February 2013,
It was the middle of February, the January exams are finished and I could finally get the chance to breath some fresh air. The pressure of studying takes a toll on everyone, I wasn't the "hardest-working" student but still we all had to try our best. One effect that those times had on me was getting fat. I didn't get fat, fat but I did put 10 pounds on me in just a few months (taking that off wasn't quite fun).
During the exam period, I really was craving for one thing and one thing only, I wanted to go back to archery and with the outdoor season coming I wanted to do my best. The Spring came quickly, the weather was getting better every day the days for me to start shooting outdoors were coming quickly. I have to mention that during those days we shot on straw targets that are very heave and they're very easily damaged by rain, that's why we didn't start shooting outdoors until the weather started to get better, we didn't want rain to damage the straw targets. Anyways, the weather got better and I started training, we had fun. In just few weeks we had our first outdoor tournament and I certainly was hoping to do very good.
Tournament Day:
The tournament came quite quickly, I was prepared for it and very confident in my abilities, with the recently purchased bow (a SF Ultimate. for those who know archery equipment this is a good bow for beginner/intermediate level archers) I was ready.
Woke up earlier than per usual, got on my car and started it. I had to do a two hour drive to the shooting field, on my way I kept listening to the strangest music, which calmed my mind for some reason...We finally start shooting after a few rounds of warm-ups and I was in very good spirits. I always had this thing going on, whenever I was waiting for a competition to begin I would get very nervous but once it started then I would start to calm down and 'get it together', this time it wasn't different, I was relaxed and shot very well (the standard of shooting in my country back at that time wasn't very high).
I won the first place! Everyone knows that the pleasure you get from winning something which you prepared for is out of this world, I was very happy. The happiness that I got from winning these competitions is what kept me pushing harder and harder, day after day.
World Archery Championship:
Throughout the year (before and after the World Championship) I won every single event in my country and it was during the second outdoors tournament when my coach Agron Mala brought the championship into the conversation. He told me that if I kept doing this good I would join the national team and participate into the competition. That fueled me to work harder than ever before. That year was very good for another reason, we had a training camp. Now people can say whatever they want about training camps, but I absolutely feel that training camps are A MUST. You live and breath the sport and you grow as an athlete in multiple ways that you probably never thought possible.
During this training camp we trained a lot, we incorporated swimming and running with the training routine and I got to a very good physical condition. At the end of the camp we had a competition and it was an outstanding one, for one the organization was brilliant, the format was great and the coaching I got from my coach was on another level from previous months/years.
I shot 576 points which for that time was a crazy amount of points and outscored the second archery by over 80 points. I was happy, not because I won but because I could see growth in my skills and I was getting better daily. I got the confirmation that I would be part of the team to take part in the World Archery Championship in Antalya, Turkey 2013! and I was hyped. Everything that I done to that point was giving back results, I was going to shoot versus the best in the world :P, I was going to shoot versus people that I watched countless hours in the internet, I was going to participate in a world event!!!
(The next blog I will write exclusively about the experience I had during the World Championship)
During the exam period, I really was craving for one thing and one thing only, I wanted to go back to archery and with the outdoor season coming I wanted to do my best. The Spring came quickly, the weather was getting better every day the days for me to start shooting outdoors were coming quickly. I have to mention that during those days we shot on straw targets that are very heave and they're very easily damaged by rain, that's why we didn't start shooting outdoors until the weather started to get better, we didn't want rain to damage the straw targets. Anyways, the weather got better and I started training, we had fun. In just few weeks we had our first outdoor tournament and I certainly was hoping to do very good.
Tournament Day:
The tournament came quite quickly, I was prepared for it and very confident in my abilities, with the recently purchased bow (a SF Ultimate. for those who know archery equipment this is a good bow for beginner/intermediate level archers) I was ready.
Woke up earlier than per usual, got on my car and started it. I had to do a two hour drive to the shooting field, on my way I kept listening to the strangest music, which calmed my mind for some reason...We finally start shooting after a few rounds of warm-ups and I was in very good spirits. I always had this thing going on, whenever I was waiting for a competition to begin I would get very nervous but once it started then I would start to calm down and 'get it together', this time it wasn't different, I was relaxed and shot very well (the standard of shooting in my country back at that time wasn't very high).
I won the first place! Everyone knows that the pleasure you get from winning something which you prepared for is out of this world, I was very happy. The happiness that I got from winning these competitions is what kept me pushing harder and harder, day after day.
World Archery Championship:
Throughout the year (before and after the World Championship) I won every single event in my country and it was during the second outdoors tournament when my coach Agron Mala brought the championship into the conversation. He told me that if I kept doing this good I would join the national team and participate into the competition. That fueled me to work harder than ever before. That year was very good for another reason, we had a training camp. Now people can say whatever they want about training camps, but I absolutely feel that training camps are A MUST. You live and breath the sport and you grow as an athlete in multiple ways that you probably never thought possible.
During this training camp we trained a lot, we incorporated swimming and running with the training routine and I got to a very good physical condition. At the end of the camp we had a competition and it was an outstanding one, for one the organization was brilliant, the format was great and the coaching I got from my coach was on another level from previous months/years.
I shot 576 points which for that time was a crazy amount of points and outscored the second archery by over 80 points. I was happy, not because I won but because I could see growth in my skills and I was getting better daily. I got the confirmation that I would be part of the team to take part in the World Archery Championship in Antalya, Turkey 2013! and I was hyped. Everything that I done to that point was giving back results, I was going to shoot versus the best in the world :P, I was going to shoot versus people that I watched countless hours in the internet, I was going to participate in a world event!!!
(The next blog I will write exclusively about the experience I had during the World Championship)
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