What's the Archery equivalent of talking shit?

[u/No-Scarcity7312]

Hi,

As the title says.

Beginner archer here, I'm attending my first archery class in a month or so, and have been watching instructional videos, hunting videos, and regional competitions...to which I quickly devolved into rewatching katniss everdeen and princess Merida. Kicking my legs like the little girl I am. But that leads me to wonder... I've been thinking what an experienced or even inexperienced Archer could do -not even saying anything - that would be the equivalent of talking shit. Mad shit.Crazy shit. Shit you'd never say All I can think of that I can use as an example would be Deadshot in suicide squad hitting the same target no pause in movements. Or you know which scene katness is catching virtual bodies in the training room. Or princess Merida from brave shooting for her own hand. Only the assured confidence of a badass who's been doing this for years.

[u/AquilliusRex]

Showing up at your first lesson with a 50lb recurve and saying you can handle it easily because you pump iron and watched a ton of YouTube videos.

No. You can't. (Although, if you tell us the YouTube channels you watched, we might give you half a pass on this one).

Talking the piss on low poundage bows. A 20lb bow that lets you put arrows in the 9 ring every time or a 40lb bow that barely puts arrows on the target half the time.

You pick.

[u/ThePhatNoodle]

One time at the range I was so busy fussing over my sights I didn't realize I aimed at the target next to the one I was shooting. When I went to grab my arrows I thought I lost one somehow then I look over and see my arrow dead center in the other target. I was thinking that would have been mad disrespectful if someone else was shooting there lol

[u/0verlow → u/ThePhatNoodle]

I have done this in competition warmup, shot an arrow right on the spider of the target right of mine. To this day the best and certainly most memorable shot I have done.

[u/n4ppyn4ppy → u/0verlow]

Lol I hit three golds one target over. 11 misses out of 30. No clue what happened but had a load of fun.

[u/pixelwhip]

As a barebow archer i can confirm a lot of shit talking occurs on our end o the line during competition.. we certainly are a lot more casual than the sighted archers (ie/ recurve/compound) who take competition much more seriously & tend to be deathly silent in their pursuit for perfection.

[u/Applepieoverdose → u/pixelwhip]

Longbow shit-talk is the best shit-talking imo, because we can do it to/at everyone in including ourselves. The last summer outdoor competition I was at there was a noise complaint against the longbow target because of our shit-talking and laughing

[u/pixelwhip → u/Applepieoverdose]

Lol, I’ve noticed that… as soon as there’s a group of 4 longbowers or more; things start to get weird. :) (but in a good way!)

[u/Applepieoverdose → u/pixelwhip]

It’s wonderful.

My favourite competition memory is a group of 5 longbow archers, 4 of whom are about to go head-to-heads, singing and harmonising together while waiting for the recurves to get from 64 competitors to the final 4. We sang this masterpiece.

All longbows are mildly insane, and nobody knows if it happens because longbow, or because longbow because mild insanity

Also, a beauty of longbows shit-talking other bowstyles is if you do manage to pull of what you said you would, you get to go “yeah, a longbow just beat you”, and if you don’t, it’s “what? Did you seriously think I’d hit a gold on a 40cm target at 100m?”

[u/NumpteeDumptee]

I'm going to offer you a slightly different perspective here. For me, and I believe many others, archery is almost the opposite of 'talking shit' - when I shoot, it is for the process itself and not much else. When the shots flow into each other and the arrows group themselves into tiny bundles; the scores, performance against peers, rankings, medals etc all of that noise evaporates; they're just a consequence of being able to achieve flow in a practiced skill. Sure we get tired - but when your body knows what to do and you can silence your mind and shoot for end after end in that state - even the physical exhaustion just feels great.

Now I'm no Zen monk and I still end up thinking about scores and wanting to shoot better .. and better than my peers ... but the truth is I shoot best (and most enjoyably) when I can quiet that inner voice. You can sometimes see others shooting in that state - and then I say (and do) very little because it's beautiful to be a part of it.

Don't talk shit - eliminate all of that and live in your shot.

[u/Knitnacks → u/NumpteeDumptee]

Agree. Proof is in what ends up on the target-face (and also not being shunned for bring an arse on the shooting line (bowtips not in my face nor limbs across me, please, quiet swearing perfectly reasonable, loud tantrums/cheers not. Beginners' course participants given a two-month pass)).

[u/WhopplerPlopper → u/NumpteeDumptee]

Or, you can not talk shit and those of us who enjoy it can do it.
We aren't bullying people, shit talking is something done amongst friends for laughs - many of us are club members specifically for the social side of the sport and that includes talking some shit with your peers.

[u/_SCHULTZY_]

https://youtube.com/shorts/P-BH0BT8iX8?si=D1m_fgGVpGCMXXc9

Probably something along those lines. You can search youtube for "archery trick shots" and find plenty of jaw dropping examples of absolute badassery

[u/Separate_Wave1318]

Talking shit as in: something that no one will believe that it's done?

[u/WhopplerPlopper]

Talking shit is the equivalent to talking shit in archery. I have no idea how any of what you just said equates to talking shit really...

Yesterday at a tournament, my friend (who is a very skilled archer who actually won the Lancaster classic last year) asked the judges if he could use an otherwise un-used target face to practice on during practice rounds (IE he would get twice as many shots to practice vs the rest of us) and in front of the whole tournament full of people I just said loudly "Wow Reggie, you really need that much practice? I thought you were supposed to be good at this?". That is the equivalent of archery shit talk lol.