Tag: benefits of summer camp

How to hit a perfect bullseye

November 16th, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-11-03 at 2.55.09 PMAlright campers, it’s time to get serious about another classic summer activity: archery.

It may look easy to hit a bullseye if your only point of reference is the Hunger Games or Avengers, but remember — they have CGI special effects to make it easy for them!

As anybody who’s fired a bow at camp can tell you, getting an arrow to fly through the air and hit a target is a whole lot easier said than done. Chances are it’ll take some serious practice before anything aside from chance gets your shots anywhere close to the mark.

…But that feeling when you land one directly on the bullseye? Priceless.

Here are some of our favorite strategies for going from zero to bullseye as quickly as possible.

Stance

Before you even shoot, proper stance is key to being able to shoot consistently. If you’re dancing around and shooting from different positions, trust me, it’ll take forever to get a feel for where to aim.

First step: make sure your body is completely parallel to the target. That means shoulders and hips pointed directly sideways to the target. This may seem obvious, but we see campers struggle to keep this pose going, especially since it feels more “natural” to point your toes at the target like when you’re throwing a baseball or football.

Keep your whole body from your toes to your shoulders pointed sideways, and you’ve already won half the battle!

Strategy

Something campers often struggle with is figuring out where to aim.

Bows don’t come with crosshairs, so it’s a question of figuring out where the sweet spot is for your particular bow, at your particular height, at your particular distance from the target.

Sounds like a lot to think about, right? Well don’t worry; there’s an easy strategy that figures out the trajectories for you:

Firstly, never move your feet. If you keep your feet in the same place between arrows, you ensure that your position relative to the target doesn’t move. So resist that victory dance just for a minute!

Secondly, you have to miss on purpose. Yep, you heard me right: miss the target.

For your first arrow, shoot low on purpose. Low enough that you know it’ll hit the bottom of the board, or even the turf below the board. For your second arrow, aim high on purpose. Shoot so that you see where the “crosshair” is pointing when you’re going way overboard.

Finally, on the third arrow, shoot in the middle. Just like goldilocks, but instead of getting porridge, you get a bullseye!

Blame the wind

My personal favorite tactic: always blame the wind. Missed the target? Crossbreeze! Hit someone else’s target by accident? Another darned crossbreeze!

Enthusiasm is as important for archery as it is for all camp sports, and a little humor goes a long way. Don’t get too serious — and always blame the crossbreeze, never yourself!

Breath

The last thing that holds a lot of campers back from their bullseye victory dance is so simple it’s ridiculous: breathing.

It’s tempting to hold your breath or hyperventilate while you aim, simply because that’s the natural human reaction to being excited. Although archery feels like a precision exercise when you first start, the truth is that a lot of it is up to chance. Every arrow is a little different, every bow is a little different, and jokes about cross-breezes aside the wind absolutely plays a factor that can thwart even the most talented and practiced archery master.

The key to success in archery, as it is in many camp sports, is simply letting go. Bullseyes don’t really matter as much as having fun, and part of the game’s a gamble anyway.

Just relax, smile, breath, and give it your best shot. Chances are that’s all it’ll take for you to start hitting bullseyes left and right — in archery, and in your life.

Gratitude: A Weequahic Core Value

November 6th, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 3.14.34 PMWe talk a great deal about gratitude at CW. Even though it comes up often, not everyone knows exactly how to define it.

There are a number of definitions but our favorite comes from researcher Robert Emmons. He tells us that gratitude “is an affirmation of the good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received… and we recognize that the sources of this ‘goodness’ are outside of ourselves.”

So, how do we work gratitude into our daily lives at camp? Lots of ways!

It comes up every night before going to bed in the form of a question: “What are your two ‘happies’ for the day?” This forces (in a good way) our campers to think about all the great things they’ve enjoyed that day before going to bed.

It’s explored with our staff during their interviews and repeated often during their nine-day orientation before camp starts. We find that college aged women and men who already hold gratitude as an important part of their life to be more interested and interesting staff members. It comes up often in our winter office when we look back over the previous summer and plan for the next. (We have a fantastic job!) And, thankfully, it mentioned a lot when speaking to parents and campers about their experience with us.

At Camp Weequahic, we find it vitally important to demonstrate gratitude on a daily basis by saying thank you, writing a quick note, or sharing a kind word with one another. This is so much more effective than simply speaking about it or learning from a book.

We believe community that practices gratitude on all levels throughout the day is a happier, more patient, and more engaged community. And, it’s one worth building every day.

For more information on gratitude, we suggest looking through this link: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/gratitude/definition We hope you enjoy it!

Building a Positive Attitude

November 2nd, 2015

Gratitude Month (1)We talk a lot about choosing our attitude at Camp Weequahic. It is one of our three building block values and something that comes up daily for both our campers and staff members. Our attitude remains the only thing we have complete control of and it has an enormous impact on both ourselves and those around us.

In fact, a positive attitude is at the heart of the Happiness Advantage.

This is a phrase coined by Shawn Achor, a researcher and teacher in the world of positive psychology. Dr. Achor’s findings basically say that when you employ a more positive outlook, you are subsequently more intelligent, creative, resilient, and better a lots of things from studies to sales.

In other words, by choosing a positive attitude, you give yourself the best opportunity to be happier and more productive. But, sometimes choosing that attitude is difficult, especially if we are surrounded by those who do not think as we do.

So, how do we become more positive? Dr. Achor suggests doing the following over 21 consecutive days:

  • Pick three new things you are grateful for from that day and share them with a loved one
  • Write in a journal about one really positive experience you’ve enjoyed over the past 24 hours
  • Take a few moments each day to relax and think calmly about your breath
  • This reminds your brain that it can overcome obstacles
  • Practice one act of random or conscious kindness. Send someone a ‘thank you’ email or text for something specific. Help out at a shelter. Do anything as long as it is an expression of kindness

These are all practices that we enjoy at Camp Weequahic. We talk about the best things from your day before going to bed, we write letters home about the great stuff we’ve enjoyed, we take a moment at campfire each Friday night to simply ‘be’, we are on the receiving and giving ends of making people laugh each day. And, while no one would call it ‘exercise’, we certainly burn our calories….

It’s easy to remain positive at camp because everyone around you is focused on the same things and supportive of this idea. It may be a bit harder at school when competition can get in the way. So, take a moment each day and practice. (And, if you need to, just remember camp is a few shorts months away!)