TommyHawks 1631 W. College Avenue in Springfield Missouri is a veteran owned company and the largest ax throwing venue in the Midwest.  Much more than ax throwing, TommyHawks boasts 2 corn hole games, foosball, ping pong, kid friendly games such as tabletop Jenga® and a massive Connect 4®.  Tom and Kacey opened the 12,000 square foot facility, TommyHawks in 2018.  Beginning his journey as an ax craftsman after leaving the service in 2015, Tom began crafting his products in 2016 selling to ax throwing enthusiasts and military personnel.  He also designs all the cool T-shirts and other merchandise for sale up at the counter.  The photo op area is one of the best I’ve seen and helps balance the large space, making it look less cavernous.

My coworkers and I headed over one Friday night (open at 6:00 p.m.) to give ax throwing a try.  Let me tell you the folks who throw axes regularly make this sport look easy.  It is anything but.  I was concerned that I would waste my shoulders on this adventure and was hesitant about paying the fee for a full 2 hours of throwing a heavy ax at a target.  Turns out the ax really isn’t that heavy and you use much more than your shoulders to be accurate.  Whether you throw one handed or two, ax throwing is definitely a challenge.  Kacey gave us all training and practice time to perfect our technique (LOL) before we were split into teams to compete against each other, 4 on each team.  Lining up one by one with different weight axes and attempting to at least hit the wood around the target was an exercise in frustration and hilarity.  We are not used failure.

As I stood there watching my coworkers struggle knowing a few of them had actually done this before, I couldn’t help but think what a great date night this would make especially in the beginning stages of a relationship.  I have always maintained the idea that doing challenging things on dates is the key to understanding your partner’s mindset and level of maturity.  Ax throwing and how easy it is to be awful may just bring out the worst in that jerk who is not used to failing, or make you both laugh until you cry.  Pick the mate that can laugh at themselves.

TommyHawks has some rules like no open toed shoes, no cash, and no standing in front of the tables when others are throwing.  I recommend visiting the website:  www.tommyhawks.net for full rules disclosure, understanding the waiver you are going to sign, and for hours as they vary by day/weekend.  Also the alcohol policy was interesting.  You may bring your own beverages and food, no hard liquor so malt type beers and wine coolers only.  An alcohol monitoring fee of $5 is required for each person in your party, which is probably a good idea.  Ax throwing, accuracy and alcohol did not go together for me anyway so you might choose to drink water or soda and actually hit the target more often.

This venue would be excellent not only for date night, but team building within organizations, a teen birthday party, or even a bet between friends.  There are a lot of other free activities to take up time while waiting for a lane which I was impressed by.  All in all, this was money well spent and I will be heading back with my tribe, maybe making a friendly wager beforehand betting on how bad they will be.  Get out there, friends and challenge yourself.