Monthly Archives: February 2013

Louise : Final session of the beginner’s course

3 Replies

After the start of last week’s session it was fair to say I was quite nervous about how I’d start off this week. Would I hit the curtain again on my first shot? Would my arrow even stay inside the sports hall? 


These were all genuine worries, but my mind and body seemed to have got the hang of it. It was the last session yesterday.  I helped set up and then strung my bow. I was quite chuffed that I remembered how to do it to be honest, anything after that was a bonus. I paired up with Tim for the final time on the shooting line and we began shooting pretty much straight away. Diccon spent less time getting me to rearrange my arms or my reference point this week which I think meant that I was doing okay! My grouping wasn’t brilliant during the first few ends; it takes me a little time to get my sight lined up, but I eventually started to line up my shots. I’ve noticed that I start to hit the centre of the target, just at different points vertically! I hit mostly black and white rings during the first ¾ ends but eventually broke my streak and hit red. Fiona, a member of my group (in the photo to the left!) had a start similar to mine and then she hit the centre of the target. Another member of the group had perfect grouping on their target. It was good to see how far we’d all come since the beginning when we all thought the bow was heavy and we couldn’t get our reference point etc.


After a number of ends we had a competition. Last week in a smaller competition I came third after two ends (a score out of 60) which I was very happy with. This week our competition was out of 300 points which would be ten ends. Any mention of competition usually puts heaps on pressure on and I don’t do very well, much like in my Have-a-Go session all those months ago. This time, after so many hours and so many shots I seemed to be able to keep my composure. I wasn’t always on target (literally) and my grouping was still a little off, however I scored higher as time went on. In the end I came third again with 152 points! I even managed to get a 10 pointer at one stage.

One final tip that Diccon gave us to help with our shooting was to line up the string in the same place on the bow when the string is pulled back, using your foresight. I was terrible at this, this first time I tried the arrow hit the boss sideways and landed on the floor. I might leave using that trick until a further date!

At the end of the session everyone on the course was presented with a certificate of attendance, to show that we attended the course, spent six hours shooting and understood the basic safety protocols and would be able to join 2020Archery as a club member. Diccon gave us the information on what the next steps would be should we wish to join and everyone in my group seemed quite interested in carrying on with the sport and joining the club. One good thing about joining after the course is that you can request to have a buddy when you first attend a shoot, someone who has been shooting for a while and who can help you settle in quickly which I think is a great idea. There are a number of shooting sessions that we can book onto and equipment hire is included in the price of the session, so I don’t think I’ll be running out and buying all the kit just yet!

I had a great time on the course. Diccon was a great tutor and was very patient with us all and offered great advice and help. I found each week easier to get into shooting and forming my reference point and even the weight of the bow was less noticeable by the middle of this week’s session. I was also in a group of nice people who I hope to meet again at a club session.


So there we have it. The course is completed and now the next step is to join 2020 Archery and fulfil my dream of becoming a superhero.

Oh, and you see that photo of me there? My reference point is wrong. Don’t copy me, I’m only a beginner! Until next time……

To take a look at upcoming dates for the Monday evening course that Louise took go to the website here



Louise : Final session of the beginner’s course

3 Replies

After the start of last week’s session it was fair to say I was quite nervous about how I’d start off this week. Would I hit the curtain again on my first shot? Would my arrow even stay inside the sports hall? 


These were all genuine worries, but my mind and body seemed to have got the hang of it. It was the last session yesterday.  I helped set up and then strung my bow. I was quite chuffed that I remembered how to do it to be honest, anything after that was a bonus. I paired up with Tim for the final time on the shooting line and we began shooting pretty much straight away. Diccon spent less time getting me to rearrange my arms or my reference point this week which I think meant that I was doing okay! My grouping wasn’t brilliant during the first few ends; it takes me a little time to get my sight lined up, but I eventually started to line up my shots. I’ve noticed that I start to hit the centre of the target, just at different points vertically! I hit mostly black and white rings during the first ¾ ends but eventually broke my streak and hit red. Fiona, a member of my group (in the photo to the left!) had a start similar to mine and then she hit the centre of the target. Another member of the group had perfect grouping on their target. It was good to see how far we’d all come since the beginning when we all thought the bow was heavy and we couldn’t get our reference point etc.


After a number of ends we had a competition. Last week in a smaller competition I came third after two ends (a score out of 60) which I was very happy with. This week our competition was out of 300 points which would be ten ends. Any mention of competition usually puts heaps on pressure on and I don’t do very well, much like in my Have-a-Go session all those months ago. This time, after so many hours and so many shots I seemed to be able to keep my composure. I wasn’t always on target (literally) and my grouping was still a little off, however I scored higher as time went on. In the end I came third again with 152 points! I even managed to get a 10 pointer at one stage.

