02 September 2006 - Interview with Michele Frangilli (ITA): “I like to shoot all kind of archery”

“I like to shoot all kind of archery” Göteborg – 02 September 2006    Michele Frangilli (ITA) is a true star in archery winning numerous Championships in both Outdoor, Indoor and Field archery and developping his own technique of shooting. With his experience, he has a lot to say about archery.   Photo © Dean Alberga Michele FRANGILLI (ITA) – 30 year old Extract of biography:
3 gold medal and 1 silver in Field World Championships
1 gold medal and 1 silver in World Games
1 gold medal in Field European Championships
  Michele, you are one more time World Champion, and yesterday you took the team silver. How do you feel? I am enjoying these two more medals. I think in fact that now I have more Field medals than another great Italian archer, Andrea Parenti.   How was the competition today? In fact, I have a bit of fewer. I think I got the cold that my sister Carla had last week and prevented her to come here for the competion. Today, I only wanted to draw some good arrows and have some fun.   At the last target, you had a perfect 50 over 50 pts, before shooting your two last arrows on the 4. You German opponent was only one point behind. Did you feel the pressure? Not really. I saw during the bronze final that the archers were shooting a bit low. So I changed a bit my sight and I ended shooting… high. The first arrow was just in the 5 ring but the last two went to the 4. Anyway, it was good enough to win with one point margin.   You are one of the most successful archer in the last 15 years and one of the few archers that won in many disciplines. Why actually do you shoot in Field? Field Archery is fun. You shoot in all kind positions, downhill, uphill, to bigger or smaller targets. The distance vary also each time, so you have to constantly adapt. It is exciting for me ! The overall ambiance is also very nice, you enjoy the nature walking through the forest. Moreover, you don’t have the stress on each shot like a match play, except today in the final. You go out in the course, you count your points and at the end of the day, you see your results. I like to shoot all kind of archery and for me it is important to train on many disciplines. I would be bored if I was only shooting Outdoor Target Archery.   You do it for fun but your are also winning… Of course, you always would like to win… Here in field, the evolution of the rules make the life a bit easier for the archers coming from Target Archery like me. Now, there is only one course with unmarked distance and it is generally more flat. The park for the Finals today was beautiful but of course a bit flat as well. I hope the big audience enjoyed the competition.   Have you practice a lot recentely to adapt to Field? Actually not much at all, but I can draw upon all my experience and my technique. I only practice how much I like it. However, I make every shot counts. The first must be a 10, the last must be a 10 (on outdoor target). Over the years, I have also accumulated a lot of experience. If I make a bad shot with my technique, I know exactely what I have to change for the next shot.   The famous Frangilli technique. Can you tell us a bit more about it? My father developped it. We breake down a shot into 11 key points to make it easier to work on every aspect. Then it is important to keep your eyes on the same point all the time, aligning the sight and the string. Finally, the very special part is that I push my holding arm forward to release the clicker, aiming towards the target. I don’t draw my other arm backwards, like it is the usual. But honnestly, it is difficult to explain in an interview. It is best to read the book we wrote with my father with all the drawings.   Do a lot archers use it? It is a bit a special technique, however some use it in Italy and in the Eastern European countries.   What about your sister Carla Frangilli? She uses part of the technique with some adaptations that are necessary for each archer. She is a good talent, but it also depends what she wants in life. It is like for everybody at some point. Would you like to study, work more, have fun with your friends or would like to spend the necessary time to exel in archery. Personnaly, I chose archery all my life.   I guess you were happy to see the launch of a new Archery World Cup this year? Yes of course, it is a good idea and it offers some prize monney for archers. The World Cup seems good for TVs, the fans and the sponsors. The European stages of the World Cup in Porec (CRO) and Antalya (TUR) had a very high level. I also went to San Salvador (ESA) and I will go to the last event in Shanghai (CHN) to try to qualify for the Final in Merida (MEX). We are tight in the recurve men ranking between the 3rd and 10th place but only top 4 will qualify. This is a tough system to qualify.   What would you change in the system? I would maybe open the Finals to more archers and especially to teams. My reasoning is that the more chance you have to qualify to the grand final, the more you will go to qualificative events. If you open it up for teams, the countries will feel oblige to send a full team all the times. Then we would have really all the top archers at each and every one event.   What about the competition format? Well… on one hand 12 arrows match plays are great for the fans and television. On the other hand, it makes it more difficult for the archers. If he is a bit unlucky with the wind, a top ranked archers can lose in the 1st round of elimination. The top ranked archers should benefit more from the World Ranking or the qualificative FITA round. For instnace, the top eight archers in qualifications should arrive directey in the top 16. Moreover, a FITA round with 36 arrows at 90m, 70m, 50m and 30m stays for me as a reference for the quality of an archer, even if it is difficult for the fans to watch. We should give medal for the FITA round at a World Championships.   What do you think about round robin for matches? It could be good, because it allows one mistake or the bad luck if you have a group of 4 with 2 guys going through. If I lose one game I can always come back. If I lose two games, then it is my fault. It would be also good to regroup semi-finals and finals during an event as we did here in Göteborg. If you only shoot in a final the last day, it’s difficult to find your rhythm.

How is archery nowadays in Italy?
The results of the elite are always good, as you can see here with three titles and many medals. For the amateur archers, we should find ways to cut down on costs. If you count every kind of archers in Italy, we have more than 30’000 shooters.

Could you give us one comment about the compound category. How would you see its future?
It’s dfficult for me to say because I shoot recurve. However, we saw at these World Championships in Göteborg a lot of perfect scores with the compound bows. We should make the competition a bit more difficult putting more distance to the target or changing the scoring ranges. It may be fun for the public to see moving targets as well, but I am not sure the archers would like it…

Va bene Michele, grazie.   Didier Miéville FITA Communication