Squad training, and the WFAA Welsh Indoor Championships

On January 5^th and 6^th, the WFAA Squad had training led by our coach Ray Howells. It was a really productive session, focussing on correct use of back tension through the shot and placing a lot of emphasis on developing a solid shot routine based on the BEST method developed by Korean coach Kisik Lee.

I found this really helpful because I am my own worst enemy. I will come to draw, aim and something doesn’t feel right. Instead of letting down and starting again, I will power through it and make a poor shot – then kick myself for not coming down! It’s a surprisingly hard thing to do and most people do the same, so by using a solid shot routine there is a set sequence to follow and if anything deviates from this then you know something isn’t right, reset and start again.

On the Sunday, Ray had a little betting going on to try this under pressure! Everybody who wants to shoot chucks 10p on the floor. You all shoot and score 3 arrows and the highest score gets the pot. If there is a tie, it rolls over and you need to put 10p more in to stay in. It was amazing how much fun this was and knowing that you are shooting to win the pot, even though it’s a matter of a few £ made it very interesting to see how the pressure affected everyone!  We did it for a few rounds, and after about 4 ends of tying I won the final pot with a 10 10 10. Put in about £1.50 across the morning and picked up a fiver, my first prize money – it’s a start haha!

Ahhh, smug mode :)

I adopted the new shot sequence during the following weeks practice session to start to drill it into my head, and had a great opportunity to test it in the field as the 13^th of January was the WFAA Welsh Indoor Championships. It’s an IFAA indoor round, 60 arrows at a 5 spot target. I was on the same target as the top WFAA archers so the pressure was on.

We were matched for about 2 dozen, until my opponent dropped one into the 4 ring and I took the lead by 1 point. There were still 3 dozen to go, the door was open so it was a case of staying cool and making strong shots. I was very nervous, especially towards the end but stayed in the spot and was on course to win. The final end of arrows were a bit nerve wracking, but after a few recent experiences I am getting a little more confident shooting under pressure. I focussed on calming my breathing, and on the shot sequence to make sure every arrow was as strong as the last and put down the last end - 5 X’s, finishing on a clean score of 300/300 with 46 X! 

The afternoon session followed, and all of the compound archers dropped a point or 2 during the round, so I had the only clean score and when we were all finished, the award ceremony was held and I received the gold medal as WFAA Indoor Champion for 2013! The award ceremony was also held for the WFAA Welsh Field Masters Tour stage 5 and final awards, as it was rained off on the day. I received 1^st place for stage 5, and 1^st place overall awards so I was also announced as WFAA Field Master in Freestyle Unlimited for 2012!

Not a bad way to start the season, WFAA Field Master & Indoor Champion going into the new year! I was absolutely thrilled with this result, and hope I have done my sponsor Wales Archery Specialists proud so far. Mat Symmonds who is also sponsored by WAS took gold in Recurve so it was good to see the Wales Archery shooters at the top on the day!

 

The AIUK Ironman Frostbite!

Hi everybody!

Things have been a little quiet recently on the competition from since the Nationals, there has been a gap of a few weeks with nothing on. However the Archery Interchange UK forum run a winter competition at this time of year, and the Welsh leg of the shoot was at my home club Pentref Bowmen.

The round being shot was the Frostbite, which is 7 dozen arrows at 30m, at an 80cm face. I went up bright and early and put all the target bosses out and pegged out the shooting lanes. The weather has been absolutely atrocious recently with record rainfall (the second wettest winter since records began!) so the ground was absolutely waterlogged and muddy, but that wasn't going to stop us bunch of brave archers (for brave, read idiot) from shooting!

Chris Bruno and myself at the start, before the rain moved in!

Freezing cold and wet, thrilled to be here! Feel sorry for Chris, he forgot his waterproofs!!

There were prizes for silliest hat!

Milly (the organiser) with her Mongolian bow, ready to rock!

Gavin looking suave under pressure, competing against Milly!

Milly taking a shot with the Mongolian.

