I think about archery every day. I am obsessed with it and I have been for a long time. During my PhD (2013-2018) it was what gave me progress and direction that I didn't find in my work; experiments would succeed or fail, deadlines would be scrambled for and missed, maintenance tasks and washing glassware were an eternal chore. But in archery I always had the next competition to train for, the next bit of technique to work on or the next piece of equipment to find that would solve all of my problems.* I could see myself improving and getting better, much more so than in anything else I did. Nowadays I can look back on that progression even more clearly:
[caption id="attachment_1478" align="alignnone" width="1930"]
Graph from my profile on archr.net[/caption]
Now clearly as time has gone on I have become more professional about things; in 2013 I started doing fitness classes with the university squad, in 2015 I began recording my training in a proper log, in 2016 I started to work with the national head coach. But I think the main thing underpinning this improvement is not any one intervention, any secret tip or lifehack. It is exactly what I mentioned earlier, that constant thinking about archery almost every day.
Training = Shooting?
Now to be sure what I don't mean here is training every day. In fact for as long as I've been keeping records of how many arrows I shoot, the number has been less than those I compete against. When I first started working with the national team in 2016 one of the questions they asked was how many arrows I shot per week on average. Having done my homework I happily told them I was averaging about 200-300 per week, sometimes up to 400 over the last three months. The response? "Ok... lets try that amount per per day and go from there."
And while I have increased that number somewhat, it is still not massive, on average I am doing 600-1000 arrows per week and while I might do up to 300 in one day that would generally be the high point of the week.
So what is the point I am making here? It's that there are other ways of training beyond simply grinding out arrows. While I may not have spent that much time shooting, I have spent a lot of time learning about how to:
-
Get stronger and fitter, primarily by lifting weights but also running and kayaking.
-
Understand technique better, by analysing videos, reading online articles and books, and testing ideas on myself.
-
Record and track my progress, by keeping a log, reviewing it often and using it to inform my future plans
-
Periodise and plan my training, allowing periods of time in the season where instead of trying to score highly I can focus on learning technique, getting fitter, or simply recovering.
-
Apply sports psychology and understand the mind, largely by reading around but also by venturing into the worlds of mindfulness and meditation
-
Become an expert on my own equipment, by learning how to make strings and customise grips, disassembling all of my own gear and figuring out how it works, downloading plotting software so that I can accurately compare different arrows, fletches, stabiliser set ups etc.
-
Put all of the above together by testing myself at the highest level of competition that will let me through the door. Full distance (90m) after 9 months of shooting, national series after 2 years, Back2Back after 3, entering the selection shoot for the world university games in 2015 despite not actually quite having the required scores... the list goes on.
With this all in mind, the idea struck me while out at the World Cup in Berlin to try something new, something that would both help show the variety and scope of my efforts to master the sport, and also give me the kick up the backside I needed to put out some regular and interesting content. #100daysofprogress was born.**
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlTe4q8ns2b/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Already in the first two weeks I've covered competition shooting, technique practice, bow training, gym work and HIIT, grip making, equipment maintenance, and the shot routine. This is just about scratching the surface, but my point here is not to put anyone off, quite the opposite. While some of the activities are long and time consuming because I am lucky enough to have the time to dedicate to them, many of them are not. And so bit by bit, knowledge can be accumulated, the body trained, and skills sharpened, all by the consistent input of small doses of effort, each and every day.
There are still more than 80 days left, and so rather than simply repeating posts with different pictures I aim to go into more detail each time, explaining more why I am doing what I do, how it fits into the overall picture and my tips for making things more efficient and effective.
As I go I'll be writing in more detail about the project here, but the best way to follow along live is to follow my account on instagram, or the hashtags #100daysofprogresss and #thearcheryproject
* (spoiler, it never does)
** (not quite, the hashtag already existed but wasn't being used much and definitely not for archery so I'm claiming it)