This morning I have got info that the first shipments of The Heretic Archer has been received by both of the UK shops that have been ordering them first. At the same time, an e-mail has confirmed me that the very first copy of L'Archer Hérétique has been recived by the French Archery Federation in Paris.
Tomorrow, many other copies will be shipped to UK, France and Norway.
Yesterday in Perugia, during the annual FITARCO congress, FITARCO has started distributing L'Arciere Eretico to the technical representatives of all Italian clubs. So, I can say that these 2 days have been really "Heretic" intensive !!
Curious to here who will be the first one announcing to have bought (and read) it outside Italy !
Monday, January 23, 2006
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
The three books are on my desk
Finally, the three different editions are on my desk!
Today I have visited the editor, and seen all the copies of the English and French versions on their pallets. Really a fantastic spectacle! Then, I have picked up some copies of each language version, and come back to my office.
Just now, I have the 3 editions on my desk, and I'm comparing them. They look identical, apart from the red cover for the English one, the light blue cover for the French one and the dark green cover for the Italian one.
There are some other small differnces in them, mainly in chapter 7.3 and in the Credits (of course). In all other aspects, they can be cross-read keeping (almost) the same page number for each paragraph and picture, thus making easier to refer to any part of the book independently from the language you are reading.
From tomorrow the books will start to be shipped around, and within ten days I'm sure I'll start to receive questions and comments. This Blog is born to give answers to them, and I hope to be able to keep on with my commitment with it.
Today I have visited the editor, and seen all the copies of the English and French versions on their pallets. Really a fantastic spectacle! Then, I have picked up some copies of each language version, and come back to my office.
Just now, I have the 3 editions on my desk, and I'm comparing them. They look identical, apart from the red cover for the English one, the light blue cover for the French one and the dark green cover for the Italian one.
There are some other small differnces in them, mainly in chapter 7.3 and in the Credits (of course). In all other aspects, they can be cross-read keeping (almost) the same page number for each paragraph and picture, thus making easier to refer to any part of the book independently from the language you are reading.
From tomorrow the books will start to be shipped around, and within ten days I'm sure I'll start to receive questions and comments. This Blog is born to give answers to them, and I hope to be able to keep on with my commitment with it.
Monday, January 16, 2006
The book in Nimes 2006
My club is participating to the Nimes international Indoor tournament since its second edition, in 1999.
Michele was eliminated in the quarter of finals in that year, has won the 2000 and 2001 edition (with world record of 597), got second in the 2002 , 2004 and 2005 editions. My daughter Carla also was second in 2005.
Being there and on the top (that also includes the World Championship finals in 2003) for seven years already, has given to Michele and to me a lot of supporters and friends in France. So, it has been a logical choice to put a lot of effort to get out the French edition of the book on time to introduce it in Nimes, that will be the perfect show for it.
We will arrive in Nimes on the evening of the 27th, around 19:00, and I will deliver immediately the books in French to the dealers that already have ordered the book and have booths there. Also a limited quantity of the English and Italian editions will be made available at the same time. So, all friends there that have written to me to book a copy of the French edition wil be able to get it in the same evening.
Hope they will not waste that night in reading it, anyhow....
Michele was eliminated in the quarter of finals in that year, has won the 2000 and 2001 edition (with world record of 597), got second in the 2002 , 2004 and 2005 editions. My daughter Carla also was second in 2005.
Being there and on the top (that also includes the World Championship finals in 2003) for seven years already, has given to Michele and to me a lot of supporters and friends in France. So, it has been a logical choice to put a lot of effort to get out the French edition of the book on time to introduce it in Nimes, that will be the perfect show for it.
We will arrive in Nimes on the evening of the 27th, around 19:00, and I will deliver immediately the books in French to the dealers that already have ordered the book and have booths there. Also a limited quantity of the English and Italian editions will be made available at the same time. So, all friends there that have written to me to book a copy of the French edition wil be able to get it in the same evening.
Hope they will not waste that night in reading it, anyhow....
Friday, January 13, 2006
Color of the cover
The book is binded with hard back cover and plasticized full color over-cover.
