Is it ever too soon to be entering tournaments?

mh1970

New member
Hi all,

My question is this. I got into archery at the end of last year and am totally hooked. I entered an indoor Portsmouth after a month of joining the club and shot a 514 which I was really proud of. Next month I am shooting a Western and then in June a York.

I know that I am not going to score well and considering that the maximum we can shoot at our club is 80yds the York will be a shot in the dark. I want to enter just so that I can enjoy the day and challenge myself. Hopefully I can reach 100 yards with my 40# bow and ACCs.

So, is it ever too soon to be entering competitions?

What do you think?
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
If the archer wants to compete, go and join the other competitors.
Sometimes the archer feels they have been dragged along by others. That doesn't always end happily.
 

BevD

New member
Go for it! My beginners course finished on October 29th last year and in January I shot at Telford. Why not - no one is going to get hurt, you will have fun and everyone has been really friendly. I have shot many indoor tournaments already and have my first outdoor Windsor round at RRAC on Sunday :D
 

little-else

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
I like competitive shooting and would like to do more but my club seems to be content with plodding along without much interaction with other clubs on the whole. there are a small number of exceptions so entering a comp at someone else's field can seem a bit daunting the first time to show up. Once your bow has passed scrutiny (if checked and so far that has been rare for me) you will soon find that there are 3 or 4 other people in the same boat as you are so you will soon relax into things. The only person who can make a difference to your score is you so dont worry about how anyone else is doing as they have their own selves to battle with.
If you come last then remember, you beat all those other "brilliant" archers who dont turn up to compete.
 

Bertybobby

New member
Never too soon. Nobody is bothered about your score, they are too concerned with their own....

It's practice with more people!
 

Nightimer

New member
By all means go for it,a Western is a good round to start with.
Not too sure about the York.
You say you can only shoot 80yards at your club,how are you going to get sight marks for 100yards?
A competition is not a good place to get initial sight marks(you only get 6 goes).
Why not change and go for a Hereford?
Yes you shoot with the ladies (I've done it myself a couple of times,it was a real hoot).
The upside is that you can practice for it rather than going in blind.
I have shot on a target where one archer had never shot 100yards before,he didnt hit the target ONCE in 4dozen arrows (he gave up after that).
We gave him as much help as we could but the searching for arrows was getting a bit much,for backs as well as tempers.
 

Vagabond

New member
...So, is it ever too soon to be entering competitions?
What do you think?
No, never to soon.

A 514 Portsmouth after 1 month: respect!

A word of caution: there's a lot of difference between 80y and 100y.
However, assuming you are a member of GNAS, you can pop off and do a practice shoot @100y with another club. For example, my home club would charge you ?3 target fees if you wanted to shoot there as a visitor (it's open 24/7).

If you have any doubts, then any York tournament will also have a Hereford round (80/60/50 yards) available for the ladies. My first tournament was a Hereford because my arrows wouldn't reach 100yards at the time.

I mention the Hereford because you might find yourself spending the entire morning missing the target at 100 yards with 6 dozen arrows. Even a Master Bowman can miss in a breeze (trust me on this)! And all-day tournament take a lot of getting used to since it can take 8 to 10 hours to shoot a 12 dozen round.

(Note: you don't have to wear a dress or shave your legs to shoot a ladies round - but that's your choice. All my fellow archers were very kind and said I looked rather fetching in my slinky little blue dress...though the heels were a mistake!).

V
 

nockit

New member
Hi all,

My question is this. I got into archery at the end of last year and am totally hooked. I entered an indoor Portsmouth after a month of joining the club and shot a 514 which I was really proud of. Next month I am shooting a Western and then in June a York.

I know that I am not going to score well and considering that the maximum we can shoot at our club is 80yds the York will be a shot in the dark. I want to enter just so that I can enjoy the day and challenge myself. Hopefully I can reach 100 yards with my 40# bow and ACCs.

So, is it ever too soon to be entering competitions?

What do you think?
always make a note of your own scores,as mistakes can happen no one will mind you doing that and it will clear up any discrepencies at the end of the shoot.
 

Tuck

New member
Hi all,

My question is this. I got into archery at the end of last year and am totally hooked. I entered an indoor Portsmouth after a month of joining the club and shot a 514 which I was really proud of. Next month I am shooting a Western and then in June a York.

I know that I am not going to score well and considering that the maximum we can shoot at our club is 80yds the York will be a shot in the dark. I want to enter just so that I can enjoy the day and challenge myself. Hopefully I can reach 100 yards with my 40# bow and ACCs.

So, is it ever too soon to be entering competitions?

What do you think?
You are perfectly capable of reaching 100y with such a setup (anchor point and draw length dependant).
If you can at least get a 100y sight mark that would help, do you have 20y behind your shooting line for a supervised one off sighters ? Or another club where you could shoot as a guest?
If you don't know something about the shoot, scoring or etiquette the look at the shoot invitation sheet, at the GNAS website where all the relevant rules are available as downloads, or just ask!
Enjoy!




Eat, Drink, Shoot, Enjoy.
 

Adam

Active member
I agree with most of the previous posts - a Hereford would be a good starting point. I clearly remember my first outdoor tournament and I shot Hereford too. 1,088 if my memory serves, with my Hoyt Gold Medalist and a set of lovely gold coloured allys. Happy days.
 

