From the Lions' Den - A freestylers' journey.

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
No, my parents remained idiots for life ;)

My schooldays were 65-76, we must be around the same age. My doctor back then was a former Lanc navigator too. I've only ever managed to put 12 hours in my logbook, the vast majority on sailplane & the last was 28 years ago. If it wasn't for the Army Gliding Club at RAF Odiham that would be zero.
 

steve

Member
I've only ever managed to put 12 hours in my logbook, the vast majority on sailplane & the last was 28 years ago.
I've never flown anything that I could claim to be "loggable" but I've been up in a Tiger Moth (the pilot pulled it out of the hangar by lifting the tail and pulling it with one hand) :oops:, Britten-Norman BN-2 Islanders in New Zealand and some Twin Otter seaplanes in the Maldives. Seaplanes are fun.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
With 36 hrs to go until the compo, I'm spending my Friday night wired up to a TENS machine :cry:

Earlier this afternoon I started doing a light SPT session with my 36# limbs & immediately felt a 'twinge' in my left shoulder. I know what it is, the original damage was done in a motorcycle 'accident' on the Old Kent Road in 1990. It's because the main nerve to the arm has to run within a narrow channel between 3 of the shoulder bones & if it get 'pinched' it swells up & gets squeezed by the bones when the arm is at or above the horizontal. If I had a week to go, I'd be sitting it out at the medical centre until a GP was available to give me a cortisone shot (which would/will be my 3rd, the last was 6 years ago) but as time prorogues that for now, some intensive electro-massage & hot/cold therapy - linked with just a wee bit of 'erbal immune-system boosting & pain/inflammation control - will hopefully suffice.

Either I'll be right-as-rain to shoot anything I want on Sunday or I won't be able to lift so much as a training band.

I wouldn't bet a bent X-7 on which.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Tynedale Triple Crown Handicap
Sunday 15th Sept 2019


Conditions - cloudy but dry, headwind 0-10 mph, just about still warm enough to shoot in a polo shirt.

I was drawn to shoot the rounds in 3,1,2 order. The bracketed figures are changes on last weeks' final practice.

1: Stafford- 271 (+74)
2: FITA 25 - 237 (-66)
3: FITA 18 - 312 (+9)
Total - 820 (+16)

What does it mean?

Nobody will know until it's announced at the AGM next Sunday.

But the 'smart money' (i.e. coach) is on the wee lass who is still at the 'more grass than paper' stage. He said the way the handicap tables work, you have to shoot either really well or extremely badly to score the big points.

I'm feeling kinda "Two out of three ain't bad" but more as a question. What the (insert suitable profanity here) happened on my final round? Sixty-six points dropped, when I was so far ahead of the curve?

No, it wasn't 'scoreboard pressure', before that's suggested. At that point I had no idea what my round scores were because the teenager I was shooting with wasn't adding the totals at the conclusion of ends or dozens. 🦁 Grrrr....but his dad is younger, taller & meaner-looking than me so nowt said ;)

My centres-of-grouping were pretty-much bang on the spider, but it was like that gold had a damned goalkeeper!

So do I feel I deserve to 'win'?

No.

Even though the total says I shot better than last Sunday, my heart says I did not.

I really don't know why my form disintegrated in the final round. Right from the first shot I just wasn't shooting as well as I had in the previous two. It bugs me that I can't work it out. Yet.

'twas a good afternoon to say a silent farewell to the club.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
What happened on the last round - tired and aching because of the shoulder damage?
Nice try Collin, but deffo Nope!

After 2 days of pretty intensive 'therapy' the shoulder (nerve) behaved itself perfectly, not so much as a warning twinge since Saturday.
I felt good physically through & beyond the compo, it was only after diner when I walked the woofit that the aches & pains began to manifest.
- the vast majority of today has been spent in the horizontal though (midnite to eleven then two til six). With FMS you can delay, but never avoid, 'paying the ferryman' ;)

Looking back, I'm starting to suspect that I allowed myself to 'get sped up' during that last round, subconsciously throwing off my normal (relaxed) rhythm to try to avoid always being the last archer on the line-

...but still never coming even close to the four minute limit!

