At this time last year, I made my first trip to the South Carolina Kyūdō Renmei, to spend a weekend practicing Japanese ceremonial archery. In my case, I was single-mindedly focused on getting our sensei’s help to correct the misfire problems that had plagued me for two long, painful years. Because of that, I wasn’t able to get much feedback other than some necessary fundamental corrections to my shooting form.
I’m happy to say that – after having incorporated sensei’s suggestions and regained basic competence firing the bow – I returned to this year’s group seminar with renewed confidence and was able to get useful feedback on my actual form, rather than basic techniques. So it was an extremely productive and beneficial trip.
One of the reasons why it was so productive is that I was o »more