The choice of the color for the cover of the Italian edition has been easy: green is my preferred color, so its color is dark green.
Some discussion has been neded to reach a decision about the colors of the French and English editions. At the end, the logical (?) choice has been dark blue for the French one and red for English one.
Now, a familiy discussion is running about the color of the cover for the German edition. Preference is going to a saturated dark yellow, but then what about the Japanese edition? Or gray for German and yellow for Japanese? Or white for Japanese? Still plenty of time for the final decision.
For sure, at the end nobody will be able to confuse the varius editions of the book even if on the same shelf without the over-cover.
The choice of the color for the cover of the Italian edition has been easy: green is my preferred color, so its color is dark green.
Some discussion has been neded to reach a decision about the colors of the French and English editions. At the end, the logical (?) choice has been dark blue for the French one and red for English one.
Now, a familiy discussion is running about the color of the cover for the German edition. Preference is going to a saturated dark yellow, but then what about the Japanese edition? Or gray for German and yellow for Japanese? Or white for Japanese? Still plenty of time for the final decision.
For sure, at the end nobody will be able to confuse the varius editions of the book even if on the same shelf without the over-cover.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Who has read it already outside Italy?
Curious, not so many have already read the book outside Italy., in my knowledge.
They can be counted on the fingers of one hand, only:
- Tom Dielen, General secretary of FITA, has read the Italian version.
- Yoshi Komatzu, editor of The Arcer magazine in Japan, has read the English version draft.
- Sandrine Vandionnant has read the Italian version, and the French draft as well
- Andreas Lorenz has read the Italian version (but he is Italian, only living in Germany)
- The president of archery federation of Malta has read the Italian version
Some other few have received the Italian version, but I doubt they have been able to read it.
So, to have up to today already booking for more than 500 copies in English and 300 in French is frankly a surprise to me. Such an expectation in the archery world was frankly .... unexpected.
They can be counted on the fingers of one hand, only:
- Tom Dielen, General secretary of FITA, has read the Italian version.
- Yoshi Komatzu, editor of The Arcer magazine in Japan, has read the English version draft.
- Sandrine Vandionnant has read the Italian version, and the French draft as well
- Andreas Lorenz has read the Italian version (but he is Italian, only living in Germany)
- The president of archery federation of Malta has read the Italian version
Some other few have received the Italian version, but I doubt they have been able to read it.
So, to have up to today already booking for more than 500 copies in English and 300 in French is frankly a surprise to me. Such an expectation in the archery world was frankly .... unexpected.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Shooting for pictures
Someone has asked me how I have been able to synchronize the release of Michele, Carla and Elena in order to get their shooting sequence together.
Using a cliker, of course!
Well, using ONE clicker only, in the reality.
After trying all combinations, at the end has been Carla's cliker sound to command the release for Michele and Elena as well, and the result, after some tentatives, has been quite good, don't you think so?
Mistakes and Translations
The first edition has beenof course the Italian one. Because of the very tight schedule for the official presentation of the book, due for November 19, 2005, the fnal revision before printing has been left to the company making the impagination.
Unfortunately, this has left some typing mistakes in the text, as well as a paragraph duplication in Chapter 7.1, that has been handled by a small "errata corrige" paper inserted in all copies of the book.
By the way, there are no signifcant errors in the text, and the content is clearly undertandable in all its parts, even in presence of the already mentioned typing mistakes.
The second edition has been the English one. Translation has been handled by my friends and archers Stephen Avis, David Baron and Gaia Banchelli, as well as by myself. Stephen and David are British citizens living in Italy since many years, and have both learned to shoot (recurve) in Italy; Gaia is Italian but she works for a multinational american company and has lived in USA for a while. Dave (David) has also been the translator to English of several of my articles published in the past by Archery Focus magazine and others.
The final complete text has been assembled by myself and then revised in collegial session with all the four translators, were we have finalized chapter by chapter all the details and "real" interpretations of the various parts, with a lot of care to the transfer of the "meaning behind" to the English text, and to the respect of the two different ways of writing (Michele's and mine) . A lot of discussion, for instance, has been neded to finalize the so called "nehologism" (hope the english word is right) "sighters", supposed translation of the italian neholgism "miratori"...... Difficult to translate a previously unexisting word, believe me!
