inamarcellaevents.com
32 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 7.17
THE
BIT
A BIT
TO DO
On my second practice
throw, I hit the bull's-eye.
Zack Pennington, co-
founder of Flying Axes,
is so impressed that he
insists I take a photo with my handiwork.
I chalk it up to beginner's luck because
most of my throws bounce off the target
and reverberate into the cage's hard oak
border, coming to a stop in front of me
on the rubber mat. More times than not,
Pennington has to pry his axe out of the
pine target, which is nicked and scraped
from previous throws and will need to
be replaced soon.
He instructs me to hold the axe —
think hatchet, not Paul Bunyan — with
both hands, left over right, to bring it
behind my head, parallel with my skull.
The goal is to release straight in front
of me, for the axe to make a single full
rotation. "Whether you're holding too
tall, letting it go too early or too late —
all of that factors in," says Pennington,
who's in his early 30s.
He uses an app on his phone to keep
score and input our axe-throwing
nicknames (ZAX and JEN) on the
scoreboard, which hangs between
paired targets. (Each of the eight cages