Should Your Train To Carry Your Bag On A Field Course

Today is the first day for my outdoor season. The first round of the European 5 Nations series in Wuustwezel, Belgium. A relatively unimpressive score, but OK for a first of the year. This is not necessarily the most physically demanding course in the world, as it is flat (read zero incline of any note!!!) and the course is quite short with very little walking between targets.

However shooting can still be physically tiring because of the mental workout you get from shooting. Certainly field archery requires an intense amount of concentration as there are simply more things to take in to account for each and every shot.

Something as small as wearing an uncomfortable pair of boots, or walking around with a degree of low back pain can cause your energy levels and your ability to concentrate fully throughout the day can be affected. Which makes your preparation for shooting more and more important.

I watched a group in front of my today, where one of the lady archers was carrying a massive back pack with her all day, probably in excess of 15 kilos, being lifted, carried on the back, and set down at least 30 times during the day. The act of carrying around large amounts of stuff can negatively impact your energy levels, your posture and your ability to perform over a long day of shooting… you certainly don’t practice for this added load.

So how would you train for this type of thing?

This is where most sports specific training gets completely blown out of the water, and why I believe most sports specific training has no place in most peoples preparation for their sport.

If you trained to be functionally more able, it wouldn’t matter if you carried a heavy back pack, bow, umbrella, and walking around with 4 layers of clothing on. A general conditioning program, where your muscles are able to handle more weight, be able to control your joint movements as well as function with multiple layers of clothing on certainly wouldn’t look anything like the isolation based, fixed path exercises many people do in modern gyms.

My overall philosophy on training for a sport like archery is this. Be fitter, stronger and more functionally able than the next person and your ability to perform will be improved.

Try not to get tied up with the little details of which muscles you should be exercising and which not. Just follow a program that makes you a physically more able person PERIOD.

Day 2 of the tournament is tomorrow, hopefully the stuff I learned today on the course will translate to a bigger score tomorrow… either way it is great to be outside again.

As always your comments below are always appreciated…