#As for whips its much harder to weaponize them accidentally but it is very easy to go into that state of just using it to have a tantrum

[isthehorsevideocute]

have you heard that the danish olympic dressage winner, Carina Cassøe Krüth, has now been exposed for hitting her horse.. a video from 2022 has been leaked! link to the video here x .. its so awful! a danish news outlet is asking if a 5000 dkk fine is a big enough punishment (it really isnt in my opinion!) - and others are asking if we can honestly say that this is only a few bad apples

Yes I saw this video yesterday. No training here, just pure frustration and taking it out on the horse.

Unfortunately animal cruelty laws are usually a slap on the wrist and that's a pretty universal thing.

Is it just a few bad apples? Definitely not, I've seen people of all ages and levels do stuff like this (and consequently nothing was done about it). While I suppose it would depend on your definition, its too common for me to just accept that.

Unfortunately this particular type of abuse is pretty easy to fall into due to how emotions can quickly turn negative pressure into positive punishment, and then just straight beating for no good reason because the horse isn't doing exactly what the rider thinks they are asking them to do.

Whips are not designed to be weapons but they can quickly become weapons if a rider can't keep their emotions in check.

Interesting thing that always catches my mind when I see this stuff, is that none of these people live in a bubble. In fact it's pretty hard to be in the competitive side of the industry and live in a bubble. I go to maybe 5 shows a year and don't compete at an especially high level and lots of people at least recognize me, if not know me by name and reputation (especially in the local circuits).

Plus if you are planning to compete to that level, your ticket in is to ride with other people who have been successful at that level. Charlotte got her training, connections, sponsors, and horses from Carl Hester before she became a big name herself. I seriously doubt that Charlotte's behavior is hers and hers alone. I think she learned it from others.

When it comes down to it, anyone associated with anyone in the scandals have been awful quiet on the whole thing. Carl hadn't said a word on the situation with Charlotte, Ingrid Klimke (who i generally admire the horsemanship of) hasn't said a word on Helgstrand even though she has done business with him many times. For the few that have piped up, it usually seems like a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Isabelle Werth for example went on a whole welfare soapbox, meanwhile she was actually one of the pros that can be credited for normalizing the use of Rolkur for training. Most will say it started with Anky or Gal but Isabelle was toting it as a training tool well before those two were outed

[whatanoof]

I have a few corruption ideas in mind for cal and I'm just. Okay so like-- reader grinding on/teasing him, maybe while they're hiding in a cave or an empty room in an inquisitor base-- purposefully to the point where he can't hold himself back and he just cums right then and there 👀

Or-- reader accidentally projecting some very, very dirty thoughts towards Cal (bonus points if it's virgin!/inexperienced!Cal), and his reaction to said thoughts ;3c

Don't feel obligated to turn these into full fics or anything tho!! I just like to share my thoughts w ppl and see what they think abt it 🥰💛

SKDJFO THESE ARE GOLD I LOVE THEM.

Oh babe, this isn’t an obligation. This is my PLEASURE. Don’t mind me with my slightly force sensitive reader learning how to weaponize her inexperience against her very innocent boyfriend.

A/N: These turned out a lot more fluffy than I had in mind at first, and probably more so than you had in mind, anon. I'll to expand a little more on these, but I wanted to give you what I have now. More to come!

NSFW TOWARDS THE END 18+

You were two weeks into your relationship the first time it happened. It’s early morning on Bogano, the rare off-day where Cal doesn’t have to take a quest anywhere. The grass glistens in the early morning light, dew droplets sending sparkles of light through the air. You sit in the field, watching the sunrise with a blanket wrapped around your shoulders and a steaming mug of caf clenched tightly in your hands, gracing your morning with its fragrant smell. Happy chirps and beeps echo through the stillness of the morning as BD-1 scampers around the field, chasing a butterfly that’s been disturbed from its early morning food quest. It’s so domestic that it almost hurts. It reminds you of life before the Purge, when everything was better. Except, now you have Cal.