Some (most) of the barebow plinkers were firing off six in the time I was loosing three, it's quite 'normal' for me to be alone on the line for my last two shots, plus the three peeps sound as soon as I step off the line so by the time I've untangled the finger sling and stashed the bow EE are halfway to the bosses plus the single peep sounds as soon as I cross the firing line on the return so first (& sometimes second) arrows have flown before I'm even ready to set up on the line.

- Just one of the reasons I'll be glad to join my new club at the end of the month!

I noticed both at the Newburn Open & at their club night a couple of weeks later that 'serious' recurvers seem naturally to take their time much more than BBers - especially 'casual plinkers'.

Being brutal (Hey, I am The Lion!) I put it down to poor/lazy coaching that most are shooting too damned quickly for their own good.

...But it IS my fault if I let that get to me.

I need to spend more time working on a D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F. attitude!
 

Finch

Member
Well, I am really happy to be wrong! When I first started shooting I suffered three bouts of frozen shoulder in fairly quick succession. It's only having gone back to archery this year that I realised it was due to poor form and plagued me for months.

Sounds to me like you'll be well off at your new club. One of our members (who is very serious!) is never going to be rushed and will regularly be the last off the line. Not normally a problem for any of us as he is normally the one with the whistle! We still manage to shoot the full 60 arrows for a Portsmouth round in about 90 minutes with a 10 minute break half way through.

DILLIGAF is great, I also try to employ DLTBGYD (in all my life) and Carpe Jugulum for when I really can't cope... :D
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Ahh yes, good ol' "Nevum Illigitimus carborundum"
Should have remembered that one too!
Carpe Jugulum is new to me, unbelievably - I have read quite a few Diskworlds but never became a fanboi. Maybe I should revisit it?

'Break(s)' would have made a difference I think - not just to feed my baccy addiction either! 3 half-rounds (108 arrows) with no break was probably not the best idea the club ever had. At least I could have caught up with 'what the other guy should have done' on the scorecard.

But hey! Lessons learned an'a'that.

Only one shooting session left with Tynedale anyway, after the AGM on Sunday. I can't afford the fuel for Wednesday night after the emergency Merlin trip last week. I'll be making my official debut with Newburn a week on Friday (Indoors).
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Good grief!

A mere 3 days without the forum & I was feeling like I was going cold turkey :eek:

GREAT to have it back, let's all be nicer to the rodents (yes, even Dave ;) ) in future, huh?
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Well, my final appearance for Tynedale turned out to be a total waste of time. Wish I'd stayed home & watched the F1GP, and spent the petrol money on a pouch of baccy!

(A vape just doesn't do it for me, but it's all I've got until Friday now.)

The AGM was as tedious as all such meetings, anywhere, tend to be. Most notable thing about it was that despite many reminders there were only NINE people in attendance, with 3 AFA's. Can the club survive?

SO tempting to call 'fix!' on the handicap comp results, but as I said I didn't feel I'd shot well enough to deserve it anyway so there was no point. The gold, silver & bronze medals went to the coach, chairman & secretary respectively. The last is the super-suspicious one, I've watched her shoot!

Afterwards we headed for the field, I was hoping to nail a 475 Portsmouth for my swan-song but no, it was decided that due to frequent light showers they were gonna shoot a 130 yd clout (the longest our field permits). I declined, I really don't like clouts, I spectated for a few ends then headed for home. I've already said why earlier, no need to repeat it.

So, looking forward to my 'official' debut at Newburn, indoors on Friday night - although I may not be able to make every session next month as I'm bidding on a set of A/C/E's on eBay this week. Perfect length & spine for me so I couldn't NOT get involved! Maybe it's time to sell my rookie bow, should just about cover the purchase if I'm lucky?

- They'll need re-socked & re-fletched for my tastes, plus replacing the G-nocks with pins, but I have until the spring to get them range-worthy so no time pressure on that.

