Great Hobby 

Axe Throwing is a great way of releasing stress, getting your built-in frustration from the day out and is a great sport to learn for yourself. It makes for a fun hobby that you could always try to get better at and always work at improving on.  Axe throwing is a nice alternative to spending time in-doors watching Netflix, playing video games and is a great conversation starter with other people. 

Great Date Activity 

If you are looking for a great way to impress your date and have fun at the same time axe-throwing is just the thing for you to do. It makes for a fun unique dating experience. If you’re a guy, you definitely be able to show off your manliness, inner Viking and lumberjack skills to your date. Girls, your guy will definitely be impressed when he learns that you can throw an axe. 

Great Activity to Do with Friends

Need something fun and inexpensive to do with your friends? Axe-throwing can be a great way to spend time with your friends as you try new fun things to do. Once you learn how to throw the axe, you can make a fun game with your friends of who can do the best when it comes to landing on target with the axe. Makes for a great way of bonding with your friends and others as you you toss axes at targets. 

Great Team Activity

Axe-throwing also makes for a great team-building activity. If you are a business owner looking to get your employees together, a coach or team captain looking to help your team work better together or working with people on a school project. Axe-throwing can make for a great way to get together to discuss things and let off steam after doing a big group project. This makes for a memorable bonding experience that will allow you to bond with your fellow coworkers or teammates

Great Workout 

Before chainsaws and mechanical devices were a thing, lumberjacks were said to burn anywhere between 5 thousand to 10 thousand calories a day hefting wood, and cutting down trees with their bare hands. Any person looking to trim down weight, build muscle and get healthier would want to make this part of their routine. Which is where axe-throwing comes in. 

Axe throwing makes for a great cardio workout. In addition, you are giving your upper body a great work out by throwing those axes. It’s great for your back, arms, and chest. After a while, you will be sure to notice yourself becoming more built from repeatedly doing this exercise every week. 

Great Way to Relieve Stress 

Axe-throwing like any sport of exercise is a great way of getting rid of excess stress and frustration from the day out. There are plenty of studies that show that keeping stress in can lead to negative consequences for your health and wellness so what better way to get it out then by tossing an axe at something. 

There are many reasons you might want to visit our Smash It room. The possibilities are endless. Here we wanted to give you a list of things you could do when you enter anger management, I mean the Smash It room. 

1. Glass bottles

Remember when you were little and you knocked over your mom’s favorite vase? The scary sound of the glass breaking and instant guilt? Well put your guilt aside, with the Smash It room there isn’t space to feel bad, only feel the satisfaction of smashing glass bottles. With buckets of glass bottles, you can get creative with how you smash them. Throw it against the wall? Use a hammer? You decide. 

2. Electronics

Ah, technology, you love it when it works properly but you hate it when it doesn’t. For your inspiration imagine you stayed up all night typing a report or assignment just to have the power go out and you lose all your work. Angry right? Use that anger and come to the Smash It Room. There are a couple of different packages that we offer here at  Axe N Smash that include electronics that you can smash. We have had people come in and smash multiple items including TVs, computers, and printers. Oh, and we may or may not take out the ink of the printer. Don’t worry we are sure to give you the proper safety wear and googles. 

3. Furniture

Instead of putting our old dressers or desks on Facebook Marketplace we have found a new way to “repurpose them”. Walking into the room after you ordered the Venom package you will see a nice little office space including a computer, lamp, printer, monitor, and plant. When you walk out it’ll be nearly unidentifiable. Also, you would be surprised by the damage you can do to that lovely couch from the 1970s with a baseball bat and a crowbar. 

4. Bring your own box (BYOB)

Just like your reason for visiting the Smash it room is are nearly endless, so are the possibilities for what to bring with you are. Your old framed pictures of your ex-girlfriend, an old printer, computer or even your old dolls (or your “collectible action figures collection”). As long as one person can carry the box or bag of goodies into the room you can go crazy and smash it to pieces for your personal enjoyment. 

