INTERVIEW: STUART TAYLOR
We spoke to Stuart Taylor, the senior compound men's National Champion for 2021, to find out what helped him get to the win, how grassroots archers can progress to the next level and what’s next in his indoor season.
Q: HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WIN THE NATIONAL INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS? A: It feels amazing. I’ve podiumed quite a lot outdoors, but this is my first big national win. It’s also really surprising it happened indoors, because I don’t usually do indoors, having never felt like I’ve been up to standard!
Q: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO WIN? A: It means a lot for me. It’s justification that I’ve been making good decisions for myself, and that the effort is starting to pay off.
Q: HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR TRAINING THAT AIDED YOUR WIN?
A: I’ve been training quite a bit more recently. As a kid I used to shoot a lot of arrows, but I never did S&C. Since being an adult, I’ve been plagued with injuries consequently. This last three months have been the first prolonged period where I’ve been injury free. I’ve been shooting at least 1000 arrows each week, which is probably honestly more than double what I was doing before 2020. I’ve made that increase gradually over the last two years, and it’s really made a massive difference!
Q: HOW HAVE YOU ADJUSTED TO SHOOTING INDOORS AFTER SUCH A LONG TIME OUTDOORS DUE TO COVID? A: I was nervous moving indoors this year. Although I never shoot indoors competitively, 2020 saw about a month of indoor shooting, so that the last proper indoor period was 2019, I was coming into this season the same as all my other seasons. With low expectations. So, when training started going well, and scores were good, I realised I could be competitive.
So really, COVID hasn’t hindered me getting into this season, if anything it enabled me to get more training which has only helped.
Q: WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE INDOOR SEASON?
A: I’ve got the European Indoor Championships in Slovenia in February, provided it goes ahead. It’s a shame the Battle of Basing can’t run this year, but because of that, there isn’t much else in my indoor season. After the Europeans I will be straight back outdoors.
Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE TO ARCHERS LOOKING TO GET TO THAT NEXT LEVEL IN ARCHERY?
A: I think one of the biggest hurdles to get past is self-awareness. Archers need to learn what their process is, and what mental cues enable that process. If you shoot enough arrows your body will learn what it must do to shoot tens.
So when you’ve got to that place, you can stop trying to control your entire shot. You can just focus on your overarching process, like looking at the middle, creating push and pull, or whatever it is that keeps you engaged in your shot.