The lesson was being given by a man whom we called "The Professor"  because he really is a professor of microbiology at the University of Johannesburg.  But his real passion is archery and he is an international judge at international archery events.  And he's even been to the Olympics!

We learned that there are two kinds of archery--target archery and field archery. Target archery means you aim the arrow at a specific target.In archery a bulls eye is gold.




In field archery, you move up and down hills and aim to shoot between trees. So I guess Robin Hood was a field archer while William Tell was a target archer!

In target archery, men shoot from a distance of 90 meters while women shoot from a distance of 70 meters.  How sexist is that!!!



First we had to assemble the bows.  Luckily, this being our first lesson, we watched our bows being assembled. It didn't look easy.

The Professor selected a special bow for me because I'm left-handed. When I held the bow up vertically it was even taller than me.

He showed me how to hold the bow against my body and release the arrow. I learned that you're not allowed to pull on the bow and let go without an arrow in it. I could break the string and cause damage.

So I shot the arrow into the air... actually I shot it straight at the practice board. I think I did pretty well!!!