Several months after we had filmed in Golden Gate Park for The John Newcombe Show, I got another call from Ray Anders. He wanted me to appear on a show he was handling called The Guinness Game. The show’s premise was the host would introduce someone and announce the Guinness world record they intended to break. Then, the panel, selected from the audience, would vote on whether or not the guest could achieve their goal.
I agreed to appear and flew to LA for the filming. The show’s producers just made up some record for me to set. I think it was 14 catches out of 20 attempts.
It was the first time I had been asked to catch indoors. I had caught before indoors but never for a TV show. I was worried about a couple of things. One, an indoors shoot meant they would need a lot of high intensity lights. These could potentially blind me temporarily if they were not positioned correctly. As I tracked the arrow’s flight, my head would turn approximately 90 degrees. So no lights could be within that range, unless angled downwards from a high position. Second, I was worried I might get nervous. I had never had to catch on command, so to speak. To increase my catch rate, I had changed the way in which I caught and it was still untested under pressure.
My original approach had been to simply snatch arrows out of midair, as you would a flying bug. The problem, as I mentioned earlier, was getting my hand to close fast enough. If I was off even slightly, they would slip through before I could grab them. In my new approach, I pressed my hand against the shaft as I closed my hand. The pressure of the edge of my hand created friction, which slowed an arrow down enough for me to more easily grab it. This slight adjustment significantly increased my catch rate.
When I showed up for the shoot, I found that the producers had thrown us a curve. The show’s insurance carrier had refused to allow me to catch from an open position. They wanted me to stand behind a piece of Plexiglas and reach out from a place of safety. But the Plexiglas distorted the image. Arrows weren’t where they appeared to be. I told them I couldn’t catch from there. One of the staff secretly told me to start from behind the Plexiglas but step out if I needed to just before an arrow was released. Obviously, this added step made things more complicated.
Everything was finally set and my archer drew back the first arrow. I readied myself. He let it fly. It flew past me at about shin height, out of reach. He drew back the next arrow. I fixed on the arrow’s tip. It was jerking around. I hadn’t even considered my archer would get nervous. But he was. He released the second arrow. It passed high and to my left, far out of reach.
The next 18 arrows were all over the board. I think I managed to catch the 14th on my 20th attempt. I almost had to dive for it. But I completed what that had asked of me.
My archer wasn’t selected because he was a great competitive shooter or someone with a great deal of training and a long time and avid archery buff. He was simply one of my green belt students who said he could shoot. He always did the best he could but each shoot was a learning experience for both of us. There were times when I covered for him, as at the Guinness Game shoot. And there were other times when he covered for me. When lighting was bad or I was sick or my eyes weren’t at their best, he would take some of the steam out of his shots.
He and I had a lot of fun and exciting times and travels. Next time, I’ll get into my two appearances on one of the top network TV shows at the time and some of the interesting people we met, including party with some crazy and rich Englishmen, who popularized Bungee jumping, and a 7-year-old who would later become one of the greatest athletes in his sport, perhaps for all time.
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