“Know thy enemy as one knows thyself” Sun zu War 500BC

This time round I am going to focus my attention on the Ashes tournament and namely an article by Alec Stewart [1].

He is reporting on the “Dominate[ing]” English in the series we are 2-0 up in a 5 test match game and are looking strong going into the next test match at Old Trafford.

The language he is using and the feeling he is projecting already sound like it will be a forgone conclusion. Citing stats like

"347 victory" and a "sign of a great team"

This is very patriotic and harks back to when England was the Empire in the world.  This article is full of British pride when once again the Union Jack is and can be flown with all the glory of Royal Britannia. 

May long pray it continue (please all rise for the national anthem), however I do have a nagging doubt that this is not the end.  The Australians are if anything fighters and will not lie down easily. Yes they are considered to be the “weaker side”[2] in this competition; however they came close in the first Test (lost by 14 runs[3]) and have had moments of brilliance.

 Ashton Agar's "astonishing 98" runs on last stand in[4]

This to me is not a side that you can write off, which is why you need to “know thy enemy as one knows thyself” So you don’t underestimate ones opponent and get caught out.

An example of this is to do with Rebecca Adlington coming third in the 800m Olympic final, this is a disappointing tale and where the hype for her winning was huge, but let us spare a thought to the Winner a young 15 year old from America. 

Katie Ledecky

Katie Ledecky was regarded as a sensation and a surprised winner of this event with the favourite (Rebecca) coming in 3^rd[5]. Was she such a surprised winner? Well evidence suggest otherwise as each of her previous Major tournaments her "times kept dropping" [6]. This shows that the probability of her going very fast in the final was there and predicted [7].

Now did she do something special? Certainly it was an Olympic gold. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and looking at her previous times the evidence was there that she could have been a threat.

Now back to the Cricket, if England can win the next test match, that would be brilliant. Yet if Australia wins I wouldn’t be surprised if Alec Stewart doesn’t report “Shock Victory for Australia”. Would I be surprised if Australia mounts a comeback? No, as you can never underestimate your opponent.

Update: The result of the 3rd test was a draw and not by England battling to the end in a heroic struggle against the southern hemisphere might. No the weather intervened[8] and stopped play just as Australia was on the road to wining. Oh well sometimes divine intervention has to play its part. Royal Britannia everyone.

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.

"Being number 2" sucks Andre Agassi

For some it really does suck to come second. It feels like they have let down themselves, their family and their team.  We have seen the anguish and the emotional rollercoaster that athletes put themselves through at World events like the Olympics, and sometimes it is just not enough coming second.

“Mckayla Maroney”_[2]

Doesn’t she look happy getting silver at the Olympics?

When you miss your target at this level it can be devastating. Mhairi Spence knows this “Olympic Failure destroyed me”_[3]. People who aren’t in elite sport find it hard to comprehend, and the comments relating to the BBC article identify these feelings. 

“Most people would give anything to do that. It is huge achievement by itself. What is there to be heartbroken about.” _{user: Fleury}

 

“What a shocking testment to poor sportmanship. Losing is part of life and you should do it graciously”_{user: Fred}

Rightly or wrongly you can see their view point.  Do I agree with it? Well a few years ago I might well have done, as I was often the guy in 3^rd 4^th 5^th place in competitions and if I came away with a medal I was very proud. 

Yet the people above me would just moan, a lot, and I couldn’t understand why.  I mean they had just won and walked away with a trophy, shouldn’t that be enough? 

The reason is their drive and their ultimate aim is to win big.  To score of an 8, red on an archery target, for them was disastrous; to me it was an inconvenience. 

This is represented by the video of Tom Daley wining bronze at Olympics.  The emotions expressed by each of the competitors in the medal spots are really revealing. 

Video of 10m platform final. 

The Bo Qiu, who came second, was crying as he was expected to win gold and the David Boudia (USA), who did win, is in pure shock, compare this to Tom Daley reaction.  It doesn’t take much deduction to work out who exceeded and missed their expectations/target.

(Bloggers Note: It is at this point I wanted to use the example of Helen Jewell who missed out on going to the Olympics.  She won the British champs, but failed to reach the minimum lift weight for Olympic squad selection.  Alas there are little or no articles on missed opportunities…. If it is possible try and watch the TV programme "Girl Power Going for gold"_[4]  which highlighted this to me in the first place) 

Addition: The user Eternallyprofound3 has uploaded this program onto Youtube, check it out.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

So “Being number 2 sucks” and it is only now, having had the opportunity to work with archers who are at that level, that I have realised this. 

This single-mindedness is a big motivator and if you consider what an athlete’s sacrifice for their training_[5] it is unsurprising that it “sucks” to come second.

This can lead athletes to gamble it all and take banned substances. What horrifies me as a coach is that in some cases like that of Lance Armstrong_[6] it’s sometimes not just the athlete at fault but often the whole teams.

This systematic, planned and deliberate approach is one of my biggest worries to elite sport and one which stubbornly doesn’t want to go away.