One final tip that Diccon gave us to help with our shooting was to line up the string in the same place on the bow when the string is pulled back, using your foresight. I was terrible at this, this first time I tried the arrow hit the boss sideways and landed on the floor. I might leave using that trick until a further date!

At the end of the session everyone on the course was presented with a certificate of attendance, to show that we attended the course, spent six hours shooting and understood the basic safety protocols and would be able to join 2020Archery as a club member. Diccon gave us the information on what the next steps would be should we wish to join and everyone in my group seemed quite interested in carrying on with the sport and joining the club. One good thing about joining after the course is that you can request to have a buddy when you first attend a shoot, someone who has been shooting for a while and who can help you settle in quickly which I think is a great idea. There are a number of shooting sessions that we can book onto and equipment hire is included in the price of the session, so I don’t think I’ll be running out and buying all the kit just yet!

I had a great time on the course. Diccon was a great tutor and was very patient with us all and offered great advice and help. I found each week easier to get into shooting and forming my reference point and even the weight of the bow was less noticeable by the middle of this week’s session. I was also in a group of nice people who I hope to meet again at a club session.


So there we have it. The course is completed and now the next step is to join 2020 Archery and fulfil my dream of becoming a superhero.

Oh, and you see that photo of me there? My reference point is wrong. Don’t copy me, I’m only a beginner! Until next time……

To take a look at upcoming dates for the Monday evening course that Louise took go to the website here



Mark : First Competition! Norwich Stafford

4 Replies

It’s a wintery afternoon on 13th January 2013 and I’m wandering around a near deserted college campus somewhere on the outskirts of Norwich. The sports hall, the venue for the Norfolk Bowmen UKRS (UK Record Status) Stafford, is proving to be difficult to find. I feel okay about this because as soon as I do find it I’m in unknown territory – the elusive world of the archery tournament.

My quest to find the sports hall left me plenty of time to ponder the bigger questions in life: How will I know what to do? What if I don’t know the etiquette? Why does Rule 307 make me feel like I’m back a school? What on earth is a Lady Paramount?

Ah, found the entrance! Deep breath. Here’s what I found out….
  • It’s similar to shooting at the club. There are loads of people with bows, a few familiar faces (some of the staff from Clickers in Norwich) and a lot of less familiar faces. But we’re all here to do the same thing.
  • It’s really well organised and the judges are here to help. I arrived at the end of the first session, found a judge and blurted out, “This is my first tournament, what do I do?”. 
“Don’t panic!”, came the wisened reply, “Set up your bow and we’ll explain everything”. Which they did, immediately prior to our two ends of sighters.
  • Although the signalling system is different to the one used at 2020, it only takes a couple of ends to get used to it. In short: 


    • *bleep bleep* first detail to the shooting line 
    • 
*bleep* first detail shoot

    • *bleep bleep* second detail to the shooting line
    • 
*bleep* second detail shoot

    • *bleep bleep bleep* safe to score and collect your arrows


    • The process then repeats, but if you were on the first detail for the first end you swap to second detail for the second end and so forth. That way, everyone gets to shoot at a blank target face an equal number of times.

If there are four people on a target (A,B,C,D), archer C tends to write the scores, but this can be negotiated. You call your arrows in turn, highest value to lowest, pointing at each one as you call it (but don’t touch any of the arrows or the target face until scoring has finished!). If you aren’t the scorer you should pull your fair share of arrows once the scores have been taken, not just your own arrows.

And so it goes until the end of the round.

I was lucky enough to be on a target with three friendly and more experienced archers so I took the opportunity to ask lots of the questions. In my next post I’ll let you know what I found out about etiquette and preparation.

p.s. the Lady Paramount (or Lord Paramount) appears to be the chief judge. This wasn’t overly clear. I think they should have to wear a special hat or something.



Mark : First Competition! Norwich Stafford

4 Replies

It’s a wintery afternoon on 13th January 2013 and I’m wandering around a near deserted college campus somewhere on the outskirts of Norwich. The sports hall, the venue for the Norfolk Bowmen UKRS (UK Record Status) Stafford, is proving to be difficult to find. I feel okay about this because as soon as I do find it I’m in unknown territory – the elusive world of the archery tournament.

