day 217: close, but yet so far

concepts:

• string
• arrow

lessons:

• bagua fist form
• kyudo
  

this (or last weekend) was a double duty weekend, with class both Saturday and Sunday. i was a little under the weather, since i'd gotten sick earlier in the week. it had been bad enough that i canceled the shuai jiao class, and spent most of the time trying to get better.

bagua fist form

we went further into the fist form, and i think we're now abotu 90% of the way through the form. the section today was the 3rd of a repeating set in the form, and so things went much quicker, since the set only varies with a few moves. we actually spent the bulk of time reviewing everything we've done to date and trying to get things down.

kyudo

kyudo this evening was an exercise in frustration. this is the second class for me shooting without supervision, but so far i've only managed to get the arrow out of the bow a total of 2x out of 8 attempts. the problem is that i keep losing the arrow off the string as i raise it--it literally falls out.

this is possible in kyudo because it places the arrow on the right side of the bow (in contrast, most other forms of archery i've seen place the arrow on the left side). since everyone is taught shooting towards their left, that means the arrow is on the outside position of the bow with only the string to hold it in place, making it very easy for it to fall out.

originally, i thought that i'd been making a mistake in the way my right hand held the string. apparently it's supposed to rotate slightly in the thumb direction as you lift the bow. i hadn't been doing this, and it certainly contributed to my string problem. but even after i corrected for this, the arrow continued to fall out.

next , i thought i found the issue with the arrows i was using--the dojo arrows seem to have a slightly wider knocking slot relative to the other arrows. typically, the slot is narrow enough that it snaps in around the string, and so is held in until the string snaps on the release of the bow. but the string on the bow i've been using is a little narrow, and it slides a loosely into the dojo arrow slots. however, after i corrected for this by trying new arrows, i still had them falling out.

i am quite perplexed by this, and will have to devote some time to sorting this out. i may be making a mistake in technique, but the question is where and what i need to do to correct things.