IS STAT ALL? (OR: I'D TAP THAT)
Interview by RYODHAI
I bumped into Tristan at APATC, after the briefest of chats he struck me as good people, but noticing me talking to him one of the top throwers in our Region – Matt Brown, knowing I’m writing pieces for The Axe Badger, taps me on the shoulder points at Tristan as he’s walking off and says, “That’s your next interview there, you NEED to speak with him and find out what he’s about”.
After getting over the thrill of Browny knowing who I am, I OF COURSE do just that and make a deeper connection with Tristan. And now, dear reader, I’m tapping you on your collective shoulder to say “you should really spend some time with this interview and find out what he’s about”. I give to you the first half of my interview with…
Name:
Tristan Campbell
Throwing name:
Mathrow-saurus
Story behind throwing name:
Went to IATC this year as Throw-saurus (a homage to the dinosaur mascot for charity work we do -Give Parkinson’s the Axe). Plus I’m a huge nerd and spend waaay to much time delving into stats. So adding the ‘Math’ part sums things up pretty well!
Where you throw:
Perth – both Maniax and Lumberpunks
How long you've been throwing:
IATF for just over a year, started with a social Estwing league about 1 ½ years before that
What axes you throw:
You mean today? Mostly Warrior’s Reaper and Reaper XL (hatchet and BAX), both on custom minimum-length handles.
I am also playing with a slightly modified Flying Fox hatchet and an antique German-made prandi BAX when I need something lighter.
[EDIT] – since the start of the interview process, Tristan has systematically tested of a bunch of different axes, built a statistical model to predict the best axe for him, made it (including a self-modified custom-shaped head) and used it to win the Prem league playoffs in Perth after throwing with the new axe for less than 2 weeks. “Math”row-saurus indeed!
Proudest achievements:
Last season, Lumberpunks held their first BAX league in Perth. A fairly new thrower, Louise W, joined. They are the nicest and most enthusiastic person I’ve ever met in the axing community, and that’s saying something! They loved throwing BAX but the scores varied a lot over the season. Last training before playoffs, I suggested a couple of minor tweaks to their throw, and they improved their per axe score in the playoffs by over 30% and came second place. Was great to be able to help someone who gives so much of themselves to the small but growing axe community in Perth.
Personal goals:
To not choke! My training stats are waaay better than my league and tournament stats… So ‘no drops’ is a clear goal for me!
[EDIT] – last week Tristan managed to not choke and win his first Prem league, going through B-bracket almost the whole way. Over 200 axes, 12 tiebreakers and 1/3 of clutches landing Prem
Training regime:
I train most days, as it makes a huge difference to my physical health. On bad throwing days, I take time to analyse bad throws to work out weak points. On good days, I enjoy it and try to get the muscle memory built up! And once or twice per week have a session doing something other than bulls and clutches.
Tournament prep:
Still working it out! So far, my main prep is to make sure I arrive early enough to get over the jet lag. There hasn’t been a tournament closer than a 4 hour flight from home since I started throwing.
Keys to success?
Learn from others, ask for feedback and don’t be afraid to try different axes or throwing styles. Big changes can be hard, as your stats will likely go down for a while, but worth it in the long run.
Advice for the hungry?
See above, but also keep it fun! We’re throwing axes – don’t take yourself too seriously.
Getting out of order
Interviewing you has been so much fun, but so frustrating at the same time. Every question reveals more interesting parts of your life and raises more questions. So, let’s do this; From birth until now, give us the dot point tour of the big events in your life?
OK, here are the cliff notes!
Born 1980, 4 weeks prem and 2 weeks after the umbilical cord stopped working. Was rather scrawny. Oh that’s ‘premature’, not prem rules.
School and stuff. Field hockey, squash, saxophone in a few bands, army cadets (made it to sergeant), rock climbing.
Unearthly delights
Started Uni degree in geophysics (remote travel, science and gadgets. What’s not to love!). More outdoor stuff (add in kayaking – did the 133km Avon Descent 2.5 times, mountaineering in New Zealand).
Met my wife at swing dancing 2002, proposed after 4 months, married after 1.5 years. Just had our 21st wedding anniversary. Would have married earlier, but I came home one day late 2003 and said ‘Perth is too hot this summer. Let’s spend our wedding savings on a 2-month pre-wedding honeymoon in NZ!?’. One of the best things we have ever done.