The mud at my shooting peg, at least consistent foot placement was easy!

Maya is set up for 18m 3 spot with huge heavy X7's and they would've been blown everywhere in that wind. AIUK class all compounds together regardless of how they are set up (its only a friendly comp anyway) so I shot Vasquez in Bowhunter style. It made quite a nice break to shoot a Bowhunter style bow at spots instead of 3D or animal faces.

It rained on and off for most of the day, at times quite heavy so the trench coat at wide hat stayed on all day, and the pile of hand warmers I brought with me made me very popular! In the end I put in a score of 783/840 which put me in 6th place out of all AIUK compounders - happy with that considering the conditions we had! The winning score was 796 and I reckon I could beat that if I had Maya in outdoor config (getting cocky now!), so there is always next door when Maya will be set up ready and I have a dedicated indoor bow.... watch this space

The National Championships!

 

Hi everybody!

This weekend (1/2 December), ArcheryGB hosted their Indoor Extravaganza at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. It was the Junior Nationals and the Back2Back shoot off on Saturday, and the Senior Nationals on Sunday. My friend Chris and I entered the Senior Champs on Sunday and Chris drove us up for the afternoon session.

This was by far the largest shoot I’ve ever been to, the venue was huge with over 900 archers shooting across the 2 days! When I walked into the hall, I was a little blown away by how many targets there were and how many archers were taking part!

 

We were early as the roads were clear on the way up, so we signed in, set our equipment up and had a wander around the trade stalls. Wales Archery, Merlin and TheArcheryCompany had mobile shops on display among other retailers, so I treated myself to a few bits and bobs I needed and grabbed a brand new fletching jig from WA. The one I’ve been using is a little simple and I could do with something better quality.

I managed to grab myself a nice little keepsake too :) ArcheryGB were selling 122cm FITA targets from the Olympics. These are full size coloured targets that were ready for the Olympics but were never used, and they are made of a waterproof treated fabric so they are more like a canvas print than a paper target. They were only £2 so I grabbed one which I’ll keep rolled up in my cupboard, and as and when I ever get my own man-cave/workshop its going on the wall as a big poster!

The announcements were made for us to get ready, and then it was onto the line! The round was a FITA18, inner 10 scoring. My shooting was fairly strong with only 1 arrow dropped out of the gold, a high 8 where I punched the release but no other issues. The lighting in the hall could’ve been better, the targets were dimly lit and a little tricky to focus on. The other side had black curtains behind the targets which made it even worse I’m told. It was only a minor complaint though, my target companions were great guys and we had a fun time shooting together all day and chatting which took the edge off how big an event it was!

 

I was a little behind, but had a string of 10’s in the final half dozen and finished on 569.. the same as the last competition I shot – consistent! The scores went in and we all waited anxiously for the announcement of what was required to make the cut, the top 32 archers that go through to the shoot offs for a chance at the final.... The announcements came out and the list of names was put up... the cut was 567 and I was through in 25^th place!

The ladies shot the Recurve and Compound eliminations first, so I had a chance to have a quick practice and get ready. The call came out and I collected my scorecards, and was drawn against an archer named Colin Geenes in the shoot off. We exchanges scorecards and went up to the line to shoot...

Oh..my..god. I didn’t think it was possible to be so nervous! I usually get a pang of nerves on a target shoot when you move from sighters to scoring but nothing serious as it’s just me against the target – I score what I score and that’s it. This time, I was shooting against someone, and the pressure was on. I found it quite hard to concentrate and was a bit wobbly! We drew 2 ends, and then Colin won 2 ends with a perfect 10 10 10 (very impressive shooting under pressure, fair play!) and took the match 6 points to 2.

 

So the end result was I came 25^th in Gents Compound out of 105 competitors, and joint 17^th in the shoot off with the other archers knocked out in the elimination.

I wasn’t disappointed with this at all, as I was fully expecting to be knocked out in the first round given the level of skill I was shooting against but I was absolutely thrilled to have made the cut and the shoot offs on my first ever National Championships, and hope I did my sponsor Wales Archery proud on my first official outing shooting for them  It was my big shoot debut and it was great to see my name up on the board with the leading British archers, albeit some way behind them but still a great feeling!

