It was 10am on a summer day at the Ho Chi Minh City’s Youth Cultural House in downtown Saigon where 10 people were standing in line, waiting for the signal to shoot arrows.
Started with a small archery room on the third floor, at the house’s Olympic Archery Club now has moved to the outdoor area, offering more and more chances for people to experience the feeling of being ‘Robin Hood’ in the city. With VND50,000 (US$2.38), players can hire bows and practice archery in 30 minutes. There currently are three kinds of bows for rent at the Youth Cultural House, including recurve, compound and longbow ranked in order of difficulty.
Everyone can be an archer
Although archery is a new sport in town, the increasing number of people at different ages joining the club is proving its attraction.
Tran Nha An, 14, and her sister Tran Anh Thu, 10, are one of the youngest learners at the club. However, at their first day joining the club, only after 15 minutes of being instructed by the coach, the two got acquainted with the bow and could make their first shoot.
“My friends tried archery and told me. I got excited and asked mother to take me here,” Thu shared.
For Hoang My, 14, she comes to the club with her 10-year-old sister and 84-year-old grandpa. Even though it takes them 2 hours by bus to reach the Youth House, they visit the club every afternoon.
“I have nothing to do at home, so I feel happier travelling around and practicing archery with my grandchildren. Thanks to the sport, I know my arms are still strong,” My’s grandpa shared with a smile.
White-collar workers are also fascinated by the sport. Nguyen Minh Trung from Saigon Beer Company shared he has played archery for almost a year to relax after work.
“The most interesting part of archery, I think, is that it helps me to be patient and calm. The shoot will fail if I do not get my head in the game. For that reason, I always feel comfortable after playing this kind of sport,” he said.
According to coaches and players, it is not very hard to play archery but the game requires the player to be patient, to practice regularly and extremely focus their mind in what they do.
Not only local people, expats living in the city are also interested in being archers. After 4 months playing the sport, Amdreas from Sweden and his wife have become good archers.
“I don’t know why there have not been many foreigners coming here yet. If they know about this, they must be attracted like me. It’s quite easy to play this,” Andreas proudly shared while showing photos on his mobile capturing 10 bullseyes he scored.
Besides normal sessions for everyone, the club has launched special free training classes for children. According to coach Hoang Than, the club pays great attention to the kids’ safety since the arrows are shot at a very high speed.
Moreover, the Olympic Archery Club has also organized field trips for learners to practice outside.
Doan Thi Le, manager of the club said in the near future, they will hold more field trips to give the club’s players interesting experiences as well as open more training classes since the number of learners is expected to continue to increase.