Tabla de contenidos para Issue 145 en Bow International

Hello, and welcome to Bow International, edition 145. We’re finally back to our pre-lockdown full size, even as we have all slipped into what a clubmate of mine has started to call ‘the long tedium’. Will it end? Will what end, exactly. It’s abundantly clear that the age of coronavirus is far from over. It may gradually move over the next months or year or so from a pandemic to something like a background issue for public health, but the associated upheavals will be with us for a while yet. There’s encouraging signs for archery events, with sensibly distanced – as much as these things can be – national-level events taking place around the world in the last month. It’s clear that the sport can make distancing work, and that…

Kristina Dolgilevica, a level II archery coach and instructor at Archery Fit (and regular Bow International columnist) has opened a remote training programme specifically aimed at intermediate archers. Many have noted the difficulty of improving intermediate archers, often because of a lack of dedicated individual coaching. If learning stops, so does the progress. It leads to loss of confidence, enjoyment and purpose, and for many, ends in quitting the sport altogether. Structured one-to-one coaching is essential to help archers progress. In addition to building a good technical skillset, they must also learn about the physical and mental side of the sport to help improve overall performance and advance. The launch of this project coincides with the times when remote coaching is becoming a norm and is proving its effectiveness worldwide.…

STREAMLIGHT MACROSTREAM RECHARGEABLE TORCH You may not use a torch like the Streamlight Macrostream every day, but you’ll be glad it’s close-to-hand now the days are getting shorter and you might be packing away in less light. In 500-lumen 'high' mode the Macrostream has a 90m beam and runs for two hours, while Low mode, which offers 50 lumens and projects a 30m beam, has a run time of eight hours, and the battery can be charged in only four hours. It's tough, too. From around £69 online. Visit www.streamlight.com for more details. MERINO BOOT SOCK Challenging terrain and varying temperatures should prove no match for archers who decide to pull on a pair of HJ Hall’s Merino Boot Socks. A great pair of boots will only be able to…

It's harder to classify an 'archery movie', than it is to classify, say, a submarine movie. Archery is woven differently into different movies; some fundamental, and some trivial. The classic trope is usually to illustrate a character's rugged individualism or rarefied skill. Being the chosen one never gets old. For the same reason, archery is frequently thrown in as a dumb shorthand for the same thing. Hey, we need something cool and tough… how about we make this guy an archer? To make our list, there has to be something a little more than just durrr, give that guy a bow. So how were these chosen? On a carefully calibrated and weighted table of: a) how inspiring they are (how much they might want to make you pick up a…

I make Tuning Forks, which are a toolset for helping recurvers align their limbs along a single plane in 3D space — sounds complicated, but the toolset makes it pretty easy to get things right. It's called Earlyhuman because archery is one of the oldest human activities. As a species we probably only exist because of archery. As a sport though? We’re really just getting started. There’s so much room to advance understanding and grow the sport. Also, the name reminds me that we’re just all a bunch of kids flinging sticks. I always hated bow alignment with all the uncertainty and tail-chasing. It seemed like a problem I could solve for myself. After tinkering with ideas, I found out other archers were having the same issues. It never hurts…

Bow remembers archer and coach Bev Detoeuf, who passed away suddenly on the 13th of August 2020. Bev started shooting in 1968 and had a successful junior and senior career at county, regional and national level. In 1975 she competed in the first ever Junior International event in Europe. She qualified as a Level 3 county coach in 2015 and worked with the archers on the National Talent Development programme for recurve archers under 20. She also worked with the Northern Academy at Bishop Burton and with several other clubs and groups, and was an AGB Director between July 2008 and June 2009. Bev was passionate about getting people from underrepresented groups involved in the sport, and worked as part of the coaching team of Arrowhawks Academy, which is the…

Alex Zuleta-Visser of Florida, USA, took first place at the US Open elimination competition in senior recurve women, beating Erin Mickelberry, 6-2. She is one of several athletes coached remotely, or with a mix of direct and remote coaching by Alexander Kirillov, a former international from the Soviet Union who moved to the USA in the 1990s, and is based in Arizona. Zuleta, who now studies in Georgia, has limited opportunities for direct coaching. "I didn't have a coach for several years. When I first started, there weren't really any coaches in the area, and the nearest big centre was over two hours away. When she found Kirillov, via another archer at a tournament, she started a mix of in-person and remote coaching. "I send video and discuss things on…

Rio 2016 Olympian Atanu Das has become the 17th archer to receive India’s Arjuna Award, which is presented to recognise an athlete’s outstanding achievement in sports. Das is on course to represent India at his second Olympics in Tokyo. Atanu, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav finished second in the recurve men’s team event at the 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch, securing India three men’s quota places to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the process.…

PUSHED FOR TIME? Shooting arrows without focus is not an efficient way to train. These practice exercises develop the skills that archers need to perform in competition. One of archery's greatest strengths is perhaps also its deepest weakness. It centres around the target. They are exceptionally easy to understand – the closer an arrow hits to the middle, the better the result – and they provide instant feedback. And therein lies the problem. When training, archers get immediate feedback on every shot. But training isn’t where an archer is required to perform on the scoresheet. The goal is to improve – not to win. When focusing on craft, a visual representation of performance can actually do more harm than good. That is why it is often beneficial to remove the…