Also worthy of note is that I was very impressed with the way the shoot was run and organised, everything was clear and the presentations, announcements and control of the shooting was spot on, as was the quality of the equipment and targets – a credit to the work party and organisers for their efforts and hard work!

So - the usual post-shoot performance review... I was happy with my shooting and couldn’t think of anything I would criticise myself for archery-wise, but one thing is for sure, I need to do a lot more preparation for shooting under pressure before next year. My shooting was good enough to carry me forwards a little further, it was entirely nerves that gave me problems so I’m going to look into techniques to strengthen this aspect of my shooting and improve my mental game and focus.

Amazing News!

I’ve had some fantastic archery news in the last week!

First of all, I received an email from Mat Symmonds, president of the Welsh Field Archery Association – saying that I have been selected for a position on the Welsh Field Archery Squad for 2013! So next year I will be able to represent Wales on the field circuit as an official member of the team J Woohoo!

The other bit of news is.. I am now a sponsored pro-staff shooter! I sent an email to Wales Archery Specialists a little while ago enquiring about the possibility for sponsorship. I’ve always been impressed by the service they offer and recommend everyone to their shop. As I have been doing so well in a lot of competitions recently, and shooting on a par with many sponsored archers I thought the time was right to ask if I could represent and promote Wales Archery in an official capacity and join their shop team, and they have agreed! So I am now on the Welsh squad, and a Wales Archery Specialists pro-shooter – what a result! 

I am absolutely over the moon! This is what I have been hoping for and working towards all year, spending a lot of time and effort improving my game and attending as many shoots as I can to raise my rankings and now with this news, it has all been worth it! J

 

I am visiting Wales Archery on Friday to pick up a few bits and pieces I need, and they have a pro shooters shirt there ready for me, so I will be able to wear the Wales Archery colours at the Nationals in Coventry this weekend, the biggest indoor shoot on the UK circuit – one hell of a debut! My usual scores on that round are 565-70 and the cut last year to make the top 32 archers in the head to head shoot off was around 560 so with any luck I may get into the final... fingers crossed!

 

The Welsh 3D Championships!

Hi everybody!

This weekend on the 25th November was the Welsh 3D Championships at Llantwit Major Archers course in Fonmon, an IFAA unmarked 3D round of 28 targets. As my main bow Maya is set up at the moment for indoor target with huge slow arrows it wouldn't be suitable for this shoot, so I spent a little bit of money on a 5 pin hunting sight, a bow quiver and a short dampener and set my second bow Vasquez up as a BowHunter Unlimited rig.

Check it out, dressed to kill!

The Guardian is really a hunting bow anyway - being short, fast & quiet so this is the kind of outfit that the bow is designed for. It balances great even with the bow quiver fitted and is extremely accurate and fun to shoot. This type of bow just suits unmarked 3D a lot better than an unlimited setup in my opinion.

The weather for the previous week before the shoot had been absolutely atrocious, with record rainfall and severe flooding in many parts of the UK and rivers bursting thier banks everywhere. The decision was made to go ahead with the shoot as there had been a break in the weather, but by now the damage had been done! What the hell, we're field archers and this is what we shoot for!

The mud was up over our ankles in most parts of the course, and the climbing/walking was very hard going with slips and slides being par for the course. I almost fell over several times and the river crossing was interesting! There is a shallow stream with  stepping stones that you need to cross 4 times in total during the day. The stones were completely submerged in fast flowing water... this river is normally about 6" deep and about half as wide as this...

I shot fairly well through the day considering it was a new style and put in a decent score, coming in second place by 5 points. The 3D round is scored 10 points for a 'kill' in the inner zone, 5 points for an outer zone 'wound' so i was only 1 killshot off taking 1st place, not bad for my BowHunter style debut :)

I had a lot of fun shooting the round and it only took about an hour to clean the mud off my boots and equipment! The next shoot on the calendar now is the big one, the National Indoors at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, really looking forward to that one!

