Olympic Archery and becoming an Olympian

Q

Hello!

I am thinking of getting into Olympic Archery and competing. What steps should I go through in order to compete?

Curious,
Mark G.

A

Hello Mark!

A good question and my apologies if my answer is very long and actively dissuades you from competing. Olympic Archery is not for everyone and you will understand why as I go through the steps.

Step One - Learn how to shoot the old fashioned way using a recurve bow without using sights or gadgets. I think this is a problem for many new archers who want to jump straight into the Olympic style of shooting that they don't first learn how to shoot the old fashioned way. Traditional shooting requires the new archer to rely entirely on form and consistency. No gadgets and no sights. Perfect form. Gadgets are crutches for propping up archers who suffer from weak form.

Step Two - Determine whether you have any natural talent. This will become self evident during Step One. It is my opinion that archers should never go the Olympic route if they are doing it purely out of ego and have no natural talent. Don't judge yourself either, let other more experienced archers be the judge. If they are complimenting you on your skill and asking questions like "Do you compete?", "Have you ever competed?", "You have Robin Hood hidden in the trunk of your car right?" then you know what your next step is.

Step Three - Compete. There are plenty of traditional archery competitions out there. Pick a handful and go to maybe 5 of the competitions to start with.

Step Four - Take your winnings and buy Olympic equipment. Note that if you didn't win that much maybe you should repeat Step Three over again until you have enough winnings to pay for your expenditures plus the cost of buying Olympic equipment. Please note that when buying your equipment you don't need to buy the best. You just need all the basic Olympic gadgets and some cheap Olympic style arrows. The reason is simple - you will only end up losing or breaking a bunch of them anyway.

Step Five - Learn humility, perseverance and understanding. I am putting humility first because this is a big problem with Olympic archers who get into the sport out of ego and often lack skill, break under pressure and are easily distracted / overthink their shots. If you take the top 50 archers in the world and compare them the thing you will notice about the winners is that they are often very humble, came from humble beginnings, and they didn't break under the pressure of competition, media attention, nationalistic pride, etc. In Canada we are very guilty of putting too much pressure on our Olympic athletes and it is often the unknowns who win gold unexpectedly - and never repeat the feat because of all the media attention the 2nd time around. You are also going to need perseverance for all the practices and sacrifices you are going to be making. Practice, exercise, diet, strained or lost relationships, work complications, health complications, repetitive strain/sports injuries (eg. Archer's Elbow), etc. Lastly understanding - this is really about knowing yourself. Knowing when you are too excited to shoot properly, learning to control your emotions/adrenaline, etc. Becoming agitated can take a professional shooter and turn them into someone who starts shooting like a semi-pro.

Step Six - Diet. There is no easy way to say this. If you don't have the willpower to cut out the junk food from your diet then you are going to be at a physical and mental disadvantage when shooting. Think of this as one part mental conditioning and one part perfecting your physical body. You need to eat healthy to have a well oiled machine. This means lots of veggies, lots of protein, some carbs for extra energy since you are training, and vitamins / supplements. If you smoke or drink you also need to quit those cold turkey. You can drink after you win.

Step Seven - Exercise. This will many different exercises including possibly jogging, yoga, yogic breathing, weightlifting, body weight exercises, stretching for flexibility, swimming, cross-training with similar form oriented sports (golf, tennis, javelin, etc).

Step Eight - Expanded Competition. During steps 4, 5, 6 + 7 you should have continued competing in traditional archery competitions. The goal of continuing to compete in those competitions is to prepare yourself mentally for the challenges that await you when you start entering your first Olympic style competitions. Chances are likely you won't win anything during the first 5 competitions you attend. Not to be redundant, but they are very competitive and you are likely facing a mix of people better than you, mediocre, and even egotists who broke under pressure.

Step Nine - Dealing with Failure. How a person deals with their failures is often a sign of their character. Do they give up and sell their equipment, possibly never doing archery ever again? Or do they practice, exercise, diet and keep trying. The road to success if marked by failures, so how you deal with failure is equally as important as how you deal with success (don't let winning go to your head either - winning one competition doesn't make you Robin Hood).