My quest to find the sports hall left me plenty of time to ponder the bigger questions in life: How will I know what to do? What if I don’t know the etiquette? Why does Rule 307 make me feel like I’m back a school? What on earth is a Lady Paramount?

Ah, found the entrance! Deep breath. Here’s what I found out….
  • It’s similar to shooting at the club. There are loads of people with bows, a few familiar faces (some of the staff from Clickers in Norwich) and a lot of less familiar faces. But we’re all here to do the same thing.
  • It’s really well organised and the judges are here to help. I arrived at the end of the first session, found a judge and blurted out, “This is my first tournament, what do I do?”. 
“Don’t panic!”, came the wisened reply, “Set up your bow and we’ll explain everything”. Which they did, immediately prior to our two ends of sighters.
  • Although the signalling system is different to the one used at 2020, it only takes a couple of ends to get used to it. In short: 


    • *bleep bleep* first detail to the shooting line 
    • 
*bleep* first detail shoot

    • *bleep bleep* second detail to the shooting line
    • 
*bleep* second detail shoot

    • *bleep bleep bleep* safe to score and collect your arrows


    • The process then repeats, but if you were on the first detail for the first end you swap to second detail for the second end and so forth. That way, everyone gets to shoot at a blank target face an equal number of times.

If there are four people on a target (A,B,C,D), archer C tends to write the scores, but this can be negotiated. You call your arrows in turn, highest value to lowest, pointing at each one as you call it (but don’t touch any of the arrows or the target face until scoring has finished!). If you aren’t the scorer you should pull your fair share of arrows once the scores have been taken, not just your own arrows.

And so it goes until the end of the round.

I was lucky enough to be on a target with three friendly and more experienced archers so I took the opportunity to ask lots of the questions. In my next post I’ll let you know what I found out about etiquette and preparation.

p.s. the Lady Paramount (or Lord Paramount) appears to be the chief judge. This wasn’t overly clear. I think they should have to wear a special hat or something.







Louise : Embedded reporting from Monday night Beginners Course Week 2!

3 Replies

I stood on the line, remembering my T position and my reference point.  I took a deep breath as I picked up my arrow and placed it on my bow. As I drew the string back I breathed in hard, then I let the string slip off my fingers and watched as the arrow sailed through the air, straight past the target on the boss and into the curtain at the end of the sports hall.

Oh…

And so the second session of the Fast-track course began!

https://www.2020archery.co.uk/lessons-courses/monday-beginners-archery-course

Those who arrived a little earlier helped to set up all the equipment and Heidi joined for a short while, giving us tips on how to place and pin the targets to the straw bosses. We started shooting fairly soon into the start of the session after a few refresher tips from Diccon, our course leader. It was fair to say that I didn’t start off well. In fact 2 out of the 3 arrows shot in the first two ends seemed to enjoy missing the boss completely. However it didn’t take long before I started to get back into the swing of things. I started to get used to tuning the sight more this time round, and from the third end, around 70% of my arrows were central on the target! Horizontally rather than vertically, but this was still good progress as far as I was concerned.

I think the most important thing I learned during this session was how to hold the bow, or rather, being reminded how to hold the bow by using my palm rather than trying to balance the bow in-between my thumb and forefinger, putting pressure on the area. I felt much more in control of the bow and my shaking reduced a fair amount too.

There was a lot of shooting practice this time, giving us the chance to work on our technique more and to get used to repeating certain manoeuvres over and over so we were more used to them. Diccon was on hand giving everyone advice and help, pointing out when a shoulder was too high or giving us new things to think about when shooting, such as where in our upper body the power would come from for a shot.

After an hour and a half, it was competition time. Each person would shoot two ends, three arrows in each, and the score would be recorded with a best out of sixty. I remember how during my Have-a-Go session I instantly became awful as soon as I felt any pressure, but I did better this time round. In the first end I scored 8-7-7 totalling 22, and then in the second I scored 9 and 6 scoring 15. The other arrow decided it was a pacifist and wanted no part in the competition. With a total of 37 I was third out of the group which I was very happy with, considering how badly I began the session!

I’m already looking forward to next week. It is quite relaxing and also a little stressful but with more shooting time and practice I think this could be something I really enjoy.

Until next time!



Louise : Embedded reporting from Monday night Beginners Course Week 2!

3 Replies

I stood on the line, remembering my T position and my reference point.  I took a deep breath as I picked up my arrow and placed it on my bow. As I drew the string back I breathed in hard, then I let the string slip off my fingers and watched as the arrow sailed through the air, straight past the target on the boss and into the curtain at the end of the sports hall.

