[Watch_Man]

Originally Posted by Furface

I quite understand where you are coming from, but is this right? If you "know" the weather is going to prevent you doing anything, then you are defeated before you start - and when you hit "weather" in the Olympic final. And ranking and quali scores are taken from your best, rather than the total or average, so the only point of retiring is to kid yourself that you are better than you are. And this also sounds like defeatism. Both these cases suggest mor psych work is needed, rather than running away from the challenge.

There are several GB archers who adopt this strategy, I even saw a couple retire during indoor events this year because they were not getting the scores.

I think you have to differentiate between practicing in different weather conditions and competing in a WRS event where you aim is to achieve a ranking score. If you know you will not achieve the score what is the point of participating, or if you are already shooting, continuing to the end?

For example with a lady compound needing to shoot at least 2 x FITA scores of over 1360 to be considered for the 2009 selection shoot, then conditions need to be reasonable to achieve this. A GB archer we were speaking to a couple of weeks ago pointed out to us that scores not position was important. He didn't care if he came 1st or 3rd as long as he got a quali score.

I think it is a case of putting the maximum effort into events that will achieve the biggest payback. if its just a case of practicing in the wind or rain then we can do this at our club without spending £60 on petrol and £50 - £80 on food and accomodation.