You Gotta Get Up and Try Try Try!

A badge too far?

A few months ago we covered a story about an experienced GA archer struggling to achieve a club badge. For the GA gold indoor award with a recurve, you need to shoot 270 out of 300 on a 40cm face (Bray 1). Pinching the article title from a Toyah song (It’s a Mystery), we wondered exactly how it was possible he could come up three, two or even just one point short time after time. Honestly, this has been going on for YEARS! At the end of 2022, before the Xmas break, he shot 268, 267 and 269 on three straight club sessions. There was some agreement amongst our coaches that this was a mental problem. That problem seemed almost insurmountable.

Unfortunately, during the Xmas 2022 break he managed to hurt himself in the gym. After some healing time, his scores dropped considerably. He was only scoring around the 250’s even with the prospect of the new Ladder competition. The sort of thing that would normally generate motivation and get those scores boosted. Was his spirit broken and his badge hunt over for the year? Knowing this wack job, probably not!

Improving to a 262 Saturday (25/2) plus some intensive timing practice Sunday morning, he felt “confident” enough to have another go next club night. Fourth arrow in he shot a four. A FOUR! That’s the sort of arrow that causes Tourettes and a rage quit. However, our happy go lucky compounder Scott suggested he keep shooting. To see how the round played out.
… And then a miracle happened:

So what can we take away from this? Here, facing early adversity, our archer shot on regardless. With the pressure off, he shot to his skill, not his fears. You can see a wobble towards the end (9,8,8) as he probably realized he was closing in on 270 and had to fight down the fear once more. Put yourself in his position. How would you have reacted? Worth thinking about how to respond during those times when you feel its all going wrong and want to quit.
Our advice for those times :- Control the panic, deep breath, try to relax, shoot the way you know you can one arrow at a time. Quitting isn’t going to get the job done as its said you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. So we guess what we’re saying is .. get up, and try try try!

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This time we pinched the article title from a lyric in P!nk’s song Try