Hey Everyone!

Just a quick update to let you know of my progress.

In the previous blogs I said that I had been accepted in November for the Great Britain academy. I have been going down to train with them once a month down at Lilleshall and will be doing so on a regular basis. I feel confident that my archery career is going to excel with the intense training and coaching that I am now receiving from the same coaches who coach the GB Olympic teams! I can’t wait to see the long term effects of my hard work! I have set many goals for myself this year, and I know, if I work hard enough, I will reach them.

I have also just been informed that I am the highest ranked junior clout archer in Britain again for the third year in succession. Things are looking good..

Since the last blog I have been lucky enough to be chosen to train as part of the G.B archery Academy, and was asked to go down to Lilleshall for a weekend. It was quite an intense weekend that involved a lot of personal coaching and an afternoon in the gym where I was put through various tests ‘bench marking’ me, to see if I improve over the next academy weekends. I also met with the various other Archers who are on the Academy scheme, many I already know, and will be joining me over the following months when the regional academy starts in Warrington at the beginning of 2012. The funding I receive from ASDA will certainly help towards these weekends at the Academy.

A few weekends ago I was invited to go down to Lilleshall for a Talent selection day. I jumped at the chance. We arrived at Sutherland hall in the morning where we were briefed about what the selection day would involve. It was basically going to be an assessment of your archery techniques and to see if I would be a suitable candidate for an Archery academy that Archery GB were about to launch. The aim of the Academy is to provide us with technical development, mental as well as physical coaching, and hopefully leading to a place in the 2016 or 2020 Olympics.

After the briefing we all went and shot at the training grounds, where each archer was watched by the Academy and G.B performance coaches also a Bio Mechanist, all were taking notes. One by one we were selected to go into a separate room to be assessed, and coached by Lloyd Brown, the team Great Britain Olympic coach. Any information would be put to good use even if I didn’t get on the academy as it would help me develop my technique and improve my archery (but I was really hoping that I was chosen to go onto academy). He said I only needed a slight bit of work doing on me, which was a great morale boost. I went home knowing that the day was really useful, and the criticism was constructive giving me areas to focus on to improve my Archery.

A week or so later I received an email confirming that I had actually got on the Great Britain Archery Academy! I was buzzing!

Another pleasant surprise to end the week was a phone call from my local news paper stating that I was short listed as Local Sports personality of the year. My family has been invited along to the presentation night were hopefully I’ll be presented with the award. Even if I’m not the award winner, it’s still a great honour to be short listed.

Finally I received a cheque for £86.28 from Sports Aid as a result of fund raising activities within my local ASDA store. Many thanks to Events Coordinator Helen Brody, and all in store for your help.

The weather was absolutely amazing, though it was rather hot, in fact, it was too hot! Shooting commenced and I soon realised that although all my shots felt good, I was not shooting up to my usual standards. I started to get slightly disheartened as the scores I was expecting to get didn’t materialise. I looked up and down the line and no one was getting a decent score, the unexpected heat wave was having an adverse effect on all the archers. Although I was leading everybody on the same target distances as myself I was still disappointed by my low scores. Everyone was feeling too hot, and I think we all started suffering of exhaustion from the very unseasonal heat wave. A wind built up unfortunately it didn’t cool things down, so battling with that and already being tired through heat exhaustion was rather hard. At the end of the day, the awards were presented in the relative cool of the hosting archery clubs building. Even though I shot a personal worst score, I still won my category, and I was just glad that I could sit down and chill out in the shade!

I entered the Coesoswallt Archers 51st Double American shoot at their home grounds of the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital. I entered this shoot last year as a senior, successfully conquered all, and set two county, and two regional records.

Entering as a senior archer again this year, I was on the leader board from the start and stayed there throughout the whole competition, winning by a large margin. At the presentations I was awarded with the Gent’s recurve trophy, and a mounted Silver Dollar.

Despite occasional heavy rain, and very strong winds. I also broke the county and regional records that I set last year.

After regaining my title as Lancashire Junior champion in clout I felt confident that I was going to do well in this year’s Tri–Clout event.

The Tri–Clout started life last year, and is the major event in the clout calendar. It is a series of clout shoots held across a 3 day period (Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday Monday). On Saturday it was a double two way G.N.A.S clout, Sunday was a double one way G.N.A.S clout which incorporated the Cheshire Clout Championships, and Monday was a double F.I.T.A clout.

Saturday was exceptionally windy and rainy, which is all you need when you are shooting 140 yards… I won the days shoot making me even more confident that I again would be able to win the supreme junior archers trophy after the 3 days of shooting.

Sunday we had the same weather conditions as Saturday, but slightly warmer and slightly less rain. I won the highest scoring junior visitor which again added to my score towards winning the supreme trophy.

Monday’s weather started off rubbish, but got clearer through the day (and colder), then deteriorated towards the end of the shoot. I shot pretty well, and I was only 10 points off getting a national record for the first half of the shoot (not bad considering the weather conditions). I won the days shoot and knew I had won the supreme junior archers trophy…

I was really made up to get the trophy back that I won last year! What an awesome weekends shooting!

Today (Tuesday) was the first day I was introduced to the ASDA Skelmersdale team. This was a real good thing as I got to meet the people behind my sponsorship, and the people that are helping me fund my sport.

First of all, I was introduced to the mangers. I briefly told them about how I got into archery and why I do it. I also took my archery equipment in to show them what a competition bow looks like. I think that they were rather impressed.

Secondly I was introduced to different people from each department in the store, and I got the chance to help them out! I started off in the electrical section, then I helped to make pizzas (which was my favourite part), I then went onto stacking shelves. I had a real fun time, and I met some interesting people!

Myself and Helen Broady (The ASDA Skelmersdale Event Co-Ordinator) then went onto discussing what I could do to raise money to fund my archery. We discussed the ideas of bag packing and possibly the idea of setting up a Wii games console in the store foyer so that I could interact with the customers to help towards my sponsorship. I had a nice day, and I am very pleased that I got to meet the ASDA Skelmersdale team.

What an amazing weekend! Where do I start?

I was selected to shoot for England at this year’s euro nations which involved England, Southern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It was a 2 day shoot being held in Southwell near Nottingham and hosted by the Sherwood archers club, not far from the home of Robin Hood! All teams got to stay in the very nice Nottingham Trent Veterinary University Brackenhurst Campus over the weekend.

First day of shooting was for the team prize! The shoot started and all members of the teams were giving it their all in the fight for victory. England was at the top of the leader board from the very beginning, in all categories. A rather large and enjoyable barbeque was put on for all teams at lunch courtesy of Sherwood Archers. Suitably fed, the second half of the match started with England still being the dominant team throughout the competition.

Everyone went to bowling and laser quest in Newark in the night time once again organised by the England Team Manager Adam Guest. We all had a really good time! Even though I somehow scored -300 in the laser quest!

The second day was the individual event. So for me, it was even more serious as I wanted to show myself what I was actually capable of. I wasn’t shooting as well as I did in the team event, but I was shooting steady and consistent.

Prize giving came around, ENGLAND won yet again in all categories, and I came first in the second day shooting the cadet round (under 18). When the prize giving finished, all teams got together and had an absolute EPIC water fight..! What a way to finish an ace weekend! GO ENGLAND!