Step Ten - Coaching. At some point you will be approached by a coach asking if you are looking for an archery coach. This is when you know you are ready for the next stage in your training. However a word of caution. Don't sign up with the first coach you meet. Browse around first. Find a coach who fits your needs, is conveniently located and has lots of time to be training / mentoring you. And to follow the theme I have going here, don't choose a coach who is all about winning and ego. Instead consider the person who had an illustrious Olympic career and is now retired and doesn't even coach. If you can coax them out of retirement to take up coaching you won't just be finding an excellent coach, you will be making a lifelong friend you will guide you all the way. Plus having a coach who has zero other students means you will have their undivided attention and a coach who has more time for training you. (Some of the archery coaches out there - including myself I admit - follow the mantra of teaching many students in the hopes of fostering new generations of archers and they don't really have time to be dedicating to coaching one student 3 - 4 times per week. I am not against limiting myself to one student or only a few students, but at present I quite enjoy introducing new people to the sport of archery.)

Note - Some people may follow a different order of events than what I have listed above. The exact order is not too big of an issue (eg. Step Nine might easily come after Step Three), but I do actively discourage people from getting into Olympic archery too quickly. Learn to shoot first, learn the basics of competition, don't rush into a huge time/money investment just because of your ego.

I know it may seem like I am beating a dead horse here, but Olympic archery is rife with egotists who break under pressure - or worse, barely know what they are doing because they never learned the basics or skipped over several steps I outlined above (eg. You can always spot the archers who don't exercise or diet because they get tired easily and botch their shots).

For example South Korean archers going through rigorous mental conditioning to prepare them for the Olympic games - activities like mountain climbing, sitting under a freezing cold waterfalls, etc. The kind of stuff you might imagine heroic warriors doing while training during a quest. The goal of the mental conditioning is to teach the archers humility, concentration skills and to prepare them for the rigors of competition - a place where having an over-inflated ego will be an Achilles Heel.

And their training appears to be working. South Korea currently holds 75% of the world's Olympic archery records for highest scores for men's, women's, men's team and women's team archer.

So my advice is to stay humble. Keep training with both traditional and Olympic. Don't let the gadgets in Olympic archery become the crutch which holds you back. Quality archer form and mental conditioning trumps gadgets.

Arrow Clustering at Work

To excel at archery you really have to become in tune with your body and learn from your mistakes. This requires a level of fitness, a level of physical self-awareness, a level of self-control, and a level of patience/perseverance otherwise you will give up before achieving the first three.

Beginner archers need to push themselves to hone their form so they make clusters of arrows. It is not so important to hit the proverbial 'bulls eye', what matters more is whether you can get your arrows in tight clusters. Hitting the bulls eye can sometimes be dumb luck.

Below is a photo of an arrow cluster on a moving target - but to achieve that level of accuracy the archer first needs to make a cluster on the target, and then the following round adjust their aim, all the while maintaining perfect form or at least the necessary level of form required to hit whatever it is they are aiming at. A minor form mistake could send their arrow too high, too low or to the left or right.

In the photo below is an example of an arrow cluster on a 40 cm target. The total score is 49 points out of 50. But this 'timbit sized' cluster on the yellow is the result of multiple rounds of carefully adjusting one's aim while simultaneously attempting to maintain perfect form despite heat, fatigue and other factors.

In the photo below is an example of one such arrow cluster - smaller than a doughnut, but was aimed too low, and you will note is basically just a left-right line (a shelf) because the wind was shifting in different directions. Had the wind been calmer we might have seen a super tight cluster on the red directly below the yellow.

In the photo below is an example of 'cluster shooting', during which the archer is no longer attempting to hit a target per se but instead is focused solely on shooting tight clusters. As you can see the arrows are so tight together they are all touching. The one arrow below which is slightly askew even bumped the nock on one of the arrows above.

Below is another example of a super tight cluster, this one is a line going left-right.

Having mastered the art of making super tight clusters a more advanced archer can then hone their aim by making clusters on specific parts of a target, like these two shots on the zombie wolf's eye.

Or perform amazing feats of archery - like shooting a moving target - and then Robin Hooding your own arrow on the now pinned moving target.

