Outdoor Archery Season, 1997

Summary

Fita average

 Dist	 Hits  Golds    Score   Low  High  S. Dev. Num
  90m   35.83   3.58   274.83   253   302  12.8895  12
  70m   36.00   7.08   306.33   294   319   8.6538  12
  50m   36.00   8.00   307.00   290   319   8.0000  12
  30m   36.00  16.83   337.25   328   343   4.2647  12
  All  143.83  35.50  1225.42  1193  1266  20.0643  12

Competitions

Arizona Cup, 12th-13th April

The weekend before this tournament, I had been in Sacramento at a seminar given by Rick McKinney, and I was trying to work on focussing on the gold, and maintaining correct upper back tension. I didn't score as well as I am capable of, but I enjoyed the shoot. I shot quite well in the eliminations, winning the first round by a long way and being eliminated in the second round by Matt Grey of Australia, the eventual silver medalist.

Sacramento Archers Club Fita, 27th April

Although this was only a club shoot, I was pleased to shoot a new competition best at 90m, and to shoot my highest score for nearly two years. Pity it wasn't a Fita Star...

California Cup, 3rd-4th May

I came sixth in qualifying, but went out in the second round of the elimination. The 90m and 30m in qualifying weren't particularily good; the 90m felt good but didn't score well, the 30m didn't feel good either. Still, I made my target score for the tournament.

Cotton Boll Fita, 10th-11th May

This was one of ``those'' competitions. I spent a day and a half of a single Fita over two days trying to work out what was wrong, while shooting nice feeling shots all over the place. When I eventually did work it out, I shot quite well, but had no chance of placing by then.

Sacramento Archers Club Shoot, 1st June

This shoot was two Olympic Ranking rounds (72 arrows at 70m) shot back-to-back, for the benefit of some archers who were trying to get U.S. Archery Team qualifying scores. I was very pleased to shoot a personal best, especially as the first three dozen score of 332 was higher than the Scottish record for the 70m Fita distance.

U.S. Archery Team Trials, 6th-8th June

I was allowed to shoot as a guest at the U.S. Team Trials for 1997, used to determine the U.S. team for the World Championships. The wind was very tricky, blowing from different directions at each end of the field. I shot extremely poorly, shooting my lowest score and my first miss for two years. This was partly through confusion from trying to integrate some form changes at too late a stage, and partly through lack of practice in the wind (there is such a thing as weather that is too good!) There was little consolation in the wind causing many well-known archers problems.

California State Championships, 14th-15th June

I combined two of my favourite pasttimes for this weekend, flying and archery. I hired an aeroplane, and flew down from Palo Alto to Long Beach for the tournament. Unfortunately, the archery didn't go as well. A mismatch between mental state and form turned a good start into a poor finish.

Sacramento Archers Club Fita, 27th July

Another hot day in Sacramento, and I was quite pleased with the score I shot, especially since I had hardly practiced since the California state championships. I was testing a minor form change that improved the overall feel of the shot, and preparing for the trip to the U.S. Nationals.

U.S. Nationals, 2nd-8th August

My first visit to the U.S. Nationals was enjoyable, but not especially distinguished. My Fita scores were below average, the first due to an equipment failure at the start of the first day. This was my first equipment failure in two years; I had done a thorough visual check of the bow on the practice day, because my sight marks were different than expected, but didn't pick up on a slightly loose bolt on the sight block. This bolt worked its way loose, falling out at the start of the 90m. This resulted in a miss, and rather shaken confidence.

The second Fita score was poor due to form problems. I made the cut for the international NOR, though, and won through against one of the Mexican team members in the first round. In the second round, I came against Jay Barrs at a time when he was shooting well and I was shooting poorly, and got thoroughly beaten.

In the team round, myself and team mates Francis Parchaso and Chris Jones won through the qualifying rounds to take the gold medal in the club section.

Sacramento Archers Club Fita, 24th August

This was a strange day, and another below-average score. My shot felt OK, but I just wasn't grouping, and couldn't work out why. I have a suspicion that there may have been a tuning problem; I had another equipment failure at 90m, my first ever broken string, and I'm not sure the replacement string was tuning the same. Apart from that, I have no idea what went wrong.

Sacramento Archers Club Fita, 14th September

I started out the same as the previous Fita, not shooting very well. At 50m I experimented with my new X10s, bought the previous day, and started shooting very well. I had to switch back to my A/C/Es after losing a couple of arrow points; I hadn't glued the points into the X10s properly since I wanted to experiment with the tuning.

Pacific Coast Championships, 20th-21st September

Fourth. I used A/C/Es again, since pressure of work had not left me time to set up the X10s properly. The score was average, but I was content with it since I hadn't been able to practice during the week.