We mentioned in previous articles the benefit of smash objects inside the Phat Smash It room, hopefully, with this article, you will be able to expand your creativity in how you are going to relieve your stress in a new destructive manner.

You may look like a newbie as you learn to throw an axe accurately but you don’t have to sound like a newbie. 

While we are participating in any activity, being able to sound like you know what you are doing multiplies the fun and your confidence. We put together a list of the correct terms for what you will encounter when you enter an ax-throwing arcade.

Axe Throwing Terminology – Venue:

1. Arena: a set of four ax-throwing targets.
2. Lane: a setup from throwing a block to target.
3. Perimeter Wall: the wall that separates throwers from spectators.
4. Fencing: The fencing that partitions/separates the lanes from one another as well as the outside social area.
5. Target: five boards screwed to a backboard with four-point areas.
6. Backboard: plywood backing that supports the mounted target boards.
7. Block: a small block that some throwers may place on the black line to position their lead foot while throwing (similar to the piece of tape a basketball coach will put on a free throw line to help his players line up their sights).
8. Helmet: there is a lower and an upper helmet on each lane. The upper is made of high-density rubber and the lower is made of wood mounted below the target. Helmets protect axe heads from damage on a missed throw.​
9. The Red Throwing Line: the standard throwing line where players position themselves for throwing. 

Axe Throwing Terminology – Equipment:

1. Axe: the instrument used in all standard ax-throwing competition.
2. Big Axe: the full-size felling axe used for tiebreakers. Big axes are 2.5 pounds with a 27-28 inch wooden handle.
3. Head: the metal blade portion of the axe.

Axe Throwing Terminology – Competition:​

1. Match: also sometimes referred to as a game, is a set of two rounds totaling 10 throws.
2. Round: one set of 5 throws.
3. Drop: an axe that does not remain sticking in the target, and falls out before being retrieved, resulting in 0 points.
4. Out of reach: a match or round that can not be won by any throw value
5. Rubber Match: a match in which the third round of throwing determines the match winner (i.e. third match played when the first two rounds are tied).
6. Perfect Round:  occurs in which all five throws are bull’s-eyes, totaling 25 points.
7. Perfect Match: occurs when the total score of a match totals 75. 

Conclusion

Now, of course, there will be a few minor differences if you go to different axe throwing recreation centers. Maybe the different color of the tape is used for the throwing lines and things like that. These are very widely used terms however and will help you impress those you throw with. 

Phat Axe is a great place to come for birthday parties, date activities, and corporate team activities.

Smash Room – Choose It!

Picture yourself getting fired from your dream job. Or you someone just cut you off while driving. You’re in a rage and need to break something. Luckily Phat Axe has the Smash Room. It is a room that has designs to help channel that anger into breaking objects like empty bottles or old computers. But why do breaking things make us feel better?

The Physiological Response

The feeling of breaking something with a bat or sledgehammer is exhilarating. Our body releases endorphins when we intentionally break things. Endorphins are a chemical released in the brain that creates a positive feeling in your body that’s similar to morphine. The excitement that we get when smashing an object also releases adrenaline. When in the Smash Room, it’s an amazing experience because our bodies are so fueled up on endorphins and adrenaline. Afterwards, your body is relaxed from all the exercise you did breaking objects!

The Psychological Response

Above we mentioned the physiological response. Now let’s talk about the psychological response. Studies show that breaking objects helps with anxiety. Those that suffer from anxiety should use a smash room to break objects because it allows them to have a sense of control. It allows others to have some form of make-shift therapy. But it goes even further than that. It is great because you can channel all of your built-up anger into something that won’t have harmful effects on you. 

Date Night!

You need an idea for a date and you don’t know where to go or what to do. Why not go to the Smash Room? It is the perfect place to take a date to. Why? Because it’s fun and exhilarating! As mentioned earlier, endorphins are released when you’re smashing objects. So why not smash objects with someone you love? It is the ideal date because it’s fun and destructive. 

