Jo Frith received her MBE at Buckingham Palace last month, and shares her experience of the day with some insights into what drives her to succeed, and advice to those wishing to continually improve their performance.

It was a very exciting day at Buckingham Palace with the day dawning bright and full of sunshine, although a bit on the cold side. When I arrived at the Palace I was met by a Page who had been assigned to me for the day to make sure I had everything I needed and was in the right place at the right time.

He escorted me upstairs to the dining room where all the recipients were gathered. We were shown a rehearsal of what we had to do when the time came to step forward to receive our honour. It was explained to us at this point that we would receive our honour from Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal. This was particularly poignant for me as my interest in sport was ignited, as a seven year old, when I went to watch The Princess Royal compete in a cross-country competition in Hampshire.

When I received my MBE from The Princess Royal she asked me how hard the training was for archery and what it entailed. She was quite surprised by the range of different types of training we did. She then expressed her desire, as an IOC member, to see Para Archers competing along side able-bodied archers at the Olympics.

It is occasions like these that make all the hard work worthwhile. Staying motivated to compete is always hard but its the quest to achieve a new personal best and to shoot a great score in a major competition that drives me forward. I think that the memories of being on the historic GB 1-2-3 podium in Rio that reminds me why I’m sat on the line, freezing cold and shooting in very strong winds.

Following on from my success in Rio I have become a trustee of TS5C. I’m passionate about promoting sport in Somerset and this charity gives financial assistance to young people who live or go to school in Somerset and who have potential to become Olympians and Paralympians in the future. This is incredibly important because of the rural nature of the county. This means that travel costs to competitions are much higher than those who live in urban areas. I’m incredibly proud to be associated with this small charity and I love meeting the next generation of elite athletes.

My advice to archers wishing to improve is to train and compete as often as possible. Each time you train or compete have a goal in mind whether that be a score in competition or a point to focus on when in training. Change these goals for each session so it makes training more enjoyable. But the most important thing is to enjoy what you are doing. I love going to competitions because I get to see my archery family. I may only see them once a year at the same competition but I’m greeted like it was only yesterday that we last saw each other. Don’t be afraid to talk to other archers, they are a mine of useful information, and are happy to share this with you.

[div class=”row”][div class=”col-sm-4″][end-div][div class=”col-sm-4″][end-div][div class=”col-sm-4″][end-div][end-div]19 year old Phoebe Pine, has recently been confirmed on the Archery GB World Class Programme, as a member of  Team GB.

In response to some questions, Phoebe has kindly shared a few insights into what got her interested in the sport, and what inspires and drives her to succeed.

What got you interested in archery?

I first became interested in archery after the 2012 games, around about the time of the Olympics. I was on holiday with my family and tried archery then, something in my head clicked when I shot and it just felt natural and right. I immediately wanted to carry on shooting and didn’t want the session to finish. As soon as I got home my family and I found a local club for me to join and that’s what started things off really.

What have been your first impressions of the World Class Programme?

Having been a part of the Paralympic Academy for GB since it first started I know how the system works. I’m used to the amount of training involved and the arrows volumes, transitioning to the World Class Programme hasn’t given me any surprises really. The only big difference is I train away from home for two days a week now, where as before I would have been training away from home maybe every month or so. My training regime means I shoot 4-5 times a week anyway so I was used to having to train a lot before, but there’s just more travelling involved now. I am really proud to be a part of such an amazing team and be surrounded by experienced and knowledgeable people who can help guide me on my journey. It means a lot to me that Archery GB have the belief in me to enable me to join the team.

How did it feel when you put on a Team GB shirt for the first time?

I was 17 years old when I put my first GB shirt on, I couldn’t really put words to how I felt and the pride I felt. I had worked so hard to be selected to compete in Holland and I performed well during my selection event – I’m proud to have earned my shirt from the dedication I put into my sport and the hard work I did leading up to selection.

How do you keep motivated when training?

It can be hard sometimes, to train if the weather is bad or if I’m really not feeling it but to keep myself motivated I just remind myself of everything I want to achieve in the sport and how, in order to do that, I need to work hard. I need to put the time and dedication into it. I admit to having days where I wake up and I don’t want to shoot but everyone has those days, if you’re truly motivated to achieve your dream though you fight through it, which is what I do.

What is your biggest source of inspiration to perform?