Or splitting an arrow on a moving target.

It should be noted however that with distance the prospect of shooting such tight clusters is dramatically reduced. For example the photo below is a cluster shot from 66 yards away on a somewhat windy (20 to 25 kmph) day. The wind makes a much bigger difference on longer distances and being able to shoot clusters like the one below indicates that the archer either waited for lulls in the wind gusts, or adjusted their shots based on the wind conditions. (The first option of waiting for the wind to die down is the easiest to do, the 2nd option is a more advanced skill which requires experience and some educated guesswork.)

Conclusions - You really need to master your archery form to achieve any level of accuracy. The better your form, the tighter your clusters are. Adjusting your aim is the easy part once your form has been perfected. Even learning to adjust your aim for wind conditions is easy once you've developed excellent form.

Walking to Fitness - Why many people ignore this as an option

Many people think they already walk quite a bit, but often they spend most of their days sitting in an office chair in a cubicle - or sitting on a chair or sofa at home.

In other words they really are not walking as much as they think they are.

Furthermore, when it comes to weight loss they ignore walking as an option because they don't realize how many calories the simple act of walking burns. They think it is such a tiny amount that they ignore it.

But I am going to show you the math behind how one woman in Iowa - who weighed 370 lbs when she started her walking regimen - lost 200 lbs just by walking around the airport terminal where she works. (You can Google the appropriate keywords to find this news story if you want to. The woman's name is Jill Vento.)

1 lb of fat = 3,500 calories.

200 lbs of fat = 700,000 calories.

Now you might think "Hey, that is going to require a lot of walking!"

But probably not as much as you think.

The woman in question did it by walking 15 minutes at a time (during breaks / etc), twice per day, 5 days per week. The news articles talking about her feat don't tell us how fast she was going, but we can assume as she got stronger and thinner she started walking faster.

Thus I have done the math for how many calories a 370 lb woman burns for 3 different speeds:

Walking 2 mph for 15 minutes - 117 calories
Walking 3 mph for 15 minutes - 183 calories
Walking 4 mph for 15 minutes - 216 calories

In the beginning she was only shedding 117 calories each time, and in the beginning she was only doing it once per day. But as she got stronger / more motivated she started walking twice per day and eventually three times per day. So for simplicity's sake we shall calculate that she was doing 10 fifteen minute walks per week. 117 x 10 = 1170 calories. Slightly more than one third of a pound of fat.

At that speed it would have taken her 600 weeks (11.53 years) to burn 700,000 calories. And yes, that would be a lot of walking - were it not for the fact that she started walking faster, getting additional exercise, and eating healthier too, thus speeding up the weight loss process.

In the first 9 weeks of walking she would have noticed that she lost 3 lbs - possibly more if she was getting additional exercise from other sources and eating healthy - which would explain why she eventually started walking around the airport terminal 3 times per day to speed up the process.

Plus as she got stronger she started walking faster and faster. So now we have to do the math again.

At this point lets assume she has already lost 70 lbs and now weighs 300 lbs instead of 370 (which conversely means she only has 455,000 left to go). But we will calculate that she is walking 4 mph instead because she gotten a lot faster.

Walking 2 mph for 15 minutes - 95 calories
Walking 3 mph for 15 minutes - 148 calories
Walking 4 mph for 15 minutes - 176 calories

As you can see she is using less energy at the slower speed, and the 3 mph speed is only marginally using more energy. The 4 mph speed is where she really burning calories fast.

At this point we will also calculate that she is walking at this speed 15 times per week. 176 x 15 = 2,640 calories. That is 75% of 1 lb. So she is losing 3 lbs every 4 weeks at this point.

At this point she has really started to see the difference. She is having to buy new clothes that fit her better, she is feeling super positive about herself, she doesn't binge eat when she is depressed any more (this is a common problem for obese people who binge eat their favourite comfort foods). She is seeing lots of results. At that rate she is losing 39.2 lbs per year.

Probably more if she is getting outside and doing other activities simultaneously, trying new activities, taking up bicycling or swimming.

Walking may not seem like it burns a lot of calories, but you know how people like to say that cigarettes/pot are gateway drugs? Well walking is a gateway exercise that gets you exercising plus opens your body and mind to the idea of other exercises.

