Our Start in the Sport of Axe Throwing
In terms of axe throwing, we haven’t been around very long. Axe throwing began thousands and thousands of years ago, most likely in a cave or wooded area with a lot of bears or stegosauruses or rabbits or whatever vicious animals were around during cavemen times. But, in the recent years, axe throwing has become quite a popular activity. There are hundreds of thousands of throwers worldwide, either throwing in their backyard, in formal leagues, or in cash prize tournaments. And we wanted in on that action. So, when we opened in 2018, we were excited to enter such a strong community and were even more excited to help the community grow.
So, we created our own style of target, our own game rules, and our own league format, all to give something new to the axe throwing community. We created this Michigan Style axe throwing format to introduce our portion of Michigan to the sport of axe throwing. Luckily for our portion of Michigan, we didn’t subject them to bears or stegosauruses or rabbits or whatever vicious animals were around during cavemen times like the original axe throwers had to deal with. Our own style of throwing was and is still good. We love what we created. But we wanted more.
Our Current Mission in the Sport of Axe Throwing
We didn’t know what the next step was to continue to help the sport, and our local community grow. We needed a way to push everything further, without losing who and what we are. So, decided to try to get Total Axe Throwing deeper into the community, so we can help push it forward. In October of 2019, Total Axe Throwing formally joined the International Axe Throwing Federation (IATF)—an organization with venues and throwers from across the world, all competing against each other in an international ranking system. This put us on the world’s stage. Which has been exemplified by having some of the world’s best throwers travel here just to compete in our venue. This allows our throwers to compete at a higher level, compete for cash prizes, and compete for international titles. If our throwers grow, they’ll put it right back into the sport.
But… that still doesn’t feel like enough. What’s next for us? For the sport?
Our Future in the Sport of Axe Throwing
Honestly, we don’t know. But we know that we’ll have a hand in it. Day-by-day, we’re trying to find something new to bring to the sport of axe throwing. Our Marathon Man Leagues, for example. A standard IATF league takes seven weeks to complete regular season play, and an eighth week for playoffs. But we decided to do it all in one night. 28 matches a person, plus a double elimination championship bracket to decide the winner. It’s a lot. It’s not nearly as insane as trying to fight off bears or stegosauruses or rabbits or whatever vicious animals were around during cavemen times with a throwing axe, but it is insane, nonetheless. Something like that is new. It hasn’t been done before. So, we’re happy to make it an option. We don’t know what’s next for us, or the sport. But we’ll let you know when we do.
