The Coach's Eye

Richard has just spotted that the amazing coaching tool The Coach's Eye is available on Android.  Head over to The Ageing Archer for his write up about this essential training tool.

I'm Back! St Valentine's and Rome Can't Stop Me!

Hello everybody!

Apologies for the lack of blog entries recently but it's been a hectic 11 days.  So here's a quick update for you all:

Sunday 9th Feb:  Herts Indoor Championship

As already mentioned in the last entry this day was not a good one.  515 from 60 arrows placed me in the bottom half of the archers.  Not a score at all.  You can read about it all here.

The full results can be found here.  Apparently I won some raffle prizes again: A chocolate orange, scented soaps and a bottle opener ...

Monday 10th Feb: Club Shoot at 2020

After the humbling performance the day before I thought a casual session at the club would sort me out.  That was not to be.  With Richard's help we've determined that my nock point is too high and that maybe I need stiffer arrows.  In addition to shooting my normally fletched arrows I also shot my bare shaft arrows.  They were impacting lower than my fletched ones.  We're taking that to mean a higher than usual nock point.  I'm not due in again until Monday 24th but I'll let you know how it goes.

After dropping off Richard at his abode and driving home after the club shoot I sank into my favourite comfy seat at home and breathed a sigh of relief.  Why?  Because it was St Valentine's on Friday and I was due to fly off to Rome with Ceri on Saturday to celebrate her birthday.  Woo hoo!  I figured after all these competitions I could have a breather and look forward to the weekend city break....

Hang on ... St Valentine's ... Friday?  That's 4 days away!  OMG!  Flowers!  Restaurant?!  How on earth have I left it so late to get things organised!  Ceri would not be impressed!  Ok, we can do this.  It's only Monday evening.  That's still plenty of time to get things done.  The following is what every male needs in case he finds himself up a certain body of water with no method of propulsion before St Valentine's Day:

1. Flowers - I use http://www.interrose.co.uk/  They have never let me down.  Yes they are much pricier but your better half will thank you for them.  Trust me, These roses will hit the spot.
2. Restaurant - Bugger, I eventually ended up at a sushi restaurant ... more on that to follow.
3. Gift - It's Ceri's birthday 2 days after St V!  http://www.buyagift.co.uk/ to the rescue!

Phew, my bacon's been saved and Ceri will be impressed ... I hope.

                        Surely Ceri will be impressed by these right?                        

But something is bothering me ... I know I have forgotten something! ... ROME!  What are we doing for Ceri's birthday?  Aargh!  Fortunately, the hotel we were staying at had a very helpful Concierge - Flavia!  With her assistance I was able to book a spa session and dinner at a terrace top restaurant .  This was all arranged via emails and ready by the time we arrived on Saturday.  Fabulous!

Don't forget the restaurant!

So surely that's it.  What else could go wrong?  All I need is for Friday to arrive and I'm off for my first St Val with Ceri and our adventure to Rome ...  It gets better!

Thursday 13th Feb:  Unlucky for some ...

I should have known with today being the 13th that something bad would strike me ...

8.00am ... flat car battery!  I don't know what happened but all I know is that it's not even managing to tick over.  Fortunately I was able to borrow Mum's car and get to work at a reasonable time.  On the way back home I purchased a new battery from Halfords.  

Now, I'm not a car mechanic nor am I one for DIY but I figured with a Haynes manual and a shed load of tools I should be able to do this ... wrong!  Who ever designed the battery connectors is a dark lord and should be struck down with the sword of common sense!  Check here for the forum discussion on how to do this!

The nut that needs to be loosened on the positive terminal is somewhere behind all that mess!  I managed the negative terminal no problem but this bugger ... I eventually had to rely on my good neighbour who is a vehicle mechanic extraordinaire.  Anyway, that didn't get done until Friday afternoon and I was sweating it all the way through cos if my car didn't start then we would have to re-organise the long stay parking arrangements at Stanstead.

Friday 14th Feb: St Valentines Day

5.15pm ... I get the shock of my life when I ring up the restaurant and ask them to move back the booking by 20mins.  The chef has had a big accident and they need to shut early due to lack of cover ... but it's St Val night and you're only telling me this now?  2 hours before my reservation?  Aaaargh!  What am I gonna do!  The panic subsides long enough for me to gather my thoughts and control the fear.  I manage to book another table at another branch for the same time.  At least I know my beloved will get fed tonight.