The text after impagination and before printing has been revised by all us again, so I had to suppose that the final printed book is as perfect as possible... But I have already found a couple of typing mistakes in the printing drafts, so I'm sure other will be found later, when more will read it. Sorry, but this is the best we have been able to do....
The third edition has been the French one. My French is just sufficient for simple conversation, but when I go to writing, I'm very far from an acceptable level, while anyhow I can read French quite well. Unfortunately, in my club there are no French mother tongue persons, so no way to follow the same procedure used for the English edition. Finally, because of the time very short, considering that the French edition had to be printed at the same time as the Englsh one, if I wanted to get it on sale during the Nimes 2006 international tournament on January 28, I have decided to use a professional translator.
I think that the lady that has made the translation has done a very good job, but of course the point was that she did not know anything about archery and archery terms in the French language. Fortunately, I have been able to get a fantastic help to finalize the French text by Sandrine Vandionnant, that has dedicated a lot of time to "re- translate" the translation form litteral one to an "archery" one, and I have for sure improved a lot my knowledge of the French specific terms for archery in the process. Believe me, "Band" for "Bracing" and "Lacher" for "Release" have been among the gretest surprises.... The final impagination has been then read again by myself, Sandrine and the original translator, so I hope what readers will get is a quite good reliable French version of the original Italian.
Few days ago our friend Andreas Lorenz has told me that he already has some pages translated to German Language. So from here the problem will start. For the German edition I will have much more troubles, as I don't speak or understand at all that language. I'll have therefore to find someone that will help Andreas to check the translation when done, and I'll have to trust those doing the job without possibility to intervene directly. Ok, this is the case for many other activities, so I will ave to deal with it in some ways... German edition will be probably on schedule, and in the market by the end of April.
Mr. Yoshi Komatzu, famous photographer and editor of the Japanese magazine "The Archer", will translate by himself the book starting from the English version. He has already translated in the past some of my articles from English to Japanese for his magazine, and I really trust his competence and passion in archery, so I'm sre the result will be good, even if of course I will never been able to read it. Japanese language is for my next life, not for the present one. Japanese version will be available just after the coming summer.
Unfortunately, this has left some typing mistakes in the text, as well as a paragraph duplication in Chapter 7.1, that has been handled by a small "errata corrige" paper inserted in all copies of the book.
By the way, there are no signifcant errors in the text, and the content is clearly undertandable in all its parts, even in presence of the already mentioned typing mistakes.
The second edition has been the English one. Translation has been handled by my friends and archers Stephen Avis, David Baron and Gaia Banchelli, as well as by myself. Stephen and David are British citizens living in Italy since many years, and have both learned to shoot (recurve) in Italy; Gaia is Italian but she works for a multinational american company and has lived in USA for a while. Dave (David) has also been the translator to English of several of my articles published in the past by Archery Focus magazine and others.
The final complete text has been assembled by myself and then revised in collegial session with all the four translators, were we have finalized chapter by chapter all the details and "real" interpretations of the various parts, with a lot of care to the transfer of the "meaning behind" to the English text, and to the respect of the two different ways of writing (Michele's and mine) . A lot of discussion, for instance, has been neded to finalize the so called "nehologism" (hope the english word is right) "sighters", supposed translation of the italian neholgism "miratori"...... Difficult to translate a previously unexisting word, believe me!
The text after impagination and before printing has been revised by all us again, so I had to suppose that the final printed book is as perfect as possible... But I have already found a couple of typing mistakes in the printing drafts, so I'm sure other will be found later, when more will read it. Sorry, but this is the best we have been able to do....
The third edition has been the French one. My French is just sufficient for simple conversation, but when I go to writing, I'm very far from an acceptable level, while anyhow I can read French quite well. Unfortunately, in my club there are no French mother tongue persons, so no way to follow the same procedure used for the English edition. Finally, because of the time very short, considering that the French edition had to be printed at the same time as the Englsh one, if I wanted to get it on sale during the Nimes 2006 international tournament on January 28, I have decided to use a professional translator.
