Outdoor Archery Season, 2008

Competitions

WCW Fita Qualifier, 27th-28th April

I only discovered that this tournament was happening the day before, and wasn't mentally or physically prepared for it. I shot the Fita on Saturday and the 720 round on Sunday, but was shooting so erratically I didn't continue with the eliminations.

WCW Fita Qualifier, 1st June

I as shooting so inconsistently the week before this tournament that I decided to skip the Fita on Saturday, and just shoot the 720 round and double elimination on Sunday. I was still a bit inconsistent, but managed one good twelve arrow elimination pass.

Maple Ridge Fita Star, 14th-15th June

This was the first time I'd been to Maple Ridge Archery Club's new shooting venue at Selvey Park. It's much nicer than the old venue, it's sheltered on all sides and is quiet.

I had been working on tuning and timing for the weeks before this tournament, and have finally got a new set of arrows set up. I changed the points a couple of times, and altered my clicker position to avoid overdrawing. These changes helped with my previous inconsistency, but I was still letting down an extra arrow or two on each end.

Burnaby Fita 720 and Star, 21st-22nd June

This was a pretty disappointing weekend, but some good came out of it. I had made some equipment and form changes in the previous week. Saturday's 70m round was a test of them under competition conditions, since it wouldn't count for any selection or ranking. The equipment changes turned out fine, but the form changes did not work, so I reverted some of them at the end of the tournament.

I was still feeling pretty optimistic about the Fita on Sunday, but when I got to the field on Sunday I discovered that the tournament was cancelled. The judge was sick, and the lights and timer had been stolen from the lock-up (fortunately they have since been recovered).

WCW Star Fita and 70m Round, 12th-13th July

A couple of weeks before this tournament, I had some time with a world-class archery coach, Alexander Kirrilov. I spend the time between that coaching session and this tournament working hard on the form changes we identified. Unfortunately, my grouping became more erratic over that period, so I knew this tournament would be hard. What I didn't know was quite how hard it would be, psychologically and emotionally. It was very obvious right from the start that a good score was not going to be easy, so I tried to just focus on working with my technique. The Fita ended up being my second worst in 15 years. I stayed behind after the Fita to practice some more, and thought I got some idea of what was wrong. My shot felt pretty good the next day during the 70m and match rounds, but I had more dismal groups and dreadful scores. The effect of two days of this has been total demoralisation, and a complete loss of confidence. In an odd twist, it appears that my four worst scores in the last 15 years have been on my home field; I have never shot what I would regard as a good score in a tournament there.

Sherwood International, 19th-20th July

Fourth. My scores were bad, but not as bad as I'd feared. My shot still hadn't returned, so I spent the weekend trying to find my form, and trying not to get depressed or frustrated by it. I'm not sure how well I succeeded in either, but the weekend took a turn for the better (the best!) when I heard that my best friend's first child had been born. I got to go and visit them and see their lovely day-old baby on Sunday after the tournament.

Burnaby Double Fita Star, 26th-27th July

My practice during the week before had been slowly improving (including this neatly split nock). In the practice at 90m on Saturday, I shot one nice relaxed end, putting all of the arrows in the yellow for an end of 57. However, it didn't last and throughout the weekend, I felt that I was getting into line quite well, but was unable to make the shot move through the clicker. Between both days, I could have put together a reasonable score, but individually they were a little bit disappointing.