What goes through the mind before the start of a major tournament? How do you prepare to bring your A game at a very specific time in a very specific place, with no second chances and a field that's got so much strength and depth that 5 points could move you more than 5 places in the rankings?
Well I don't know all the answers to this but over the season I've had a few chances to think about it. Sitting down with plenty of time to spare before the ranking round of the Berlin World Cup this afternoon, I'm feeling confident in my training; in fact I'm shooting better than ever, having hit my first 340 indoors in the week. I shot 100 arrows on Monday with strong technique, 80 yesterday focusing on scoring... there's nothing else I can do physically to prepare myself. Everything else is now all in the mind.
I've always shot up in matchplay. This goes right the way back to my first ever H2H tournament, at BUCS in 2013. I shot 578 (8.0 avg) in qualifying, and 605 (8.4 avg) in the head to heads, with the first round and gold finals especially standing out as straight set wins with 28,27,27 in both (9.1 avg). Something about the format just helps focus the mind and makes it easier to get that feeling of inevitability, where arrows just WANT to hit the middle.
It turns out in 2017 the old habits never died. World archery's preview article for Berlin lists me as one of the three recurve archers with the highest improvements from ranking (8.86) to matchplay (9.35)... that's the difference between 638 and 673 in a 70m round!
As proud as I am of my ability to raise my game and win matches against better opponents, and as much as I don't mind working from anywhere within the individual bracket, there is now pressure on me to fix up the qualifying round. The team ranking depends on it, as does consideration for future events as the GB qualifying scores continue to increase year on year.
So how will I handle this afternoon? All I can do is give myself the best possible chance of shooting well. Focusing on reinforcing the good shots and not worrying about the others. Paying close attention to the wind on every arrow and trusting my choice of aiming point once I start each shot. Visualising great feeling shots... they don't all have to be Xs, but a good mix of 10s and 9s is within my ability and what I should be aiming for.
At the end of the day its all part of the learning curve.