U.K.A.T. World Championships, part 4

 

- The competitions continue

It's been a while since those extremely hot competition days in Hradec Králové. The World Championships lasted three days from June 26th to 28th. So my memories aren't quite as clear as I would have liked. I'm noticing that now that I'm about to write some of them down.

But I remember some things with all the clarity I could wish for. For example, the heat I just mentioned. It's also a contributing factor to my success in at least one discipline. Then there was that medal. I remember that!

World Championships in Hradec Králové

Even though it's hard to teach old dogs to sit, or in this case, get this old man to put on a cap and some sun protection, I did take something with me from the day before. The one dedicated to games. It was that the knives are very difficult to handle when the heat is at its worst. I have noticed this especially applies to No Spin. Unfortunately, it had a big impact on the results these two days as well. Now it was time for the real power battle.

Walk Back

Axe

The most important events during the entire World Cup are, after all, Walk Back in the three disciplines, axe, knife, and No Spin. Those were also the ones I focused on, although with very different levels of ambition. First of all, it can be said that I care very little about what results others achieve. It is not something I can influence. But my own effort is all the more important, and I get really disappointed when I don't live up to my own expectations.  

The axes I throw with are Rinaldi Ceratops in a custom version by Throwingzone. That's where my No Spin knives come from as well.

The goal in axe-throwing was simply to beat myself. Not particularly difficult, as I only have one or two results overall and hardly anything from training either. There was definitely nothing written down with the new axes as they arrived a few weeks before the competition.

But what was to be beaten was 213 points as a personal best or at least the result from previous Swedish championships. What was thrown with borrowed axes. Unfortunately, I was nowhere near that today. The nerves made themselves known, and the score was accordingly. I got a low 157 points, which placed me in 66th place in the starting field. The reason was that one or two axes ended up on the ground. At home, I have noticed that "no stick" with an axe is quite difficult. Normally, the problem for me as a beginner is the "fine touch", throwing with high precision, not putting the axe in the target.

Knife

In Walk Back knife, I had higher expectations of myself. My personal best in training is 260 points. Of course, beating my personal best at my first World Championship was not to be expected. Incidentally, it would have been enough for gold in that case, as the winner finished with 252 points this year. Then, points in competition are always something that is affected by the prevailing circumstances. After all, it is an outdoor sport that we engage in.

But the goal was clear: I wanted to achieve a bit over 200 points. That's not how it happened, and the result was 191 points, which certainly made me the second-best Swede in the discipline and gave me 35th place. What I found annoying was that I threw, although not well, at least competently at the shorter distances, but lousy at the longer ones. Something that gnaws at me because I know why. I return to bad habits and beginner's ways when I get stressed. Small tics are added to the technique, ones that I know are wrong.

Although I didn't actually feel stressed, I must add. There has been some extra training from six and seven meters ahead of the World Cup with some success. It was in the back of my mind. The next step is to manage to bring it out when it really matters! How about the coming Championship at home or next year's World Cup?

No Spin

This is the sport I trained for. The one I'm known for on paper. Now all that was left was to make the best of the situation. But it didn't really work out that way. In fact, it was a fiasco. The score was 155, and that gave me 16th place. The reason was that everything went badly during the throw.

The sun had taken its toll. Like everyone else, I got sweaty. That in itself wasn't a huge problem. Just drying myself off and changing my shirt. But a couple of throws into the round, I discovered that the knives wouldn't let go of my hands! I just couldn't get them in the right direction. They kind of stayed put, and the throw started to dive down to the left like when you have a too-late release, although I tried to think about it. A couple of throws went wrong. Sure, I was sweaty, but not that bad.

Warming up from 6m. A little bit of bad angles, but otherwise ok

Good advice was hard to come by, but there was a quick solution. The ground where we were was extremely sandy, and it was very fine and extremely dry sand. So it was possible to dry your hands on it. Something that more people than I have come across. Unfortunately, it didn't help fully. I asked the referee for permission to leave the track to wash my hands, which I got, but that didn't work either. Maybe because I didn't have water nearby, but lemon juice. Certainly without sugar, but still.

Panic was near, and the throwing was accordingly. It was especially bad on the longer distances. I have difficulty with them sometimes anyway, and now it didn't work at all. Then you get tense and don't trust your technique, and a vicious downward spiral has begun.

Afterwards, it would turn out that there was surface rust on the blades and almost a sticky coating consisting of moisture and dust. A combination that was not good at all. Something I will definitely take with me to the next competition, regardless of the weather. It is extremely difficult to throw when the "release" is out of sync.

Precisionskastning från tre, fem och sju meter

Axe

The precision moment in axe-throwing went about as expected. That is, the outcome was impossible to predict since I don't actually throw axes. "Yet" should be added since I've just started. 

