A Gentle Reminder of the Classic Books for at Home or the Woods

Last night I was surfing for free books to read in iBooks, and there are tons of them available!  Most of the older classics are at places like Gutenberg eBooks, but there are many outlets.  From an iPhone, the best way to hunt for them is install the free iBooks app, and then search the library.  They separate the books by author and whether it is free or to buy.

I was in kind of a hurry, so I was looking for small files sizes for a quick download.  That's when I ran into Aesop's Fables!  I knew they were on the web, not not available as an ebook.  Here is one of my favorites...

The Lion and the Mouse
Once when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up and down upon him; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him, and opened his big jaws to swallow him.  "Pardon, O King," cried the little Mouse: "forgive me this time, I shall never forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn some of these days?"  The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let him go.  Some time after the Lion was caught in a trap, and the hunters who desired to carry him alive to the King, tied him to a tree while they went in search of a waggon to carry him on.  Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight in which the Lion was, went up to him and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts.  "Was I not right?" said the little Mouse.

The Moral is - Little friends may prove great friends.

I just can't wait to read the rest of the stories again, to myself and my grandchildren!  Here is where I found this story. About Aesop the author.

Maintaining Equipment in a Youth Shooting Sports Club

I speak here specifically about archery, but the same is true of all similar youth shooting sports programs, so shotgunners and muzzle loaders, please read on...

As a youth archery instructor, one of the greatest challenges is to make sure the young people always have ready quality, safe equipment.  On the surface it doesn't seem like it would be that hard, but when you consider all the things used in archery, it gets to be quite a challenge.  One archer alone will use a bow, that has a string, multiple arrows that will have a quiver, the safety equipment of an arm guard, finger tab or glove, and will shoot at a target that has paper held on by pins, at a fixed distance that is laid out on a range with safety lines, perimeter rope and signs.  Right there I named about seven items, now multiply that by 10 to 20 shooters in a club.  It takes a virtual warehouse to store all these things, and each of them are wearing out, if only just a little bit, one practice after another.

It can be justified to have a youth shooter and a dedicated parent to take charge of all the equipment, because if not, it soon becomes more than a club leader can handle under the job description of a volunteer archery club leader.  Let's for a minute talk about cost.

Is your 4-H, Scout or JOAD program free of charge to the children?  It better not be.  A free program cannot survive, plus children must learn to pay to play.  Where in your adult life can you have a free hobby? It is sending the wrong message of value when we run a program that is free of charge.  It says to the participant that some sugar-daddy person or organization is providing a charity program, which gives an unjustified sense of entitlement, or it says that your program is not worth much.  A quality program can have maintained equipment if even a token amount is charged, say $3.00 to $4.00 per shoot.  One quality archery target is about $70.  Nowadays virtually every family can come up with that fee, which is about the same cost as candy or two bottled sodas.  When I was managing a youth archery program a few years ago, I did have some kids that couldn't afford that.  I worked out a deal with them to bring in aluminium cans at every shoot, and provided a barrel to put them in. Did that pay for the wear and tear on the equipment they were using?  No, but it helped, and gave the children a sense of ownership in the activity, and that even by collecting aluminum cans they were paying their own way for the enjoyment of shooting.

If you are leading a youth shooting sports program, God bless you and thank you for your service.  Every kid needs something like this to learn and reinforce safety, leadership, responsibility and build their self worth.  Please remember though that keeping equipment ready, properly cared for and safe will make the program run smooth and will indirectly teach and remind us all to be good stewards over the things we have.

In researching this topic, I ran into a Hunt Chat forum post by a fellow archer and Dad, in Wisconsin with the username Rancid Crabtree.  In his very detailed July 2008 post My Latest Longbow, he shows how to make a longbow bow, bow stringer, inset medallion and tip guard (see photo), in a way that is very easy to understand.  Check it out!

Practice Does NOT Make Perfect

Practicing is the act of rehearsing a skill or behavior over and over, or engaging in an activity again and again, for the purpose of improving or mastering it.  How many times have we heard, "Practice Makes Perfect"?  What if you are repeating behavior incorrectly over and over, does practice still make perfect?  I think not.  This might just be the most major piece of misinformation I was ever taught in school!

Used by permission from the creator, Mark Stivers.

If you have ever taken formal archery lessons, you'll know that there are certain steps to shooting an arrow out of a bow to make it not only fly true to hits its mark, but to have a safe and rewarding experience.  The physics of archery show us that if you execute each shot following each of the steps perfectly (or near), the arrow will go in the nearly exact same spot every time.  If you introduce a variable such as wind, or lose concentration so as to not take the shot perfectly,  the arrow will miss.  In the photo below, 100 students line up shoulder to shoulder at the 2009 National Archery In The Schools Program (NASP) World Tournament in Orlando, Florida.  In NASP, all of the equipment is identical except for color.  The difference measured in competition is the ability of the shooter, and how they have learned to follow each of the steps as near to perfect as possible in order to hit the 10 ring or bulls-eye at 10 or 15 meters. Perhaps we should say, "Perfect Practice Makes Perfect"?

I see my young archers and other shooting sports kids week after week practicing their skills, and while some are taking short cuts, not working on each step to perfection, others are following the steps, and their coaches advice, and it shows! 

Acknowledgements: Even though this article used archery as the main activity, almost any other activity could have been substituted of course.  Thanks Mark for the cartoon, and NASP for dedication to teaching archery to kids world wide! - Mr. Gus

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This blog represents the views of myself and my guest authors, and in no way represents the views and opinions of those individuals or organizations I mention, unless they are specifically quoted. I make every attempt to credit sources I mention or portray when due. In addition, I link to other sites that have been verified by myself but cannot be held responsible for all their content or embedded links they may have. I strive to have appropriate family friendly content, but may on occasion use "colorful" language or write about issues that are for a more mature audience.

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