Kids born in 2005 and 2006 (boy and girl. One of each so we were done with all that malarky pretty early on).
Geophysics involved some pretty interesting fieldwork and travel but that’s a whole other list.
A bee in her bonnet
Wife asked for beehive for anniversary present in 2011. “Honey I’m Home” business is born!
2015 I start my PhD in applied physics, we start homeschooling the kids (honey business meant lots of hours but could do almost everything as a family), open our first bricks & mortar store. Won multiple awards for business quality and business sustainability. We built the business to 100 plus hives, flipping up to 10 tonnes of honey per year!
2018 open and closed second store. Start of a particularly ‘interesting’ few years. (https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/it-s-empty-clouds-hover-as-yagan-square-tenants-fear-for-future-20190522-p51q7k.html).
2020 (first 3 months) – close remaining retail store, get diagnosed with Parkinson’s, complete PhD (satellite data and artificial intelligence to predict honey harvests),parented/homeschooled two kids into tertiary education at 15/16 years old.
Getting the Axe
I think since then, the axe throwing is the only real development. It has taken a few years to find our balance after the start of 2020.
(At this I found a dark corner to face and contemplate what I had done with my life)
That’s all really impressive man, such a full life and you’re still so young. So axe Throwing, what brought you to this sport?
Like the bees, it’s entirely my wife’s (Blaine ‘Five by Five’ Campbell) fault! She did axe throwing while on an intensive study exchange in Michigan in Jan 2020. There’s another thread there (in NY for Iranian nuclear missile threat, COVID was 10 days behind her travels, did an add-on short course with an ex-Scotland Yard detective-turned-International-Criminal-Court investigator) but the short story is she loved it! Took a few years to get around to doing it back in Perth (what with 2020, PD and all that). Once the four us tried it, three of us were hooked! Our daughter hit a bunch of bullseyes and was like ‘is that it? Boring...’ [insert teenage eye-roll here]
I’ve heard around the traps that you have gotten into hanging your own axes, and perhaps there’s something extra special about the German Prandi, is that right?
Yes, part of my constant adjustments for Parkinson’s is trying all kinds of variations. At IATC this year, I made the handle in the hotel one night, then hung a shiny new Warriors Reaper head (thanks Ryan!) out the back of the BATL venue in Canada after the Global Skills qualification rounds (thanks for the tips, DragonAxe!) Threw it in IATC Round 2 the next day. Only had one clutch throw with it before getting knocked out, but it still has a 100% clutch rate overseas!
And the German Prandi is a >100 yr old head. Old-school steel, so actually sticks into screws. A good find on Etsy!
Have you always been a bit handy, you've only been throwing a couple of years now? Seems quick to be getting into hanging your own equipment?
Have taught myself gradually since having to adult - doing geophysics surveys in remote Australia pre-satellite phone means to have to learn to fix anything from shredded tyres to electrical circuits. And running a honey business for 10 years likewise means getting creative. Always remember – tape and glue. Oh, and never underestimate cable ties!
It's nice to be able to tinker with things, like axe heads and handles, without work or a business being on the line.
But you can get a roughly-shaped axe handle from a hardware store and some sandpaper and start small easily enough.
How to Excel at throwing
Now you've already confessed to being a nerd, so I'm sure it won't surprise people to discover you've found a way to bring Stats, Excel, and Axe throwing into the same sphere. Tell us what you've been working on in that area?
Leading up to IATC 2024, I made a huge spreadsheet with my league and training stats, plus stats for every player in my venue/pool/bracket as these details became available. I pretty much placed as predicted - placed well in Under 65, out in 2 rounds in the Wilson Cup (snuck in as 10th-last seed, so no surprises there).
Tracking bulls and clutches over time has been really useful as I can quantify the effect of different axes, venues, grips, etc. Plus gaps between training and competition stats. Helped me to understand my game a lot better and weak points to focus on. Great to see Solaire’s app being beta-tested by the axe community so that more of us can benefit from this approach.
Oh, and for APATC Kilderkin Classic, Jonaldino and I played as ‘Statisf-ax-ion’, with our logo made of hundreds of actual axe throwing statistical graphs.
We’ll take an intermission here to keep the length manageable. There are so many fascinating things about Tristan’s life I just can’t do them all justice here. The next piece will give us some time to look into one of his current focuses and explore more of the things that make him “tap on the shoulder” worthy.
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