Not beside you of course, he’s actually the reason that you’re even awake to see the dawn. He stands stock-still in the grass several meters in front of you. He’s relaxed, breathing in the crisp dawn air, eyes closed against the rays of light beginning to conquer the horizon line.

Cere stalks back and forth in front of him, “Focus, Cal.” She hefts a round fruit in her hands about as big as her head. “Sense the life around you. What do you feel?”

Cal pivots slowly on the spot until he’s facing you. “I feel you. And her.” His brow is creased in that one spot between his eyebrows. You want to kiss it. 

“Not us, Cal. The life all around us. There’s a reason I chose Bogano for this lesson.” Cere’s disapproving tone is a common staple around here. The crew has learned to accept it as a sign of affection.

“A bogling. On the ship. It’s looking for food.” Cal says.

You smile. The newest addition to the crew has been nothing but a joy to you and a pain in the ass to Greez. It’s always stealing his favorite snacks and making a mess of his ship, if you count it’s tiny nest in the corner of the kitchen to be ‘a mess’. 

“Better. Expand, Cal.”

Then you feel something at the edge of consciousness, something familiar and strange all at the same time. It wasn’t so much a thing, but a feeling. A presence. If you had to describe it in words, you couldn’t. But if you had to try, it would be in swaths of color and emotions that blend and swirl in the invisible eye of your mind. It’s warm, reds and oranges and yellows fluttering against each other, tinged around the edges by blue, the same blue as Cal’s saber. Cal. The presence is undeniably Cal, the warm colors echoing back to his fiery spunk and stubborn affection. 

Your eyes open. When had they closed? Cal is right there, his hand stretched out in your direction. Cere watches cautiously, eyes flicking between you and him. You see her reluctance to interrupt the moment. 

As if called back to the ground by your distraction, Cal opens his eyes with a soft gasp. The presence retreats, fading from your short grasp as you try to chase it. Your gaze bores into Cal, trying to focus your mind on reaching back out to him. But you can’t.

Cere speaks, “That’s enough Force training for today.” She tosses the previously forgotten fruit directly at Cal’s head. “Think fast. Form V today.”

His lightsaber materializes into his hand, cleanly slicing the offending object out of the air in a single smooth motion. But Cal doesn’t hesitate for a single moment, flowing through different saber forms without difficulty. Cere calls a variety of commands, and each gives way to another attack by Cal. The saber moves like it is an extension of his body, like a deadly serpent that flickers in and out of the air.

This continues for a long time, long enough that you have time to finish off your caf. The drink warms your insides. Watching Cal working so hard to strengthen his connection to the Force warms your heart. Examining the definition of his shoulders and his muscular torso warms other places. Your eyes drift to his ass, emboldened by the illusion of ignorance. You allow your mind to drift. 

You and Cal started dating two weeks ago. There was an irresistible pull between the two of you, to the point where the crew forced you two to acknowledge it. Cal had been cautious, but permission from Greez and a blessing from Cere was all the encouragement he needed, because as he had said so eloquently, “Like you. I like you. A lot.”

And you like Cal. A lot. Nothing physical had happened beyond a single makeout session and more cuddle sessions than you could count. You know that he’s unsure about sex, and because of that you’re more than willing to wait for him to be ready. But that doesn’t mean you can’t look and daydream. 

Your gaze drags over his body, imagining for a moment how it would feel. What it would be like, to be allowed close to him to make him feel good. What his skin would taste like, how your fingers would feel threaded through his bright hair. The sounds that he would make as you go down on him. 

A gasp from the field snaps you out of the daydream. Cal’s facedown on the ground; all you can make out of him from here is the fringe of his poncho and his shock of red hair contrasting against the green environment of Bogano. You stand, hurrying over as Cere helps him up.

“Cal?” She's concerned, you can see it in her eyes even if she won’t verbalize it. You’re worried too. In all of your time aboard the Mantis, you’d seen clumsy Cal maybe once before, and that was because he was goofing off in an attempt to make Greez laugh.