I think that the lady that has made the translation has done a very good job, but of course the point was that she did not know anything about archery and archery terms in the French language. Fortunately, I have been able to get a fantastic help to finalize the French text by Sandrine Vandionnant, that has dedicated a lot of time to "re- translate" the translation form litteral one to an "archery" one, and I have for sure improved a lot my knowledge of the French specific terms for archery in the process. Believe me, "Band" for "Bracing" and "Lacher" for "Release" have been among the gretest surprises.... The final impagination has been then read again by myself, Sandrine and the original translator, so I hope what readers will get is a quite good reliable French version of the original Italian.
Few days ago our friend Andreas Lorenz has told me that he already has some pages translated to German Language. So from here the problem will start. For the German edition I will have much more troubles, as I don't speak or understand at all that language. I'll have therefore to find someone that will help Andreas to check the translation when done, and I'll have to trust those doing the job without possibility to intervene directly. Ok, this is the case for many other activities, so I will ave to deal with it in some ways... German edition will be probably on schedule, and in the market by the end of April.
Mr. Yoshi Komatzu, famous photographer and editor of the Japanese magazine "The Archer", will translate by himself the book starting from the English version. He has already translated in the past some of my articles from English to Japanese for his magazine, and I really trust his competence and passion in archery, so I'm sre the result will be good, even if of course I will never been able to read it. Japanese language is for my next life, not for the present one. Japanese version will be available just after the coming summer.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
About the philosophy of the book
Already posted on the Sagi board on January, 5, 2006 (never rewrite the same things if you still have the original...)
There are different approches possible in writing an archery book. 90% of the books around are just introductory manuals repeating for the 90th time the same basic steps, just with different pictures. Not so many coaches or top level archers have up to now decided to really explain in writing what they believe to be the way of the success in competitive archery, and how they have reached their conclusions. In this respect, Archery in earnest, The simple way of winning and Total archery are quite unique. But while Roy Matthews and Rick McKinney have put a lot of personal experienc in their books, Total Archery is un uncomplete work. It generates more questions than anwers that is giving. But, it is the first look to the inside world of Korean modern archery, after "Avviamento alla Competizione", by Don Eum Suk, Spigarelli and Casorati, written on the early 90's using infos from korean manuals translated and explained by D.E.Suk (available in Italian language, only). K.S. Lee does justify with byomechanic a lot of things he says, but as chang is mentioning, there is no reference or explanation of the basic work used to reach such conclusions. In addition to this, surely some archers he is using as reference are NOT shooting in that way at all, including his pupils Tim and the late Dave, and Michele's picture as example of (good, I hope) way of reaching anchor has also nothing to do with the content... Anyhow, a lot of infos in that book are new and very usefull and justify 100% its price. May be the useful infos for me are not the same for others, but they are there.... My approach to assemble " The Heretic Archer" has been quite different. First, not a basic manual at all, but a collection of opinions, experiences and articles sometime already published about the various main aspects of our sport. Second, the full clear (I hope) explanation of the Michele's technique and how to teach/learn it. Third, a wide range explanation about how I have reached those conclusions and why, in my opinion, is just a waste of time to follow other paths. Fourth, the story of how Michele has become a champion by following the develpment of his technique and his results in 7 years fom 1989 to 1996. The key word about my book is "efficiency". No way, in our western world of almost pure amateurs to follow "unefficient" shooting techniques, as we do not have the numbers of professionals and the financial possibilities to follow them. We presently we are building up a good archer in 7 years starting from 100, when in Korea they can build up 30 good archers in 4 years starting from 1000.... no way to compete, if we do not find a more efficient and consistent way of producing top level archers. In my persona experience, I suppose to have found that way, and I hope my book will help other to follow the same path to the success. But, as already stated, all exeriences around can give additional bits to this path, and surely all the books I have mentioned have mor than one in them.
