So if I cut 25mm off my arrows, reduce my clicker draw by 27mm but decrease the size of my fletches … Is free will real or just an illusion?

Standing out in all weathers makes archers natural philosophers … here are a few of their thoughts:

“The archer that shoots badly has a lie ready.” … Spanish Proverb.

“Nothing clears a troubled mind better than shooting a bow.” … Fred Bear.

“No shot is hard to make, it’s just easier to miss.” 

“The ABC of Living the Good Life – Archery, Beer, Coffee” … Our Editor.

“Its harder to make the Korean National Team than it is to win the Olympic gold medal” … Korea Archery.

“I’m an Archery School Dropout (But, my dad pulled some strings and I’m back in)” … I’ll get my quiver!

“I shoot an arrow into the air, where it lands I do not care: I get my arrows wholesale.” … Curly Howard.

“There is no excellence in archery without great labour.” … Maurice Thompson.

“The last person that touched my bow is buried in my back yard.” … DEFINITELY our editor.

“Without archery I would have probably killed people.” … Every club archer who leaves their stresses on the field.

“Draw Shoot Swear Repeat” … Archery distilled to it lowest level. 

“It’s not about being the best. It’s about being better than you were yesterday.” … A coach’s mantra to students.

“In archery, we have something like the way of the superior man. When the archer misses the centre of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure in himself.” … Confucius.

“The real distance you’re shooting is the measurement between your ears!” … Dont think too much! Just shoot.

“Forget the last arrow, only the next one counts.” … Every archer needs this tattooed on the inside of their eyelids.

“Real Archers Don’t Need Training Wheels” … Harsh but true! ;o)

“Archery causes Tourettes” … GA Membership Secretary.

Thanks to an extremely wonderful person at Kelvinside Academy, GA has been allowed unlimited access to the field at Craigholme over the Easter Weekend of 2nd – 5th April … Thats all of it! … Friday to Monday!

So cancel those plans with the family and ……. SEE YOU AT THE FIELD FOR A FOUR DAY ARROW FLINGING FRENZY!

reserve your target at … glasgow.archers.booking@gmail.com
Sessions 10-1pm & 1-4pm – Booking email closes midnight on Thursday

Our Vice-Chair is doing this right now to the mellow sound of Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll”

If you don’t know the scene where Tom Cruise celebrates his parents being out of town, watch it here – Risky Business (1983)

Archery will make you look like this … mibi! (tashe optional)

Recently a very health conscious friend of an archer was mocking his mate for the rather sedentary nature of archery in comparison to his running, martial arts and gym based exercises. It came as somewhat of a shock to that person just how much exercise you can get in a session of archery.

Our Vice-chair did a little tallying to work out just what he had got up to over 3 weekends (4x8hr and 4x6hr sessions) where we had access to the field and he was present the entire time (approx 60 hours including setup/cleanup). He walked 58 miles (93km) up and down the field. Shot his bow roughly 1000 times (at a draw weight of 37lbs) for approximately 16.8 tonnes. Unpacked and repacked the container 16 times humphing 100lbs bosses and lifting smaller bosses to stack them as well as wheeling out and setting up multiple large foam bosses/frames for himself and less able archers.

That’s a fair workout and we haven’t even considered all the fresh air he breathed, the sunlight he absorbed and how much his skin was moisturized by the rain! :oD And that’s before we consider just how much benefit it was to his mental health (outside of the poor releases, the erratic wind, the flinching, dropping the string hand, dropping the bow arm, static release etc etc etc obviously) 

So there you have it … Archery, stealthily making you healthy though a pretty good workout and calming the mind while you obsess over brace height and string picture and hand position and tillering and arrow spine and sight marks and anchor point and release etc etc etc etc! Way more entertaining and mentally stimulating than that treadmill or boring weights and a lot less sweaty!

Thanks to some stealth networking, Glasgow Archers have access to “their” field at Craigholme Sports Hub. Its just for the next two weekends as the sale of the school is still dragging on but THERE SHALL BE ARCHERY AT THAT THERE FIELD!

One year on from the announcement of lockdown … We’ve come SO far, we’re actually allowed out!  Wish we had a field to go to. :o( 

Its been said that 50 of the top 100 archers in the world are Korean. In recent years, with the proliferation of Korean coaches active around the world, this ratio has arguably fallen. As Korean techniques and programs are embraced by more and more nations, the gap has perceptively narrowed. But there is still something that the Koreans seem to do better than any other nation and that’s prepare.

For the 2012 Olympics in London, the venue was Lords cricket ground. The test event showed that in the event of a breezy day, there was going to be a wicked crosswind at the targets. However, the archers would be protected from the wind by the bleachers so creating variable air conditions that the arrow would experience on its way to the target. To simulate the conditions, the Korean archers conducted “wind-fighting” archery practice on Jeju Island, a windblown tourist island that gets some of the country’s most extreme weather.

