Tag Archives: tumblr

Apr 29 2016

Shoot report – Severn Valley – April 2016

SVYF shoot 2016

SVYF shoot April 2016 – archers gathering

Normally I would give you a detailed description of how our NFAS shoot went at the weekend. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be there for the entire day due to being called by the police to tell us we’d been broken into.
Those who follow the tumblr blog associated with off the arrow shelf will have seen some photos of the damage. Fortunately it was our garden shed which had been smashed into and ransacked and not our house.

Sadly this is the second time in 6 months and we think it’s probably the same thieves returning. We weren’t the only victims as it appears they worked along the backs of people’s gardens. So in total we’ve lost approximately  £600 worth of tools and a couple of hundred pounds in damages over the two incidents. Since excess on our insurance is £200 each time we are at a considerable loss.
There’s also the feeling of anger, frustration and fear of leaving the property and wondering what we might find on our return.

Bluebells in the wood

Bluebells in the wood

As for the shoot it seemed to go well with a mix of 3d and paper faces making up the  36 targets.
I don’t think there were any hold ups on the day but as I said I wasn’t there for much of it. I think there were around 170 archers with a dozen no shows, which was a real shame as I know we had a waiting list.

Cobra 3D target

Cobra 3D target

We were lucky with the weather, as it stayed dry and sunny for most of the day.

3D standing bear

3D standing bear

It was good to have the positive feedback as a large portion of the 36 target course had been set by archers new to setting up courses and it was good for them to gain both the experience and feedback.

3D bear target

3D bear target

Well done Marcus, Jamie and Andy for your first foray into course laying.

3D fox - this was set by Marcus and Jamie

3D fox – this was set by Marcus and Jamie

It was nice to chat with a few archers and to catch up with Patrick a coach who qualified at the same time as me. We had a chat about our experiences of coaching since qualifying along with developments we’d seen etc. Good to see you mate and glad you made the trip.
Anyway thanks for reading this very short write up.

Jan 19 2016

Simple coaching tip

Use of technology to help archers

Use of technology to help archers

Those that follow me on instagram or tumblr may have seen the photo of a new toy my friend Andy has picked up to help with coaching. It’s a cradle that holds his tablet and allows it to be connected to a tripod.

View of the tripod set up

View of the tripod set up with Andy shooting

We were testing it out at our coaching day down at the wood and it has proved very useful providing a stable platform for recording archers shooting and then playing it back.

Provides easy playback

Provides easy playback

Andy has also picked up a little bluetooth remote allowing him to trigger the recording from a short distance. (Couple of metres)
Video resources can be immensely useful for many sports, archery included and they are becoming more common, with the growth of YouTube and ease by which people can make and edit recordings increasing the number of budding Spielbergs are out there.
Making videos where I’m in front of the camera has never appealed to me. As someone once said “I have the perfect face for radio” , but I can see their merits of using them in coaching.
For this reason I  have been using simple video software application called Technique for a while and in the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting more on their benefits in the meantime thanks for reading.
Nov 6 2015

Blogging Future and answering questions

So over the last few months I’ve had a few questions from fellow archers at shoots, many of whom are followers of this site. In response I’m going to try and answer their questions now.

Why not YouTube?

A couple of people have asked why I don’t produce video or YouTube blogs like other archery reviewers. There are quite a few UK based sites such as the Merlins archery adventures , Wolfie instinctive archery , Nathan Skyrme add to these the US sites like 3D Archery  and you can see there are quite a few.

Perfect face for radio

Perfect face for radio

The simple answer is, I have a perfect face for radio 🙂
I’m also too self conscious when in front of the camera, so prefer a written or at least typed blog.

What are your future plans for the off the arrow shelf blog?

Autumn, or Fall for my American readers, is here, making for shorter days and longer nights. It also marks the slow down in the field archery calendar with less shoots along with less time and opportunities to practice.
This will mean a slight switch in articles as I post less shoot reports. My plan is to write a few more equipment reviews on items archers might feel useful.

Timber Creek Cobra

Timber Creek Cobra

I’m presently working on one on the Bear Grylls walking trousers, Leatherman multi tools, Timber Creek Cobra, along with testing the prokill24 target faces. I am always looking for other ideas for reviews, so let me know if you have any suggestions.

Example of the Prokill target face on the practice bosses

Example of the Prokill target face on the practice bosses

The winter months give me some time to catch up on my reading so I’m looking at literature reviews along with general archery or coaching related topics, including the use of mobile apps and cameras to support archery coaching.

How many Off the arrow shelf blogs are there?

The original blog is the one on WordPress which has been going for a number of years and has over 260 articles.
I recently started a tumblr site too as I found there was quite a lot of good material on there along with reaching a larger audience.
I can also be found on instagram, which is my latest adventure into blogging.

So there you have it. I’m always happy to hear from readers and it’s even better when I actually get chance to chat with you at shoots. Please come over and say hello.
Thanks for reading.