Vittorio
There are different approches possible in writing an archery book. 90% of the books around are just introductory manuals repeating for the 90th time the same basic steps, just with different pictures. Not so many coaches or top level archers have up to now decided to really explain in writing what they believe to be the way of the success in competitive archery, and how they have reached their conclusions. In this respect, Archery in earnest, The simple way of winning and Total archery are quite unique. But while Roy Matthews and Rick McKinney have put a lot of personal experienc in their books, Total Archery is un uncomplete work. It generates more questions than anwers that is giving. But, it is the first look to the inside world of Korean modern archery, after "Avviamento alla Competizione", by Don Eum Suk, Spigarelli and Casorati, written on the early 90's using infos from korean manuals translated and explained by D.E.Suk (available in Italian language, only). K.S. Lee does justify with byomechanic a lot of things he says, but as chang is mentioning, there is no reference or explanation of the basic work used to reach such conclusions. In addition to this, surely some archers he is using as reference are NOT shooting in that way at all, including his pupils Tim and the late Dave, and Michele's picture as example of (good, I hope) way of reaching anchor has also nothing to do with the content... Anyhow, a lot of infos in that book are new and very usefull and justify 100% its price. May be the useful infos for me are not the same for others, but they are there.... My approach to assemble " The Heretic Archer" has been quite different. First, not a basic manual at all, but a collection of opinions, experiences and articles sometime already published about the various main aspects of our sport. Second, the full clear (I hope) explanation of the Michele's technique and how to teach/learn it. Third, a wide range explanation about how I have reached those conclusions and why, in my opinion, is just a waste of time to follow other paths. Fourth, the story of how Michele has become a champion by following the develpment of his technique and his results in 7 years fom 1989 to 1996. The key word about my book is "efficiency". No way, in our western world of almost pure amateurs to follow "unefficient" shooting techniques, as we do not have the numbers of professionals and the financial possibilities to follow them. We presently we are building up a good archer in 7 years starting from 100, when in Korea they can build up 30 good archers in 4 years starting from 1000.... no way to compete, if we do not find a more efficient and consistent way of producing top level archers. In my persona experience, I suppose to have found that way, and I hope my book will help other to follow the same path to the success. But, as already stated, all exeriences around can give additional bits to this path, and surely all the books I have mentioned have mor than one in them.
Vittorio
Why English only?
What about the other languages?
No meaning to start commenting the book in more than one language, only. Too much complicated, and open to too many repetitions and mistakes.
I can easily write in English, but I have some troubles with French, I dont know but few words in German and I can only identify a text as written in Japanese, but not read or write n this language.
As far as Italian is concerned, Italians have so many opportunities to talk to me directly or to ask infos in different ways, that it iss not worth at all to manage the answer by a blog.
So, as said already, let's start ere and in English only, and time will tell....
Vittorio
No meaning to start commenting the book in more than one language, only. Too much complicated, and open to too many repetitions and mistakes.
I can easily write in English, but I have some troubles with French, I dont know but few words in German and I can only identify a text as written in Japanese, but not read or write n this language.
As far as Italian is concerned, Italians have so many opportunities to talk to me directly or to ask infos in different ways, that it iss not worth at all to manage the answer by a blog.
So, as said already, let's start ere and in English only, and time will tell....
Vittorio
The beginning
I have had several doubt about starting this blog (my first one), but there were few other choices, all of them worse than this one.
As my and my son's book "The Heretic Archer" will surely generate a lot of questions, one of the possible solutions to answer to them was to start a dedicated forum...
But, a forum needs a lot of administration, filtering and so on... and in any case a full forum just for the book itself was too much over the needs...
Let's therefore try with a Blog, and if it wan't be OK, I'll reconsider other solutions.
I'll comment here about all aspects of the book, and try to answer to the questions that may come even from other blogs or forums...
Everything, of course, in an "Heretic" way ..
Vittorio
As my and my son's book "The Heretic Archer" will surely generate a lot of questions, one of the possible solutions to answer to them was to start a dedicated forum...
But, a forum needs a lot of administration, filtering and so on... and in any case a full forum just for the book itself was too much over the needs...
Let's therefore try with a Blog, and if it wan't be OK, I'll reconsider other solutions.
I'll comment here about all aspects of the book, and try to answer to the questions that may come even from other blogs or forums...
Everything, of course, in an "Heretic" way ..
Vittorio
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