BOWSTRINGS TAUGHT: Aspiring Archers Aim For Perfection

BY CODY COTULLA
Contributing Writer

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Diane Nagura hands out weapons to her students and no one tries to stop her. It’s not an outrage — it’s archery, the sport that goes twang. “Most people have never tried archery, and most people have always wanted to try it,” said Nagura, who has been teaching archery at City College for 14 years.

Archery is a sport someone can learn and compete in at any age, Nagura said.

Arpi Chahenian, 19, said she likes that she can be as good as someone taller and much stronger than she is. “It has nothing to do with strength,” Chahenian said. “If you just aim correctly you will hit the target.”

Chahenian decided to take the beginning archery class after seeing the movie “King Arthur.” “I wanted to shoot like Kiera Knightley,” she said.

She said she finds archery interesting because “it’s evolved through the ages and people are still doing it.”

Philip Ko, 21, also likes the sport’s connection with history. “Archery has been around for a long, long time—that’s kind of cool.”

Archery has had a long history at City College, too. Nagura said she took her first archery class as a City College student “eons and eons ago,” and that up until around 2001, students could take archery classes at Ocean campus.

This semester City College offers three beginning archery classes and one intermediate class. They are held at the Golden Gate Park Archery Range on 47th Avenue at Fulton Street, which is one of San Francisco’s best kept secrets, according to Nagura. “It’s very nice. It’s kind of hard to believe that we are where we are.”

At the first class session, Nagura assigns each student a bow and set of arrows they will use throughout the semester. Nagura said this is important for developing accuracy. “You are trying to learn the proper stance and form and a change in equipment means that you are going to have to do something different to compensate.”

Students usually get to start shooting during the second class. Nagura said the students don’t get bored because they do a lot of shooting. “They get to shoot enough that they can discover what they are doing wrong,” she said.

Ko said he struggled during the first two or three weeks of class but feels he is better now that he is mastering some of the techniques. “That helps a lot,” Ko said. “I enjoy it more than I was before.”

Nagura grades on participation and effort, which Ko likes. “She doesn’t grade on accuracy, so that takes a lot of pressure off,” he said.

Ko said that after the class he actually feels more energetic. “I look forward to the next class, to coming back again. It’s a good feeling.”

In the beginning class, students usually see “a lot of improvement during the semester,” Nagura said. “They get better, fast, and tend to continue improving rapidly,” she said.

In contrast, during the intermediate class, students tend to reach a plateau, and improvement then comes slowly. “To be good, you have to practice a lot,” Nagura said. “You are primarily competing against yourself. It’s the toughest competitor there is.”

Take a Bow

Students in the City College archery classes use recurve bows, the type of bow used in the Olympics. With a recurve bow, the ends or limbs of the bow curve away from the archer, and this secondary curving gives the bow its name.

Bows can be made from combination wood, metal or man-made materials such as fiberglass. Arrows used in competition are typically made from aluminum or aluminum with carbon fibers. Arrows shot from a recurve bow can travel at speeds above 150 mph.

The starting cost for bows is around $100, according to City College archery instructor Diane Nagura. Arrows run about $3 each.

Bows at the top end, which can include stabilizers for reducing the amount an arrow twists when it is released, and sights to help in aiming, can cost from $1,000 to several thousand dollars.