The anguish of Archery/Sport

Well it is now gone 9pm and I am back in the house with my girlfriend.  She has had a busy day doing the chores and garden. She has done everything, even ironed my shirt ready for work tomorrow. Without that support I wouldn’t be here on the computer.

For my day, well I can’t really say the same.  I shot below my average and the team came second.  Overall, I am pretty disappointed with my performance. It’s easy to beat yourself up over it and think it was you who let down the team.

For the top athletes it can sometimes feel like you have let the country down. I mean Rebecca Adlington was incredibly emotional after coming 3^rd in the Olympics [1].

BBC interview

This is the flip side of sport.  All that effort and practice can amount to nothing.  It is so easy to say it is worth it with a medal around your neck.  But spare a thought for the people who put all the effort in and don’t make it or have careers cruelly cut short though illness and injury. 

These people rarely reach the headlines and if it does it is often tragic. Take Fabrice Muamba who collapsed during a football match on the 27th of March [2].

The Sun

He has never played again and has had to change his lifestyle completely.

Yet for the rest of us we cannot dwell on these tragedies.  It is back to the training field to perfect my technique and in a fortnight’s time I will try again at another competition.  This time it will be worth it.

Hmm I wonder if my girlfriend will make me another cup of tea for the journey?

Good night. 

References

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19122451

[2]http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4201593/Tottenham-v-Bolton-FA-Cup-tie-abandoned-after-Fabrice-Muamba-collapses.html 

For the love of Archery/Sport

A break from my normal posting time: it is roughly 5:30am and I am getting up to go for a shoot 60 miles away in another county.  My teammates are due any minute to give me a lift and my girlfriend has kindly made me a cup of tea for the journey.  (She has promptly gone back to bed and is sleeping peacefully)

It does make you think about why we put ourselves through this. The early mornings and long hours practicing, all for a tin medal round your neck- which you are never guaranteed to get.

It can be a tough question to answer but in reality we do because we love it.

We do it for the challenge, the team, the feeling of elation, and the knowledge you are pitting yourself against other competitors on a level playing field.  Athletes like Anya Shrubsole thrive on that challenge [1]

Telegraph: Anya Shrubsole

That is the essence of why you do sport. If you win or beat your target, the feeling that you were the best on that day is unassailable.  Nothing and no one can take that away from you.  That is why you keep coming back and putting those long hours in.

Sport has been compared to a drug as you keep going until you have had your fix and then repeat it to try and get the same fix.  I, for example, stopped shooting/coaching for 2 years but yet I came back and never felt better.  With all addictions though it can be disastrous and athletes find it hard to go cold turkey.[2]

I think I best go into that another day as my lift is here.  We are off to a school hall in the middle of a non-descript housing estate.  Glamorous it is not but this is where it begins

Links
[1]http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/20936477
[photo] http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02476/Anya-Shrubsole_2476136b.jpg
[2]  http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/20646102