Author: Adrian Miller

Its been a couple of weeks since my last post, yes I know the idea was for a weekly post, but we all know what happens, procrastination and life always seems to get in the way. So lets catch up and seewhat has happened in the last couple of weeks.

Lets look back at the last 3 competitions I’ve competed in over the last few weeks.

WINDY

CPT

The item that links these 3 events is the wind, first was the Cape of Good Hope on the 11th and 12th August. The  first day started with an icy chill in the breeze, but then as it always does the wind picked up with a strong crosswind and lots of wonderful gusts the made the day eventful, however not ideally the best day for scoring.

The following day was also a little chilly and the dark clouds above threaten rain for the whole shoot, the the first of the light drizzle only started as we finished shooting the last arrows of the day. The wind was not as bad on this second day, but for yours truly in was a first weekend of shooting where the wind played a major factor, my scores may not have been great but it was a great learning experience

Durban

Go to Durban they said, now wind they said, perfect place to shoot PB and National records…all i can say is BLAH!!!!

The wind at the Michael Shires Tournament in Durban (25th-27th August) was not as bad as the previous but it did provide its own challenges, the wind directing kept us on our toes especially those of us shooting the longer distances.. the first 2 distance in the 1440 we not my best however the did allow me the time to get used to the wind. the last 2 distances of the first day we much better an only missed my personal best scores by a few points.

Day 2 also saw some wind challenges mainly due to the direction.

Johannesburg

At last a tournament were the weather was suitable for shooting, on the first day we had a slight breeze which was manageable throughout the day, just had to get used to tail winds and a slight cross wind. Day 2 saw a wind that was a little stronger and by the time we arrived at the Eliminations it was a challenge as the gusts were starting to build in strength

THE BAD:

Frst of all the bad was me delaying this weekly update, my excuses are(that’s if you care) Family,Life, Work and traveling.

Second the fact that i spent so much time trying contact lenses and single vision glasses to try and assist my shooting,.   All it took was a long outdoor session to discover that my sloooooow progress over the last few months could have been related to the glasses, so after the Cape of good Hope tournaments I decided remove said glasses from my shooting equipment. I find that having the target blurry and the sight pin clear is a better combination for me.

The last Bad Item was the scores at the Cape of Good Hope tournament

THE GOOD

First lets just skip the Cape of Good Hope competition…  Score will be uploaded to the site in the

next couple of days.

Durban, whilst i did mention the winds and their effect on scores i do have, on the first day i manage to beat  to say i felt very good, took me a little bit of time to get going and find the flow but over all i was very happy with the whole shoot. Missed out on 3 Personal Bests scores by just a few points on each. I did beat my PB and national record for the  720 double round by just a couple of points, so some rewards for the practice put in. Of course i was hoping for more.

On to JHB , again this had perfect weather for the tournament,  On the first day i managed to start very well, lots of focus and work was done on my form.

I managed to improve  scores at 90m and 50m these still need to be ratified as provincial and national records, also I scored a new PB for the 1440 round.

Sunday was a single 720 round with eliminations. missed my PB for the 720 by 1 point, the eliminations were a challenge as I’ve not shot the format before, i still managed to win a Bronze medal for that

Thank you to Noel for spending the weekend with me while I practiced and competed. My favourite words from Noel over the weekend were “Yes!!” “Nice one adie” “Balance” “expand” and “transfer”

After our chats I’m confident the next evolution in my shoot is about to begin.

I’d just like to say thank you to a few People, firstly MTNza without your support  I would not have been able to travel, to these destinations, Rone who is keeping  or should i say trying to get me fit, Reinhard for removing all the pain and knots on my back, shoulder and helping me remain injury Continue reading “The Good, the Bad and the WINDY” →

When I started this page and decided to write a blog each week, I thought how hard can it be.

How wrong I was. I thought I could just talk about my shooting and that’s it. But there are so many aspects of everyday life that intertwine. Family, work, friends and of course archery.

So it’s can be difficult to seperate each of these when talking about ones progress.

Ok that was a bit deep from me.