The Aftermath

Well, Rome and St Val went without a hitch.  Ceri was impressed and I live to tell the tale and continue on this journey of archer perfection.

Well there's always the raffle

Well, I have to say that I did not do myself justice at the Hertfordshire Archery Association Indoor Championship.  515 is not a good score for me.  It's below my average/

There were many reasons for my poor score:

• Long drive to venue
• Cramped venue
• On my own
• Lack of preparation during the week.
• Brain not in gear

And it was the last one that was the biggest problem.  I just couldn't get my brain to focus on what I was doing.  I just aimed and fired.  No thinking whatsoever.  I fired 60 arrows and each one felt different.  I just wanted to shoot my 60 and go home. That is not how we do archery.  I will have to concetnrate on this aspect of my game

The other reasons that I found the comp difficult are a bit more harder to pin down.  I drive 60 odd miles on my own.  The journey was along so rather odd looking and windy country roads.  Couple that with my comp buddy Richard (TheAgeingArcher) not being there (he had shot the previous day so was not there with me. ) I was not really ready for this.  When I sat there waiting for the start I was more nervous than when I was at Telford!

I'm also feeling the decision to cut down on my archery before the comp to be a mistake.  I am concerned that my wrists weren't used to the extra weight on my long rod so my last practice was on Wednesday.  Maybe 4 days is too much of a break before a comp.

The last thing was that I found the venue very cramped.  Now yo might find that odd given the 2020 venues but a lot of the competitors were tripping over each other to get to the shooting line.  The judges table had been placed in equipment line effectively taking up the space for 3-4 of the bosses.  At one point we have archers lining up to approach the shooting line, archers coming back from the shooting line and everything grinding to a halt because we the returning archers were waiting for the archers on the line at full draw to shoot so that the second detail could approach.  But who am I to kick up a fuss?

Next time I'll get it right.

But as always, I met a few more archers, some new faces and lots of jokes were flying.  So all in all a good shoot.  But still one I'd rather forget.

Oh and one last thing ... I won more raffle prizes!!!!

Fiddle me this!

Well, Last night was my last practice before the next comp.  Myself, Richard (The Ageing Archer) and Ray will be competing in the Hertfordshire Archery Association Indoor County & Open Championship.  Another weekend another comp.  I'm beginning to like this!

So the session started as most do, build the range, chat to fellow archers and then send some sighters down range.  After sending 9 sighters down range I decide that things are not quite right and change sight marks .... Nothing unusual there.  

I then spend the rest of the evening changing the sights in the pursuit of perfection.  In the end with 15mins to go till the end of the session I realise that the sight marks are back to where I had them when I shot my first sighters!  D'oh!  If that wasn't a lesson in not fiddling between ends then I don't know what is!

All in all, if I can settle down my nerves and don't let missed arrows get the better of me I should be set for some good results.

On a positive note ... Richard is now happy with his bow and set up.  I think he's set to bring home the bacon/beef/sushi (delete as applicable).

Get off my face! (Unless you're a silver fox)

Last night saw me sharing a target face with Richard (TheAgeingArcher).  It was fairly busy at 2020 hence the double detail.  Still, it provided the opportunity to watch him in action with all his new gadgets.  Richard recently went back to his fibre-bow and is quickly getting re-acquainted with it.  He's also had a few issues with his new sight.  He had to take a spanner to it in the middle of our last competition.  I think it's behaving itself now.

Good to see some more 2020 club members getting their own bows.  There's nothing quite like owning your own kit.  Unless you have bought unwisely and got yourself a set of limbs that can shoot a redwood down range you're scores should improve considerably.  Also, if you are going down the sighted recurve route I'd recommend a finger sling and long rod.  You won't regret it.

I swear Richard has magnetised his arrows!  He has magnets in his quiver which stop his arrows falling out should he bend over to far.

Mine are the skinny arrows

If you cast your brains back to school science lessons you'll recall that when you pass a metal object through a magnetic field repeatedly you will slowly induce a magnetic field in the object.  Well I think that's what he's done cos the entire night my arrows were falling next to his.  He shoots high, I shoot high.  He shoots left, I shoot left.  Go figure

Richard spent most of the night shooting first which meant I had to negotiate a forest of carbon before my arrows got anywhere near the target face.

