is how many axes you own, amirite?
I will tell you something that I suspect many of you have already surmised about your humble narrator - I am not really all that great at the sport. I do well enough, certainly, but I sit comfortably at the upper middle of any league I'm a part of, and typically end tournaments somewhere in the lower mid of the pack. There was a time where I managed to land in the top 4 for league and tourneys pretty consistently, but that's changed and I've learned to accept it.
And being a mid-to low-mid thrower has provided me with a different focus when it comes to what I'm trying to accomplish in the sport. Like, it can't be that my only goal is finishing in the top 3 spots for league or for tournaments. If I made that my only goal, I'd get so discouranged about throwing at all - and I don't wanna live that life.
So I had to figure out the answer to this question: If not getting to the podium, what can my new goal be?
And, friends, I found that answer in statistical analysis.
AXE THROWING IS COMPETING WITH YOURSELF.
Sure, there are typically two people who throw during a regular match, but what that other thrower does really doesn't weigh into what you do.
We don't have blocking in axe throwing (yet), so whether your opponent throws an 81 or drops all of their axes, your own throwing doesn't change.
Of course you might modify what you do in your throw - but whether you get a bull or a clutch or a drop has nothing to do with what your fellow axe thrower does.
When you're throwing, you're only throwing against your past performance.
ACHIEVEMENT: BY THE NUMBERS
I started looking at my own throwing through that lens, and my opinion of myself (in this sport - I still think I'm not that great ::emo hair flip::) drastically changed. Let me show you:
So if we look at my overall regular season rank and playoff finish record, you can see that I climbed pretty quickly after a few leagues, stabalized for a while, and then started creeping back down. Now, I really can't explain why I've started dipping (at least not from one cute graph), but the proof is in the pudding, really.
HOW
EV
ER
if also look at my averages chart:
I can see my average score as pretty much stayed on an upward trend my entire throwing career.
Is it amazing? No. Impressive? Also no.
But does it show that I'm getting more accurate and effective? I mean, I think so? I went to school for creative writing.
Looking at my axe throwing career with the question "am I getting better at this?", I can see that the answer is yes. And that's rather nice, I think.
It shows me, at least in part, that I'm throwing against really good competitors who may win more matches against me, but that my overall skillset is improving.
WHY IT MATTERS
It's easy to get down on yourself when you're doing everything "right" and still lose matches. It's natural, I think, to get frustrated with yourself and stop enjoying this silly pasttime/sport/activity. And I felt myself starting to slip down that path. But re-framing what achievement means had a big impact on my enjoyment of axe throwing.
So whether I end up in the top three or the bottom three isn't so important. What's important, for me, is growing as a thrower and becoming as good as I can be.
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