As you may or may not know, Peter Smith was instrumental in many ways in the FCWC campaign. In the initial instance Peter had a vision of a revolutionary way in which a team may be coached and the coach themselves be freed from as many extraneous distractions as possible. From the humble beginnings of designing and building the “big knobs” to improve tactile feel and “coacheability” of a scoped rifle, he went on to both develop and ultimately build the coaching system we all came to appreciate in Raton.
I deliberately use the word “system”, because whilst the individual features of the big knob, coupled with the mirror and retro plotter were individually brilliant in their own right, Peter’s concept led to a coaching system which was non-verbal, freed the coach from distractions and yet gave the coach instantaneous access to crucial data.
Much of the development occurred confidentially on the ranges of Far North Queensland and those members of the Open team who attended the practice in Brisbane will remember the great lengths we went to, to ensure that no photos exposed the system to public consumption. Thus when the system was unveiled for the first time at the US Nationals it was hardly surprising that it caused a stir. It was not long before the system was recognised by the other teams for what it was, a brilliant coaching solution to the problem of reducing the coach’s workload. It was therefore no surprise that there was much talk of other teams lodging protests against the use of this system on the mound. In this way Peter created our “winged keel” and equally created a psychological road block in the minds of the other teams even before the FCWC began.
Unfortunately Peter was unable to personally attend the FCWC. He most certainly was there in spirit though. What you may not know is that Peter was in constant communication with the Open coaching staff. Peter had written a computer program to analyse plot sheets and extract the maximum possible data from them. Thus in the evening between day one and two of the FCWC teams event, the coaches forwarded the plot sheets to Peter, which he then analysed and was able to provide feedback to the coaches to further improve team performance on the second day. As an example, Peter was able to de-construct the plot sheets to determine aerodynamic jump (10 o'clock to 4 o'clock elevation line with varying wind strength) and quantify the elevation changes required by the coaches with wind changes. It is difficult to put exact figures on the benefits of Peter’s work, but what is fact is that after day one we were 4 points and 11 V’s ahead, a lead which was increased to 15 points and 31 V’s by the end of day two.
On Saturday the 15th of October at the Ravenshoe Prize Meeting we were graciously given as much time as needed to make a presentation to our absent team member. The fact that as a team member he had also earned a gold medal was kept in secret right up until it was presented. At that time we were able to finally unite Peter with his FCWC gold medal and equally an Australian FCWC team shirt signed by all of the victorious F Open team members. To say Peter was elated would be a study in understatement!!
Peter, to sum up, the energy, effort and work that you have put in to this team to make the FCWC gold medal a reality was phenomenal. All those many hours spent in development of the concepts, equipment and range testing are greatly appreciated and Peter, as a pivotal member of the 2013 FCWC team, the rest of us send our gracious thanks to you.
. And thanks to everyone involved in making the presentation.
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