I've also abandoned my 'Freedom Stance' for the moment.  One of the judges at the comp last week mentioned my stance was a bit wide and was therefore placing undue pressure on my back leg.  From the above pick you can't really argue with the results.  However, my back was a bit sore by the end of the night.  I'll let you know how it goes for the competition this weekend.

Speaking of competitions Richard, Ray and myself will be attending the Hertfordshire Archery Association Indoor County & Open Championships (HAAIC) this weekend.  The venue looks peachy (Princess Helena College) so whatever happens it should be a fun trip.  Except They are shooting Saturday and I'm shooting Sunday :(

Anyhoo, I'll probably pop into 2020 on Saturday to get a last minute practice before the comp.

Middlesex County Archer Association Indoor Championship - Pt2

11.00am - Okay.  So its competition day again.  This time its the MCAA Indoor Champs.  One of these days I'm just gonna have a lazy weekend with nothing to do.  

The weather seems really good today!

1.00pm - I pick up Richard (The Ageing Archer) and set off on another road-trip.  We both seem in good spirits for this one.  The ghosts of Telford are long behind us.

 2.30pm - Where on earth is the venue?  We've arrived at the location according to SATNAV but all we can see are BP buildings.  Where are we?  Richard get out google Maps and fine tunes the directions.

2.35pm - We've arrived!  Though it's not quite what we're expecting.  Are we in the right place?  We're in a car park ... a flooded car park. Let's just park up and get indoors.

2.36pm - We spot a man with an archery bag!  Yup, this is the right place.

Next we spot a lot of people in purple shirts.  They look like they mean business.  They're busy taking photos whilst me and Richard set up.  I wonder who they are.  No time for that now.  These bows aren't gonna put themselves together on their own.

2.45pm - I bump into a staff member from Telford.  He remembers me.  He's a judge today.  Archery definitely gets you to meet new people and makes new friends.  It's not just about the arrows.  

We also meet an archer from CMO Bowmen.  It's a club me and Richard have been looking at.  He recommends it to us and re-confirms they have a shortage of recurve archers.  I think we're gonna have to take a closer look at them.  He also tries to win the biggest belt competition.  He has a US army water canteen and what looks like a radio pouch on a 3 inch leather belt along with various carabiners and archery goodies.  It's a good attempt but no chance buddy.  You're gonna need more than that to beat ma padded molle combat belt.  Better luck next time.

5.15pm - The session begins.  We're getting through our ends at a very fast rate.  Should be done in about 2 hours.

I hear murmurs about my 'Freedom' stance.  Hehe, 

Again the first 30 arrows go without a hitch.  It's looking good.  But just like Telford it begins to drop in the second half.  Fatigue sets in and I start hitting a few 7's and 8's.  When I get back to 2020 I'm gonna have to take a look at that.

My final score is 541!  That's not too bad.  I had hoped to get above 550 as my PB is 548.  Maybe next week.

5.30pm - Raffle time.  The organisers have laid on a raffle.  It's always good to support raffles at competitions.  The money raised either goes to the club to help fund new equipment or helps to lower shooting fees.  I manage to win 4 of the 6 prizes.  Oops.

5.55pm - Homeward bound.  Another weekend another competition done.  

Oh I found out who the purple shirts were - University of London.  Even though they all have the gear, only one of them looks like they know what they are doing (he's a really good shoot too!).  The purple shirt next to me mistook my arrows with his own when scoring.  He also managed to destroy 2 Easton Jazz arrows.

All this competition practice is proving useful. 

Next one is in 7 days! 

Middlesex County Archer Association Indoor Championship - Pt1

Here we go again.  Another weekend another competition.  This time its the MCAA indoor championship. And no FITA triple spot. YAY! It's a Portsmouth round.  60 arrows and a 60cm target at 20 yards.  We know how to deal with these ones.  My buddy The Ageing Archer  will also be attending.  He's been known to shoot 560+ so this should be right up his alley.  Personally, my PB is only 548.  If I can get near that I'll be happy.

I've looked at the target list and seen quite a few archers from Aquarius.  I've heard they are some really good archers ... they've sent their best archer and their club champion!  

Arrows start flying at 3.00pm