On the evening of Wednesday 6th March, the GB men’s artistic squad took a break from their week’s training at Lilleshall National Sports Centre to try their hand at archery. 26 of the country’s top male gymnasts were split into two groups as they competed against each other in an Olympic style Archery Team event. It was an enjoyable evening for all and rumour has it the gymnasts may look to return the favour in the future.

Gary Penn, Performance Lifestyle Adviser at the English Institute of Sport spoke of how it was great for the gymnasts to get a break from training and try something new.
“After a hard week’s training, the gymnasts enjoyed competing in a different environment.  The fun session that the English Institute of Sport put on with Archery GB for British Gymnastics allowed both squads to break from training and gain an insight into each other’s sport.  Whilst the gymnast’s archery technique may not get them to Rio in 2016 it was fun to see some of Team GB’s 2012 stars try a new sport in a competitive environment and meet fellow professional athletes.”

Lloyd Brown, Archery Olympic Coach added: “It was a great opportunity for our athletes to share our sport with athletes from another."

The gymnasts had a great time trying something new and although both sports could be seen worlds apart in some respects the gymnasts all noticed how certain aspect of the sport can relate to their own.

Dan Purvis: “I’ve never tried archery before apart from on the Wii, but I found it really fun. In relation to swapping skills I can certainly relate to the control side of things in terms of controlling the speed and power and how pressure can affect your performance when competing in high profile competitions”.

Kristian Thomas: “Archery is good fun and it’s nice to try something new and get out of the gym. The sports share the same skills in terms of having to keep cool when competing and not using up your adrenaline”.

Dan Keatings: “I didn’t realise how fun archery was going to be, it was great to have a competition with the other gymnasts. There are definitely skills such as composure and upper body and more importantly core strength that both gymnasts and archers share in both sports”.