He doesn’t respond to Cere. His gaze snaps up to you, and he says your name urgently. Your brow creases, “What?”

His face is flushed red, and he’s panting as he shakily kneels in the grass. “I think you’re Force-sensitive.”

---

“No.”

“Come on, it’ll be easy!” He looks so earnest, like a kicked puppy dog. You avert your eyes. Looking too long means that you will fall prey to the terrible innocent eyes.

“I said no. What’s so hard to understand about that?” You cross your arms tighter over your chest. You know that arguing is futile. Cal is the most stubborn person you know, even more so than Greez and you have witnessed the intense food aggression.

“Babe, it’s one rock. You’re not going to get hurt.”

“I might when it’s going to be flying at my face!” Cere had insisted that you learn to control your Force sensitivity, at the very least so that you could learn how to guard your mind from others. But, she placed Cal in charge of your training. Merrin’s Force abilities were nothing close to what you could hope to accomplish, and you believe Cere’s exact words were, “It will be good for Cal to learn just how irritating training a Padawan can be.”

And so your Jedi boyfriend became your Jedi Master. It was quickly determined that your Force sensitivity was nothing close to the level of Jedi. Your talents extended to thought projection, minor thought detection abilities, and, as Cal had been so excited to learn, basic telekinesis. 

That had been an accidental discovery, actually, brought out of a session wrestling with the Mantis’s control board wiring. You’d lost concentration for a split second, and in a flash of light and electricity, you were nursing a burnt finger. Merrin was attracted to your area by the flash of light and pained cry, and was incredibly surprised to find you with various medical supplies hovering in front of your face while you soaked and bandaged your finger. And she’d snitched on you.

So now you’re on a no name forest planet, facing down your boyfriend who’s threatening to throw a rock at your head in order to force out your hidden telekinesis, because as soon as Merrin witnessed the feat, you’d lost all voluntary control over it.

“Cal, this is a bad idea.”

“Do you have a better one?”

“Yes. Leave me alone. I can shield my thoughts now, that’s all I wanted to do.”

“Oh come on. It doesn’t excite you even a little?”

It does, but not enough that you’d be willing to have a rock thrown at your face. You roll your eyes and throw your hands up, “I’m going back to the ship.”

But as soon as you turn, something sparks on the edge of your conscious mind, and you whirl with an outstretched hand. The rock sails past your fingers and bonks you on the forehead. You clap a hand over your head as pain throbs at the point of contact. “Ow!”

You whip your head up and glare at Cal, who’s standing there, mouth agape and eyes so wide that you can see the whites from here. When he meets your eyes, he shrinks back and turns to run.

“Cal Kestis you are going to pay for that!” You lunge after him, nearly tripping over a root as you scramble after your soon-to-be dead boyfriend. 

He disappears around the corner of the clearing with you hot on his heels. Trees tower over your head in every direction. The only thing interrupting the perfect vision of nature is the dorsal fin of the Mantis spearing up into the sky, guiding you to safety.

And Cal’s running away from it, leading you further into the forest. Branches whip at your face, but you can’t pay attention to them when you’re focusing harder on not losing Cal as he ducks and weaves through the foliage with all of the ease of a jungle cat. Then you round a corner, and he’s gone. 

You’re gasping for breath as you stumble to a stop in the midst of the forest. Damn it Cal. You want to rest, but you’ll be damned if you’re going to allow Cal to get away with this. He knows that if he gets away now, you’re probably going to be cooled down by the time he gets back to the Mantis, and you can’t have that. You tamp down your anger. Gather yourself. Feel the world around you. Now hold it at arms’ length. You bring your mental shields up slowly, guarding yourself and calming your racing heart through a few deep breaths. Then, you let the barriers down, allowing the world to rush back into your mind. You exhale slowly, combing through the sensations like Cal had taught you, searching for the presence that had become so familiar over the past few months. There!

A flash of warm colors in the midst of the muted Force signatures of plants.

