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.

Nutrition and Diet.

It is time to get back to the plan; we have covered a bit about technique _[1], Physiology_[2] and Biomechanics_[3] This leaves nutrition and fitness, although I doubt I will cover fitness as a “how to” guide as like most technique it changes with the wind.

So how to begin with nutrition? It has certainly got to be one of the scariest parts of all types of sport training as it has the ability to have a big impact on our daily lives. 

Our bodies are effectively a complex machine, which require a wide range of nutrients, food, vitamins and energy to keep going. A balanced diet is the optimum level of these nutrients for an average person.

 NHS

Ok so no one is “average”, but we can agree that by having too much fat and unhealthy food can cause people to become overweight and one way to rectify this is to adjust our diet.  The different diet types are seemingly endless from organisations like Weightwatchers and Slimmingworld to specific diets like Atkins and the Special K challenge. 

SpecialK Challenge

All of these have one goal, to loose weight and the impact on the body is tremendous.  We see it all the time in the Glamour Magazine.   They all describe and show how people have changed physically, and sometimes mentally, for the better/worse.

This is where it gets interesting; this methodology can be applied to an athlete.  Imagine if you can improve your performance through your diet.  How much of an advantage can that give you? In some cases it can make the difference as it did for Hannah Miley in the European championships_[4].

Like the weight loss diets, the variations on performance diets are endless. A couple of classic examples of how a diet is used to affect ones performance is within Cycling and Body building.

In cycling, Carb loading is used quite a lot so what are Carbs or Carbohydrates? Well they are compound groups, which give us energy.  These compounds are the first place our body goes to get energy.  Now Carb loading is effectively a process of giving the body an excess of carbohydrates to use.

You do it by almost staving yourself of Carbohydrate rich food, for example potatoes, pasta etc, for a couple of days (or more) before the competition.  Then on the day of the competition you eat a plate of highly rich Carbohydrate food.  The theory is that this gives you a huge energy boast.

It is a very clever way of using food to boost your performance but it is not without its risks.  Those few days before can cause the body to be lethargic and irritable aka not great for your partner or work colleagues.

It is time for another example; welcome to the world of the Body Builder.

Body Builder

It is just physically impossible to get this pumped on pushing weights alone.  A very specific and specialist diet is required, one which is super rich in protein. The protein builds muscle mass if taken at the correct stages of ones fitness regime, maximising muscle growth.

In archery neither of these options is really preferable although I have known some archers to use parts of both examples above for their specific training regimes. 

The general advice which is given to archers is little and often, effectively become a farmyard animal.  The constant ingesting of food will maintain energy levels at a constant and consistent level and therefore, in theory, maintain performance.

To help athletes/bodybuilders achieve more from their workout some take supplements.  A supplement is an artificial/synthetic way of increasing a specific mineral or compound within the body. The humble vitamin C or Cod liver oil tablet is an example of such a supplement.

(Supplements)

Taking supplements at specific times during training can maximum growth in muscles and burn the most amount of fat.

The list of what supplements you can buy is long, with variation on taste, type and effect.  No doubt they do have their place for ones training regime, but where does the line sit between illegal and legal ways of boasting ones performance?

Using food supplements and specialist diets like carb loading is a legal way of boasting ones performance yet a steroid, which is a banned drug, isn’t allowed.

The role of drugs in sports have been well documented. With recent cases of Lance Armstrong_[5] and the report from Australia saying drugs in sport was widespread_[6] .

But what drives someone to take this risk of using banned substances?  Well it is one thing, psychology, the need and desire to win at all costs.