Not letting isolation hold me back!

Louisa Piper - GB Archer

When lockdown struck.....

When Lockdown was announced I was just days away from hearing if I’d made GBR Tokyo 2020 Olympic Reserve. This was something I’d been working towards since being on programme from the age of ten and selected for the GBR Olympic Squad in 2017 (when I was 14) and, following my last international competition result, out in Spain just weeks before, this looked very possible, this was a huge blow. The news of the postponement of the Olympics to now coincide with my A Levels and the task of having to qualify all over again was equally daunting but I’m used to some fairly significant set-backs over the years and I’ve found that it’s how you deal with them that counts. After all there is nothing I can do to change it and the only thing that I can influence is my own performance so I decided that I just had to deal with lockdown better than any of my competitors. So rather than Lockdown being a disadvantage I quickly decided that I would turn it into a competitive advantage instead and a way for me to get ahead on my work and core training to try and make next year a bit easier.

“I learnt about my resilience and determination during Lockdown.”

I am very fortunate that my sister Eleanor is also on the 6-woman Olympic Squad with me and we are both coached by Richard Priestman, Senior GBR Olympic Coach, who, although in Lockdown up at Lilleshall (home of Archery GB), was also available via Whatsapp and Facetime so I wasn’t completely alone. Since joining the Performance Pathway we have always had a training boss in our house (in fact it is now such a permanent fixture that my parent have actually incorporated it into our kitchen cupboards). We also have a small boss that we were able to put up in our garden which meant that I could also shoot 18m, which is the competitive indoor distance where most of my arrows are in the 2cm 10-ring. (We also have insurance and netting up in the garden so are super safe!) In addition, World Archery started a weekly worldwide indoor league and issued a new novelty face every week for ten weeks and this gave me and Eleanor something to look forward to each week and a chance to compete against each other (and other archers from around the world).

At the start of Lockdown I sent my TASS Surrey Uni S&C coach a list of the equipment we had in the house (including weights I borrowed from my brothers) and he sent me a strength circuit I could do at home as well as continuing to shoot six times a week. Bow strength is key in archery, I have about 41lbs (18.5kg) on my fingers which I have to hold absolutely still throughout the release stage of my shot which I then repeat 1000 times a week on average (along with needing a strong core and legs to stabilise you). The strongest archers generate the flattest arrow flight and this is a real competitive advantage, especially in windy conditions, so working on my strength is really important and fortunately something I could adapt to do at home. This paid off as my coach increased my bow weight when I finally saw him again in person five months later.

I was very lucky in that archery, along with golf, was one of the first sports to open back up and I was able to start shooting the Olympic distance of 70m once again at my club down near RHS Wisley. 70m is ¾ the length of a professional football pitch, with the gold being the size of a CD and a 10cm 10-ring which I aim to shoot every arrow. It was great being back on an archery field, having something taken away from you makes you appreciate it a lot more when you have it back (and gave me a great excuse to procrastinate work). Now when I sometimes find training tough, I remind myself how I felt when I couldn’t do it at all and it puts it into perspective.

In July, Elite archery finally returned to Lilleshall (with lots of new health and safety measurements) and I was back to my 5.30am starts in order to get to training in Telford for 8.50am. I am pleased to say that all my hard work over lockdown has paid off as I’ve just been selected on the basis of my scores to represent GBR at the only World Ranking international tournament (hopefully) to be held this year out in Turkey in Oct.

This year is going to be tremendously hard, with a-levels in biology, maths and physics and a GCSE in astronomy meanwhile going through Olympic selection but that just means that I’ve got to train even harder and smarter in the time I have available. What I learnt about my resilience and determination during Lockdown will help me along with the continued support form the amazing staff at GHS.

Stay safe everyone :)

Check Louisa out, skip forward to 1hr 35mins. This is Louisa’s debut international out at the European Cup, Croatia 2017 where she finished with a Team Gold and an Individual Bronze medal match. She was just 13 at this time.