You whirl, scanning the tree branches above you in time to see Cal make a break for it. He’s overhead, about ten feet off of the ground and running along a tree branch so gracefully that it seems like he’s skimming across the air. He’s heading for a vine. ‘Sneaky little--’

‘Sneaky little what?’

You gasp as he teases back through the Force. Your brow sets in determination, and you narrow your gaze on the vine that he’s reaching out for. You settle on it, and reach out. Your consciousness brushes the vine, pulling it just out of Cal’s reach. His outstretched fingers close just short of the vine, and he loses his balance.

He hits the ground with an oof and you plant a foot on his chest. “Sneaky little laserbrain.”

“Babe you did it!” He grins up at you, unrepentant and ruffled from the mad dash through the forest, “Don’t you love your amazing boyfriend who just helped you to learn another Force trick?”

You smile, “I do. But--” you press harder on his chest with your boot, “--you’re still going to pay for that.”

He groans, “I just paid by falling out of a tree. How else would I make it up to you?”

Without your bidding, ideas leap to your mind. “Oh, I have some.” Cal, between your legs and making you cum with only his mouth. You, on your knees for Cal against one of these trees. Riding Cal back on the Mantis, topless and gasping his name as he brushes up against that one spot inside of you that makes you sing. You don’t project them, but you’re aware that your shields aren’t up, and Cal’s Force presence is hovering on the edge of yours.

Cal’s face reddens as he gapes up at you. All of this time, and he still gets worked up at the bare idea of you naked. It’s a little cute. He springs to his feet, “Let’s go back to the ship.”

You hum, looking at him thoughtfully, ‘We don’t need to go back to the ship for a couple of those.’

He chokes, and you smile as you grab the front of his poncho and back him against a large tree. This is going to be fun.

[weeklygamereview]

    Inti Creates has rekindled my love for retro throwbacks... again. I shouldn't have been surprised; the studio's been killing it since Mega Man Zero and has only been keeping it up through 9, 10, and the Azure Striker Gunvolt games, just before dropping it dramatically onto the ground with a wet crunch (Mighty No 9). Yet even after leading the years-long disappointment parade of crowdfunded spiritual successors, they've hit the ground running with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon.

    For a crisp 10 bucks, I've gotten six hours of teeth-gritting joy and pain befitting of a classic Castlevania. Better, even! The difficulty curves satisfying hourglass shapes throughout levels, checkpoints bookending stretches of varied challenges and moments of respite, initially vast and methodical yet flying by on consecutive playthroughs with fluid play. Its bosses run laps around Cyclops or Frankenstein from Castlevania III, not least in spectacle; unlike III, Curse of the Moon's playable characters beg to be dynamically switched between mid-boss, each phase and attack pattern artfully counteracted by one of the four protagonists. The same holds true for levels, each crammed with screens custom-made for a particular sub-weapon or movement pattern.

   (this archer shoots infinite arrows with knockback, barring entry unless you use Alfred's fire shield...)

  (... you can switch to a character with better range and damage to finish the archer off and access the branching path below without taking a scratch)

    And even then, certain abilities (like Miriam's sliding kick and Gebel's bat form) perform similar functions (squeezing into crawl spaces). This, along with their differing health totals and sub-weapon costs, fleshes out initially simple decisions with wrinkles of depth. For example, many platforming sequences can be easily overcome with Gebel's bat form, but it'll quickly drain your magic points, leaving you fewer uses for powerful, long-range sub-weapons. There's a beautiful pain in being decimated by axemen and ghouls after feeling like I've cheated the system with Gebel, and later levels fill the air with foes to make this untenable as an easy out.

(Gebel's bat form can access any area Miriam can with her sliding kick or high jump, but his lower health bar makes him harder to keep alive)

    Despite these specificities in level design, every stage is completable with any character, meaning even when all but your most neglected are knocked out, there's always a chance you can pull through. The game is meant to be replayed with various combinations of characters—all 4, only Zangetsu, everyone except Zangetsu, and so on—and each combination fundamentally alters the flow and difficulty of stages.

