Whoosh, thunk

Whoosh, thunk. That's the sound a throwing knife makes as it flies through the air and lands perfectly in the target. Whoosh, clang is the sound it makes when it's not thrown quite so well, hits the target sideways on, and falls to the floor.

Yes folks, today I have mainly been picking knives up off the floor after they missed their targets. I heard about this day out on a forum somewhere on the internet (no, I'm not going to tell you where!) and thought "hey, that sounds like fun!" I've always been a bit of a have-a-go person, having done fire eating, circus skills etc in the past. Knife throwing seemed to fit in with all that, so why not give it a go!

The directions to the place were excellent, it was about 55 miles away from home so I gave myself plenty of time to get there. I wasn't sure I was in the right place though, as there had seemed to be a lot of interest in the day out on the forum, but there were no cars in the car park. However the directions or my navigational skills didn't let me down and within 10 minutes I was lobbing sharp pointy things at bits of tree trunk on the wall.

My initial throws were very much like a dart player, I had the same stance as a dart player - right foot forward so I could get the throwing arm nearer the target - and I was also trying to aim the knife. John, the instructor, put me right straight away, showing me that if I put my left foot forward, and started with my right arm higher, the knife would fly straighter and stronger.

After just 20 minutes or so I was getting more knives in the target than I was getting on the floor, which is always a good sign. John had several types of knives to throw, different sizes and weights, and also a tomahawk, which I threw at the end of the day (mainly because I'd forgotten all about it and wanted to have a go with it before I left!) In total about 5 or 6 people turned up, so we weren't fighting over which targets to throw at, and I was there from about 11am to 4pm, so made a full day of it.

I'll definitely be going back and doing this again - it was great fun!