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10/10/2019 0 Comments End of season review 2019 has been a year of ups and downs - mainly ups though!
This year I made the decision to focus on field archery - this decision was not made lightly as it meant that it would put me back 2 years on the target side of things, but on reflection I felt that I took on too much last year. The early part of the season leading up to and including the All British Championships in Northern Ireland were really good. My scores were high, I was shooting well and I gained the scores necessary for selection to the GB team for the European Championships in Slovenia later in the year. After the all British I took a short rest as the field season tends to go a little quiet. We had our first field shoot at Wharfe Valley Archers in June which took some of my time, I continued to practice but this year I was determined to have some time off to enjoy my social life which often takes a back seat to archery. I resumed my shooting seriously in July but just couldn't get my form - this was immensely frustrating. The situation persisted into August and most of September. This became somewhat concerning to me as I was flying out to the European Championships at the end of the month! I went to Slovenia with the team with low expectations given my preparations. The qualification rounds were not particularly great, but there were signs in the marked round that my form was improving. By the end of the qualifying I was in 12th position going into the shoot up elimination rounds. My form continued to improve during the shoot ups and I managed to knock out the number 9th, 6th and 4th seeds to win my pool and advance to the semi finals. My opponent was the number one seed (and eventual winner) who had been shooting brilliantly all week so he was a worthy winner. My opponent in the bronze medal match was the 11th seed whom I beat in the marked round during the qualifications so I was confident of putting in a good performance against him. Luckily for me I did and came home with the medal. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster year for me but thankfully I came away with my medal which is, for me my best achievement to date in my archery career. I would like to thank my coach Kath, my parents and everyone who supports me and has sent me best wishes. it means a lot and without you all this archery malarkey would be a whole lot harder.
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2/11/2018 0 Comments End of season review  2018 was a mixed year for me but on the whole I have been pleased with my shooting and progress. I began the year with 3 aims in mind - to qualify for the Youth Olympics, make the GB Field team for the World Field Championships and get selected for the GB Senior 3D team for the European Championships.
The first challenge was made all the more difficult when I had a growth spurt early in the new year. The consequence was that I ended up in between spines for my arrows so things tended not to go where I wanted them to. Despite my best efforts, the selection shoot didn't go to plan and subsequently I failed to get selected for the target team. Ironically, about a month later everything fell into place and I began shooting really well, finishing 4th in the first leg of the National Tour narrowly missing out on bronze. Throughout the spring and summer I concentrated on my field shooting and gained selection to both teams by putting in some really good scores. I even managed to come 3rd in the senior qualification matrix for the World Field Championships which was really pleasing. My scores have also given me a good chance to qualify for next years European Field Championships. In September I went to Italy with the field team and finished 8th in the World Champs (junior division). I felt that I could have shot better to be honest but it's all a learning process and it gave me good experience for next years international competitions. Later in September I flew out with the senior 3D team to Sweden to compete in the European Championships. I shot to par, however the competition in my Instinctive class was, to be fair way better than what I could manage and I ended up 31st. It was a great experience though and I'm glad I went and at least I qualified in my own right. I am now taking a few weeks off (I think I deserve it), before focusing on improving my form ready for next seasons field and target competitions. I am also shortly taking my Level 1 coaching assessment! Finally thank you to my coach Kath Fitzpatrick and all of my sponsors and supporters, without whom I couldn't do half of what I do. Here's to a great winters training. 6/8/2018 0 Comments The 2018 Season So Far...... My seasons goals were to qualify for the European Youth Championships, The World Field Champs in Italy and for the senior 3D squad for the European 3D Championships in Sweden. The start of the season was a little strange. I had problems with getting my arrows to fly straight, and in the end it seemed that I was in between spines. This made things pretty tricky and unfortunately for me it was happening around the selection shoot for the European Youth Champs. Needless to say it didn't go particularly well which was frustrating to say the least. In late April/early May I got my new bows from KG Archery which were a little heavier poundage and hey presto, everything started coming together. I began to shoot like I know I can, winning the All British Field Champs (u18's) and gained my qualification scores and selection for the World Fields. It was also very satisfying to come fourth overall in the first leg of the National Tour, narrowly losing out to Patrick Huston for the Bronze. I also shot a competition PB for 70m In the qualification round and my other target rounds have also given me the required scores for the selection shoots next year as I turn junior. My next challenge was to qualify for the 3D team! My preparations began by shooting the EFAA Bowhunter Championships at Woodend. It was the first time I'd shot this kind of round since the 2015 IFAA World Championships in Hungary, but this time I was shooting Instinctive style (no sights, a bare bow, wooden riser & carbon arrows). It was pleasing to know that I hadn't lost my ability to gauge distance and I came out the winner of the junior category. This gave me confidence going into the 3D selection shoot for the senior GB team which was held at Avalon Archers. I eventually came 3rd over the 2 days, and it meant a nervous wait until the other selection shoot in Northern Ireland was completed later in June. Luckily for me, I managed to hold on to the 3rd selection place, so booked my place on the plane to Sweden. I am now in full practice mode for the World Fields and the 3D's and I am looking forward to seeing how my season finishes.Huge thanks to all my sponsors and supporters, and of course my coach Kath Fitzpatrick KG Archery Carbofast Archery Vapor Trail Archery Artebo Active Tense UK Opticron AAE Xs Wings archery vanes Pilla Archery Astra Archery Arrow Socks Vlbb tabs for my instinctive archery Lale Krivacevic and Silver Archery limited for my instinctive archery Ashley Howard The Bramhope Trust Bramhope Youth Development Trust Cookridge Hall Health and Fitness Pro Boss Archery Leeds Sports Federation Prince Henry's Grammar School, Otley  7/1/2018 0 Comments A New YearHappy New Year! Looking back, 2017 was a good year for me. It started a little awkwardly but finished really strongly. I had a number of successes both in Target & Field Archery.