     It's an exceptional feat of level design and a clever way to extend playtime, yet it's core to my looming disappointment with the game.

    I spent at least 6 hours with Bloodstained, with an in-game time of 2 hours for each playthrough. That's meaty for an NES-style game! The first 4 hours rattled me to my core with obsessive adoration. It was on my mind while cooking, cleaning, playing other games... Yet as I spent my last 2 hours unlocking everything for this review, despite being challenged fairly and feeling my technique sharpen to a razor's edge... I ached. Because a significant chunk of the game for completionists will involve playing as Zangetsu and only Zangetsu.

    Curse of the Moon has three modes of play (Normal, Nightmare, Ultimate), two difficulty settings (Casual, Veteran), and six endings largely determined by whether Zangetsu recruits, ignores, or kills the other three characters. On Normal and Ultimate, the game starts with only the demon hunter Zangetsu, and the first three stages allow you to recruit the rest of the cast. While playing the game for my own enjoyment, I recruited every character on Normal mode and immediately sprang into the newly-unlocked Nightmare mode which increases boss difficulty, features two unique stages, ditches Zangetsu, and lets you play as the other three right off the bat. I didn't mind this at all; the early stages have shortcuts that are only accessible in this mode, meaning there’s less repetition than you would first expect. And Zangetsu's moveset most resembles that of a Belmont but with the range of a shortsword, meaning he's the the least flashy and most difficult to play. In my initial run, I only used Zangetsu when my other characters were low on health. I didn't miss him on Nightmare.

    But to unlock Ultimate mode, you must beat Normal mode with Zangetsu and only Zangetsu. If you kill Miriam, Alfred, and Gebel instead of recruiting them, Zangetsu gains extra powers to make the playthrough more manageable: a double jump, a dash, and a versatile aerial slash with a wide arc. But even this leaves you with a drastically reduced health-pool and a fourth of the versatility. Despite this run having the same playtime as my first two, it felt significantly longer. Even when inputting precise sequences of jumps, ducks, and alternating sub-weapons and attacks to optimize damage, it felt like a lesser experience. And Ultimate mode's the same game with Nightmare's harder bosses, Zangetsu's new moves, and a charged slash, making it largely pointless except to more easily unlock endings that involve sparing and abandoning party members. One of these endings is unlocked through another Zangetsu-only run. After accidentally recruiting Alfred in my attempt to win this ending on Ultimate, I decided to call it quits. I just wasn't having nearly as much fun without all my demonically empowered friends!

  It's frustrating to love a game and have its playtime be extended with a shadow of its former self. Now, that shadow is very well-defined; Zangetsu-only runs feel like a classic, 1-character Castlevania without any of the bullshit. But because the refined character switching transcends its inspirations, offering variety, depth, and fluidity unfound in the old Castlevania trilogy, returning to just Zangetsu takes the wind out of my sails. Even with his extra kit, I miss the length of Miriam's whip, the unique aerial arc of Gebel's bats, and Alfred's devastating spells. And so does the game; signs and epilogues repeatedly lament what could have been when you go it alone. Maybe it's a profound piece of Gothic ludonarrative, but it's definitely less fun.

    If you came for the consumer review elements and feel lost, know that you should buy this game. If I only got one ending on Normal, I would feel my money was well spent. But after that and a welcome extra helping in Nightmare mode, the game offered me more content with less depth and higher difficulty, leaving me stuffed yet unsatisfied. Somehow, playing the game I loved using all four characters unlocks only one of the six endings. In short, I wish Curse of the Moon extended its playtime by demanding more skillful use of its primary feature instead of removing it.

[ntrending]

Throwing knives is growing more popular—here's how to get started

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/throwing-knives-is-growing-more-popular-heres-how-to-get-started/

Throwing knives is growing more popular—here's how to get started

When you picture a sporty hobby, your mind probably doesn’t jump to knife throwing. This practice is more likely to conjure up images of circus performers or old-timey Wild West shows. But that could be changing.

