So the last few months have all really been about quick changeovers for me. Indoors ended at high pace, with three week turnarounds between finishing 4th at the IWC in Nimes (YouTube), signing up for Las Vegas to go to the world cup finals, and then back home preparing for the European Indoor championships.
Of course that means its the end of the indoor season so within another three weeks I found myself on a last minute plane trip to Antalya, Turkey, to take part in their Spring Arrows invitational tournament and international training camp alongside the Turkish and Estonian national squads.
My approach to shooting is also moving to a faster pace these days. During the last day of the camp, and having shot ~1000 arrows in the previous 7 days it became apparent to me that I was not going to survive another session of "Tom Holds" (def: to hold multiple shots each end at full draw for 20+ seconds, before either coming down or shooting them in the final milliseconds of the timer). This used to be because I was not physically strong enough for the bow, but with all the increased training and bow drills these days there's no excuse, its purely in the mind. So I've decided that from now on I shoot at a sensible rhythm, nothing crazy fast but three quality shots at the first attempt within 90 seconds should be achievable most ends.
And finally things have escalated fast on the equipment front. I've been very lucky to be introduced to some very friendly and helpful people in the last few months, and as a result I've got several new bits of gear I've been using and testing out. Expect more detailed posts for each of these soon, but for now I just want to say thank you to Tim Barnard of Errea and Vittorio Frangili of Gillo for letting me use their products.