The Think Tank

WCW holds a FITA tournament every month from around April to September. This is the second one that I have competed in. Last time I shot very badly and I was very disappointed in my performance.

So far, I have not done much better this time around.

Just as an experiment I decided to try my old Bowmar stabilizer this week. I shot with it at practice a couple times and if felt ok, though it was heavier than I was accustomed to, but I thought I’d give it a whirl this weekend. All in all I like it quite a bit, but it’s noticeably heavier than my four rod Kudlacek, and after not very long my shoulder was really hurting and my aim was suffering quite a bit. That contributed to my problems today at the longer distances, though I was doing a fine job of shooting bad shots all on my own as well. I kept up what is fast becoming a habit of shooting 10s or 8s, good shots or really crappy ones. Very little in between.

The sad part is, on the whole, I felt pretty decent today. But, when I messed up it was so big that it undid the good shots: three nice tens, a nine and two eights is the same 55 points as a wholly unremarkable end in which I shot no group and only managed a single ten but kept all of the arrows in the gold. It’s frustrating to put forth the effort for the extra bullseyes and come out of the end with the same score.

I switched back to my four rod stabilizer half way through the 70 meter round in deference to my shoulder, and I was monkeying with my release for a lot of the afternoon as well, trying to get my shots to come off faster. I was holding pretty well for the first few seconds, but I could ne’er get the thing to fire during that time, so I wound up fighting it most of the time, and that makes for a rough day Especially when my shoulder was already acting up.

At one point part way through 50 meters, I added up my total 10s and compared it to my total arrows in the red: 32 10s and 21 reds. That is a depressing ratio. That was when I started feeling really frustrated.

I was very down and not having any kind of fun at all. I decided I wasn’t going to stay and shoot on Sunday. That at least gave me some hope in that I wasn’t going to have to keep shooting this bad for much longer.

I’m not sure if that was the difference or if I was just tired of looking sour in front of everyone again, but the fog sort of lifted and I started focusing on my form more acutely, starting to get the feel right after the shot was gone. Also, my shoulder was getting less sore and I was holding better, which I’m sure made a big difference too. But suddenly I was grouping for the first time all day. They weren’t great groups, and the scores weren’t great, but atleast the 10s were outnumbering the reds by a fair piece.

30 meters was better, but still nothing to be excited over. But again, I had more good shots than bad and mostly acceptable groups. Often times one would fly out, but I usually had at least 2x’s and I had one 5x 60, and the miss was only by a hair. I ended with a somewhat disappointing 354 (out of 360) at 30 meters, but given how the earlier part of the day went, I took it happily.

I finished with a 1337 today, a score that is mired in mediocrity, and only 2 points better then last time. I guess that’s improvement, but I was hoping for something more along the lines of 20 points, not 2.

I’ve talked myself into staying for the Olympic Round and Eliminations on Sunday. I have mixed feelings about my chances. On the one hand, I feel Like i’ve seen this movie before: I shot basically this same way in May on day one, and wound up shooting a disappointing OR on Sunday and was handily beaten in my first elimination round.

On the other hand, this is a whole new day. Being fair, I know that I can make myself shoot well just as easily as I can make myself fail. It’s all up to me.

I just need to keep that in mind tomorrow.

One slightly optimistic point in regards to all those arrows in the red: I would like to pick up about 20 points on todays score, and I shot about 25 arrows in the red. It isn’t all that hard to stay in the gold, and that alone would give me the 20 extra points I’m looking for. Converting 8s to 9s is much easier than finding extra tens, so this goal should be well within reach.

Additional Info:

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Start date: Aug 20, 2011 10:18 AM Target: FITA Total score: 1338

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