“Knife throwing as a sport has grown exponentially in popularity in the last 10 years,” says performer and professional knife thrower Caleb McEwen. It used to be difficult to find information about weird sports and unusual hobbies, he explains. But the internet gives us access to information on the most arcane subjects. On YouTube, anyone can watch artists like McEwen and his three-man act, The Danger Committee, which has appeared on television shows such as America’s Got Talent.

The Danger Committee performs at the Louie Anderson Theater in Las Vegas

Despite the seeming danger, hurling blades through the air could appeal to anyone. “At first, people say throwing knives sounds crazy and dangerous, and it actually scares them,” says McEwen. “But if I have them do it a few times, they say ‘this is great!’ Then they want to know where to get knives and how to build a target.”

That’s pretty much what happened to me. I like the feel of the 14-inch-long carbon-steel knife in my hand. I enjoy squaring up to the wooden target, taking a breath, extending my arm sharply, and letting the blade fly. Off it goes, turning exactly one and a half times on its way toward the red circle in the center. Then, with a solid thunk, it sticks.

In the old days, those who hurled steel usually did so out of boredom. Instead of investing in purpose-built projectiles, they used whatever was to hand, such as kitchen or hunting knives.

Perhaps the first blade to actually work well while airborne was the famous Bowie knife, reportedly invented by fighter and frontiersman Jim Bowie and his brother Rezin. This long-bladed, all-purpose knife has a solid hilt and handle guard, and if you take the time to practice with it, it flies through the air pretty well. Contemporary images from the Civil War show troops tossing Bowie knives at targets for sport.

However, around the turn of the 19th century, knife throwers acquired a sinister image. Maybe, the popular culture of that time suggested, people who are good at sending sharp objects hurtling into targets might be, well, a little off. Hollywood immortalized this bad reputation by casting steel throwers as villains in movies like The Unknown (1927), Mad Love (1935), Santa Sangre (1989), and Gangs of New York (2002).

But here’s the thing: This bad rap is unearned. When I throw knives, I don’t put anyone in danger, but I do find it exhilarating. This hobby appeals less to my dark side—and more to my interest in physics.

The science of throwing

Like darts, the goal in knife throwing is to hit a target. However, knives do not travel through the air point first, maintaining an arrow-like trajectory. Instead, for the vast majority of throwers, the physics involved includes both lateral movement and rotation as the knife circles around its center of gravity on the way to the target.

The secret is to be consistent. The knife thrower must release the knife in exactly the same way and at exactly the same position each and every time.

On top of that, you need to carefully choose the distance between the release point and the target face. The right length will result in a stick, so you need to throw from that point each time.

How do you find that distance? The math involved is simple: If the thrower holds the knife by the handle, it needs room to make one complete revolution (or an exact multiple of that length). If held by the blade, the knife must complete a half rotation, one and half rotations, and so on.

If you want to delve deeper, then the physics and human kinesiology behind the act become a tad more involved. It starts with the arm-shoulder movement of the thrower, which traces out a circular path around the shoulder joint. During this act, while the knife is in the thrower’s hand, the knife’s main axis continually changes the angle it makes with the ground; much like the second hand of a watch (only much faster). Physicists call this constantly-changing angle, as measured per unit of time, angular velocity.

Once the knife leaves the thrower’s hand, it moves forward through the air while continuing to rotate around its center of gravity. On a typical a throwing tool, the center of gravity sits halfway between the end of the handle and the blade tip. Both ends of a balanced knife will trace out equal circles as it flies through the air. If the knife is unbalanced—that is, the center of gravity is located closer to one end or the other—then the trajectory will be less predictable, which makes it harder (but not impossible) to throw accurately.

As the knife flies, its angular velocity neither speeds up nor slows down. Instead, the blade simply continues to rotate around its center of gravity at a constant speed until it hits whatever it was thrown at. If the knife point is aiming forward at the moment of target impact, the blade sticks in the target. Otherwise, it bounces off.

