What's the story behind your avatar?

Very cool. It's a very technique driven sport, and the biomechanics of it are a big part of being successful - alignment is why I don't shoot anymore, since I have arthritis that doesn't allow me to turn my head over my shoulder. This forces me to turn my body towards the target, and that means I can never get proper alignment. The way to aim is not to aim - you will notice that in the video I use an open ring with no center pin - this takes the focus off aiming, and allows me to hit my key points during the shot routine. Your mind will automatically want to center concentric circles, so really there is no need to actively aim...you have to trust that if something starts to drift it will come back before you release.

BTW shooting without a clicker makes it even more tough. I used to have issues shooting off the sound of other people's clickers, so for a while I used a device made by Bjerendal (not sure of spelling) in Sweden - was called a thumb clicker. The regular clicker would hit a pad that has a wire attached to it, and the other end of it was on my thumb. So I felt the clicker go off rather than heard it go off. Worked very well to get me out of that particular problem.

As they say the sport is 50% physical, and the other 90% is mental. 😉

I'm Canadian but spent some time at the USOTC in Chula Vista as a guest archer. This is back when Lloyd Brown was the head coach there, along with MJ Rogers (so before the Lee era began). Some high speed video we took with the old B&W system...


Lloyd did a fair bit of work with the Canadian Olympic coach here (Joan), who was also my personal coach. She coached every Olympic archery team from 1996 to 2016 for Canada, but one of my old team mates has now taken over. Here we are nearly 20 years ago at Golden Targets event in Cuba...I'm at the blue arrow, and he is on the far left.



We beat the US in the first round of the team event (a personal highlight for me - it was the first team event I'd ever shot representing Canada and we took out the #1 seed) but lost a close final in the gold medal match to Argentina of all countries...came down to arrow calls by the judges. Oh well!

Anyway, nice to meet another archer.

Cheers, Al

Just get a return ticket and get on the same train and you will get there 😉.

Yogi Berra, a neighbor, friend and classmate of my Father-in-law.

And philosopher! 👍

Just after joining the Forum I ran across a thread with a post by Dennis strongly "suggesting" that the noobs most recently joined had better create their own avatar before someone like him did it for them. Having no imagination but wishing for something representing my home state I selected a photo from a on a recent weekend jaunt and so that is how the Battleship Texas occupies the avatar spot in this post.

"Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded".
"Wherever you go, there you are".
"Cut my pizza into 4 slices, I couldn't eat 8".

Yogi was a classmate of my Father-in-law, Garagiola was a year or two younger, Jack Buck lived on the same block, my relatives a block over.

If you don't know baseball or history, you don't have a clue what we are talking about.

They would have killed the coaches....things work out, friend.

Nice ship, Bryan, seems older than the Missouri. What can you share, my friend?

My little wolf... Banzai... Shiba ...sadly passed in march. He and I were inseparable for almost 16 years. Easy choice for an avatar.

More information than you'd ever want to know:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(BB-35)

https://laststandonzombieisland.com/tag/uss-texas/

https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/battleship-texas

https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/battleship-texas/park_history

We were there that soggy day for the Battleship Texas Century Celebration.

A bedraggled Mrs. noelekal between the intermittent heavy showers.


Looking toward the San Jacinto monument from the Texas. It's topped with a star but one couldn't see it for the low-hanging cloud.




View of the Texas and Buffalo Bayou from the top of the monument.


Personal history:

My maternal grandfather spent his U. S. Navy career from 1920 to 1924 aboard the sister ship to the Texas, the U.S.S. New York.

Family tradition has this photograph taken somewhere in the Mediterranean. I'd have guessed somewhere in Arizona, but then there wouldn't be too many places to float a battleship there.

I've been to the Texas quite a few times over the years. Always enjoy it. Can't show the photo (it's in the "colored slides" somewhere at my parents' house), but there's a photograph for all posterity of me on the Texas, seated atop the barrel of the starboard 14-inch gun of the No. 3 turret red-faced and bawling from having just smacked my head, climbing around on something minutes before. The photograph was taken in 1960. I was three.

We've examined the results of the punishment the battleships Texas and Arkansas meted out at Normandy. Woudn't have wanted to be on the receiving end.

I have had a thing for aviation since I was a little kid. My grandad was a crew chief for a F6F and during Korea a F4U. I remember when I was about five he and my dad took me to see the a Confederate Air Force B-17 and C-47 at the local air port they picked up a P-40 model kit for me and I fell in love while my grandad told me about the planes performance and characteristics.