2018 will be a very busy year.
In target archery I am hoping to qualify for the Europa Cup in Italy and the European championships in Greece as well as the Youth Olympics in Argentina. The former two fall in the period of my GCSE examinations at school, which could cause a major complication – as these two championships are likely to have a bearing on the Youth Olympics, it could well be that my season’s achievements may be tempered by my vital school commitments, however I shall be working with my school to see what can be achieved. In field archery, I have already surpassed the required selection scores for the World championships in Italy in September, so hopefully I should have already booked a seat on the plane for that event as long as I keep shooting well during the year. In addition, I am also going to try to qualify (as a senior GB team member) for the European 3D championships which are to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden (also in September). As you can see 2018 will prove to be an extremely challenging year for me both in my archery and academic life. It's going to be interesting ! 10/7/2017 0 Comments Catch Up Well, it's half way through the year so I thought it about time I did a catch up blog.
It's been an interesting year so far. In March I decided to refocus my training and left the Archery GB Academy in favour of the competition route. This decision was not taken lightly and was due to circumstances beyond my control and which I won't go into here. Anyway, I teamed up with my personal coach Kath Fitzpatrick again (not that we had ever 'un-teamed up!'). In early April I went out to Arizona to shoot in the AZ Cup. We stayed with our good friends out there and enjoyed some gorgeous weather. In terms of the archery, I didn't shoot brilliantly but still managed to scrape a 9th place - which considering how I shot was pleasing. March, April & May were very busy months with field archery and consolidating my scores for selection for the European Championships in Slovenia in August. May also saw the beginning of the selection shoots for the World Junior Target Championships in Argentina. I didn't have the best of starts for various technical reasons, and as the later selection shoot clashed with the European Field Champs I made the difficult decision to focus on field for this year as far as my international focus was concerned. It was a decision that paid immediate benefits. Later in May I shot my best ever field scores ever at the All British Field Championships breaking Patrick Huston's national record for the age category. I then continued my good form into target archery shooting my best ever 70m 720 score (638) at the National Series in Evesham. In early June I was selected to represent Great Britain in Slovenia in August which I was really please with. Later in the month I also broke 2 national records in target archery. I also picked up my new NX-55 limbs from KG Archery, and they are AWESOME. So quick and of superb quality. July has seen my good form continue at the Junior National Outdoor Championships where I won the National Championships breaking another national record in the process. I have just returned from the National Series weekend in Surrey where I shot well and my scores are progressing nicely. As you can see it's been a busy half year! 12/9/2016 0 Comments 13th September 2016World Field Archery Championships, New Academy and New Sponsors! It's been a busy time since my last Blog.