Walking is a gateway exercise that gets you exercising plus opens your body and mind to the idea of other exercises.

And the next thing you know, it is several years later, you've lost 200 lbs and you feel really proud of yourself. Losing 50 lbs per year means you can be a whole new person in just 4 years. And all it takes is the will to start walking.

A journey of a 1000 miles begins with the first step.

Wii Fit for Cancer Patients

Q

"Hi,

My name is Robert and I am actually reaching out to you on behalf of a co-worker Miranda. Her husband Chad is battling cancer and has been going through chemo. He is at a point where he is not eating too much and not as mobile as what he should be... not so much that he can’t, it is more like he won’t so we are reaching out to see if you have experience dealing with cancer patients. It would be in home (Hamilton) and obviously not a vigorous work out but enough to get his strength up and a little motivated. Any help or referrals would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Robert A."

(The names of the individuals mentioned in the above email and in my response have either been changed or omitted to protect the identity and privacy of the individuals.)

A

Hello Robyn!

Sorry, I don't live that close to Hamilton. However I do have a recommendation that has worked for several cancer patients.

My recommendation is that you get him a Nintendo Wii Fit. This is not a product endorsement on my part, rather it is more of an endorsement from a cancer patient I know who has attested to the product's ability to keep him motivated and exercising as much or as little as he feels like on any particular day. So if you are looking for something that will motivate him - and continue to motivate him even when there is no personal trainer present - this is certainly an option.

If you wish to research this topic I recommend reading the following article:

http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2012/researcher-uses-nintendo-wii-to-address-cancer-related-fatigue/

Sincerely,
Charles Moffat
CardioTrek.ca

The Health Pros and Cons of Beer Drinking

I was researching heartburn recently and was dismayed to learn that beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks can trigger heartburn.

So let us mark that as the #1 reason why I need to cut back on drinking beer (it is true, even us personal trainers have difficulties cutting back on certain unhealthy foods).

Thus I decided to research and make a list of other reasons why I should not drink beer (so often). And while I was at it I also discovered there were positives to drinking beer in moderation.

THE CONS

#1. Causes Heartburn and Stomach Ulcers

The alcohol in beer can trigger acid reflux, which in turns causes heartburn. Despite the name this doesn't actually hurt your heart, but it can cause severe chest pain and even neck pain. The acid reflux can also lead to stomach ulcers.

#2. Calories

Typically it doesn't list it on the label, but beer typically has 154 calories per 356 mL can. Lately I have been trying to solve this problem by switching to a low calorie beer that has only 80 calories in it (which is approx. 36% less calories than orange juice).

For reference, 3500 calories equals 1 lb of fat. Thus drinking 23 cans of beer over a 1 month period could cause you to gain 1 lb if you are not exercising to keep off the weight.

#3. Beer can trigger asthma attacks.

#4. Beer is harmful to someone who has a history of congestive heart failure.

#5. Drinking too much beer can cause gout, insomnia, high blood pressure, liver disease, neurological conditions, pancreatitis, and mental problems. Beer should also never be consumed 2 weeks before any kind of surgery.

THE PROS

#1. Used in moderation, beer helps prevent diseases of the heart and circulatory system, including coronary heart disease, “hardening of the arteries” (atherosclerosis), heart failure, heart attack, and stroke. Beer reduces the chance of death from heart attack and ischemic left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. While it is true that beer can prevent congestive heart failure, it actually hurts people who already have that condition.

#2. Beer is also used for treating Alzheimer's disease, weak bones (osteoporosis), gallstones, type 2 diabetes, heart disease in people with type 2 diabetes, kidney stones, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and other cancers.

#3. Beer is used by pregnant women to increase the flow of breast milk - however it should be noted that the alcohol can get into the breast milk and then trigger health problems for the baby.

#4. Beer helps stimulate the appetite and digestion.

#5. Beer prevents ulcers by reducing the chances of a Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. H. pylori is the bacterium that causes ulcers.

CONCLUSIONS

A little beer can actually be beneficial. Too much obviously is dangerous. Perhaps I am on the right track sticking with my low calorie beer.