Archery

Background

Already a long time ago, Gabriel and I started talking about doing a workshop on the not so well known aspects of martial arts. A lot of people have strong connotations with martial arts: fighting, weapons etc. By doing a combined workshop on Aikido and archery, it could become much more easily clear to people, what other aspects can be typical to a martial art as well, such as timing, respect and concentration.

I use archery in several ways and with different purposes as a training activity, varying from a team activity or an observation exercise (setting up the net, putting together the bows), down to a very individual activity, aimed to help people at self-reflection. In my experience, a whole training day can be usefully filled with archery.

The archery workshop at the conference was aimed at finding out whether it would be possible to further enhance the process of silencing, focussing and self-reflection.

The workshop

Since I had relatively little time, I led the initial shooting session even more strictly than I usually do, when enhancing self-reflection is my aim. Although every now and then a participant dislikes a very strict, almost militaristic, approach, for most people it seems to help in two ways:

• The sparingly given, highly efficient instructions and commands assure people that the surrounding in which they are is well controlled, and physically safe. This is an important aspect, especially since people realise (at least after the first instructions), that a bow and arrow is a serious weapon, and some people feel insecure around weapons.
• Almost automatically people subdue their voices, and after a while usually a silence sets in, in which the regular rhythm of the commands and the movements becomes all the more apparent. This rhythm is most often perceived as soothing. The silence allows participants to fully concentrate on themselves.

Once the whole group had become silent, and had had enough practice to be able to hit the target, I introduced an interluding activity. Every participant was provided with an arrow made out of cedar wood, a fine brush, and fast drying paint. About 20 minutes was given to paint the arrow with a picture that would relate with a theme that was highly relevant to that person.

After the painting, a couple of rounds were shot with 'normal' arrows, so that the paint could dry, and to allow people to get into the shooting rhythm again. After that, one by one, each participant shot his/her personal arrow.