The Conclusion About Smash Room

It is perfect because it has positive benefits on your physical and mental health. Book a room is fast and easy and if you bring your own stuff to smash, it’s slightly cheaper. Phat Axe also recycles all used materials. Bring in someone and smash some objects!

Throw an axe at over-sized wooden targets isn’t just fun. 

If you are throwing with proper technique than throwing hunks of steel almost two dozen feet and throwing it hard enough to make it stick in a piece of wood, has some great health benefits for you. 

First, a few extrinsic pros that axe throwing has on you:

• Get your adrenaline pumping
• Leg day
• Arm day
• Back day

Second, throwing axes also has several intrinsic perks for you:

• Relieve stress
• Change your mood
• (I’d be remiss if I didn’t put “its fun” on this checklist)
• A way to bond with friends & family

Not that you are aware of some of the benefits of throwing an axe. Here’s a short walk through of stepping into the cage and throwing one.

Make sure no is within the cage boundaries when you are up to throw. Even before you raise your axe, double-check behind you, there should not be anyone on your side of the cage line. 

Once you are in the cage with you hatchet in hand, there are two ways you can throw it, one-handed or two-handed. The proper techniques for each are as follows:

One-handed:

1. Start with your feet together.
2. Place the axe in your throwing hand. Hold the handle securely near the end.
3. Step forward with your less dominant foot, using your more dominant foot for stabilization.
4. Keeping your eye on the target, bring the hatchet forward, and release it once it’s level with the line of sight between you and the bulls-eye. On the release, use a karate-chop motion instead of a wrist-flicking motion.
5. Follow through with a stiff wrist. Releasing too early results in too many revolutions and hitting the target too high. Releasing too late results in hitting the target too low. Now following through with a stiff wrist can result in a wobbly throw, or the axe not sticking into the wood. 

Two-handed throw:

1. Start with your feet together.
2. Holding the hatchet securely near the end of the handle, raise it above and behind your head with two hands.
3. Step forward with your less dominant foot, using your more dominant foot for stabilization
4. Keeping your focus on the bulls-eye, bring the hatchet forward with two hands.
5. Once your hands are even with the line of the bulls-eye, release the hatchet.
6. Follow through. The goal is to have the hatchet do one full revolution before sticking securely in the wooden bulls-eye.

And for your viewing pleasure, here is a short clip of Jason Momoa drinking a beer and throwing a perfect bull-eye.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oxal7BdCh0

The World Axe Throwing League

Axe Throwing has taken the world by storm. Families and friends crave the unique experience of throwing an axe and hearing the satisfying “THUD” of metal impacting wood. In fact, it has become so popular there is now a competitive league to unify indoor axe throwing facilities from around the world under one professional axe throwing association, the World Axe Throwing League.

The Birth of The World Axe Throwing League

Founder of The WATL, Mario Zelaya, was aware that a lot of axe throwing facilities followed basically the same business practices and axe throwing rules. However, there wasn’t very much communication between these venues which restricted the ability to have standardized rules and therefore have professional competitions. Mario, knowing the strong desire of people around the world to compete, founded the World Axe Throwing League. Opening the door to discuss official rules and regulations to legitimize indoor axe throwing as a sport. 

The Tournaments

The WATL holds a number of tournaments around the world to find the very best axe throwers! All leading up to the World Axe Throwing Championship held in Arizona. The first of these tournaments first started in Ohio with the Arnold Open in March, followed by the Canadian Open that same month. After the trip up North, the WATL travelled down South to Brazil for the South America Arnold Open and finally, the US open in Iowa this August the 23-25. Winners from each of those tournaments have an automatic entry into the World Axe Throwing Championship and a shot to dethrone last years champion Benjamin Edgington and the prize money!

2018 World Axe Throwing League U.S Open Highlights

The 2018 Axe Throwing U.S Open was hosted by Bad Axe Throwing at their Lakeview, Chicago location. Over 80 participants from all over the world came to show off their skills, which is incredible since it was the very first time a world championship axe throwing competition had ever been held. Records were broken, axes were flung, history was made, but most importantly fun was had.  

