In the movies Robin Hood always makes archery look easy, he just points the arrow and shoots at the target.

But Cynde Semos, a local archery enthusiast, said there is actually a lot more to archery than standing around with a bow and arrow.

Miss Semos has been practising archery for several years and is now an instructor.

Several of her students will be participating in an archery and wheelchair basketball tournament to be held this weekend at WindReach Recreation Village in Warwick.

Miss Semos first became interested in archery through her cousin David Semos.

“One day I was riding home through St David’s, past the softball field, and noticed a man setting up something that looked like a range,” she said. “I decided to stop, and realised that the man was setting up the field for an archery range. I knew my cousin David practised archery, so every time I saw him I would say, ‘I need to come to your archery class because I want to learn how to shoot.’”

Her cousin has taught archery in schools across the Island and is known locally as ‘The Godfather of Archery’. He invited her to attend the class, but she kept putting it off until finally she took him up on his offer and began lessons.

She started on an Olympic Recurve bow; a style of bow that is more energy efficient, has greater accuracy and velocity and adds distance to the arrow being shot. The Olympic Recurve gives the archer precise direction for where the arrow is going to be shot. This type of bow is often used in the Olympics, Paralympics Games, and in European and Asian archery competitions. However, Miss Semos eventually found the Olympic Recurve to be too technical and switched to a more natural style bow.

“From the first moment I touched a ‘real’ bow I felt like I had come home,” she said. “David was generously willing to share his talent and technique for shooting an arrow with others on the Island.”

Miss Semos is now working to create a community of archers in Bermuda made up of young people and adults. She has arranged archery group practice sessions on Friday afternoons and Saturdays at Kindley Field in St George’s for $10 per session. She also teaches archery to people with physical challenges at WindReach Recreational Village.

“Within the last two months the community of archers has exploded,” she said.

She is proud to see some of her students are taking part in the Fifth Annual Archery Competition at WindReach tomorrow. This is an all inclusive, family orientated event. No special concessions are made regarding the rules, and they are the same as in universal competition. The contest is open to students of all ages and will include some participants from the Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute Physiotherapy Services department.

“If they can hold a bow and an arrow, they can learn how to shoot it,” said Miss Semos.

The event, which includes wheelchair basketball, is being held in honour of Andrew Faries, a member of the Adaptive Sports programme who passed away last December.

“He took part in all of our archery tournaments and he loved wheelchair basketball, which is why we have added the basketball shoot-out component,” said Erica Fulton, executive director of WindReach Bermuda.

The archery tournament starts at 10am, and the wheelchair basketball shoot-out will begin at 11.30am. Late registration is still open at $25.

For details contact Troy Farnsworth, WindReach Adaptive Sport Coordinator at 238-2469, or tfarnsworth@windreach.bm.