I had  a very thoughtful conversation with a wise man who commented on my last post.  He reminded me that even though I have so much going on I need to keep my eye on my goal and  continue to focus on that and try to find a balance or even ask for assistance to help shoulder and coordinate the other aspects of my life so I am able to keep my eyes on the prize.  Thank you Judge Dredd your observation and words as made a difference.

Last Monday we had a fun shoot at Bowtime instead of the normal shooting for score etc.  It was a reminder that we do the sport for enjoyment and it’s not all about the final score.

I think this has helped me during the rest of the week whilst training. I put in a lot of hours and arrows getting my form and bow setup.  I increased the poundage on my bow, changed my v-bars and stabiliser set up.  Personally I think it was a calculated change on my set up and now my bow feels stable and responsive when I shoot.  But deep down I know it was a pure luck, it’s about time I got a bit of luck considering the amount of work I have been putting in to get my form right.

On Sunday I shot a few arrows at 70m to fine tune my bow, in the end I didn’t need to make any changes. Once warmed up I was shooting 6 out 8 arrows in the gold and feeling very good dispute the bitter cold, wind and the threat of a downpour.  So this week has been very positive for me.

Now to the exciting part of the week.  After many emails and a number of conversations my work MTN SA have decided that they would like to sponsor me and assist with helping me reach my short, medium and long term goals

MTN SA are going to sponsor me with travel and accommodation so that I can travel to a number of tournaments outside of the Cape.  This includes 3 trips to Durban (1 being the SA Indoor Nationals) and a trip to JHB and PTA. So that’s 5 trips in total.

I feel over whelmed with the generosity from MTN as they are offering their full support in my goals. So I would like to thank the executive,  managers and staff of MTN SA for all their support.  So expect to see me flying the MTN Brand at all of my shoots from now on.  This support will offer me more opportunities to shoot the qualifying scores I require  for national selection.

I’d like to just say that k you to the kind people who have offer thier services be it time or money to me and are apart of Team : “Get Hoppy to Tokyo”

The most important thanks must got to Lucia and Samantha, You will achieve nothing with out the support of your family,

Thank you to : MTN SA, Bowtime, IRIS Network Systems , Elite Archery Experience,,

My coaches. Noel Robinson, Luther De Koker and Sharon Swanepoel.

My Torture Team.  Reinhard Bester Physiotherapy, Rone Grobbelaar Biokinectist.  I will be adding a few new names here shortly (Robert and Leor I will still make contact with in the coming weeks)

I’m sure i have forgotten someone, but please know i do appreciate every piece of support given no matter the format.

The last that is to everyone who is following my blog on  https://www.adrianmiller.co.za , my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/adrianmillerarchery/ and my  twitter account Adrianmillerarchery @adrianmillerar1

Well that’s all from this week.  Let’s see what the next week brings.

Over the last week I’ve been moving forward on building my team that will help lift me to my ultimate goal.

I had treatment at a pain clinic to help alleviate my phantom limb pain, this will be an ongoing process, I have had the dreaded appointment with a dietitian who will guide me on the correct diet for both health and fitness, but also using diet to also help with the phantom pain. We are also looking at mirror therapy to hopefully also assist.

I also met with a biokineticist who will assist with putting together a fitness plan for my cardio, core and over all fitness. Other key areas with be strength and endurance for my shooting. This will start off quite intense and when ready she will hand over the training to myself and a couple of friends who have offered their services to get me to the fitness I need to compete at the highest level.

I have also started seeing a sports Psychologist who will also assist me going forward.

My team is in place so we will start moving this juggernaut forward, slowly at first but will quickly pick up pace to the end of the year where we will be in a position to push hard for Para World Champs qualifying..

I am also busy with a few companies looking at various forms of sponsorships, update will be provide when completed.

From the shooting and training side thing have been OK, most of the training has been about fitness and form, I did shoot in the Edna Trimmer indoor tournament on Sunday, To be honest, it was not my best shoot as i started off very inconsistent and my scores were quite low *blush*. Just after half way every thing started to click into place my form, control and shot execution was near perfect. and my 3 arrow average jumped from 24.6 to 27.9 which made a huge difference to my score. The fact that i finished strong indicates that the form , strength and endurance is there I just need to work on starting strong not just finishing strong.