Whitehart

Well-known member
always make a note of your own scores,as mistakes can happen no one will mind you doing that and it will clear up any discrepencies at the end of the shoot.
Once the arrows have been pulled other than adding up errors it is too late for anything else.
 

Vagabond

New member
Once the arrows have been pulled other than adding up errors it is too late for anything else.
Yes, very true ~99% of the time...one memorable exception being my very first FITA Star.

In my defence: it was also one of my first tournaments and was "volunteered" to do the scoring...I warned them I was a plonker, but did they listen...?
Anyway, I mucked up the score sheet belonging to the European Compound Archery champion at the time: wrote correct numbers but on the wrong score sheet (gulp!).
Worst still: didn't realised this until lunchtime...I was about to become famous for all the wrong reasons.

However, as luck would have it, this tournament had double-scoring, i.e. 2 sets of score sheets per target, and the second set was correct. Managed to find a judge at lunchtime (not easy, free food, etc. !!!) and persuade him to correct the dodgy score-sheet. You'll appreciate that there's a lot of difference between my novice recurve score and European compound champion's score, so the judge didn't need a lot of convincing. Looking on the positive side, had the judge NOT corrected the score sheet, then I would have ended up with a very good GMB score.

And the moral of this story?
Well, when a novice tells you he's a plonker with the score sheet, you'd better believe it!
...especially if it's me!

V
 

Nightimer

New member
It is really unfair to expect a novice to score at a major tournament,they have enough to worry about just hitting the target.
How would you feel if you were going for your MB and the score sheet was wrong?
Happy?
I thought not.
There is enough pressure on a novice attending their first York or Fita without score sheets to worry about.
This is why I always advise that smaller,novice friendly shoots are far better starting point.
Also I would advise that scoring on club days is good, because it give experience in filling out score cards without pressure.
In my shooting days I always tried to find out if their were novice archers on my target,then made myself available for help/advice if needed.
In the past I have heard novice archers say that they found shoots rather unfriendly places,I can understand this feeling.
A tournament is a scary place for a beginner,this is not how it should be.
Remember,EVERYONE on this forum was a novice at some time,just think how YOU felt.
 

nockit

New member
Yes, very true ~99% of the time...one memorable exception being my very first FITA Star.

In my defence: it was also one of my first tournaments and was "volunteered" to do the scoring...I warned them I was a plonker, but did they listen...?
Anyway, I mucked up the score sheet belonging to the European Compound Archery champion at the time: wrote correct numbers but on the wrong score sheet (gulp!).
Worst still: didn't realised this until lunchtime...I was about to become famous for all the wrong reasons.

However, as luck would have it, this tournament had double-scoring, i.e. 2 sets of score sheets per target, and the second set was correct. Managed to find a judge at lunchtime (not easy, free food, etc. !!!) and persuade him to correct the dodgy score-sheet. You'll appreciate that there's a lot of difference between my novice recurve score and European compound champion's score, so the judge didn't need a lot of convincing. Looking on the positive side, had the judge NOT corrected the score sheet, then I would have ended up with a very good GMB score.

And the moral of this story?
Well, when a novice tells you he's a plonker with the score sheet, you'd better believe it!
...especially if it's me!
V
yes its happen to me more than once,happley not as big as your shoot but egg on the face is still egg on the face lol.
 

nockit

New member
It is really unfair to expect a novice to score at a major tournament,they have enough to worry about just hitting the target.
How would you feel if you were going for your MB and the score sheet was wrong?
Happy?
I thought not.
There is enough pressure on a novice attending their first York or Fita without score sheets to worry about.
This is why I always advise that smaller,novice friendly shoots are far better starting point.
Also I would advise that scoring on club days is good, because it give experience in filling out score cards without pressure.
In my shooting days I always tried to find out if their were novice archers on my target,then made myself available for help/advice if needed.
In the past I have heard novice archers say that they found shoots rather unfriendly places,I can understand this feeling.
A tournament is a scary place for a beginner,this is not how it should be.
Remember,EVERYONE on this forum was a novice at some time,just think how YOU felt.
yep we have all been there,thank god people like yourself have helped me out more than once.
 

mk1

It's an X
Supporter
2 points

1) It is each archer's responsibility to make sure their score is recorded correctly - so if they want to trust it to a newbie and not check what said newbie is doing - then that's their lookout!! :)

2) You found a very nice judge who used some common sense - they woudn't all have changed over the scores - unless it was just the names at the top needed changing...







Yes, very true ~99% of the time...one memorable exception being my very first FITA Star.

In my defence: it was also one of my first tournaments and was "volunteered" to do the scoring...I warned them I was a plonker, but did they listen...?
Anyway, I mucked up the score sheet belonging to the European Compound Archery champion at the time: wrote correct numbers but on the wrong score sheet (gulp!).
Worst still: didn't realised this until lunchtime...I was about to become famous for all the wrong reasons.

However, as luck would have it, this tournament had double-scoring, i.e. 2 sets of score sheets per target, and the second set was correct. Managed to find a judge at lunchtime (not easy, free food, etc. !!!) and persuade him to correct the dodgy score-sheet. You'll appreciate that there's a lot of difference between my novice recurve score and European compound champion's score, so the judge didn't need a lot of convincing. Looking on the positive side, had the judge NOT corrected the score sheet, then I would have ended up with a very good GMB score.

And the moral of this story?
Well, when a novice tells you he's a plonker with the score sheet, you'd better believe it!
...especially if it's me!

V
 
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