Own attitude towards archery..

[Harald]

What would you rather do?.. Win a competition of medium importance by shooting ordinary good shoots all the way?.. or come in reasonably well but knowing you had at least 10 extreamly good shots, feeling that everything was just perfect?...

Some time ago I would have gone for the first option but now I'm not so sure..

Think this has something to do with my attitude changing from wanting to be accepted by others for achievements towards really don't care what others think and stribing towards "the perfect shot" for it's own sake..

Not saying that the one is better than the other... :bday:

[Jay Bowden]

I always shoot to master my own ability.
If it's good enough to win, yippee :D

[Marcus]

I use to shoot to win, however I have realised this leads to 2 things:
a) Can lead you to being upset if you don't
b) Sets restrictions on your shooting

Now I work on trying to shoot good shots. I'm not there yet. I figure if I shoot good shots and win then great, if I shoot good shots and lose, well they deserve my respect. I have no influence on how well someone else shoots, so I don't worry about them.

[Andrew Lindsay]

I must admit after i stopped trying to win every shoot and enjoy being on the range and working on me. I found that in doing this my scores went from 1260 to an average of 1290 to 1300 and i have to admit it has kept me in the sport longer.
I think if you focus on score as we all know we will most likely fall short in one way or another and end up spitting the dummy.In recurve i know the only way to do it is one arrow at a time and make it the best you can a if it doesn't go to plan focus on you and keep trying. That is how i do it ,im sure there is other ideas out there. :D

[mbomike]

im sure there is other ideas out there. :D

Yep.......
Break your opponant's arm :D

[DrRalph]

if I shoot good shots and win then great, if I shoot good shots and lose, well they deserve my respect. I have no influence on how well someone else shoots, so I don't worry about them.

I agree completely Marcus, and accepting the second fact is a useful lesson.

On the weekend last I was only disappointed at my poor shots and overall form (due to the flu I now know), but I still enjoyed some great ends (an XX5 at 25m). For the overall shoot I simply shot poorly and didn't deserve to win, let alone place.

Just wait until next time though. :)

[James Park]

My objective is to shoot each shot as best as I can.
If I happen to get the highest score it is a bonus.
As Marcus noted, I cannot change the other archers' scores, so no point in worrying about them.

[The One]

I agree James - I have personal aims for how well I want to shoot, scorewise. If I end up doing well for myself and losing to a better archers, then I can handle that.

That being said, however, a lot of money is spent on making all of the trips around the country to go to tournaments. If I'm content with just shooting good scores, then I may as well stay at my home range and shoot practice FITAs all day. When I go to tournaments, there is an underlying want to win, and I'd probably be a *tiny* bit more satisfied winning with an average score, than losing with a good score, unless I had the objective of gaining a qualifying score at that tournament.