Oh…

And so the second session of the Fast-track course began!

https://www.2020archery.co.uk/lessons-courses/monday-beginners-archery-course

Those who arrived a little earlier helped to set up all the equipment and Heidi joined for a short while, giving us tips on how to place and pin the targets to the straw bosses. We started shooting fairly soon into the start of the session after a few refresher tips from Diccon, our course leader. It was fair to say that I didn’t start off well. In fact 2 out of the 3 arrows shot in the first two ends seemed to enjoy missing the boss completely. However it didn’t take long before I started to get back into the swing of things. I started to get used to tuning the sight more this time round, and from the third end, around 70% of my arrows were central on the target! Horizontally rather than vertically, but this was still good progress as far as I was concerned.

I think the most important thing I learned during this session was how to hold the bow, or rather, being reminded how to hold the bow by using my palm rather than trying to balance the bow in-between my thumb and forefinger, putting pressure on the area. I felt much more in control of the bow and my shaking reduced a fair amount too.

There was a lot of shooting practice this time, giving us the chance to work on our technique more and to get used to repeating certain manoeuvres over and over so we were more used to them. Diccon was on hand giving everyone advice and help, pointing out when a shoulder was too high or giving us new things to think about when shooting, such as where in our upper body the power would come from for a shot.

After an hour and a half, it was competition time. Each person would shoot two ends, three arrows in each, and the score would be recorded with a best out of sixty. I remember how during my Have-a-Go session I instantly became awful as soon as I felt any pressure, but I did better this time round. In the first end I scored 8-7-7 totalling 22, and then in the second I scored 9 and 6 scoring 15. The other arrow decided it was a pacifist and wanted no part in the competition. With a total of 37 I was third out of the group which I was very happy with, considering how badly I began the session!

I’m already looking forward to next week. It is quite relaxing and also a little stressful but with more shooting time and practice I think this could be something I really enjoy.

Until next time!



Mark : From Novice to Competitor.

2 Replies

Alternate title – I am a contender!


Hello! I’m Mark and I’ve been shooting at 2020 Archery for the last two years. I first used a Recurve bow at a Have A Go stag event and enjoyed it so much that I went on to take a weekend course, joining the club shortly afterwards. After a few months of shooting I started to consider buying my own bow and set myself the goal of scoring 500 on a Portsmouth using a club bow, at which point I would shell out on the new kit. 

Exactly one year after my training weekend I was the proud owner of a Hoyt bow with XX75 arrows, which I bought from Asher at 2020 after testing out a few different bow setups. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I’d bought my first bow sooner; the fastest way to improve in the beginning is to use the same kit week in, week out, and the only real way to have that sort of control is to own your bow and get to know it intimately.

I decided early in my second year of shooting that I wanted to shoot competitively. A few weeks ago I shot at my first tournament and caught the bug; a week later I was shooting at my second tournament and the third, fourth and fifth have been booked. 

The process of preparing for and then shooting at a tournament certainly bring your practice into focus.  This is the area my blog posts will focus on. I put off entering competitive shoots for some time because I had so many questions about how it all worked, what it was going to be like and how good the other competitors were going to be. I’d like to share my experiences with you, because it’s not as scary as it might seem and it’s loads of fun. Honest!


Mark : From Novice to Competitor.

2 Replies

Alternate title – I am a contender!


Hello! I’m Mark and I’ve been shooting at 2020 Archery for the last two years. I first used a Recurve bow at a Have A Go stag event and enjoyed it so much that I went on to take a weekend course, joining the club shortly afterwards. After a few months of shooting I started to consider buying my own bow and set myself the goal of scoring 500 on a Portsmouth using a club bow, at which point I would shell out on the new kit. 

Exactly one year after my training weekend I was the proud owner of a Hoyt bow with XX75 arrows, which I bought from Asher at 2020 after testing out a few different bow setups. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I’d bought my first bow sooner; the fastest way to improve in the beginning is to use the same kit week in, week out, and the only real way to have that sort of control is to own your bow and get to know it intimately.

I decided early in my second year of shooting that I wanted to shoot competitively. A few weeks ago I shot at my first tournament and caught the bug; a week later I was shooting at my second tournament and the third, fourth and fifth have been booked. 

The process of preparing for and then shooting at a tournament certainly bring your practice into focus.  This is the area my blog posts will focus on. I put off entering competitive shoots for some time because I had so many questions about how it all worked, what it was going to be like and how good the other competitors were going to be. I’d like to share my experiences with you, because it’s not as scary as it might seem and it’s loads of fun. Honest!


2020 Archery Blog