Shooting with Edward Kim
On Point with Edward Kim
At a time when some students are preparing to go to sleep after a long night of studying, you can find the members of the archery club’s competitive team are already hard at work in the confines of an impromptu shooting range set up within the gym. Strews of arrows and equipment lie scattered about the gym, and around a dozen or so undergraduates are deep in thought as they align their arrows with the bulls eye on targets some 50 feet away from their bodies. As the members line up in preparation for their next drill, team Captain Edward Kim briefs the team on what drills they’ll be running over next.
The next drill is known as rotations, and involves groups of three taking turns with one another to shoot a total of six arrows within a span of 2 minutes. As Kim yells for everyone to start, total pandemonium ensues.
“Penalty! Penalty! Penalty!!!” yells out Kim, calling out members whom have stepped over the line that team members are supposed to stay behind while waiting for their turn. Being called out forces members to run back to the line before returning to the designated shooting areas and drawing their bows.
“Oh my gosh!” laughs one member as Kim calls a penalty on him four consecutive times for failing to step all the way over the line before shooting. For a sport that requires a moderate amount of concentration and focus, it seems peculiar that such a chaotic amount of shuffling and running takes place between each shot.
Kim explains that this is because during competitions each archer is only allotted a certain amount of time to shoot, and that the drill trains club members on how to shoot under pressure. Although Kim admits that it would be easier if time limits didn’t exist altogether, he does admit that they are a necessity.
“The fact of the matter is, the longer a person has, the longer a tournament goes on.” said Kim. “We don’t really want to have too long of a tournament, our tournaments last a whole entire day anyways.”
As Kim stands there observing his shooters and barking out advice, he exudes a stern and disciplined aura. However, this is quickly shattered as Kim goes up to shoot himself, and one of the members quickly calls out a penalty on Kim before erupting into a fit of laughter alongside other members of the club.
“Ah shit!” grumbles a bewildered Kim, as he returns to his starting position and carefully takes aim.
-Swoosh-
The arrow lands within one of the inner most rings of the target. Satisfied, Kim lowers his bow and returns to the sidelines to prepare archery club members for the next drill that is to commence.
Kim first got his start in archery while he attended high school in Cerritos. Inspired by a friend whom had won an international tournament, Kim decided to take up the sport recreationally. Despite participating in a few tournaments on the side, for Kim archery was nothing serious at the time, it was mere diversion from the rigors of studying and school.
“My first impression was that it was really cool. I thought it was easy, I thought that anyone can do it.” said Kim. “I mean, who doesn’t want to shoot arrows you know? My second impression was ‘Wow, this is pretty hard’”
Though archery make seem simple enough, there are several intrinsic factors that make the sports difficult.
“There are millions of things that are hard about it. All in all, everything needs to be the same. The movements of shooting, the process, it all has to be the same. One little difference between having your arm a centimeter out here than here will change your shooting dramatically.”
The archery club at UC Irvine was only recently founded in 2006, and much like UC Irvine is one of the newer archer programs around the Southern California public school system. In comparison, Cal State Long Beach’s archery program has been open for more than 50 years.
A once relatively obscure and fledging program, the archery program has grown to what it is today. Thanks to the dedication of Kim and other members involved with archery club, the club has more than tripled its amount of members since last year, currently holding a grand total of 30. As a commuter, Kim wakes up at 5 AM 3 days of the week in order to drive down to the ARC and run the practices and go through shooting drills.
His involvement began during summer, where he was put in charge of running the club’s summer camp. Drawing upon his expertise and experience, Kim stressed the fundamentals of shooting and pushed for all members to develop proper form and technique. Many had developed their own methods of shooting and had grown accustomed to them, so initially there was much resistance to Kim’s instruction, but he managed to persist.
Kim’s devotion to the archery club didn’t just end when practice ended, but it extended for hours afterwards as well.
“After the camp, we would have 3 hour long discussions about what we’re going to do next year. I got to know my teammates better during the summer being that I recently just came in, and it was just good times.” reminisced Kim.
The success of Kim’s summer camp would not go unnoticed by the adminstrators at the ARC, whom suggested that the club begin offering lessons year round and made the appropriate arrangements for them to do so. It’s evident that the ARC has been of tremendous assistance to the archery club and that they hold a close relationship with the executives.
While telling an anecdote of how he accidentally ordered $2000 worth of equipment in order to allow potentially new club members a chance to demo, Kim struggles to recall the last name of Mike Puritz, the ARC’s recreation program director.
One’s dedication to the archery club isn’t just measured by the amount of time put in, as Kim has, but also by the amount of money one is willing to spend.
When discussing the costs of arrows, Kim mentioned that the fiberglass arrows used by recreational club members cost 50 cents apiece before nonchalantly stating that the arrows he buys are thirty dollasrs a piece.
“They come in a dozen, so I paid about 400 dollars. So..Really, it’s all about dedication. That’s another struggle, archery gets really so expensive, so you’re going to have to spend money.” Laughed Kim.
Considering the time and dedication that Kim has devoted towards the club makes the fact that Kim almost didn’t join the club all the more remarkable. As Kim passed by one of their boba sales, one of the archery club members found out that he had his own equipment, and was encouraged to come on down.
