Don't know about you but I'm excited to get going with this summer season! So far I've shot two competitions, Meriden on the 5th of April and Clophill on the 10th and 11th of April. Both have gone ok (especially compared to how I started last summer!) but there's still a whole lot more in me yet.
This has been perhaps my best winter so far for training, I've been spending many hours in the gym with an excellent trainer and program and I'm feeling very strong now because of it. I've been attending the Development squad every month too and working to improve mainly my posture during my shot, and getting my rear shoulder muscles to pull the bow back rather than my arm really.
I have dropped my poundage from last season, from 46lbs to 42lbs. I initially dropped it to about 40lbs in early winter and was training with a light bow aswell to help my shot improve efficiently. I decided to stay at around 42lbs as I got my 500 grain X10's to tune sweet and so frankly I don't feel the need for any more poundage right now.

Look forward to seeing some of you at the shoots this summer, I've certainly got a busy shooting schedule!

G

Last weekend I was at Ampthill for the double 70m rounds and head to heads. One of my favorite competitions as it gives you 2 attempts at head to heads in one weekend, valuable experience! In the past week I've been working on keeping my rear shoulder low and using the lower scapular muscles to draw the bow up to and through release. This has been a major break-through in my shot as some of you may have noticed I've been having a poor season so far due to one reason or another. My aim for this weekend was to crack the 600 for the 70m rounds, as I haven't got over 600 this season and I've been getting more like 500 to 550. I didn't quite make it, Saturday I got 596 and Sunday I got 591. My groups were looking nice and tight but I was having too many reds rather than golds, with the odd blue's that let me down. Still though, big improvements on my previos performances this year. On Saturday I went out in the 1/16th eliminations after shooting a couple of 6's and not counter-acting it with many golds. On Sunday I went out in the 1/8th after once again, shooting a couple of blues, my opponent on the other hand was on fire and shot 105 against my 95, fair play to him.
All in all a good weekend with good weather, I enjoyed myself and put in my best performance this year, hopefully the beginning of my rise back up to top form.

Hi all,

My apologies for the lack of blogage through the past few months of winter, I've had a bit of a hard time in the shooting department. I've been back to the drawing board a few times and just kept working at it until finally I'm looking like I'm back on the up. So hopefully I can have myself a good summer season and lets pray for some really great weather! Look forward to seeing you all on the circuit.

G

Hey all,

Today was the FITA 18m and H2H at Ampthill. Mine and most peoples first indoor of the season.
I only shot the morning round, shooting consistant but with a varying group and getting a 552.
This score left me in 7th place ranking, and i went out in the quarter finals to Simon Terry, a 110 to his 113.

I'm happy with this result, as my first indoor of the season and still with my X10's.

...Yes thats right, this year I'm going to give some X7 Cobalts a go, I've got some 2213's on order and i think I'm going to set them up in my old Matrix and G3's for funs sake. See how it goes!

Speak soon,
G

Last weekend was the 3 day event at Norfolk. Those who were there will no the weather was quite a let down (for a change this summer!). Rainy on saturday and sunday, dry but windy on monday, in a nutshell.
There were some good scores going on, as you come expect at Norfolk. Personnally, I would have shot 3 personal bests if it wasn't for my last weekend at Kirby.
Saturday = 1252
Sunday = 1257
Monday = 627
In the head to heads I went out to John Shales in the quarter finals who then went on to win.
So I'm a happy chappy again!


Attached is the picture of Graham with new Charlie. :D

Speak soon,
G

this last weekend i shot at Kirby Muxloe with a FITA on Saturday and two 720's on Sunday. Quite recently I've been doing a lto of training and had some coaching from Greig Middleton. For the whole weekend I was focusing on the positioning and strength of my front shoulder, it's this that i feel payed off.
Scores: FITA = 1273
720's = 648 + 645

I look forward to seeing the Clickers team at Norfolk next weekend and hope i can continue this shooting.

Last weekend was the British Target Champs. Those of you who were there will know it was incredibly bad weather! On the Saturday it was raining and windy all day, i only shot a 972 and was 10 th place at that point. For sunday, there was less rain but more wind, i managed a 1046 and finished the whole weekend in 6th.
I'm not particularly pleased of the scores but I'm going to blame the weather and be happy with my position in my first championships as an actual senior.

On Sarturday 21st June, it was the selection shoot for the junior world championships in Turkey. We were shooting on the camping feild as the university championships were going on on the main feild at lilleshal. It as safe to say the weather wasn't great!

Starting off, i let myself down, i was never going to get an amazing score in the conditions but the least i could have done was to keep going strong. The first 3 dozen were atrocious, involving ok arrows followed up with the odd real bad ones. It wasnt all bad though, the second half of the 70m round went better, just staying averagely low (im gunna stick to the weather excuse :D ).

After the 70m round, i was second, feeling happy as we'd only shot 6 dozen and there was still 7 dozen of round robins to come (time for my shot to improve).

Thats exactly what happened, my scores got better and better, i lost one of my matches, the first, with a 100 to a 101. my shot was now coping in the weather. my matches went:
100, 103, 101, 108, 105, 105, 107. Which pleased me as my shooting got better and better, the technique really showing now.
At the end of the day, i won. Which obviously pleased me! it was however, the last arrow that won me the day. I was chasing the leading james mortlock all day until i caught up and won the last match against him, plus gaining the bonus points of winning. LEaving me in first place.
It was definately a tough feild of archers out there, way more than previous years and good to see such a high quantity of up and coming internationa archers.

speak soon,

G

As many of you may know, several archers and I were given the great opportunity to go and shoot with the big guns and the world cup in Turkey.
To be honest, it's the greatest trip I've ever been on (would you beleive it) compared to all the junior trips. The organisers seem to have the whole thing sussed and in smooth running order, stress free for me anyway.
I made sure that in practice I went over and shot with the koreans, show them who's boss of course :p Got chance to shoot along side with some real legends throughout the week though.
I'm happy with my shooting it was consistant, 627, a good score in foreign conditions and i had quite a feaver (sore from the air-con i think). Really think I held my own, only just missing out on the cut off.

This past weekend was the 4 x 720 rounds at Clophill. Personally i didnt shot very well, I developed all sorts of issues in my shot which resulted in some poor scoring. We were however, very lucky in terms of weather, despite some wind it was perfect as we dodged the rain with only a couple of showers all weekend.
Its back to the drawing board this week and hopefully do better in Shropshire next sunday.

speak soon,
G