My biggest source of inspiration to shoot is my mum, I know she’s really proud of me and I want to make her proud since she’s been through so much with me especially through the rough periods caused by my disability. She’s the one person I love the most in the world and I want her to be there to see me win that medal at Tokyo.

Who is your biggest supporter and encourages you the most?

I don’t really have a ‘supporter’; I have more of a team behind me. My family support me a lot in what I do like my parents drive me to training every week as I’m still learning to drive, my dad takes me to training locally when he’s home from work and mum does the best she can for me as well. My friends support me in that I have my own mini cheer squad behind me and my best friend will text me every time I’m about to head to a shoot, wishing me well. I get a lot of encouragement from a lot of places.

Phoebe is now travelling to Telford twice per week for her GB training sessions, in addition to her training in Gloucester at Deer Park Archers and is preparing for the World Championships, which are being held in Beijing in September. Her ultimate goal is to compete at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Phoebe hopes to join Worcester University in October to study Sports and Exercise Science and we wish her the very best in all her endeavours.

Mrs Helen Press was elected an Honorary Life Member of the Grand Western Archery Society, at the AGM in April.

Helen, of Andover Archers, is both an archery coach and experienced tournament organiser who has attended the Dunster Archery Week since the early 1990’s, a very popular archer on the shooting line entering every event except the Field and Clout.

In 2005 she offered to help manage recording of the scoring, and has done so each year since, taking a weeks annual leave to attend the Dunster Event, at her own expense. In the last two years Helen has taken on even more duties as the office guardian and is an invaluable asset to the organising team, and the event is now dependent on her organisational skills and enthusiasm for the sport.

Over the years Helen has helped to develop the scoring system, suggesting several changes to the “Dunster Computer Program” which have been incorporated and make it much easier to use.

It was therefore a great pleasure to be able to recognise and honour the significant contribution Helen has made to the Region, which considering she is from Hampshire is even more remarkable.

Congratulations to the archers and clubs of the West who were honoured at this years Archery GB AGM in Birmingham:

 

The Gussy Trophy

Jo Frith was awarded The Gussy Trophy for wheelchair archer of the year. She won W1 mixed team gold with John in Rio, plus individual silver.

Honorary Life Membership was awarded to:

John Poyner, for his outstanding contribution to the sport.

Tim Jackson, for his outstanding contribution to major archery events over the past 15 years.

Bronze Plaquettes were awarded to:

Tony Smith, for more than 60 years of devotion to archery and being an outstanding ambassador for our sport.

Malcolm Grant, for his devotion Brixham Archery Club, his development and coaching roles with Devon and Cornwall and helping wounded veterans into the sport through Help for Heroes.

Andrew Rees, for his dedication as a member of the Archery GB field team since 2005 and his contribution to running the sport at club, county, regional and national levels.

Tim Pratt, for his work as Chairman of the National Tournaments Committee, leading the team that runs some of the sport’s most prestigious events.

Sheena McCullough, for championing inclusivity and helping to make Archery UK accessible to all.

Club Website Trophy

Bristol Bowmen and Golden Phoenix Archers won the Archery GB Club Website Trophy

Toxophilus Trophy

Junction Archers received this award for their e-magazine. The club was praised for the way it engages and supports members.

Archery GB have launched the Range Registration Process, which is being administered through Sport:80.

Every Archery GB club is required submit details of their facilities. The online self-assessment will be completed on the Sport:80 website, and activation links have now been sent to all Regional, County and Club Secretaries throughout the UK.

The new range registration process aims to capture all the facilities used across the country and provide a centralised source of information on location, shooting capacity, access arrangements and Rules of Shooting compliance.

The new registration process for all clubs and tournament venues starts on 3 April 2017, there is a period of 6 months in which to register ranges.

All ranges are included, but not demonstration or have-a-go sites which are covered by separate Codes of Practice. One-off tournament ranges must also be registered, and therefore County and Regional Secretaries will also have access to the system to do this. This process does not have any impact on the running of tournaments in 2017.

To register a range the Secretary must enter information about the range and confirm whether the range conforms to the Rules of Shooting. If the range conforms, the club then has 3 years before having to renew the registration.

Guidance notes on questions to be completed can be downloaded here, these are for gathering the required information only, and all responses must be entered on the Sport:80 website.

If a range does not conform, Archery GB have trained over 30 Range Assessors who will be available to visit, make an assessment and support the club to continue shooting safely.

