How to catch an arrow – Part IX

Ray Anders called to ask if there was something different I could do for the second season of That’s Incredible! I told him I had had an idea rattling around in my head for a couple of years but would have to test it out before I could give him a definitive answer.

(As I began writing this post, I realized it was not likely I would have been able to appear just a year or so after being hit in the eye. So the incident in which I was hit probably occurred after my second appearance, not before it. But I’m not sure at this point.)

The idea had sprung up while watching the slow-motion film footage that Bill Zarchy had shot at Felt Lake, and which PBS had used in their short feature, The Arrow Catcher. Although I didn’t watch the footage often, Bill’s wife, Susan, had given me a still photograph she had shot that same day. It captured the exact shot that had stimulated my imagination. (Both Bill and Susan were Teaching Assistants in Film at Stanford, while I was there. So both were very skilled in both moving and still photography.) In the shot, the pressure of my hand against the arrow’s shaft caused it to bend significantly in the middle. I wondered if I could generate enough downward force to cause the shaft to break.

Here’s a faded copy of the photo.

To break one, I figured I would have to use a downward shuto (or knife-hand) strike. I didn’t know if I could get my hand traveling fast enough or be able to generate enough force in such brief amount of time. There was only one way to find out.

I don’t remember how many practice shots it took to hit my first arrow. But I think it was relatively few. Soon, I was hitting almost every arrow. It was actually easier to hit them than catch them. The problem was they were slamming into the floor but not breaking. I tried to put more power into each shuto but to no avail.

I was told that wooden-shafted arrows have traditionally been made out of cedar. And cedar was a very flexible wood. I could take a cedar arrow in my hands and bend it into a fairly tight U shape without it breaking.

I tried everything and nothing helped. They just wouldn’t break. Even when I bent one with my hands until it broke, it splintered rather than breaking cleanly. In the end, I had to score them in the middle with a knife to get them to break with a hand strike.

I told Ray what I proposed doing for their season two. He was excited. He said he had never heard of anyone breaking one in midair. But he needed to know my break percentage. I told him eighty percent. He offered me expenses plus several thousand dollars and residuals to appear. I agreed. And the show went perfectly, almost boringly so when compared to my first appearance.

Thanks for your continued support.