Time to relax & watch Chelsea v Liverpool now, then the F1GP highlights & 3 NFL games. I don't even dare look for the final result of the England RWC match (we were doing OK when I left for the AGM, with 25 minutes left to go) in case I accidentally see the race results (I've done it before :( ) so no twitter, facebook or sports pages until after 20:30
 

jonUK76

Member
SO tempting to call 'fix!' on the handicap comp results, but as I said I didn't feel I'd shot well enough to deserve it anyway so there was no point. The gold, silver & bronze medals went to the coach, chairman & secretary respectively. The last is the super-suspicious one, I've watched her shoot!
If it's like ours it's for handicap improvement during a season rather than outright "best archers". In my club it tends to favour beginners who improve rapidly (and crucially, who also hand in enough scores to get initial and final handicaps....). It could also favour archers who start the season on a particularly weak note (injured, out of form etc.) and improve massively. I also think it gets exponentially harder the lower the initial handicap, i.e. to go from 30 to 20 in a season would require much more training/effort than going from say 70 to 60 although the raw improvement of 10 is the same in both cases..
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Yeah, they have been a wee bit closed-mouth about it, all I know is they have some handicap tables for each round, they look up the score you shot & it gives you 'handicap points' to add to your score. Supposed to have been written by math/stats 'experts'. The 'combined scores' that have been mentioned are really weird though, like if you shoot 250 for each round you end up with a total score of over 4,000.

My suspicion is, the 'committee' worked out in advance exactly what score gets the best combined result & only shot well enough to hit that mark.
I consider it in the same category as those raffles where the top prizes end up in the hands of the organisers.

But hey, I've always been a 'tin-foil-hatter'.
...and usually proven right eventually.

Not gonna sweat it though, not my club anymore!

Not my circus, not my monkeys ;)
 

Kerf

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
Personally, I dislike intensely the handicap system and tend not to take part in the handicap/classification shoots at my club. I have seen competent archers deliberately shot poorly to advantage their handicap points. Our records officer is obsessed by stats so much so that the handip/classification rounds have taken up over half of the club’s outdoor sessions this year.
I agree with jonUk76 when he says the handicap system strongly favours beginners. I would much rather see them concentrating on 252s to measure their improvement especially as there are virtually no local handicapping shoots in which they take part.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Just back from my first indoor shoot for my new club.

K-nackered!

I shot pretty well, but couldn't complete a Portsmouth due to dealing with introductions, paperwork & a much-needed smoke break in the refreshing chill of the outdoor air. It must have been 22* in the hall, m'titfer was soaked in sweat by the end.

Good fun though, and some kewl & knowledgeable people - looking forward to Sunday, for sure :D

Oh, I shot 378 with 15 arrows to go so I was looking at the possibility of breaking 500. My current PB is 469.

dislike intensely the handicap system
Yep.
 

chuffalump

Well-known member
Personally, I dislike intensely the handicap system and tend not to take part in the handicap/classification shoots at my club. I have seen competent archers deliberately shot poorly to advantage their handicap points.
Life's too short to try to game competitions like that. I feel that it's irrelevant anyway, who ever got the highest scoring arrows was the best archer on the day. Regardless of who got the box of chocolates or bottle of wine.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
I think handicap systems can add interest to a competition, if done well. As kids, we used to race round the block of houses where we lived. Slower runners were given a head start so everyone had a chance to get the the finish first. If a slower runner won the race, they were never considered to be the best runner; but they did win the race, and everyone ran to the end. With no head starts most would not have bothered running, as they knew who would win. In archery, a handicap is a bit like saying, "If these newer archers had a bit more experience they would probably shoot these adjusted scores." I think it would be better to adjust each end or each dozen by adding so many points to their score as the shoot continues, rather than at the end. Archers on the same boss can compare scores with their mates as they shoot , and keep track of who is in the lead so far.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Just an observation-

To get a dozen A/C/E points from my fave people costs £28 before postage. A dozen 'protector' points from Top Hat costs £30 including postage.

(Just pricing up possible modz to my soon-to-be-acquired ally/carbs)
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Never mind the bloody handicaps, my biggest gripe with scoring is that a bare-bower only has to shoot about 170 to get a 252 badge :mad:

My (limited) experience has been that sights simply don't make THAT much of a difference!
 
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