The Think Tank

This was not a very good day for me.

Yesterday I adjusted the rest by bring it out about 1/8 of an inch (maybe more) which brought the arrow around into true center-shot.  I was concerned because the arrow was very clearly pointing pretty far off to the right, and I just don’t see how the arrows could be flying well.

It seemed like things were going pretty well yesterday afternoon at Sylvan, but that was not the case today.  Today it was back to how it had been when I first moved outside: lots and lots of left and right variations, and very little correlation between what I feel are good shots and where the arrows land.

I actually started out pretty well at 90 meters, but I pretty much shot at least one 8 every end.  My first three ends were OK, scoring 55-55-52-57 (the 52 was thanks to an unexplained 6 on the right side).  After that things really started falling apart.  I whimpered out of 90 meters with a 51-49, the last end consisting of a 10-9-9-8-7-6 for a total of 319.  That’s not so great, but not awful I guess, when you consider this is the first scoring round at 90 meters that I have shot in nearly 10 years.

70 meters was a disaster.  I shot a grand total of 1 x at that distance, and I liberally peppered the red with errant arrows.  A few of the shots were poorly executed, but strangely enough, those few badly performed shots were the only ones that actually went more or less where I expected them too.  I told mom at half time that it felt like things were so screwy that when I did actually manage to hold well and execute a good shot, the only thing I knew for certain was that the arrow would not land in the middle.

I tried to keep my mental game on track, but I was highly frustrated by half time.  Call me crazy, but when I hold in the gold and release OK, I don’t think I should shot arrows in the blue.

During the break at the half I moved the rest back in to where it was before I attempted to replace launcher last week (28mm, measured from the end of the T-square and against the inside of the rest).  I took a guess at where to put the sight to compensate for the drastic left-right adjustment I had made while mom went to hunt down some lunch.

The lunch break was one hour long, and then we started shooting 50 meters.  My first shot at 50 was a 9/10 liner at 9 o’clock.  A couple of clicks brought it in pretty well.  My arm was very tired and sore, given as how I had already shot 72 arrows this point, and my aim was suffering accordingly, but more than that, my mind was so messed up from trying (unsuccessfully) to hit some spots at the longer distances, that I my form pretty much sucked.  I was wobbling all over the gold, I was holding the release wrong (not choking up on it and not getting my knuckles into my jawbone on the anchor)…  everything was just off.

Still, I started out OK.  I only hit a couple of X’s, but I did at least manage to keep most of them in the ten ring (59-59-58).  That’s when things really went to shit again.  Mostly this was due, I think, to a combination of fatigue and poor form for the above mentioned reasons, ending with 53-55-55 and groups just a little bit bigger than the gold.  I shot 339 at 50 meters, which is about what I should have shot at 90 meters.  <Sigh>

30 meters did start much better.  On the field courses I’ve been shooting, the 5-ring is about the same size as the X-ring on the FITA target, and I’ve been drilling that all day long.  However, today I manged only to keep them mostly in the 10-ring, which was OK in terms of this tournament, but not in terms of actual grouping.  That being said, I still went 59-60-59-60 on the first four ends, and my X’s steadily increased.  By the 4th end I was starting to feel a little more back to normal.  My aim was steadying up, my grip was better and consistent on my release, I was getting through my shots faster, and I started actually shooting X’s.  Strangely enough, I did not shoot any more 60’s on those last two, but on the final end I did at least shoot 4 X’s.  Sadly, and very disturbingly, I missed my last shot at 9 o’clock by about 1/4 inch.  That not only surprised me, as I thought it was a decent shot (not perfect), but it also kind of pissed me off.  The only thing I hate missing more than my first shot is my last shot.

My total on the day was 1335.  I certainly have shot worse than this before, but this is probably 30-40 points under where I expected to be.  Perhaps it is just another case of setting my expectations above my current shooting level, but I don’t think so.  I think this score just sucked.  I do think a fair amount of this was due to me shooting poorly, but I also think that the bow was not shooting as well it could have been, especially at the longer distances.

Hopefully I can build on the last part of today, and go into tomorrow with a little bit of momentum.

We will be shooting an Olympic Round (Eliminations) followed by a 90o round.  Scoring start at 10 AM.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Apr 30, 2011 10:46 AM Target: FITA Total score: 1335

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