But the scores of 89, 64, and 62 from the respective distances placed me 46th, 64th, and 62nd overall. Not much to say since most others actually practice this discipline. I was satisfied with getting results that can then be improved. It can also be said that to get gold in, for example, three-meter precision, not only a perfect score, 105 points, was required, but also a throw-off between three participants who all succeeded in that feat. That says something about the class of the competition. It's not just about picking up medals if anyone thought so.

Knife

Then it was the same competition discipline and distance with a knife in hand. Here too, a full pot was required to be in the gold discussion from 3 meters. So I was not involved; these are levels I didn't even reach in training, so it was hardly a disappointment. The closest I have achieved at home is 104p on a number of occasions.

This year too, I have new competition knives, and that may not be the best recipe for success, since the formula for success is something like "use one type of knife, throw one discipline and master it first". Now, it's not really my thing because I throw everything that is not mounted.

This year's competition knives come from the French Zitoon Knives and are called Le Primitif Rotation.

The basic feeling when I stepped onto the court after giving the judge my scorecard was good, however. But the precision and thus the calm did not appear. The result was a mediocre 83 points, which is really bad for me. I always throw between 95-103 in practice. So around a hundred is normal for me. Therefore, at least 90-95 points should be doable even in this context. But that's not how competition logic works. It has to be done there and then!

No Spin

Now I have deliberately chosen not to tell everything in the correct chronological order this time. The reason for that was that I actually had a smart idea, even if it didn't last all the way. The debacle with the sweaty knives that I told you about above took place at noon.

But already in the morning, after a relatively quick warm-up on the half-empty practice field, I tore off the precision element in No Spin. The reason was simple. I wanted to avoid throwing too many elements when it was at its hottest. I also thought it was a good warm-up for the upcoming Walk Back.

The winners received an engraved knife from the main sponsor AceJet.

This made 3m precision in No Spin actually better than in rotation. For anyone who doesn't know, I can tell you that it is usually considered significantly more difficult to throw without rotation.

The result was still not according to plan, as it was set at least 100 points. Usually, I am around that when I train at home. But the fact was that after a couple of half-hearted hits with a four or five, I managed to get into an acceptable rhythm. After the twenty-one throws, I had managed 95 points. At that time, I had no idea what that would be enough for in terms of placement. The morning meant that many throwers of different calibers remained. Several of them have significantly heavier qualifications than I. So I assumed that a couple of well-known people would pass me in the results list.

A somewhat nervous and very long wait ensued. The day passed, results pouring in, and were announced on a large screen. 

It felt undeniably good, my first World Championship GOLD!

In the end, it turned out that no one managed to throw more points than me, no one at all, actually. Just like with Hunter, I didn't believe the result at first and, knowing from experience, I waited with joy. But gold was a fact, and it came in my first World Cup! I wasn't really thrilled at first; it was a bit hard for me to understand. It took a couple of days for it to sink in.

Long Distance Throwing

Throwing long distances is an art in itself. Moreover, something that I do not master at all. My modest personal records in all disciplines testify to that. Therefore, I had modest ambitions that mostly extended to achieving some result in the three disciplines.

The result in the long-distance axe was about half the distance compared to the winner. My 10.43 m in axe gave me a 46th place.

This was followed up with 22nd place in No Spin with 7.15 m or regular competition distance if you like. Time to start practicing more on that detail.

But you don't have time to practice everything equally, and I don't have targets for this either. This means that when I practice at home, I have to aim as much as I focus on throwing far. It's not optimal. In addition, there is some stone and misery behind the targets, so I miss, and the axes and knives risk losing both their edges and points.

The best thing was actually in the long-distance knife where I threw a knife from 11.35, which is about what I do in training, and I was therefore satisfied with the effort. The result was 13th place. The winner threw around 19 meters, and for a medal, around 17 meters were needed. Thus far beyond my current ability. My personal best in training is only 13.40m. 

The Remains

What was left were two rather spectacular events. A duel and a game. In the duel competition, I already disappeared in the qualifiers. I am very confident in drawing knives from a sheath, as I usually play with throws from the belt at home. But I have never practiced speed either with or without signal/measuring equipment. If I remember correctly, I got around 1.5s in time, and the one who beat me was around 1.2s. To move on, I think you had to be around the second clear. The times differ slightly depending on which rules you are using. In the U.K.A.T. context, the thumb should be against the pit of the throat in the ready position. For that reason, the times are not as extreme as some that can be seen online.

However, it is a fun and crowd-pleasing sport to watch, and I would consider practicing a bit if possible. In the results list, I am listed in 69th place. 

