Personal space

[baldmountain]

We Americans are a bit protective of our personal space. When shooting indoors I find that the lanes are really bunched up tight together so you feel like you are practically spooning the person in front of you. :crazyeyes:

Without falling into discussions about flatulance and bad breath, how do you deal with being people in your personal space?

[Marcus]

We have this problem at our indoor range so we do 1 of 2 things.

1) shoot a's and b's. Half go to the line shoot their 3 arrows then come off, the next guys goes up and shoot's theirs. We don't use timers so you move up when you like.
Only problem is getting a group of grown adults to figure it out amoungst themselves ( "Am I an A or a B?" "Who's up A's or Bs?" :roll: )

2) Shoot in Flights. Half shoot a round, when they have finished the other half do while the first group is having a break.

Both work well.

[Zoe]

Only off-putting thing for me is when you get bumped at full-draw by someone nocking an arrow, which can mean you start to worry about synchronising your shooting with them. Probably better off to just politely say something to them, rather than trying to time your shots with them.

It would be interesting to hear from a left-handed archer (not just for indoor, but generally) whether they have ever had an issue with the personal space thing. Or even right-handers who have shot face-to-face with left-handers.

[Marcus]

I shot with Ray at the Nationals, who is right handed. It allowed for us to share the same scope, which was cool, but we had to look at each other for 2 days (which can't be good for either of us)

[CW]

The only only problem with being a left handed archer when shooting indoors is that all the right hander's quivers jab you in the back at full draw :( . Shooting target seems to be okay though :D .

[baldmountain]

I shot facing a left hander last weekend. We agreed that it would be best to synchonize our shots. In our case I was the jerk who let the tip of his recurve drift into his sight line while he was at full draw. :oops: Thank goodness he was nice about it. :)

Two girls in the group shooting opposite us, (one lefty shooting on the left and one righty shooting on the right), were really squeezing the guy between them. Both girls had their heels on the line in their box. The guy literally had to hold his bow against his chest while loading an arrow in order to not bump one of the girls. He grumbled the whole shoot and didn't score too well.

[cecile]

Just focus on the the target. The gold is the only thing to look at...

In France, we are usually very close from each other on the line. A lot of archers I know are very sensitive to their environment during a shooting event.
Well personnally, I had some bad experiences, but I always try to focus only on my shooting. And even if the guy behind me has an horrible breath or hit my head or my bow every time he sets an arrow on the string or swear after each bad arrow..., the important thing is to shoot well. If the guy makes the shoot impossible, better ask a referee that there are problems, than argue with the guy!

But generally, at the end of the tournament, and especially if the archer is quite young, I make some calm remarks to the guy, suggesting he would certainly shoot better if he could behave better. For older archers, I might be much more incisive. :agrue:
I think this is doing a service to them acting this way.

[Harald]

Bad breath, body odeur etz. on the next guy is nothing ...

It's much worse to concentrate on the gold if the girl next to you is incredible sexy...

You might be allowed to draw her arrows out of the target for her though... :D :D :D

[stodrette]

And that, Harry, is why the FITA organization has been so thoughtful as to separate the men from the women on the field!!! :o

[cecile]

That could be explained like that?
http://www.integralsport.com/viewtopic.php?t=1977
:D

[Kuru]

A good trick is to let people shoot off your pattern then change half way :lol: I like my own little space so sometimes you really have to take charge and push your way around, flicking your bow to the side after your shot is always good, makes others around you A: back off and worry about their own space, B: think about what YOUR going to do after your shot while they are aiming, so it's all good ! sometimes you have to do these things......

[Harald]

In Norway we just line up the best rated people, man or woman from the
left target and towards the right according to rating, with shorter distance classes usually to the right.
Thought that was common except in international competitions??? :bday:

[naf]

I shoot leftie and I'm constantly amazed at the number of people who can't load an arrow without canting the bow over to about a 45 degree angle. It can get very distracting esp. when the room is crowded and the lanes are thin.

I'm thinking it might be useful to add something into beginner courses that teaches how to load an arrow from the left of the bow (leftie) or the right (right handed), behind the string, thus keeping the bow upright at all times. It's also much less clumsy to do it this way.

In terms of shooting facing another archer, of course it depends on who it is, but I usually find the deep concentration that shows on their face very calming. People's eyes tend to almost "glaze over" in the sense that you don't really make eye contact even if you are looking at them, or if you do it is very expressionless. This is very useful for getting into the right mindset to shoot.

[Eberbachl]

I like my own little space so sometimes you really have to take charge and push your way around, flicking your bow to the side after your shot is always good

You do that on purpose whilst shooting next to me in order to try and put me off my game, and you'll be wearing your Scepter up your arse :bday: :rofl: :lol:

[Kuru]

Luke sounds like I need to introduce you to my 30" vibracheck, it's very good at smacking people up side the head till the white meat shows :fist: :lol:

[Harald]

Yeippie.
Lets throw away the bows and all use our stabilizers as light sabers.

Use the force Luke :D :D :D :D 8)

[Eberbachl]

I like my own little space so sometimes you really have to take charge and push your way around, flicking your bow to the side after your shot is always good

Luke sounds like I need to introduce you to my 30" vibracheck, it's very good at smacking people up side the head till the white meat shows :fist: :lol:

Not necessary Gareth :wink:

Just not interested in people trying to put me off my game by waving their bow in front of my face, 'cause they can't win on their own merits. :wink:

I'm at all times respectful of the shooters around me, and just shoot every shot as best I can.

If that is enough to win on they day, then I am happy :bday: If I don't win, that's fine too - I at least know that I've shot every shot as well as I could, and I am happy with my effort.

Truce :)

:bday:

[CMB50]

I tried to put Luke off today by jabbing him with my nocks in his arse..... worked well - the bastard shot a 300 indoor!! :o

[Marcus]

I've never seen him more relaxed. :rofl:

[Eberbachl]

I tried to put Luke off today by jabbing him with my nocks in his a*se..

I thought all my Christmases had come at once :rofl:

I've never seen him more relaxed.

Marcus - I gotta say I had some shakes and nerves inside ... outside might have looked cool though :lol:

Although I didn't have nearly as many nerves as any other indoor round I've shot that has nearly ended up 300.

Most other times I alway think "**** this could be a 300!"

.........CHOKE!

9

:rofl:

This time I really made a huge effort to slow myself down and stop thinking that ****. Just got my breathing right and concentrated 100% on shooting each arrow as an individual as best I could, not worrying about that last arrow, and not thinking about the next arrow - especially not worrying about the overall score. Just thinking about shooting the arrow at hand.

Hey presto - no choke :D, and they all ended up in the ten :D

Well - it's all academic really :lol: we were scoring inner ten, so it was only a 291 really :rofl: trust me to shoot 300 when it doesn't count!
:wink:

[2Dogs]

I'm amazed Luke!!!.............you sure it was 18m and not 8m?... :rofl:

You Vic's are hopeless at getting the distance right :lol: :lol:

[Eberbachl]

I'm amazed Luke!!!.............you sure it was 18m and not 8m?... :rofl:

You Vic's are hopeless at getting the distance right :lol: :lol:

Ahh ****, is that why the ten looked so big :rofl:

Cheeky Bastard ! :bday:

[Clare Barnes]

You Vic's are hopeless at getting the distance right :lol: :lol:

I vote we get Zoe to check it out - you know what guys are like over measurements! :roll: :D

[Harald]

Thats using the force
Must have been beautiful shooting :D