My target season has finished now and all in all I am pretty happy with how it went. Now it's all systems go for Ireland and the World Field Archery Championships which start on 26th September. I fly from Birmingham with some of the team on 25th, the rest of the team are making their own way from their regional airports, or driving depending on where they live. Preparation is going well, and my shooting and distance judging at Wrexham last week was very pleasing. Once I get my sight marks zoned in I should be good to go. I'm really looking forward to my first World Champs, and I know it will be great fun with the team. Last weekend saw the launch of the new archery GB academy system. I am pleased to say that I have been moved up to the Confirmation Academy which consists of 2 cadets and 4 junior men, and 3 cadet and 4 junior women. It's an exciting time for us all, and I was really happy to have been allocated Songi Woo as my academy coach. I am sure we will work well together. I will of course continue to work closely with Kath Fitzpatrick who has been so helpful in helping me get to where I am so far in my archery. On the sponsorship front I am pleased to say that Errea Active Tense and Pilla Sports have joined 'Team Joe'. As with all my sponsors, their equipment is fantastic and I urge everyone to take a look at their websites by clicking on their logo on my website. Well, that's about it for now - I guess my next Blog will be after the World Field Championships, so wish me luck and I shall see you all soon. Joe 13/4/2016 1 Comment My Arizona Cup Experience The first thing I noticed about Phoenix Arizona was how neat and tidy it was. I was expecting a bit of a dust bowl but actually it was anything but that. The weather was a lot hotter than in the UK obviously, with the temperature between 79F and 101F in the shade. During practice it was really hot - so hot in fact that I could feel the heat coming up through my training shoes!  They have a great practice range near where we stayed. it's open to the public and has targets already set out to shoot, although these were mainly layered foam and well used, so our friends took their own stand and target to shoot at. We were practising at the same time as the Canadian team that were here for the cup too It took me a couple of days to get used to the heat and to get over jet lag, but after that I was OK. The KG XCR riser and NEXGEN limbs showed no signs of being affected by the weather and shot just the same as they do at home. the Vaportrail strings also performed flawlessly. The air was a lot drier though and my sight needed to be adjusted to take account of that. Practice went pretty well given the heat and by the time qualification came around I felt pretty confident. Before I travelled to the competition everyone who had been there before told me that it was windy. They were right! The Ben Avery range is a huge (and I mean huge) complex dedicated to shooting (mainly) guns but also has its own dedicated archery area and its own weather. Official practice and the qualification round were windy and hot. The wind on qualification day was very variable and very tricky to shoot in. My new Carbofast Slim Jim stabilisers were fantastic and allowed me to hold on the gold easily. I scored 629 which was a personal best competition score and this placed me 9th going into the head to heads against some tough opposition.  The first two rounds of the head to heads went well, with me only dropping 2 points. My 1/8th round was against someone who I met in Alabama last year, so we had a good friendly rivalry - his qualification score was only one point higher than mine so we knew it was going to be close. The scores went: 1-1, 2-2, 2-4, 4-4, 5-5. This meant that we had to go into a one arrow shoot off. I scored a good 9, but he scored an even better 10 so he won and progressed through (eventually winning the silver medal). It was such a close contest that even our total scores only differed by 1 point in the end! I was really pleased with how I shot and managed myself through the whole competition, and whist I am disappointed I didn't get further, I achieved my aim of a top 10 finish by finishing 9th overall.  I had a great time in Phoenix and really enjoyed the whole experience. I learned a lot and I am sure that it will help me in my shooting in the future. Our hosts were fantastic people and so was everyone we met. They were so kind to us and I can't wait to go back again.
I would just like to thank all my sponsors - your respective equipment never let me down once! KG Archery Carbofast Archery Vapor Trail Archery Victory Archery Beiter Artebo Opticron Titan Pro Boss Archery Rayjus Outdoors Master Archery Arrow Socks Class Energy Ltd Xs Wings archery vanes Kath Fitzpatrick Archery Coaching Clear Properties Lale Krivacevic Silver Archery limited SportsAid Ashley Howard Cookridge Hall Health & Fitness TopHat Archery The Bramhope Trust Mum Dad Friends and Family and all my new American friends who were there cheering me on 21/12/2015 0 Comments December 21st, 2015
As 2015 comes to a close I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of my sponsors and supporters for helping me make this the best year yet for me. I have met some great people, travelled to some fantastic places and achieved a lot. All the messages of support from my friends on Facebook and Twitter throughout the year have helped to drive me on and they have really been appreciated - especially when I have been abroad shooting. They make a BIG difference.
2016 is looking to be another great year - Arizona Cup in April, GB selection shoot in June with the possibility of the European Youth Championships in Romania in July and the World Field Archery Championships in Ireland in September. It's going to be a very busy year and I am sure that with the help of my coach Kath Fitzpatrick and all my support network (including my school Prince Henry's Grammar, who have been really supportive) I can achieve what I want to. Once again thank you everyone! I've just arrived home from a fantastic week in Hungary shooting at my first IFAA World Bowhunter Championships. The trip out was pretty uneventful. My dad and I flew with Ryan Air from Manchester to Budapest, arriving on Sunday 23rd August. The weather was lovely and sunny which made a nice change from the rubbish weather we've been having in the UK this summer.
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