At a time when some students are preparing to go to sleep after a long night of studying, you can find the members of the archery club’s competitive team are already hard at work in the confines of an impromptu shooting range set up within the gym. Strews of arrows and equipment lie scattered about the gym, and around a dozen or so undergraduates are deep in thought as they align their arrows with the bulls eye on targets some 50 feet away from their bodies. As the members line up in preparation for their next drill, team Captain Edward Kim briefs the team on what drills they’ll be running over next.
The next drill is known as rotations, and involves groups of three taking turns with one another to shoot a total of six arrows within a span of 2 minutes. As Kim yells for everyone to start, total pandemonium ensues.
“Penalty! Penalty! Penalty!!!” yells out Kim, calling out members whom have stepped over the line that team members are supposed to stay behind while waiting for their turn. Being called out forces members to run back to the line before returning to the designated shooting areas and drawing their bows.
“Oh my gosh!” laughs one member as Kim calls a penalty on him four consecutive times for failing to step all the way over the line before shooting. For a sport that requires a moderate amount of concentration and focus, it seems peculiar that such a chaotic amount of shuffling and running takes place between each shot.
Kim explains that this is because during competitions each archer is only allotted a certain amount of time to shoot, and that the drill trains club members on how to shoot under pressure. Although Kim admits that it would be easier if time limits didn’t exist altogether, he does admit that they are a necessity.
“The fact of the matter is, the longer a person has, the longer a tournament goes on.” said Kim. “We don’t really want to have too long of a tournament, our tournaments last a whole entire day anyways.”
As Kim stands there observing his shooters and barking out advice, he exudes a stern and disciplined aura. However, this is quickly shattered as Kim goes up to shoot himself, and one of the members quickly calls out a penalty on Kim before erupting into a fit of laughter alongside other members of the club.
“Ah shit!” grumbles a bewildered Kim, as he returns to his starting position and carefully takes aim.
-Swoosh-
The arrow lands within one of the inner most rings of the target. Satisfied, Kim lowers his bow and returns to the sidelines to prepare archery club members for the next drill that is to commence.
Kim first got his start in archery while he attended high school in Cerritos. Inspired by a friend whom had won an international tournament, Kim decided to take up the sport recreationally. Despite participating in a few tournaments on the side, for Kim archery was nothing serious at the time, it was mere diversion from the rigors of studying and school.
“My first impression was that it was really cool. I thought it was easy, I thought that anyone can do it.” said Kim. “I mean, who doesn’t want to shoot arrows you know? My second impression was ‘Wow, this is pretty hard’”
Though archery make seem simple enough, there are several intrinsic factors that make the sports difficult.
“There are millions of things that are hard about it. All in all, everything needs to be the same. The movements of shooting, the process, it all has to be the same. One little difference between having your arm a centimeter out here than here will change your shooting dramatically.”
The archery club at UC Irvine was only recently founded in 2006, and much like UC Irvine is one of the newer archer programs around the Southern California public school system. In comparison, Cal State Long Beach’s archery program has been open for more than 50 years.
A once relatively obscure and fledging program, the archery program has grown to what it is today. Thanks to the dedication of Kim and other members involved with archery club, the club has more than tripled its amount of members since last year, currently holding a grand total of 30. As a commuter, Kim wakes up at 5 AM 3 days of the week in order to drive down to the ARC and run the practices and go through shooting drills.
His involvement began during summer, where he was put in charge of running the club’s summer camp. Drawing upon his expertise and experience, Kim stressed the fundamentals of shooting and pushed for all members to develop proper form and technique. Many had developed their own methods of shooting and had grown accustomed to them, so initially there was much resistance to Kim’s instruction, but he managed to persist.
Kim’s devotion to the archery club didn’t just end when practice ended, but it extended for hours afterwards as well.
“After the camp, we would have 3 hour long discussions about what we’re going to do next year. I got to know my teammates better during the summer being that I recently just came in, and it was just good times.” reminisced Kim.
The success of Kim’s summer camp would not go unnoticed by the adminstrators at the ARC, whom suggested that the club begin offering lessons year round and made the appropriate arrangements for them to do so. It’s evident that the ARC has been of tremendous assistance to the archery club and that they hold a close relationship with the executives.
While telling an anecdote of how he accidentally ordered $2000 worth of equipment in order to allow potentially new club members a chance to demo, Kim struggles to recall the last name of Mike Puritz, the ARC’s recreation program director.
One’s dedication to the archery club isn’t just measured by the amount of time put in, as Kim has, but also by the amount of money one is willing to spend.
When discussing the costs of arrows, Kim mentioned that the fiberglass arrows used by recreational club members cost 50 cents apiece before nonchalantly stating that the arrows he buys are thirty dollasrs a piece.
“They come in a dozen, so I paid about 400 dollars. So..Really, it’s all about dedication. That’s another struggle, archery gets really so expensive, so you’re going to have to spend money.” Laughed Kim.
Considering the time and dedication that Kim has devoted towards the club makes the fact that Kim almost didn’t join the club all the more remarkable. As Kim passed by one of their boba sales, one of the archery club members found out that he had his own equipment, and was encouraged to come on down.