Again i would like to thank everyone for their ongoing support, you all are helping me on my Journey to success.

Finally the weather has improved and I was able to shoot outdoors for the first time in weeks. Managed to put in quite a few arrows at 30m, 50m, 60m and 70m. It felt good to be outdoors and shooting.

Sunday was another WCAF indoor qualifying round. I shot OK, but as always it could have been better, my shooting felt really good, i felt fit and strong, unfortunately my 2 scores did not show the same. 263 and 262 (total 525).

I’m still working on my technique to ensure that it is consistent each time, however this does not happen over night lots of work has been done and still needs to happen.

It was nice to have Samantha shooting in the Monday night indoor IFAA round, so proud of her. She has improved so much over the last few weeks,  She shot so well she actually beat me, and of the 11 junior girls and ladies shooting on the evening she was placed 4th only missing 3rd by 2 points. Yes i said she beat me, we scored the same total (274)and X’s (17), but she shot more 5’s than me which means she won.

The Bowtime team have provided great assistance as always, Luther with equipment and Sharon watching me at all angles to ensure my form is correct. Might need to see if Sharon is able to spend some time with me outdoors to  ensure the training done inside reflects outside.

I also need to get further assistance to tune my bow at 70m, i need forgiveness in my tuning, my good shots are great but the slightly bad shots are very bad. Again this just means more time on the range.

I’m so blessed that I have the support of my Girls, family and friends….

 

The last couple of weeks in cape town have been cold and wet, so any real chance of shooting the longer distances have been scarce of course the good weather is always when you are at work.

Most of my shooting has been indoors, Monday we had a our Bowtime Monthly Indoor FITA shoot.  Whilst warming up i had a bit of equipment failure which meant I had to strip down my bow, I discovered the bottom limb was not locked in place correctly , once i had my bow back together i only had a few warm up rounds.

I started off slow but ended up with a 262 for the first round, i knew i had more in me and was determined to focus and insure that i improved in the second round.  Everything just fell into place, i ended up with a personal best score of 278  and an over all score of 540 which is only 4 points off my over all PB.

Samantha also joined us on the line for the first time, was so proud of her, she was so nervous but ended up with an overall score of 485, her last arrow of the night was a 10,

Thanks to Reinhard Bester of Bester Physiotherapy for the session on Tuesday, this man reduces the chance of me getting injured and helps me maintain my fitness with all the arrows I shoot. I’ll be getting extra sessions soon to help with an exercise routines to increase my fitness with ut causing any damage to my Knee or shooting form.

This weekend its looks like some nice shooting weather, so i will make the most of it on Saturday, on Sunday there is another indoor qualifying round at Bowtime. I will update the blog after that event.

For now those in SA, keep warm, my friends and family in the UK enjoy you warm weather, winter is just around the corner.

Not much to report on this week, no tournaments so its been all about form, training and practice.

I’ve worked quite a bit on my form looking to keep my shot process flowing, its taken a number of hours just to understand what i need to do, so now its time to work on consistency of the whole shot process and get it into my muscle memory.

Trying to make sure that all shots are quality shots so that no bad habits can creep in,

On the 8th July we have an indoor shoot so its all about preparing for that shoot. The weather in Cape Town has been quite wet, which we are very thankful for, our dams really need all the water they can get.

This has limited the amount of time I’ve had to shoot outside,

Overall I’m feeling fit and please with my shooting. It’s only a matter of time that my scores will move to the next level.

Thank you to everyone for your support and continued interested in my journey.

well over the last week, I have spent time tuning my equipment, re-fletching arrows, had a so so shoot at the WCAF indoor qualifying and received a parcel of archery goodies.

So spent Wednesday evening setting my bow up to use the arrows given to me by Elite Archery Experience, was quite happy with my shooting and confident with the bow setup, Thursday evening was spent stripping off the fletching and refletching with Kurly vanes. I only sorted out 8 arrows and took me a good few arrows to do them.

Friday evening was another evening of practice and prepping for Sundays Indoor shoot.