Wobbly bits, and a good result!

Hi everybody!

I’ve been looking at adding some dampeners to my Insanity CPXL because my friend Chris just bought a new  Hoyt that comes with AlphaShox limb dampeners. After trying his bow out you could really feel the difference when they were fitted and I was jealous!  So I went looking around for something that I can add to my CPXL to dampen the vibration that is left in the bow after the shot.

After doing some research and watching some impressive tests, it seems that BowJax are the best on the market and BowJax Revelations which would best suit my bow. Direct from them they wanted $18 per pair + $25 to ship to the UK! But after a search I found a US seller on eBay that were charging $16 for 2 pairs of them, with $8 shipping – that’s more like it! They turned up in about 5 days and I put them on the CPXL and took it for a test drive...

 

Wow, what a difference! It has dramatically changed the feel of the bow post-shot. It sounds totally different, a lot quieter and there is far less vibration - impressive! So much so that I’ve ordered the BowJax string stop enhancer as well, which apparently makes the bow even quieter and is less harsh on the string as it is a softer stop . These are only available stateside but luckily, I have family on holiday with friends in the US at the moment so they have been mailed to them and they are bringing them back for me in a few weeks – result J

So that was the wobbly bits! Now on to the good result!

 On Sunday 18^th November I went down to St David’s College to shoot their annual FITA18. Everything was going well and my shooting was on form. My first dozen was 116 and my name went up on the leader board in first place, which is a new experience J As the day went on I stayed out in front, and going into the final dozen I was 5 points ahead but I had a string of 9’s where I was just outside the 10 ring and lost the advantage – so the archer in 2^nd place closed the gap.

When it came to the results, they read out the 3^rd and 2^nd place scores and awards, and it turns out that I had the exact same score as the other archer – with exactly the same X and 9 count! They had already put all the targets away so awarded a joint 1^st place instead of a shoot off, so I came out of it with a gold medal in joint first place – woohoo! The medal/memento board is looking healthy these days!

The archer that I drew level with is a professional sponsored archer with experience on the pro circuit, and if I had scored just one more point in the final dozen I would have come in ahead. I also beat a few seasoned target archers so I am really happy with the result, it shows that the effort is paying off and my shooting is reaching a respectable level these days in both Field and Target archery.

St Kingsmark's Annual Portsmouth

Well, the indoor season is now well and truly upon us and I have shot my first competition of the season. It was a nice introduction into the season shooting the Gwent County Championships & Open,  a 3 spot Portsmouth round hosted by St Kingsmark Bowmen at Beachley Army Barracks.

I drove down with Mr Bruno and we were shooting the afternoon session. We arrived a little early so had plenty of time to have some food/drink, get our equipment set up and signed in. The hall was absolutely freezing so I was glad I wore the extra layers under my club strip!

 
I had a bit of a shaky start with a couple of wild 9’s but I managed to find the 10 ring eventually, and held a steady pace for the rest of the shoot and finished on 572 which is a new PB, up from 565 that I shot last year (I haven’t scored a Portsmouth round at all in the last year!) . When the final results came in, the top Gwent shooter was in the 560’s and my score was in second place so I came home with a silver medal in the Open. 

I was over the moon with the result and very happy to bring home something shiny! But I was also a little disappointed with 572 as I was hoping to nudge closer to 580. So as I always do, I looked at this as a learning experience to improve my game. I noticed that my shots that were out of the 10 were almost all low hits, 6 o clock outer  10’s/9’s. After watching a video of myself shooting, and some feedback from a coach at the club it seems that I am relaxing my bow arm prematurely. The arm is relaxing and the bow arm dropping before the shot is complete, so I am going to use my practice sessions to work on keeping the bow arm steady and solid, and keep a firm pull into the back wall against this without pulling the arrow into my face which causes clearance issues and erratic arrow flight.

 

Roll on the next one!