Thailand Princess Archery Cup 2012 primary school

[EugMax]

On a glorious day the titans of kid's archery met in battle.

A perfect score ensured victory, the scoring of the top 5 was very good, the camaraderie among the young archers outstanding and the entire event simply grand. Max is very happy to have seen his friends hang in there with him all the way to the final, where he lost with his head held high. The victor showed flawless, perfect archery and great sportmanship. I was most pleased to see how graceful she won.

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The days after a big competition feel like waking up from a beautiful dream. One wants to hold on to it, but realizes a new day awaits and new challenges are to be met. What is left is that happy feeling and a lot of hard work to prepare for the next battle. We can not hold on to what has happened yesterday, only the future counts.

Ahead of us is hard work, countless hours of practice and the desire to be there at the next big event. Ready to perform, silently confident, standing strong, keeping it together, sending arrow after arrow to the center of our attention :bullseye:

[phuketarchery]

wonderfull video,Thanks for sharing. :)

[EugMax]

When I made this video I thought about the desire to win I can see in Max and wondered if other kids would show the same spirit. My Lord, they do!

If you look into their eyes you will see a fire burning, fuelled by the desire to perform at their very best. Archers are different in the way that their emotions are not openly on display, in fact we spend a great deal of practice learning how to hold back emotions, trying to deliver that perfect shot. But when you look in their eyes during the seconds they get ready to deliver you can see determination, perseverance and a stone cold desire to hit gold. Once the shot breaks you can see surprise, as most of us do not know when the shot breaks. It is this composure that sets us apart from other sports.

The kids entering Princess Cup, compete as hard as they possibly can, stand tall, remain strong and focussed, learn how to win and loose with dignity. Just look at how cool, calm and collected Tanthai took his 4th place [i know how well he can shoot] and how well your son recovered from his battle with Max. Our winner never lost her composure, she went into the zone, never came out of it and showed she's a lady by winning with pride and compassion.

Trying to make better videos i looked for these emotions in the competing kids. Archery is a tough sport, especially for children - an enormous pressure to perform, knowing that one slight undesired move, one little uncertainty, a minute split second of loosing focus and the tournament can be lost.

Looking at it in this light the children entering Princess Cup deserve our praise and support no matter where they end up on the leaderboard.

PS: Thanks for the cool pics everybody!