extra damage. Hand to hand combat looks exciting, but there’s something elegant about archery that I dig.
There’s been a LOT of archers in the movies, comics, and books for the last 10 years that I finally couldn’t stand the jealousy of watching them shoot anymore. I saw Katniss, Kili, Legolas, Merida, etc., and they just look like they’re having such a focused moment on the release. I like that. I want to feel that focus. So I called a nearby archery range and set up a lesson. A one time, 1:1 lesson, so I wouldn’t feel too embarrassed as I rained arrows in all directions. I had a great time, and learned a lot about different types of grips. I haven’t had a chance to go back for a few more lessons yet—I’m hoping to do some during my vacation in July. The next issue is trying to find a place to practice. Harder than you’d think!