2018 US Open Tournament

The best of the best arrived from all over the world on the morning of August 12th along with their friends and family. All competitors brought their game faces and the judges brought their score sheets. Crowds of fans came flooding in and started filling up the sidelines before the first axe was even thrown. Anyone at the event could agree that the energy, enthusiasm and sense of community was truly a special thing. 

Winners

The first-place winner of the first-ever WATL US Open Championship ring and 5,000 dollars went to John Bradley from KickAxe Throwing. The second-place winner walked away with 750 dollars and the third-place winner got 500 dollars. Every competitor walked away with some awesome swag and although they didn’t win any money, they all gained a great sense of pride for being able to make history all together doing something they love. 

Trick Shot Competition

The competitors who truly had some stylish throws and mastered the true art of axe throwing were given a special Axcalibur Trophy. These trophies can most likely be found proudly hanging above all of the winners’ fireplaces. 

Axe Throwing Festivals and Competitions

The next WATL competition is going to be held this upcoming winter in Tucson and competitors are already getting ready. The axe throwing community continually finds ways to celebrate the brand new sport, this past week the WATL threw a Throwdown Axe Festival in Colorado Springs. People and fans came from all over and had an absolute blast learning from and training with the best competitors in the sport. 

Whether you’ve been before or not, axe throwing can have many benefits.

For example, say you’re going on a first date. You decide to go to Phat Axe, because she’s really been wanting to try it out. You’re a little nervous at first, but then you read that it is safe. You get to Phat Axe and you realize she’s actually an incredible axe-thrower. You’ve just found everything you’re looking for. You get down on one knee and propose. She says yes, and you have beautiful little axe-throwing children together.

We’re exaggerating of course, but social axe throwing can be a great way to bond! That’s only one of the benefits. Many people haven’t been before, but are surprised how quickly they learn to hit the targets. This can be a self-esteem boost for all.

Another benefit is that you get to try something new! If you’re getting tired of the movies, axe throwing is a great way to shake things up. You might just find your newest passion.

It’s also possible that you’re going through some rough patches in your life. Axe throwing helps you release those emotions in a controlled, safe environment.

With axe throwing, you’re burning calories without realizing it. Not all of us love to exercise, that’s why it’s great when it’s an exercise in disguise! Your body will be so proud of you.

There are many more benefits to axe throwing than we’ve listed, but you’ll just have to come try it out yourself! We know you’ll love it. Join the axe-throwing craze today, and come see us! See you soon!

Let Us Help You Plan Your Events!

Event planning can be stressful. Think of this: You have ten 19-year-olds (or worse ten employees) that need some wrangling. You’ve got to boost morale and unity. What on earth could work? Office parties can be a struggle sometimes, but what else is there?

Well, everyone secretly, or not so secretly, wants to throw an axe and/or destroy some stuff, and we have both of those. So instead of through just another boring office party, let us plan an event your employees will never forget!

We have the best activities for big crowds, call us for a quote and we can let you know! You can reserve throwing lanes for some competitive action, or you could reserve the phat smash room for all your destructive needs.

Let’s Get Competitive

   Everything seems to be stressful these days so no wonder Axe Throwing is a leading leisure activity in the leisure market! In a Forbes article, London Putshack cites a study about the different sections of entertainment and leisure. Putshack notes that the leading section of the market is competitive socializing.

   Sometimes it’s hard to keep going at work or school or at home when we take too many losses, so we are here to bring back the win in your life. And apparently, it’s pretty well received! The competitive socializing concept occupies 32.1% of the leisure concepts, comfortably ahead of its competitors.

   So you guys like to be crowned victorious over your friends, huh? No wonder we are so popular!

   All this is to say that we are doing something right! We are here to give you the angst relief that you want and need and we will oblige any (safe) destruction activities and all axe throwing shenanigans that you all want! Take your team to phat axe for some fun, competitive team building activities. Let’s get throwing, huh?