Pantsville.

[Old Bloke]

Going to a competition is for many, the highlight of the week and a review of their archery training when put under pressure from that competition. Most archers will attend the competition with great expectation and an expectation of shooting better than in practise. The reality is, shooting better in competition is not a common event, and as a result, the archer has a tendancy to beat themselves up, when in reality they are probably shooting to their average which is comendable. If at a competition, all would appear to be falling apart, take a step back and review what has been going on with your shooting over the last week/month because it is most probable that the issues you are having at the competition have been manifesting themselves over a period of time and comes to a head at the competition simply because of the enviroment in which you are shooting. An anology of this is when a plane crashes. It is very very rare that it is a single event but more of a series of events culminating in the inevitable, which, with knowledge and diligence, could have been avoided....just like your problems at a shoot.
The problems many archers find at a shoot were there before they turned up, having not looked at the issues whilst at the club and in the club comfort zone. Unfortunately, archers, in general have great expectations in the competition enviroment which cannot be backed up with the *work in progress*....and just because it is a competition, doesn't mean to say that you will still not have problems..just as you would at the club. A finger tab breakage, or sight falling apart or even the arrow rest packing up will and does happen at the club and will also happen at competition. It is unfortunate that the equipment you use cannot distinguish between a club session and a competition!
So, if things are not going the way you expected it could be that you missed something in your prep' or just turned a blind eye in the hope that the issues would solve themselves. Sorry folks, in archery, all it is is problem solving untill eventually all your problems will have been solved and then and only until then can you go to a shoot with great expectations.

[geoffretired]

I'd say you've been in archery a long time and studied archers along the way to Pantsville., Nice post!

[worthipa]

Ah, what a great sage you are OB ....

[King Custard]

One day OB's 'book of musings and anecdotes' is going to be released.

and it's gonna be a great read!

[clickerati]

As you know, OB, I'm the sole resident of Pantsville (I did create the place, after all!). I went back there again today. All was going well, figured out how to move the sight finally. My fingers were burning something awful, but I persevered, that is...until my rest fell apart. Just like last year. Luckily I told the judge, who assured me I'd have time to fix the problem and shoot and have some smart target mates who helped me. First attempt at fixing failed and gave me some really lame scores. Second try seemed to sort it, but by that time I was a nervous wreck.

Up until that point it felt like I was shooting better than yesterday, but with only a 3 point improvement, the score would reveal otherwise.

[Old Bloke]

You have a neighbour, Leigh, she is called Leo.

From your posts amd performance over the last two days, it is most probable that there have been several issues running at the same time. One being the rest giving up the ghost having probably been on the blink yesterday.

It is all part of the learning curve, for, you might have noticed, how little trouble top shots have with their kit, for like you, they too have learned the lessons the hard way.

[clickerati]

Leigh and Leo. Must be summat to do with our beautiful names.

[Meddler]

Went to a competition and shot today.

Somewhere in the 4th dozen, the launcher unscrewed.

Another thing to add to the list of checks before competition.

The 5 Ps - Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance....

[bkupris]

Ahhh.. the beauty of traditional archery. much less to go wrong except operator error

[clickerati]

Originally Posted by sp220

What an amazing and insightfull post!

From an amazing and insightful archer!!