For the majority of my life I have been in one martial arts class or another, starting at age four. My father was both my first instructor and my full time after school babysitter. He taught classes for six hours a night, and I was at every one of them. Needless to say, with that much practice, I got pretty good. And that little sentence filled with pride was almost my downfall.

One of my all time favorite tricks was catching arrows fired from a standard bow. Yes, you read right. I had done this hundreds of times, always with a skilled archer doing the firing. That is, until the night of my 21st birthday.

After a few drinks, something I had never done before, a few of my friends wanted to see the trick. In my current state of mind, which in all honesty was blurry at best and focused on the females in attendance, it sounded like a great idea.

After giving my so unqualified archer a few warm up shots at the target in my back yard, I took my position. His aim was poor, so I had him take a few steps closer to the target, to make it easier for him. In return, it also mean the arrow would be going a little faster when it struck home. This was not a factor I took into consideration. Lightening fast reflexes, right?

He loosed the arrow, nervous about hitting me, and I reached to snatch the arrow out of the air before it could hit its mark. I did in fact catch the arrow, directly through the palm of my right hand. The arrow had drifted slightly to the left, and if not for sheer luck, would have went through my midsection instead.

Submitted on 08/09/2010

Submitted by: Darin
Reference: Personal Experience March, 1999

Copyright © 2010 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
I could pretty much see where this was going as soon as you mentioned catching arrows. Thanks, Darin!

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
LOL!! How many jokes did you have to endure about getting the "point"?!

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