The Think Tank

Mark Eaves loaned me a 38″ B-Stinger front rod and a 15″ sidebar along with weights for me to try out tonight. I shot about 75 arrows playing around with the weights and what not, trying to get it to feel comfortable.  I felt like I was paying too much attention to thinking about the weight and balance, and whether it was aiming better this way or that way to really do much “good” shooting.

After I got things feeling a little better, I decided to start actually keeping track.  I really like the stabilizers.  I was holding really well.  In fact, in the beginning I was holding so still and consistently on the spot that it sort of freaked me out.  I’m not used to that.

But, in the end I got used used to and by the time I started scoring, I felt I was shooting really well.  Again, the Shootoff release felt really nice, and after I calmed down and started paying attention to pulling though, telling myself to “hit and hold” – meaning to hit my form and hold it after the shot – I was really rolling and hitting well.  Solid X’s.  On the sixth end I pulled up, aimed rock solid right in the middle (on my second target) and right in the middle, I very clearly thought to myself “You can’t miss when you hold this solid…” and boom.  A nine at 12.  That “You can’t miss” idea has always been deadly for me.  I miss almost every single time I think that.

That pissed me off, but not in a bad way.  I decided that I needed to turn that weakness (missing when I think “You can’t miss”) into a strength.  So I made it a point to say “You can’t miss” EVERY SINGLE ARROW after that.  I also made sure that I was pulling through with my form when I said it, and that I ended up in the proper post-shot form.

By the 10th end, I was feeling a little nervous/excited.  I had completely forgotten about shooting that nine, so in my head I was clean and shooting the 10th end for a 300.  I was feeling it a bit, but I also felt that all I had to do was hit my form, hold it like I should, and I would get X’s.  That made me feel pretty confident, but I hadn’t actually done it yet while I was thinking about it, so still nervous.  I always am when facing firsts.

I let my first shot down quickly because I heard a voice saying “You are going to miss.”  Lately I have been feeling that voice in my head is more of a warning that something is wrong, a subconscious alert that some part of my form is out of line that I am not noticing.  Historically I always interpreted this sort of thing as self-sabotage, but I’m not so sure any more.  All those shots where I think everything is fine, but as soon as the shot breaks my form falls apart and goes crazy, it leads me to believe that something is wrong that I’m not noticing, and I think this voice is a warning that something is off.  In any event, I let the shot down, took a breath, pulled up and tried to pull through strong.  The shot broke right on time, and as soon as it went I knew it was X.  It was.  Second shot was dead nuts right from the start, and hit another almost inside-out X.

I let the third arrow down because I held a long time and started to bounce my sight.  I came back up, tired to be aggressive with my back tension, and BANG!  A perfect, inside-out X.  I was very excited, thinking that I had shot a 300, until Mom said I had finished with 299 and 26 x’s.  (When I was transferring my information into my phone, I realized that she had misread one of the scores and I actually shot 25 x’s.)

That X count is the highest I have put up so far this year, and is bumping against my best of all time.

All in all I feel really confident about this setup.