A West Des Moines bar manager is a world knife-throwing champion, something he never thought he would be good at but has found his edge in.
Shane Funke, who is the bar and league manager at Ironside Axe Club in West Des Moines, won the World Knife Throwing Championship in April in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“I didn’t believe that I had won right away,” Funke said. He said there were more than 150 participants, including some from as far away as New Zealand.
Funke wants to win again next year — and not just because he would rather not have to move the 60-pound championship trophy from his possession.
No one has won the world championship back-to-back or twice, and that’s a goal of his as he trains.
But the 32-year-old husband and father of two has a bigger goal of throwing a perfect game — something he said no one has ever done. A perfect score is 64, and he won the championship with 45.
Sinking good hits is like doing well in the lottery, he said. “When you get your first number right, ‘Oh, my heart’s going a little bit.’ Then you do it again, and you get the next number or you get another bullseye, does it again, and it starts going and going and going.”
Throwing knives is like bowling, to a point
Funke first got into axe throwing in 2019 when his now-wife volunteered him to be her throwing partner at the axe throwing club.
“What started as me just showing up to throw with her turned into a full-blown obsession pretty fast,” he said.
He started competitively axe throwing the same year and qualified for the World Axe Throwing Championship in 2020 for hatchet. But when knife throwing got introduced in 2021, he jumped into that.
Funke said he is at Ironside all but one day every week, and he throws for an hour or so every day he’s there.
He said knife throwing is a sport of eye coordination and throwing technique.
It’s like bowling, but with throwing a 2-pound sharp object instead of a blunt 15-pound ball, Funke said.
“If you’re looking for something different, this is definitely that. If you’re looking for more of a precision thing, knives is definitely a way to up that game,” he said.
Risk and reward
“Triple stacking a bullseye from the back half” is Funke’s favorite part of the sport. What he means is getting three knives to sit in the bullseye.
He said he has only badly cut himself twice while throwing, but not bad enough to have to get medical attention. Splinters from touching the wooden target board are the most likely injury, Funke said.
Advice for those sharpening their skills: Don’t stress
Funke said he insisted on perfection when he first started knife throwing, but he has learned not to stress himself out.
Perfection is not all that matters, but more so putting in the effort.
“If you’re getting to the spot, even if there’s a little hook to it, that’s fine. You don’t have to be 100% all the time. But giving 100% is always good,” he said.
Phillip Sitter covers the suburbs for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at PSitter@usatodayco.com. Find out more about him online in the Register’s staff directory.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: How a West Des Moines axe club manager became a champion knife-thrower
Reporting by Phillip Sitter, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