As a final preparation, the six Korean archers selected to compete in London held their final training session at a military base in Wonju, roughly 70 miles east of the capital Seoul. It was configured to give the same atmosphere of Lords to acclimatise the archers in advance. Scoreboards, screens and approximately 700 boisterous soldiers provided an audience .. shouting, chanting and even booing during each shot. Ironically at the actual event you could have heard a pin drop mainly because the audience was mostly made up of archers who are polite and classy sportspersons (even if they were wearing denim that day!).

With the final preparations for the delayed Tokyo games underway, the Koreans have been preparing in the same methodical way. Early March 2021 they held a special team event. A WA 70m head to head competition in their training hall set up to replicate the atmosphere of the finals. It had cameras, an audience, spectator screens, scoreboards, noise, a bi-lingual blaring PA and was conducted exactly as the Olympic event would be even to the point of formal adjudication, introductions and the archers waving to the “crowd” on entry to the arena. As possible medal favourite Kim WooJin said, experiencing it now would allow him “to be more comfortable when shooting at the competition for real.”

This attention to detail in their preparation is probably one of the things that still differentiates Korean archery from the rest of the world. It will be interesting to see if the last 4 years since Rio has allowed the world to catch up to the big dogs of archery or whither the intense Korean preparation and attention to detail will see them through to another haul of Olympic gold.

Video of the Special Team matches can be found at Korea Archery on YouTube

As lockdown continues to frustrate, unused archery skills erode and the Craigholme sale drags on … Committee member Bill posted this cartoon as a mirror to where our archery will be when we return and our response to that erosion of skills.

All I can say is .. we know someone who has been there, done that (sort of). Our editor forgot to secure his wrist sling while blank bossing over xmas and lobbed his bow at the target**.
We’re told looking at the hole it caused, his long rod did score a 6, a 7 and an 8!

We suspect that World Archery would disallow that score on the grounds his long rod has a diameter great than 9.3mm. That’s the maximum diameter of arrows allowed under World Archery/ AGB rules. 

Easton do do a 2712 aluminium shaft with a diameter of 10.5mm but its not valid for competitions in the UK. It does partly explain why so many compounders get 300 scores in the Vegas indoor shoot. Well, that and they get to use the recurve 40cm face with the larger 10 ring, rather than the compound specific face where just the X ring counts for a 10!

** ps: our editor has form in throwing bows, here is video of him at his calmest. ;o)

You will be happy to know that some of our more “experienced” and “seasoned” club members have already received their COVID jabs. Some have received the Pfizer vaccine and others have received the Oxford/AstraZeneca one.

But in one very special case, one of our archers reported that he had received the Fivics vaccine.

This caused a little consternation as we were concerned he was being vaccinated against archery! Or at the very least, the socially acceptable if expensive virus where you get an insane desire to buy archery equipment**. In case you weren’t aware, Fivics is a Korean supplier of some pretty decent archery equipment. ;o)

If you fancy having a look at shiny things, Fivics web site is always an interesting browse which can be found here and this is their current catalogue.

** Yes, we know our Vice Chairman is a carrier and enthusiastic spreader of this virus. AGB and SAA advise that earplugs or running away from him are the best ways to avoid contracting it.  

9,9,10 … (not) the last end of arrows shot at Craigholme (we hope)

Another month on and there’s little new news regarding Craigholme. With Covid lockdown probably causing the sale to drag, there’s inevitably many loose ends to tie up on a sale of this size let alone contract confidentiality. We just have to be patient.

As was posted on our facebook site … “sadly no news, which is depressing and frustrating in equal measures.”

We’d like to be getting things done for the club but chances are we wont hear anything till March. However, if all is well and we get to stay, that would set us up nicely for a socially distanced clean out of the containers followed by the start of the outdoor summer season.

So many things crossed right now I am shutting off blood flow to my extremities!

GA committee wander desert looking for new home. 

Even though a month has passed from the termination of our let at Craigholme, what with the Xmas break and fact that the sale of the school has not yet concluded, we are still in somewhat of a limbo. This does not mean we have been idle:

During the last few weeks, we and the other clubs active at Craigholme have rallied a great deal of support from MP’s, councillors and governing bodies (in our case the SAA and AGB) as well as Sport Scotland. In addition, the Rector at Kelvinside Academy (current operators of Craigholme) has passed on all of our details to the buyers who, he says, are keen to continue relationships with the various sporting clubs currently active at the sports hub including your friendly neighbourhood archery club. This all sounds quite positive for us staying where we are … But what if it all goes wrong?

We have been talking with some cricket clubs about the possibility of us taking up residence and shooting on their grounds. Now while no cricket ground is as well suited to our needs as Craigholme, Glasgow Archers could easily continue on another site. This would not be the first time GA has moved. Admittedly its been 47 years since the last time we moved our outside venue but just 10 since we migrated from Mearns Castle High School to Craigholme’s sports hall!

Given the terrible weather Glasgow is having right now, I’m not sure we would have had much shootie time especially over Xmas. However, as soon as we actually have some firm news to act on, your committee of sedentary, elderly archers will “leap” into action. Right now we are just waiting for the sale to go through and first contact with, hopefully, our new landlord. Fingers crossed.