Spring

and summer heat. 

Today was hot. And I mean full on summer temperature, surely far above 20 degrees in the sun – I even got a sunburn to show for it. 

How exactly did I obtain that? Well, by having the best school day ever. This is how it all went down:

First lesson was acting, indoors, normal, no stress. Now, second lesson Fridays is GAT (gymnastics, acrobatics & tumbling), and we’re supposed to do a bit of free-running this term. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s basically running outside and climbing walls, jumping gates/fences without stopping running. And since the weather today was so lovely, we went out and had our first lesson in free-running, basically learning to swing ourselves over gates, jump steps, balance on brick fences and climb a really, really tall fence. It was surely around 3 metres tall, of brick, and we had to get up.

All you have to do is run at it, jump, let your feet hit the wall first, run one or two steps up the wall (depending on how good your jump is) until you’re up high enough to grab the end. Then you lift yourself up. Easy, right? 

Of course all the boys managed it on the first try. I, on the other hand, spent quite a few tries getting up. After I had finally done it once, it got a lot easier. To begin with though, the boys had to give me a boost once I’d gotten a hold of the edge, as I wasn’t able to pull myself up. But, in the end, I managed to do this on my own as well. Needless to say, I was quite pleased with myself after that. –I didn’t escape without battle wounds however, but that’s just what being a combat is all about. ;)

(Okay, so it wasn’t that serious of a wound, but it does look a bit worse in real life than on the picture)

So that was two hours out in the sun jogging around doing different things. 

Then we spent the lunch break in the beer garden of The Alex (a pub), before the third lesson of the day which was combat. Nick came into the studio, looked at us, and said “lock your things in the armoury, we’re going out.” 

We went to a park by the beach, playing hide-and-seek and doing some unarmed combat on the grass. We were supposed to work in pairs and make a short fight of five attacks and one contact punch, but half of us ended up just lying on the grass, baking in the sun. At one point Nick looked down at us and said “I can see you are hard at work”, but that was also all. He proceeded to sit down as well and talk with us for the remnants of the lesson. Another two lessons in the sun. 

Incredibly good weather, incredibly good teachers, and as we got the fourth lesson free and could then leave at four, the day has been incredibly good too.

Robin Hood's

Got nothing on me.

I never got around to mentioning this last term, but five weeks before Easter holiday we started learning archery. I absolutely love it! We have it every Monday from either 18.30 to 20.00 or 20.00 to 21.30. We’re divided in two groups and swap every week who is late and who is early.

The pity is that we are only to have archery for 10 weeks, so three more weeks now and I have to say good bye to the bow and arrow. 

Now, for a few basics. Before we started shooting we had to find out which of our eyes was the dominant one. Do you want to find out if you’re left or right eye dominant? I’ll tell you how. 

1. Find a target. It can be anything. A spot on the wall, a picture frame, whatever. Found a clear target? Good.  

2. Now lift your hands up in front of you, keeping your arms straight. Use index finger and thumb of both hands to create a square – just like a camera. Focus your “camera” on your target and look at the target through the square with both eyes. 

3. Focus on your target with both eyes. 

4. Now, as you continued looking at your target with both eyes, start moving your hands toward your face. Make sure your target stays in the middle of your square. 

5. Don’t stop until your hands are basically touching your face. 

Have you read all these steps? Good. Now do them, one after the other. Don’t read on before you have. 

Have you completed the 5 steps? Fantastic. Now let me ask you, which eye is your square now centred around? Are you looking through your camera with your left or your right eye? Well, this eye is your dominant one. If you’re right eye dominant – such as me – then you will hold the bow with your left hand and the arrow with your right. If you’re left eye dominant, then do it the other way around. 

                How to shoot: 

Grab your bow and an arrow. Stand with your side toward the target, so your shoulder and the side of your hip are pointing toward the target. Now look at your arrow. All arrows have one tail feather of a different colour to the other two. This is the index feather, and should be turned toward you when you nock the arrow. Lift your bow and pull the arrow back to your chin. Fire. If your arrows continuously hit low on the target, try moving the hand holding the arrow down a bit, and if your arrows keep hitting quite high, try moving your hand up. 

But before you let yourself loose completely, here’s the number one rule in the archery society:

If someone yells “fast!” stop shooting and put down your bow immediately. This is the ultimate code word for danger. It could be anything, someone injured, that there is someone behind the targets, anything dangerous. 

The reason why it’s not “danger” or “careful” or any other word one might think more fitting, is because “fast” is a short word that is quick and easy to say and hear. It is a universal word used throughout the world. 

Be safe. 

(to nock an arrow = the action of putting it on the bow string, preparing to shoot it).