'The Hunger Games' has boosted youth archery in America
Who wouldn't want Katniss' skills with a bow and arrow?
By Myriam Gabriel-Pollock Feb 1, 2013 12:52PM
According to FOX News, interest in archery amongst American youth has been on the rise, and the popularity of "The Hunger Games" and its straight-shooting heroine Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence) gets some credit for this:Bing: More about 'The Hunger Games' | More about Jennifer Lawrence
With the March release of the movie, combined with archery events televised during the Olympic Games in London last summer, more young people are taking up target shooting.Other strong female archers in film and television have given this sport even more boost: Princess Merida in "Brave," Tauriel, a woodland elf in the next installation of "The Hobbit" trilogy, and Charlie Matheson in NBC's hit, "Revolution."
USA Archery, the national governing body for the Olympic sport, reports 357 youths competed last June in the Eastern Junior Olympic Archery Development (JOAD) Nationals. Only 171 in competed in 2001.
"The biggest uptick we have seen is in youth in general, specifically the 15-17 year old age category," said Teresa Iaconi, a rep for USA Archery. "Our JOAD clubs and coaches across the country are telling us that they are seeing more young women than they ever have before, and our tournament attendance is reporting higher participation from girls in the cadet division."
Carolina Murphy, 12, a seventh grader from Langhorne, PA., took up archery after seeing "The Hunger Games." She practices six to 10 hours per week at X-Ring Archers in Lambertville, NJ, and competes on weekends with her bow.
"Katniss is very strong and inspirational,'' Murphy said. "No matter what obstacles she faces, she keeps going and never turns back."
Her parents have seen the same determination in their daughter.
"Archery has brought our daughter a strong sense of mastery and self confidence that I believe is difficult to teach," Colleen Murphy said.
Read more on FOX News.
Have you or anyone you know become more interested in archery because of Katniss?
Check out MSN Movies on Facebook or Twitter.
For more "Hunger Games" news, like the Hunger Games Blog on Facebook.
15Comments
Feb 2, 2013 7:37AM
As a traditional archer for over 20 years and the former owner of a traditional shop, I'd like to say "DO NOT PUT YOUR FINGER OVER THE ARROW SHAFT IN THIS POSITION!!!" Releasing the string will send the fletching through your finger, doing one of two thing - either slicing it to the bone, or ripping off the fletching and embedding it into your finger - neither of which is an especially attractive proposition. And remember, when shooting traditional archery, always use feather fletching, as the plastic ones distort your flight. String 'em and fling 'em!
Feb 2, 2013 8:41AM
Feb 2, 2013 9:37AM
Hunger games is not the main source for boosting archery in youth. For the past 10 years a program called NASP National archery in the schools has introduced 8 million youth to the sport of archery with schools now accepting and some even sanctioning it as an official school sport. State competitions are currently under way in preparation for the National competition which is held in Louisville KY in May and the World competition in St Louis in June. Archery made the movie cool, not the movie making archery cool!
Feb 2, 2013 11:52AM
Feb 2, 2013 2:37PM
Feb 2, 2013 10:29AM
Feb 2, 2013 3:36PM
The finger curled over the arrow shaft is a dead give away that a person is a true novice archer. Everyone goes through this when they start shooting a bow and it is maddening. Until you learn not to stiffen the drawing hand the arrow will "roll" off of the shelf as the bow is drawn and the universal reaction is to put that finger there to hold the arrow down until the bow is at full draw. With time and experience we learn to keep the drawing hand slack and the fingers properly spaced on the arrow nock and this problem disappears. But Glen is on the money with his warning to NEVER "fire" the bow with that finger wrapped around the arrow. Doing so WILL result in injury. I've got scars on the knuckle of my left forefinger from shooting "primitive" longbows without arrow shelves that must be shot "off the knuckle". You learn pretty quickly to take the extra time to smooth out the leading edge of the fletching and blend them into the shaft well.
Feb 2, 2013 2:25PM
"Hunger Games" has been a high profile source of exposure for traditional archery. In general, the form exhibited by Hollywood has been detrimental to anyone who expects to learn anything about archery from watching a movie. It's about time that some form of archery that does not feature some contraption resembling a bicycle more than it does a bow is presented.
Feb 2, 2013 3:57PM
Feb 2, 2013 12:08PM
Feb 2, 2013 2:24PM
Report
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
movie news
- Muppets creator's items head to NYC museum
- Depardieu to play a Chechen man seeking revenge
- Kate Hudson joins Zach Braff in Kickstarter movie
- Ari Folman animates Robin Wright in 'The Congress'
- The Fall song was too scary for 'Twilight'
- 'The Hangover III' vs. 'Fast & Furious 6' and four more summer box-office smackdowns
- Chilean miner happy to be played by Banderas in film
- Seth MacFarlane won't host Oscars, recommends Joaquin Phoenix for 2014
- Annotated 'Harry Potter' 1st edition on auction
- Steven Soderbergh on quitting movies