On Saturday I received my parcel from the UK with some nice goodies…. 2 new finger tabs, spinwings, new KSL jet6 vanes, nocks, nock tools and a spare arrow rest.

Sunday’s shoot went OK, no fantastic scores from my side, also the shooting line felt a little divided with the compounds on one side and the recurves on the other side of the line.  would have been nice to mix up the different categories a bit more, after all we are all archers some of us just need to use training wheels (only joking). Mixing up the line would have been beneficial to the newer archers

Back to my shooting, I would not say I shot bad, my scores were about average but I did have some issues with my finger tab (good job i have new ones that just arrived) which i only picked up at the break.
When looking closer at my score sheet it was evident that I shot a lot less 10’s than the first session.

The coming week I will work on shooting in my new finger tabs, fletching some arrows with the new KSL Jet6 vanes and lots of practice,

I mentioned in my previous post about the few changes made (spectacles, arrows, bow setup and changes to my form) well the league shoot at Bowtime on Monday went very well, Whilst I didn’t shoot a PB I did shoot my second highest score for the IFAA indoor round.  277/300  (137 and then a 140)

Thanks to Zack for assisting with scoring and helping me through the tough arrows.

There is only one word I can use for the weekend, CHANGE !

On Friday a collected a pair of single vision spectacles, I had these made as I was not able to use my multi-focal specs when shooting and contact lenses don’t seem to be compatible with me. So single vision Specs were the last choice.

I’m quite pleased to say that I can see the target now, it’s amazing how clear all the colours are now, instead of blur of rainbow colours.

So that was the first change for the weekend.

On Saturday Noel Robinson from Elite Archery Experience who has assisted me with coaching and equipment was visiting from JHB and spent quite a bit of time setting up my bow along with some additional coaching, He also brought down a couple of new sets of arrows for me to try out. A big thank you for Bowtime to accommodate us whilst we worked on equipment and my shooting.

I’m happy to say that only a few small adjustments are needed in my form and those will take a few weeks to re-program my muscle memory and subconscious.

Due to the rain we were not able to spend enough time tuning the bow, it would have been great if we could have shot outside and tuned the bow at 30m and 70m. That will be something I need to do on my own at another time in the very near future.

I’m going to work through the new arrows and select the ones that group the best and use them to tune the bow as best I can indoors before moving outdoors.

I had a good weekend of shooting, some great practice time and a good Indoor shoot.

I’ve shot a few indoor rounds for the FITA Indoor but this weekend was my first official Tournament/Qualifier.  This took place @bowtimearchery .Things started off a little shaky even before the first scoring arrows started, had a moment of mild to server panic. After i had set my bow up for the shoot, i forgot to tighten the smallest little grub screw after i finished the setup.

So whilst warming up and sighting in i noticed my arrow grouping was a little off and not improving at all. After a quick glance i noticed that a grub screw was missing from my Plunger (small device that helps improve arrow flight) so i quickly replaces it with one from a spare Plunger, Ideally i should have set the spare to match the one i was using after the set up. Lesson learned.

The vibration from the bow when shooting caused the adjustment screw to move, the grub screw would have held it in place.

So in the last 15 mins of practice arrows whilst a little panicked i tried to set the plunger as close to the previous days settings.

Once the scoring arrows started i moved my focus away from the panic i had been in to concentrating on shooting the best arrows that i could with my setup, now was not the time to play around with too many adjustments

I felt pretty good, had a few moments when I would not get my back muscles to activate and work, but that just something that i need to work on.

So after the shoot ended i scored a new Personal best score of 544 out of 600. Not what i had planned for the day but  can you really complain if you shoot your personal best.

This shoot was the first of about 4 which give archers the opportunity to shoot a qualifying score, unfortunately the Western Cape archery Federation have still to provide me with the required scores for qualifying for provincial colours for the 1440, 720 and indoor rounds.

My score for the Shoot have been lodged with the province and then with the National association as new Indoor records for my Disability class, So once these are ratified i will hold all the current records for RMO (Recurve Men Open) class.

I’d like to thank the team @bowtimearchery for a very well organised event, the music was great and it was nice to see some familiar faces.

Bowtime. 3rd June 2018 544/600 RMO first Place