Time with Hazel Chaisty

I know it’s 2019 now, but I need to start this blog with how difficult 2017 was for me. It had taken me 2 years to come back from a collapsed disc in my neck and I still wasn’t ready for the para world champs in Germany.

I spent the winter of 2017/18 working incredibly hard in the gym and hit the ground running in the very early 2018 spring.

I was rewarded with 2 ‘all time’ personal bests in the coldest, muddiest shoot I’ve ever attended. But I still didn’t have the complete package I needed to take to the Para European Champs in Czech 2018.

Something was missing and it was a gaping hole in my game face. Mental control is everything in Archery, you can be the perfect shot in practice, but if you can’t take it into competition, you’ve got nothing.

Cue some brilliant coaching, physical and mental, from the awesome Archery GB coaches, and the rest of 2018 saw me reaching for the stars. After being selected for the European Champs, I knew I had to use everything I’d been taught to bring home a medal. Standing on the line waiting to shoot in the Bronze medal mixed team match, I couldn’t have been happier.

The nerves melted away and when I came to take my last arrow out of my quiver for the 1 arrow shoot-off, I knew it was a ten. I’d worked too hard for anything less.

I owe huge thanks to Custom made wraps. They’ve allowed me to experiment with style and types of wraps to get shot AND my look, just right.


(Photo credit – World Archery Europe)