Duel throwing

In Coutanque, I actually advanced when I miraculously won my first three matches. Some form of qualification to the round of 16 or something like that was the result. I lost there, but after all, I didn't get a proper beating; on the contrary, that match was so even that the guy I lost to wondered if I used to play. The truth is that I've done it in two tournaments before at the Swedish championships. That's where the experiences end. 

The final match in Coutanque was not as exciting as the road there

This is what a world champion looks like! Simon Wall from Sweden

The most fun thing that remained on that front was to follow another Swede, Simon Wall, who advanced like a bulldozer even against the most renowned competitors. Some matches were very close; others were not. Once in the final, there was actually never any talk about the matter. Simon took the lead quite early and held the lead until the end. That was Sweden's second gold! 

Towards the next World Cup

It's easy to see that this experience gave me a taste for more on several levels. It gave me the desire to continue training, and for the moment, next week's Swedish championships loom. But beyond that, next year's World Cup is in sight, which will take place somewhere in northern Italy if the rumors are true. It's not completely official yet, as far as I know. But it also fueled the passion behind the desire to get better. I simply want to become a better thrower. There are so many things to practice!

Two World Cup medals gave me the motivation to keep going. It motivates me to train a lot more. I intend to try to defend the medal and aspire to more!

Winning two medals, one of which was gold, hardly felt doable before I went to the Czech Republic. It hardly feels doable now, either, I might add. Sport throwing, or knife throwing if you will, is like any other small sport. There may not be tens of thousands of practitioners in every country. But the top/elite/the best, they are there in all sports, rest assured. To have the privilege of competing with and against all of them is an honor.

But the passion is there, and I want more. So I have every plan to participate next year as well. Then I intend to be a much better version of myself. After all, I am a beginner at practicing the sport, even though I have partly devoted myself to it for half my life. 

/ J - the gold medalist

U.K.A.T. World Championships, part 3

  - The competitions begin

It was finally time. Time for theories to be put into practice and training to be transformed into competition at the highest level. A pretty big step for me, as I had only competed in the Swedish Championship and the Soulthrower Open before. But the latter is certainly a small but still an international competition that attracts good throwers.

Since at the World Championships you can compete in almost any order you want, the thrower can choose what suits them best. I thought I would start with something relatively simple to get a feel for the situation and the courses. It can be added that it was very hot these days. The temperature was between thirty and thirty-five degrees, and around ten hours a day would be spent outdoors. This resulted in more than one sunburn and a few cases of sunstroke among the competitors. 

Day One - Games

These ever-present competition nerves. Yes, I know it applies to others, too. But in my case, they can be almost paralyzing. I can simply more or less forget what technique I am using, or rather, should be using. It happened, for example, at the Swedish Championships a year ago when I missed the first throw from 3m in rotational. I don't mean in miss as in a three instead of a five, but in as in "knife-on-the-ground miss". Something almost impossible to achieve. Such incidents can make anyone nervous!

To deal with it, I tried to think about what my wise brother told me when we spoke before I left. He said, "Have fun"! Then he added that I have nothing to prove. Anything that goes well is a bonus. Completely correct idea, but harder to implement. It was there in the back of my mind, though.

But now it was time to get started. Games were a good start, and my idea was to open with rotational disciplines because they are both easier and not quite as close to my heart as no spin. 

Moving Target

I opened with "Moving Target" for the simple reason that I had never seen the discipline live before and therefore had no demands on myself at all. There were some hits and some misses. Nothing to write home about, but nothing to cry about either. A fifty-eighth place was the result in the end. A lot of room for improvement, in other words.

The first competition for me was Moving Target

Richard Karlsson from Sweden threw better; he managed to win a bronze medal, which was a really great moral boost! As in other sports, the atmosphere is contagious when teammates are doing well. Now the bar was kind of set. Although I didn't know that at the time, I might add. The competition day had just started. 

The first medal for Sweden, a bronze, was won by Richard Karlsson in Moving Target.

Silhouette

The next event for me was Silhouette, as it three-meter rotational is actually the easiest to throw. But add competition nerves and the fact that this heraldic griffin that formed the target was one of the more difficult in a long time. Some of the rings/bullseyes were more or less inside the wings, which meant that a "negative" hit was constantly threatening. The thrower gets five points for each ring and minus ten if the knives even touch the silhouette. 

I didn't do well with a couple of quick hits followed by a series of misses that were all very close. But that doesn't help, and above all, it doesn't improve the score. The precision wasn't there, and only when I relaxed towards the end did the technique work. The last three throws were pounded into the target in quick succession and in the right place, but by then it was too late.

The result was a twentieth place in this event. Up to the podium, it was twenty-five points or five more hits. Absolutely not impossible, especially not as I threw forty-five at the last Swedish Championships, but it didn't work out this day.

