Tag Archives: archery

Feb 15 2013

First shoot of year

Paget de Vasey  host their annual shoot this Sunday and it will be our first shoot for the 2013 season.  You can see a past shoot report from last years shoot here.

It will also be the first shoot Sharon will have competed at since recovering from breaking her finger. ( original post)

Sharons hand

Sharon’s hand, a few days after breaking finger.

As both a coach and husband I know how much this will mean to her. Sharon gets as much from archery as she puts in, and she puts in a lot of effort.

Sharon Shooting at wood

She also uses archery as a method of relaxing from the stresses and pressure of working life. So without archery she has been a little grumpy which is understandable and yes she would admit that. We’ve been very fortunate that Steve Parsons at our club (SVYF) lent her a lighter draw weight bow (30lb draw weight) which has helped her build the strength back. (Thanks Steve and Happy Birthday for Saturday)

Whether she wins a medal or not I am just hoping that she remembers to

  1.  Enjoys the day.
  2.  Doesn’t get frustrated if not shooting well.
  3. Remembers I love her.

Recovering from injury is not always easy and often we put additional pressure on ourselves concerning our own expectations of performance. We often think we can immediately go back to the level of performance we had previously.

Whilst in reality we need to take things slow and steady and you will then succeed.

If you push it too far or too fast, you run the risk of aggravating the injury or depress yourself as you aren’t performing at the level you feel you should.

You can say this is a normal thing for a coach to say, but it also something I have had to learn the hard way too. and is true of all sports and activities.

In my case with archery it was following a car accident that left me unable to shoot my bow for several months, but this is a lesson I have had to learn elsewhere too, but that’s another story for another day.

Thanks for reading and I’ll try to post a write-up of the shoot next week.

Jan 25 2013

Archery Panda – Eats shoots and leaves

I’m guessing most with not associate Pandas with Archery, but you might be surprised.

Pandas are not just a kung fu warriors

kung fu panda

Or symbol of world wildlife fund

WWF Logo

But I have heard the phrase Panda used to describe some archers. In respect to the exact phrase “Eats, Shoots & Leaves”  which comes from the book title Eats, Shoots & Leave: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation written by Lynne Truss

So what is an archery panda?

Well it is based round what some people see as a question of archery etiquette. I have little doubt that archery etiquette has been discussed at numerous clubs, events or gathering of archers. What is thought of as acceptable or unacceptable.

As I understand it the phrase describes  “an archer who turns up at a shoot ground, has a bite to eat before the start. Then he or she, shoots round the course and departs before any prize giving or results are announced.”

Eats,  Shoots and Leaves

So what’s wrong with this? If you know you’ve no medal chances why stick around?

From the discussion I have had or heard it is arguably an etiquette thing. You wouldn’t turn up at a friends house party, eat some food, have a brief chat then leave without saying goodbye. So why do it at a shoot?

The other thought is that you should stick around and show your support of other archers, especially the juniors. Added to this is the show of thanks to the organisers of the event.

Granted there are people who will have to leave early, due to work, or life commitments. There are also times when I’ve shot so badly the last  thing I want to do is stick around but it is something I do to show support for the archers there.

So what do people think? Have you come across archery Pandas?

Thanks for reading.

Jan 23 2013

Pines Park NFAS shoot cancelled – pass it on

The UK is presently being blanketed in snow and for this reason Pines Park have cancelled their shoot. On their request I’m just trying to get this message out to as many NFAS archers that read this blog.

Pines Park Archers logo

Pines Park Archers

Message to all archers from Pines Park Archers, please pass on:

 We are sorry to say the shoot on 27th (January 2013) has been cancelled due to the weather. We don’t want any unnecessary risks taken. The shoot will be re scheduled for later in the year. Please pass this on to anyone you think is booked in who may not have seen this.

Thanks for reading and please pass this message on to others. Keep warm 🙂