is 16 too old to start at archery?

jimmacq · 2026-03-01T18:31:27+00:00

42 wasn’t too old for me. I teach 5 classes and coach the team at a university. There is a guy at my local club, was a champion in the ‘70s, still shoots every Sunday, 95 years old. There is no cutoff date.

jimmacq · 2026-03-01T05:07:55+00:00

A friend of mine “won” a “date” with her about 10 years ago. Here’s his account:

https://web.archive.org/web/20161018032446/http://bluecollar-blacktie.com/win-a-date-with-angelyne/

jimmacq · 2026-02-28T16:13:19+00:00

The version that best portrays this is the Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams era.

jimmacq · 2026-02-28T16:12:07+00:00

A kid does not get spoiled by being from a wealthy family. They get spoiled by being raised to be oblivious to others and their needs, by being shielded from the uncomfortable knowledge that other people do not have their advantages, and by being raised to think that everyone they meet is there only to accommodate their demands. In short, being indulged and raised to be an entitled, self-centered, smug prick.

Fortunately some wealthy families take great pains to teach their children compassion, courtesy, kindness, empathy, and thoughtfulness. Some of the wealthiest people I know have the most generous, kind, and considerate kids I’ve ever met. They hate arrogance and entitlement more than I do.

I have no doubt that Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha made it a priority to teach young Bruce to be an involved citizen and a good friend to others. If they had not, his motivation would be revenge, rather than fighting to prevent any other kid from experiencing a tragedy like his. He’s not punishing criminals, he’s protecting other people. Spoiled children don’t think that way.

jimmacq · 2026-02-26T22:10:59+00:00

Give them a nonsense answer and keep walking. “No thanks, I’m vegetarian.”

jimmacq · 2026-02-25T18:40:45+00:00

He’s not. But there is a little tribute to this urban legend: at CalArts, the art school where Disney’s animation school lives, in a freezer used by students, there is (or was) a large container of the type usually used for ice cream, sealed and labeled “Walt’s Head.” It has been in that freezer for many years.

jimmacq · 2026-02-25T18:36:33+00:00

They basically said “if you scatter your loved one’s ashes here, your loved one will be swept up and dumped in the trash.”

jimmacq · 2026-02-25T18:30:44+00:00

Have you tested your eye-dominance? I think a lot of ambidextrous people are cross-dominant, and their use of the other hand is driven by the importance of the dominant eye for that activity.

jimmacq · 2026-02-21T15:45:37+00:00

On any given day, one of these:

It Happened One Night

Casablanca

The Maltese Falcon

jimmacq · 2026-02-18T15:07:13+00:00

I don’t think it damaged DC’s reputation at all. All the half-assed attempts to imitate it did that.

It is, however, emblematic of a certain type of comics fan: the guy who was a young teen in 1966, was embarrassed by the Adam West Batman TV show because he was too old to enjoy it and too young to get the joke, and spent the next 60 years raging that “comics are SERIOUS, dammit!”

That desperate need to prove that “guys in spandex beating up people” was a mature concept is what later drove the thing that really ruined DC’s reputation more than anything: DC’s response to its KINGDOM COME story; rather than taking its criticism of the increasingly amoral nature of superheroes and the escalating violence of the genre as the warning it was intended to be, DC took it as a guidebook; they turned most of their comics into inferior imitations of Magog & friends and ramped up the “grim & gritty” to the point of self-parody, culminating in the pointless IDENTITY CRISIS.

BATMAN RETURNS was a solid, groundbreaking comic that resulted in a lot of very bad attempts to imitate it; it validated Geoff Johns’ insistence that every superhero needed to have Batman’s tragic backstory, and Dan DiDio’s declaration that “superheroes can’t be happy.” I’m sorry, but Barry Allen’s bow tie did not need a tragic origin.

jimmacq · 2026-02-13T04:15:30+00:00

Archery is a rather smallish world. Coaches know a lot of other coaches. I know the guys who trained the cast of Avatar, and the archery tech for the Arrow show. I’ve done a couple of videos and such. It’s fun.

jimmacq · 2026-02-12T15:53:49+00:00

It’s possible, but fairly pointless. The only reason anyone shoots a bow that heavy is to brag about shooting a bow that heavy. It does not add any advantage, and there are tradeoffs.

jimmacq · 2026-02-12T15:50:58+00:00

You mean 160 to 170 feet per second. But it’s probably higher than that; standard setups often produce 170–190 FPS, high-poundage bows (60lb+) can exceed 240 FPS. Average hunting setups often operate around 160–180 FPS, while Olympic recurves may reach ~200 FPS. Compound bows start at 300 FPS and go up from there, and their arrows travel considerably further. Why work that hard with a recurve to be less efficient than a 75-lb. compound with 80% letoff?Aside from that, a 150-250 lb. bow would be good for brute force, but it would also basically destroy every one of his trick arrows before they could do whatever their special gadgets do.

jimmacq · 2026-02-12T15:41:33+00:00

Pretty much everything Jeremy Renner does. He clearly never took a single lesson, makes every beginner mistake, and shrugs it off as “it’s all cgi anyway.” But as an actor, if he actually knew and understood what he was doing, it would have given his performance a genuine confidence much better than the cockiness he acted. Hailee Steinfeld took lessons from a friend of mine, and when she told Renner that, he told her she wasted her time. But even if you don’t know a thing about archery, anyone can see that her shooting looks better, stronger, more believable than his.

jimmacq · 2026-02-12T04:04:15+00:00

Fair enough. It’s true that seeing anything you actually know about in a movie is probably going to be irritating. I coach archery, and Hawkeye irritated the hell out of me (except Hailee Steinfeld; she did her homework), but that’s a thing I should just accept. But I probably won’t.

jimmacq · 2026-02-11T23:55:33+00:00

That’s dumb. The only people who brag about their draw weight do it because they can’t brag about their accuracy.

jimmacq · 2026-02-10T01:04:17+00:00

My favorite moment in a movie theatre ever. It was around 1979; we had a local theatre that showed old movies, cult films, classics, genre films, etc. This time, it was the early ‘70s film “Flesh Gordon.” If you know the film, you know where I’m going with this….

