But first, I needed to pick up Roger from East Croydon Station and then a short trip to fetch Richard. Now I must confess that I couldn't remember the exact times I told each person to be ready for pickup. Regardless, Roger ended up arriving earlier than expected but Saturday morning traffic meant the trip to Richard used up most of the buffer Roger's early arrival created. Still, we still managed a visit to McDonald's for breakfast. Result!
The journey to the venue (King's Centre, Chessington) was uneventful. My trusty SatNav did not fail me, unlike previous events. It wasn't long before we bumped into some familiar faces.
This was my first visit to the King's Centre and I was impressed.
The hall is carpeted, well lit and mildly ventilated. There were two rows of chairs for competitors and spectators and a large space behind the equipment line. Things were looking up!
We picked our spot and started the bow stringing dance. It's a ritual that all modern archers learn early on in their archery journey. However, today's dance would be different for Richard. He's forgotten to pack his new super shiny sight! D'oh! There's nothing quite like the feeling you get when you're unpacking your kit bag and realise you've forgotten something. Fortunately, today Richard was surrounded by his fellow archers and he was able to move his shooting slot to a later session and therefore borrow my sights off my bow (more on this later).
After assembly I settled down to the task at hand. Given that I had changed my nock point the previous night I knew that my sights needed to be adjusted. This would normally be done at the club prior to competition day. I had just 2 ends of sighters to do it! Grrr!
As I took up my position on the shooting line I noticed a few things:
- There's 4 targets per boss. A through to D, starting top left and then moving in an anti-clockwise direction.
- There were two dot matrix displays at the sides of the range. They would show the time left to shoot your 3 arrows (120secs).
- The dot matrix displays also showed which details were due up on the line (A and B, or C and D). This would be a very useful feature. More competitions should have this feature.
I won't bore you with a breakdown of my 60 arrows. To summarise, I scored 470. I had hoped to get 500 or higher but you have to remember that I was shooting on 40cm targets and I hadn't shot in over 2 weeks. But even this low provided me with some very useful info ...
For some time now my form had taken a drop. Around January I had reached a level of performance where most of my shots were landing in the gold. I couldn't miss and was feeling a certain amount of ego inflation. I wasn't at the level of a county champion or even a club champion but I was definitely feeling good about myself. But then I started scoring under 520 ... what was I doing wrong? 54 arrows into the King's Cup I finally figured it out. My confidence had made me arrogant about my archery. It turned out that I was just raising my bow, drawing, point at gold and then assumed the arrow would hit gold. That's not how it works .... unless you're Korean. I had totally forgotten about my shot routine, my form, breathing, shoulders, target focus etc. My final 6 arrows took all of my concentration and energy. In fact they took more effort and concentration than all the arrows I had shot since February. And I was rewarded with 10,9,9 and 10,9,8. ChaChiing!
Anyway, with that revelation and my 60 arrows shot I stepped away from the shooting line, presented Julie with KitKat chunky for doing all the scoring for everyone on our boss and handed over my bow to Richard.
For those who remember from eariler in this blog entry, Richard had forgotten his sight and was going to use mine. Except that we couldn't remove the sight block from my riser! Luckily Bryn Bache offered his sight. With the second disaster of the day averted, Roger and Richard proceeded to warm up for their 60 arrows ...
Not sure they taught 'Jazz Hands' stretch in the beginners course
After watching R&R start their session I joined the others at a local watering hole to await the final scores.
And so ended my first King's Cup. I thoroughly enjoyed today. It's always good when you have your shooting buddies with you at a competition. It helps calm the nerves and in Richard's case you can call upon them for help if needed.
I guess I better get ready for the SCAS competition on Sunday!
Don't forget to check Richard's blog for his thoughts on the competition.
PS. I should probably mention the other highlight of the competition ... a couple having a domestic whilst on the shooting line of a world ranking status competition ... whilst each holding a bow and sharp pointy arrows in their hands. It never ceases to amaze me the things you see at archery meets.
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