I have tried to resist moving indoors, I have never liked it, always cling to drag out the end of outdoors but ultimately have to admit defeat and recognise everyone has gone inside for the winter.
I haven’t shot an arrow for 20 days as I sat and contemplated what the latest changes mean for my shooting. Ultimately it’s just about trying to keep shooting and I am grateful that there are people who will work with me but the last couple of weeks seems like various bits of my body are suddenly being recognised as issues in a variety of areas of my life and it’s been hard to listen to some of the conversations.
So I drew a line and said today would be it, get inside and shoot a scored round.
Rougher than usual couple of days PTSD wise and I lay awake at 2 this morning churning a variety of things over. Nightmares and bad sleep have been part of my life since 1996 so I am not unused to this but, the last couple of years have seen some serious issues and some days it’s just blooming hard work.
Off I went, got the kit set up and there we have it, despite thinking about it, I forgot to pick up the indoor arrows so had to shoot today with the outdoor arrows 🫣 if I had gone home I likely wouldn’t have come back out 🤔
Outdoors I have an agent but some times, indoors, if I am feeling strong and the pain is low I will collect my own arrows. Great idea, as I discovered that the wrist brace prevents me from pulling my arrows properly and after 3 ends had to admit defeat and ask someone to pull them for me! Those who know me well will have an idea how well I took this discovery! Feels like another kick! Thank you to Pete for the help today.
I decided to stick with the release aid fastened to me, frankly the mind was in no mood to start with the wrist release today 😬 only two shoulder spasms – easily spotted on the scorecard by the miss and the 1! But as through the summer the shoulder just struggles for stability so scores were somewhat erratic, pretty much a continuation of the outdoor season 😞🤷♀️ expected but there’s always hope.
Part way through a change in the surrounding environment saw my anxiety spike and I considered stopping but really did want a score to lay down the start of indoors and yes I know there will be a host of opinion around continuing versus quitting. So completed and not great but it’s done and I have lots to think about.
So, outdoor season I had set a goal, started well with 4 PB’s and enough to earn me the Bowman 3rd class, not what I wanted but as most of the season I earned archer 3rd or 2nd class scores, it’s all I can claim.
It doesn’t matter what happened as I physically broke down, it’s disappointing. Particularly as I had worked hard in the previous 5 outdoor seasons, had achieved my hard fought 1st class in 2021 and then maintained it in 2022 despite being so mentally unwell. I spent the 2023 season constantly comparing the scores into the old classifications as the first year in the new system gave me no information.
The indoor season will be the same, scores put into the new system but I will use the old system for me to compare. Interestingly the indoor table shows comparable old v new but I am glad I used the tables from the old system as it gave me different information.
Today I shot a Stafford, I believe I have done one before but I have no record so it was clearly in the app that saw me loose all of my information. I scored 566.
In the new classifications this is an indoor archer 2 according to the archery calculator. The tables provided by AGB show an indoor archer 2 is the same as an old G.
However this is incorrect as 566 was an E! And interestingly another 11 points would have moved me to a D but the archery calculator shows no change!
So my advice? If you want to compare do it yourself 🤗 because today I got an E class score which is a long way from last years C classification I earned but it’s no G!
So, indoors I am, but I will do my own work as I go about changing to hopefully get me back outdoors next year.