With this scientific foundation, it’s easy to see that once a thrower learns to throw consistently at one distance, he or she can move forward or backward at discrete, one-revolution distances and still make the knife stick.

What you need

As in golf, tennis, and bicycling, the equipment makes a tremendous difference. At the moment of impact, if the knife’s sharp tip faces forward, you get that satisfying thunk. But if the handle or side hits the target, the knife bounces back and falls to the ground with a sad thud. To maximize thunks and minimize thuds, you need a well-balanced weapon with a durable, edge-holding tip, as well as a specially constructed target.

A purpose-built throwing knife typically measures between 12 and 15 inches long and weighs between 12 and 20 ounces. (Shorter, lighter knives are difficult to grip and don’t have enough mass to stick easily; longer, heavier knives require more muscle power than most people can easily muster.) Its particular length, weight, and balance allow you to throw it consistently and accurately.

This means it’s important to choose a good throwing knife of the correct size and weight. You might start with a medium-size, purpose-made throwing knife from a reputable company. I like the Cold Steel Pro Balance Thrower, which costs $35. Good-quality throwing knives are forged from heat-treated alloy steel, and they can last a lifetime.

To improve your odds of landing shots, you should take care when creating the target. I recommend that you build one from a soft wood like pine, with the grain running vertically to permit easier sticking. Don’t use a tree—repeated knife wounds can kill it.

Instead, you might lay ¾-inch-thick planks side by side, mount them on a large 4- by 8-foot sheet of plywood, and then mark your target with five concentric circles. You can also try a more involved method. Once you have it, many experienced throwers leave their targets out in the rain—they say the soaking softens the wood and provides a better stick.

Speaking of targets, their placement is very important. Find an open area where you can see at least 30 feet in all directions, or set your target against a long continuous wall with no doors and windows. Then secure the area to keep people or pets from accidentally getting in the way of a flying knife.

Since missing the target will cause your knife to hit the ground, a hard surface will be hard on your knife. Instead, throw on grass, and keep the growth short. That way, if the knife falls and buries itself in the dirt, you’ll be able to find it easily.

How to get started

As a skill, knife throwing is not particularly difficult to learn, although attaining any real degree of competence requires a fair amount of practice. As the late Harry K. McEvoy wrote in Knife Throwing: A Practical Guide, if newcomers have enough coordination to pitch a baseball or crack a whip, they can learn to throw a knife correctly.

Here’s a basic outline of the steps.

Raise your arm over your head with your elbow slightly bent.

Swing your arm, from the shoulder, forward and downward.

Let go with your hand pointed forward, opening your hand to release the knife without snapping your wrist.

After the release, follow through with your arm.

Remember, the key is to be very consistent. The knife thrower must release the blade in exactly the same way and at exactly the same position every time. Once you determine the distance (between the release point and the target face) that results in a stick, make sure to toss from that distance each time.

Watching a few videos produced by experts can help. For example, check out this guide by YouTuber shaykai (we linked to a couple of his other videos earlier in this story).

Although this technique is helpful, you can adjust it to suit your own style. There’s no hard and fast method, and there’s just one rule: Be safe. Here are a few tips to protect yourself and others.

Throw only in areas suitable for knife throwing. Again, check the information about placing a target in a suitable location.

Use knives specially made for throwing. Typically the blade is dull so it won’t cut your hand, and the tip is sharp to stick in the target.

Inspect the knife frequently to make sure it is in good shape. If you notice a flaw, make repairs promptly. For example, keep that tip sharp.

Don’t run with knives or point your blade at other people.

When not in use, cover the blade of your knife in a sheath or store it in a box.

If you injure yourself, seek first aid immediately.

Becoming a proficient thrower takes many hours of practice—and I haven’t mastered it yet. Too many of my throws still miss the bullseye or worse, fall to the ground. But the red-blooded flush of satisfaction from those throws that do stick in the center more than make up for the ones that don’t.

Written By William Gurstelle