THE MORE I PRACTICE THE LUCKIER I GET.” - QUOTE ATTRIBUTED TO GOLFER GARY PLAYER. If like me you have been missing the competition scene and you are finding training hard with no events to work towards, you clearly need a fresh challenge. Whether we will see the reintroduction of competitive archery in Europe soon is still in question, although as I write, the US Nationals has just finished, so for now all we can do is hope and make sure we are ready, but how best can we focus and make ourselves ready? Current circumstances mean that many archers have found that they have had more time to shoot and noticed that as they have become fitter and more in control of their bows their scores have gone up.…

Q If I fletch my arrows straight rather than offset will I leave a bit more energy in the arrow? Seems like there must be some sort of trade-off. Am I missing something? A While manufacturers put effort into making high quality arrows that are straight, they are not ‘perfectly straight’. Careful testing with my shooting machine shows that if we ensure that the arrows spin about their longitudinal axis the groups will be tighter and we will score more. We can do this by placing the fletches at a small angle to the shaft – 1 or 2 degrees is quite sufficient and in any case is about as much as you can get on a small diameter shaft such as a Protour. It does take a small amount…

The 31-year-old German international was an integral part of the current international team with Lisa Unruh and Michelle Kroppen, and was part of the team that won three Olympic spots for the nation at the national championships last year. Former Olympian Camilo Mayr, who represented Germany at the London 2012 Olympic Games, also announced his retirement at the same time. It is thought Richter has other plans at present. “I’ve been struggling with this decision for several weeks," Richter told DSB.de. "This season would have meant another career highlight for me with the Olympic Games and, at the same time, my farewell.” However, she said, “It has recently been really difficult for me to prepare for a competition next year, which I am unsure will even take place.” Richter won…

First spotted at the ATA this year, the Workhorse is designed to fit modern compounds up to 41” in overall length and incorporates an extra-wide 5” deep side width dimension for more quiver space. Features include extrathick internal corner pads for cam and limb protection, fleece-fabric lining, eight accessory/gear pockets, shoulder strap, a dedicated arrow box compartment and a repositionable Velcro bow anchor system Best of all, it comes in six colours: charcoal, olive green/grey, teal/grey, Realtree Xtra, Lost Camo XD, and Realtree Edge. More at eastonarchery.com…

Dave Leader at Aim4Sport, one of the best known retailers in the UK is launching a new and wide-ranging app called Archer's Toolbox, which aims to provide a 'one-stop shop' for all things archery for both archer, club, county, and region. It covers scores, score submissions, analytics, coaching, tuning, social media links and more. Leader has ambitions that the app will aid the return of archery in the UK by speeding up the submission process of scores through club and county. Features in the initial launch include a score entry journey, round stats, a profile screen, and a portal for record officers to view submitted score. Further feature releases are planned every 2-4 weeks to include all the functions "you could possibly want" from an app. He spoke to Bow.…

Targets have changed a lot throughout the history of archery. From birds to butts, from boards to bosses, archers everywhere have always proven very creative when it came to the question what to hit. Of course animals have been targets right from the beginning, and sadly, humans too. But for probably just as long, people have practiced one form of archery that doesn’t need any target at all. Shooting for distance, or flight shooting, is not only one of the oldest forms of archery. It is also the most simple one – all you need is your bow, an arrow, and a bit of space. And it is a brutally honest discipline: When you loose an arrow at roughly 45° angle into the air, it will immediately and remorselessly betray…

SPIGARELLI REVOLUTION / REV2 An Italian masterpiece. Ignore the carping from the loggionisti about 'skis with scoliosis', this is one of Sante's finest achievements as a creator. The modernist lines and the carefully measured liminal space are a triumph in form, and allowing for some delineated colour. Its qualities as a riser, as the centre of a setup, have perhaps never quite been proven. Its qualities as an object are peerless and daring. MK KOREA MKX 10 MK's industrial design has always aimed high, even if the puzzle-pieces-plus-shark-mouths of the Alpha was a little recherché, but this short-lived flower is their highest achievement. It manages to pull together the squared off muscle of the Hoyt aesthetic and some more modern, organic forms into something that looks new, even as it…

"How did I spend lockdown? In my apartment. Luckily I was able to put a target at 2m in my living room. And I had my dog!" Pierre Plihon, one of the most charismatic archers on the international circuit, seems to have an ability to put a brave face on pretty much anything. Plihon first made the national recurve side in 2014, bursting onto the scene by winning European team gold and individual bronze. He was part of the team who won silver at the 2017 World Championships in Mexico. He also qualified for Rio 2016 along with Lucas Daniel and Jean-Charles Valladont. This year he hit new heights, posting a 695 indoor qualification, making the top 16 at the Indoor World Series Finals and being once again named to…