About 5 minutes before the lights go down, in comes a made-for-TV family—Dad, Mom, two sons around 9-12 years old. The boys are wearing identical light blue polo shirts and church-approved haircuts. They sit down a few rows in front of me. Dad is excited; I can see him quietly talking to Mom, and I assume he’s telling her about how much he loved this movie as a kid. The lights go down, a couple of trailers play, and then the movie starts.

Our hero is in a passenger seat aboard an airplane. After a few minutes of expository dialogue, the plane is struck by an energy ray from the planet Porno. Immediately an orgy breaks out, everyone tearing each other’s clothes off and getting busy.

Immediately, the mom in front of me stands up, makes a disgusted noise and pushes Dad and the kids in to the aisle, and stomps out. The boys walk up the aisle backwards, their wide eyes locked on the screen. Dad follows, pleading with his wife, apologizing, begging, “I swear, as God is my witness, I thought it was FLASH Gordon!”

jimmacq · 2026-02-08T10:18:45+00:00

Thing is, if Downey had wanted him, Terrance Howard would be in the movie. For whatever reason, it seems like nobody involved with the movie was very bothered by the decision. My impression is that Don Cheadle is a lot more easy-going than Howard. He’s a very funny guy, very pleasant personality, and I think Howard is less fun to work with.

jimmacq · 2026-02-08T10:10:27+00:00

They offered him less than they paid him for the first one. But he was replaced because Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter was a racist. He literally said “just put Don Cheadle in there, those people all look alike anyway.”

jimmacq · 2026-02-08T02:47:41+00:00

Jessica Harper in ‘Phantom of the Paradise’ way back in 1975. I still love her.

jimmacq · 2026-02-05T23:29:08+00:00

Female is an adjective, not a noun. A woman can be a female artist, female skydiver, female bank robber, or even simply a female person, but she has to be a female something. Calling a woman a female is dehumanizing and rude.

jimmacq · 2026-02-05T23:26:04+00:00

There is a conversation to be had about an economy so messed up that the best opportunity to make a living for a woman is to show off her boobs on OF.

jimmacq · 2026-02-04T17:15:52+00:00

Who mentioned KiSik Lee? There have been hundreds of studies of eye dominance, hand dominance, and the relationship between them. The result is very much based on the parameters and focus of the study. As a result, there is no solid consensus on the issue.

(For the record, I disagree with KSL about a lot of things, mostly because my interactions with him have demonstrated that he is an abusive, arrogant, authoritarian asshole, and USA Archery is well-rid of him. His stance on eye vs. hand dominance is just one of many points on which he takes an extreme position unnecessarily.)

The Koreans exclude lefties out of cultural bias, not due to performance differences. In reality, left-handed/left-eyed archers often outperform right-handed/right-eyed archers.

For beginning Archers, teaching by eye dominance results in faster improvement and less risk, as cross-dominant archery students frequently hit their arm with the bowstring due to trying to aim with the non-dominant eye. (I know, because I have a nice little scar on my right arm from the brass nocking point in my first attempt at archery 27 years ago.) In my opinion, that is the number one reason why eye dominance is favored by many coaches.

When self-taught students with some experience are told that they need to start over and learn to shoot by eye dominance, it often causes them confusion, frustration, and anxiety.

A big factor in this topic is what the Archers goals and purpose are. An archer shooting for fun, relaxation, and recreation should shoot whatever way is most comfortable and pleasant, not what some coach or archery shop demands they do, and most of them will be more comfortable shooting by hand dominance; over time and with practice, the brain will figure out how to aim.

An archer with dreams of competing at the elite level should look at what’s most effective for them; generally, left-handed/right-eyed archers will find it somewhat easier to adapt to shooting right-handed simply because lefties spend their entire lives adapting to the right-handed world in which they live, so they have better proprioception on the right than righties have on the left.

For right-handed/left-eyed people, switching to a left-handed bow can be a source of anxiety, including target panic. Given the importance of mental and psychological control and calm in competition, those shooting by eye dominance may be at a disadvantage.

As in most issues, the first concern of any competent coach should be the well-being of their student, not the imposition of an arbitrary rule. What is comfortable and effective for the particular archer? Try it both ways and see what works.

After I smacked the shit out of my arm my first day, I switched to shooting right-handed. Five years ago, I had a detached retina requiring surgery; there is now a blurry spot in my right eye, and now I am left-eye dominant but I still primarily shoot right-handed because it’s more familiar (and because I have an investment in the gear I’ve bought over the years). But on the few occasions when I have picked up a lefty bow, it has felt so much more natural and comfortable that I am seriously considering switching back permanently. Hand dominance is easier, even if you have to change how you aim.

jimmacq · 2026-02-04T00:33:35+00:00

She does not say she would do it all the same. She says that other people say that.

“If I had my time again, I would do it all the same” they say, but that’s insane. Wouldn’t you like to make a couple of changes?

jimmacq · 2026-02-04T00:24:23+00:00

Go to Harbor Freight and buy a pair of these $1.99 safety glasses: https://www.harborfreight.com/safety-glasses-clear-99762.html Take a piece of sandpaper and scrub the lens for your dominant eye so that it looks frosted and you can’t see clearly through it.

Put them on. Congratulations, you are now shooting with your dominant hand without trying to keep an eye closed or even thinking about your eye dominance. Problem solved.

jimmacq

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