Trick shots after the competitions, but here you can see the difficult silhouette target

Then it can be added that the silhouette is also thrown with axes. I did compete, but that was all. I had the axes for two weeks before the competition, and I had never thrown silhouette with axes before. Since, as I said, you can get negative scores in this discipline and the target was tricky, I ended up with minus thirty points, which led to 84th place out of 131 competitors in the discipline. The good thing about that is that I, no doubt, will improve next time.

Sure, I could have gotten higher points by being tactical and not throwing at all, or rather, making sure to miss on the more difficult bullseyes, but how much fun is that?

Speed throwing

In speed throwing, I actually had a goal, namely to beat myself. I don't have any knives to practice with at home, so I've never done that, but I've competed in this event at a couple of Swedish Championships in a row. Always with the same result, 11 knives. This time it went relatively well and I managed to put 16 in the target, but three were outside the scoring area, so the final result was 13. 

Which was still a personal best, so the result had to be considered decent albeit modest. It was enough for a 36th place. The best in the sport are grinding, and that's actually not something I'll ever do. I don't think it's that fun. But it's impressive to see the speed they get up to.

The Plank

The next game on the program was the much-feared "Plank". It consists of a plank that slopes away from the thrower, and on it, there are nine sectors to be hit. One point closest to the thrower and up to nine at most. The closest sector is three meters away, and then it increases to about seven meters. The difficulty lies in the fact that the distances are not exactly marked, but mainly in the fact that the surface slopes significantly. If you throw rotational, the risk of over-rotation and thus a miss is imminent. That's why I chose No Spin.

The feared Plank

After a couple of good initial throws with hits in the middle sectors, the feeling was good, and the points were acceptable. Unfortunately, this was followed by a couple of misses, some of which could have been avoided. Here, too, practice is lacking, and I will probably arrange a plank at home to practice. My 18 points were enough for 20th place.

Acejet Master

In addition to the more usual disciplines, there was a special one because Acejet was the main sponsor of the event. In this case, you would throw "Bo Shuriken", straight throwing needles from three and five meters. I have never done that before, and I am not entirely a fan of how light they are in general. But my effort was enough for a ninth place overall. Up to a medal place, there were four points, so with a little practice, it is within reach, although I do not think this specific discipline will return.

Hunter

So there was one more game I had never seen called "Hunter". It turned out to be a pretty tricky discipline. The thrower stands in a ring and has to hit eight different targets with three knives each. The targets are both at an unknown distance and are designed differently. Size, shape, and, not least, inclination vary. Especially those where the surface is tilted away from the thrower were difficult. You can't see the target you are going to hit!

Added to the difficulty was that there was quite a crowd at this course. There were many who were curious about the competition format. But by this point, I was both tired and hot. In addition, things had not gone so well before, and the expectations that an, to me, unknown game would make a difference were not there. But since the key to good throwing is to relax, it went beyond expectations.

For me, the situation was not very different from the times I throw out in the forest at various objects. I managed to pick up forty points. The annoying thing was that I hit the farthest ones and had a close miss on one of the easier targets. Something that would later prove decisive. At first, I didn't know if my result was good or bad, even though I took the lead at the moment.

Waiting for the first awards ceremony, the one that became an anticlimax for me

Later, I learned that my result would be enough to earn a first place after the deadline at six o'clock had passed. One of the other Swedes informed me about this. However, I didn't really dare to believe it because it would give me gold! 

And sure enough, when the prize-giving ceremony later took place, Hunter was saved to last, and it was found that so many people said that they hadn't "managed" to finish that particular one of all the games that it was declared open the next day as well. That's how the potential gold slipped out of my hand. Especially since I had no idea who was left to compete or how good they were. 

The second Swedish medal. A silver for me in Hunter

But it would turn out that only one person threw better and got ONE damn point more than me. But a silver medal was at home! So my first World Championships was already well above expectations, also in terms of results.

Waiting for the next day

The first day of competition was over. It had been very hot, hectic, wonderful, and full of impressions that needed to be sorted out. I already realized that there would be no problem falling asleep that night. Or so I thought. Hradec Králové had a few surprises for the visitors this particular weekend, as it turned out.

Now there was only the rest left. Day two involved the "heavy" disciplines such as Walk Back in both axe, knife, and No Spin, as well as precision and distance in these disciplines. At the same time, qualifications had begun for both "Duel Throwing" and Coutanque. 

In the first one, I didn't get anywhere for the same reason as in some others; I've never tried them. Throwing from the sheath is something I'm good at and I very rarely miss, but it's never been done with a timer before. My time was about thirty percent worse than my opponent and I was out in the first inning. But in Coutanque, I somehow managed to win the first matches and move on in the tournament.

But more about that in the next post!

/ J - the silver medalist