For more information on the process please visit Archery GB Range Registration Page

The Himalayan nation of Bhutan is the only country in the world where Archery is the national sport. Whilst there are no formal archery clubs in the country, archery is used as a social event, at which villages and amateur teams compete against one another on a regular basis.

In 2016 HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge visited Bhutan on an official Royal Visit and were welcomed by Princess Ashi Chimi Yangzom Wangchuck, the Kings sister. During the two-day visit, they met the King and Queen of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgel Wangchuck and Jetsun Pema, who are similar in age to the Duke and Duchess and are known as the ‘William and Kate of the Himalayas’.

The Duke and Duchess won over the people of Bhutan by participating in an archery event, much to the delight of around 10,000 people who watched their efforts at shooting a traditional bamboo bow.

The Kings and Princes of Bhutan have long mastered and encouraged the skill of archery and the sport has come to embody the sovereignty of the nation. Much like in England, archery has played an important role in ancient battles, and Bhutanese archers were key to defeating eight major Tibetan invasions.

Bhutanese legend speaks of an Indian Prince, who 600 years before the Common Era, won the hand of the beautiful princess Yosodhara in an archery contest. Another story that links the country to archery is that of the well known ’Divine Mad Monk’ Drukpa Kuenlay, who found his destiny in Bhutan after he followed a divine vision asking him to shoot an arrow south from Tibet, following the arrow, he found Bhutan.

[div class=”col-sm-4 col-md-4 col-lg-4 pull-right”][end-div]In traditional archery, the targets are placed at a  ‘long distance’ with archers going back and forth between two targets. Traditionally they shoot one pair of arrows each way, with a bamboo bow.

Most of the Bhutanese archers now shoot compound bows in ‘traditional style’ without sights or release aids. While recurve archery, in international format is left to a select few that are trained by the Bhutan Archery Federation.

The Bhutan Archery Federation is located in Thimphu, the capital of the country, and have recently started a program to promote archery in schools, as well as the training of an international recurve archery team.

The Himalayan nation organises training camps during school holidays to identify talented archers, the criteria for selection has nothing to do with scoring, but with the form of each archer. Over 1,100 archers participated in four camps, each held in a different region, that were organised to select the recurve team for the South Asian Games.

[div class=”col-sm-4 col-md-4 col-lg-4″][end-div]At the February 2016 South Asian Games, held in India, Bhutan collected one silver and four bronze medals. That silver medal came courtesy of Bhutan’s compound men’s team.

Bhutan’s National Championship, the Yangphel Archery Tournament, is held on an archery pitch which is centuries old, normally just as the monsoon season ends.

For more than 10 years now, archers in the tournament have been allowed to use compound bows in place of traditional bamboo ones. However, in a typically Bhutanese manner, modern sights and release aids are not allowed.

Archers competing must wear traditional robes and knee-high socks, which whilst is not quite compliant with Archery GB Rule 307, is nevertheless an acknowledgement that the presentation of the sport and standards of dress are not just a British thing!

Tournaments normally start at 8:00am and finish at 4:00pm, shooting in teams of six archers, typically with 15 rounds. Archers shoot two arrows each round at a small wooden target, set in the ground, around 150 yards away. Each time the target is struck the archers sing and dance, with songs about love, enlightenment and karma. The dance steps are a simple back-and-forth shuffle.

Because compound bows are more accurate than bamboo ones, the frequency with which the targets are hit has increased as has the time required for the traditional celebrations, making the tournaments last even longer.

Teasing and taunting of opponents is common, much like at many events in the England! It has been reported that historically one of the most common reasons for hospital admissions in Bhutan was due to archery injuries, possibly due to the fact that tournaments include drinking and celebrating.

Archery and Buddhism have long been linked, and Buddhist fatalism may have played a role in tempting fate when archers would stand in front of the target and get shot rather than allow their opponents to win, something that is not practiced today with the use of compound bows.

Prince Jigyel Ugyen, a regular competitor at the National Archery Tournament, is quoted as saying, “Buddhism is about emptying your mind, and so is archery. Once you pull the bow, you forget about everything else and find complete bliss. If you can hold that mentality for 24 hours and 365 days, that’s enlightenment.”

[div class=”row”][div class=”col-sm-6 col-md-6 col-lg-6″]For more about the Bhutan Archery Federation, click here[end-div][end-div]

For those planning to attend the GWAS AGM and the Coaching AGM on Sunday 2nd April, there may be traffic disruptions around Taunton, so please plan your routes carefully.