Saints, Role Models and Lucky Charms

It is an interesting what we pay homage to and what we put our faith into, to help us succeed.

Dutch Target

It is a fantastic picture and many thanks to the “Dutch Target” for posting this on his website, view the link below the picture to have a look at more of his photos.

So what is a role model? A role model is someone we look up to and it inspires us to do great things.  It is often a member of our family, sportsmen, film stars, someone successful in business and also Saints.

Families are there to support us and in their only special way help sportsman from introducing us to a sport, taking us to the ground to train and cleaning our kit. That is sometimes the reason why we keep going to make them proud.

Telegraph

In the list I mentioned Saints; they are a curious one as they are irrespectively linked with Christianity and particularly the Catholic Church. Their exploits are arguably the first ever defined role models. 

They are people who did something in history so profound that they were raised to a saint status for all to reverie and pray to. That praying makes them an idol, so for example people would pray to Saint Margaret of Anitoch[1] for a safe child birth or for success in archery it is Saint Sebastian[2].

This doesn’t mean that people who are not saints don’t get the similar treatment.

Flickr

This is on the Gypsy Lane, Barnes and the location of the death of front man Marc Bolan of the T-Rex[3].  People have travelled from all over the world to visit this site. To put it another way they have taken a pilgrimage to this place to pay their respects. Now Marc Bolan is not a saint but yet people must Idolise him in the same way and inspire them to do great things. Don’t you think anyone who visited here wanted to bash out a riff like T-Rex?

This is where role of saints and role model becomes a grey area as they can be one of the same as they are used by people to inspire them.

This use of a role model is influential and they help us make decisions particularly if there is a common problem e.g I want to be the number 1 archer in the world, now how did Brady Ellison go about that?  Well he asked his coach “I want to be the best” Jenny meadows as admitted that Dame Kelly Holmes as her inspiration for that very reason[4]

Well when it comes to my role models, I have already spoken about a few on here and this is my current list.

• Annabel Vernon, post 1 expands on that.
• Brady Ellison for the question he asked his coach “How do I be the best” It would my dream to be asked that.
• Naomi Faulkerd as although we never cross paths we were pitch against each other in postal competitions as juniors. She is now in the UK squad and me, well I am here J and because of our diverging paths I have often wondered “what if?” (addition 05/06/2013 she has just been selected as talent coach for the south, you never know our paths may yet cross[5])

But there are other things which help keep our moral up and subsequently our performance and that is in the form of a lucky mascot.

One of most famous has got to be the Simon the cat on the HMS Amethyst the who “did his duty” in hunting rats, maintaining moral and remained at her post, by the captains side , throughout the Yangtze engagement. It is a truly heart warming story and she was awarded the Dickin Medal for bravery [6]. He was a very lucky mascot indeed.

So something which isn’t a person, a role model or a saint helped people in a dire situation. But it doesn’t have to be living creature to keep you on track. This is the moment for truth, I am going to regret putting this on the web, but this is my lucky mascot.

Yes it is a teddy; admittedly not this specific one but one very much like it. Why you might ask?

Well it reminds me of a choice I made a very long time ago. It wasn’t a particularly happy or easy choice, but it was made and this teddy reminds me of that.  Just by having it in the box reminds me of this and help keeps me on the right path, however repetitive that path may sometimes feel.

It does sound crazy; it is at the end of the day an inanimate object, which can be bought in a thousand different shops.  Yet to me it is special and because of that it will forever help me to succeed.

Revist My Goals

Well I sort of got distracted by my last post and didn’t even talk about archery. With the indoor season well and truly over it is time to revisit one of my earliest posts, my indoor season goals[1] 
So how did I do?

Grade 2 Coach.

This has been successfully completed, with much rejoicing and relief.  There are plans for the first of the lvl 3 trials in September/October, heaven knows if I will be ready for another round of death by PowerPoint, we shall see though.

New Stabilisers for my Bow

Complete, I now have a lovely set of longrods and side weights for my bow.  They are nice, although they apparently colour clash something horrible with my riser.  I really don’t see what their problem is, this might be because I am colourblind? Hell if it puts off my competitors, then that is an additional bonus.

Goal of 550

This was a just completion.  I hit a 552 on my last proper indoor competition, fantastic feeling and like always with a target score you generally only just completed it. 

Maintaining relationship with girlfriend

Well I am not single, so this must be a success too.

Conclusion

Overall it has been a very successful indoor season. I have achieved all my goals, albeit just, and in addition to this I have been able to grown in confidence as an archer and coach.

So what is next? Well my treat for achieving all this was to get a new bow. This unfortunately I will not be able to do, due to the reality of real life. I just can’t simply afford it.

The cost of the new kit would have been in the region of £800-£1000 pounds, this is just out of my reach at the moment. This is a good point as this can be the reality of an amateur sport, you just sometimes can’t physically provide the funds or time to do it.  I do wonder what you could achieve if you could do just that, an old friend is trying to find out.

Stergios Ntikos

Good luck to him.

With regards to a new bow you wouldn’t expect me shoot better, but that is not the point I am trying to make. I had it as a reward for my hard work, I have done the work yet there is no physical reward at the end of it.

I am not down and out yet though.  I can buy a new set of arrows; this will be a physical reward and allow me to remain competitive throughout the outdoor season. This would be great preparation for the indoor season when I can/possibly purchase a new bow.

Goals for the outdoor season

1. Achieve a bowmen status.
2. To work with more experienced coaches within Berkshire and Hampshire and develop youtube video footage.
3. Maintaining a relationship.

Honestly they are very similar to my indoor goals, there is one based on scores (Bowmen status) one to improve my coaching ability (working with experienced coaches) and thirdly there is one for personal relationship, which is good but is this set enough?

One of my inspirational figures is a guy called Devin Graham who runs a youtube video page and some of his videos are truly stunning, but more than that it is methodology which I admire.

Devin Youtube Page

That is dedication and determination[2] the saying he mentioned in the video at 6:35 is:

“A poor man plans for the weekend and a rich man plans 4 years in advance”

I would change the wording slightly from poor to content and rich to successful, but the principle is similar. So my season’s goals can be classed as the weekend goal, but they are incremental steps towards what?

That answer is one I am not willing to share online or actually been outlined by myself yet, but it has got me thinking that far in advance.  You never know someone may well use me as an example on their blog or use me as a role model, that would be a true honor.