When do you NOT turn up for a booked shoot?

[tel]

You're only running away from "the challenge" if thats what you're in it for. If you get enjoyment from challenging conditions thats fine - if you don't then its your choice not to put yourself through it.

[buzz lite beer]

None of the adverse weather conditions will put me off, if the organiser is still running the tournament I will be shooting, However I have been known on one instance to travel to the wrong venue and miss the 1st scoring distance when I finally arrived so I didn't bother shooting that particular one.

[Rainbow]

Thunder and lightening would put me off ,b (tho I think it is a great phenomen) I would not want to get struck by lightening . I will still go to shoots I have entered after all it gets you out of the house/work anyway

[Furface]

Originally Posted by tel

You're only running away from "the challenge" if thats what you're in it for. If you get enjoyment from challenging conditions thats fine - if you don't then its your choice not to put yourself through it.

Yes, I agree for those of us mere mortals who shoot purely for pleasure. But surely those who are after ranking or qualification scores are deceiving themselves if they effectively give up in the face of difficulties. What would happen to them in a year - not impossible if meteorologists' warnings are to be believed - when all WRS shoots are affected by weather? "I would have been number 1 if I had shot"?

[rod]

remember the archery world cup round in italy last year? elite archers still had to shoot in it. these archer who are shooting for score when the weather fits are building false expectations on what they can acheave.
personally there was two shoots i attended last year when the weather put off archers. 1st green dragon windsor it was raining hard most of the longbow archers stayed away, and it was quite amusing watching three people trying to pull out compound arrows, shoulders where done in on that day.
2nd, east anglian fita at littleport, the judges insisted on scopes being removed from the line in case they blew over, the only things that where blown over was the judges chairs!!!. the comp was curtailed after 1 dozon in the 50 meter distance.

[archer_thom]

Originally Posted by rod

2nd, east anglian fita at littleport, the judges insisted on scopes being removed from the line in case they blew over, the only things that where blown over was the judges chairs!!!. the comp was curtailed after 1 dozon in the 50 meter distance.

That must have been some serious weather! I've shot in some where there have been lightning strinkes in the field and all that's happened has been a few minute's pause to stay in tents.

[bimble]

The only times I've missed a shoot was one bank holiday when the car dramatically failed it's MOT and another time when I had wrenched my shoulder and was unable to even lift my bow off the floor on the morning of the competition (and yes, I did get up early just on the off chance my shoulder had gotten better....).

[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.

[Watch_Man]

Originally Posted by Furface

Yes, I agree for those of us mere mortals who shoot purely for pleasure. But surely those who are after ranking or qualification scores are deceiving themselves if they effectively give up in the face of difficulties. What would happen to them in a year - not impossible if meteorologists' warnings are to be believed - when all WRS shoots are affected by weather? "I would have been number 1 if I had shot"?

Perhaps some of our GB archers should give up indoor practice Just look at the number of GB squad archers who extensively practice 70m indoors. Even the outdoor selection shoot was indoors!

[bluetick1230]

I have found the different viewpoints in this tread very interesting.
Being a newish archer I intend to take each competition as its own challange aiming to win any I enter (I can dream can't I) but to have fun. Classifications and high scores should follow.
I hope it is a long time before a single blue in a Frostbite prompts me to comment "I might as well go home".