The Think Tank

We drove up to Seattle last night to shoot in two of the shoot up tour events.  Today’s shoot was in Bow, and tomorrow is in Mt. Vernon.

We stopped in at The Nock Point on Friday and finished up the last bits needed to return my setup to the state it was in prior to the early November slide and the adjustments that followed.  I felt that I shot pretty well last night, although my shoulder was starting to give me some twinges by the time I finished, thanks probably to the additional weights on put back on.  They certainly made me hold better, though.

The turnout was very low, but Sean and Kit were here, along with Rick Mogan (Just back from shoulder surgery) and Matt Anderson shot really well.  In fact, Matt and I tied with a 299/23 today, which was a person (tournament) best for him.  That was really great to see.  I like watching people do their best.

I still feel a little shaky mentally from the last several weeks of poor shooting, but that is getting itself under control.  Mostly when I start to feel that way, I just tell myself to trust in the system and make sure that I aim well, keep my bow arm pointed at the target after the shot, and get my release hand back around and on my shoulder.  When I do those three things, its an X every time.

I started out a little rocky, hitting mostly one and two X’s only, and I dropped a point on the third end.  When I was aiming I felt my head doing something strange, which I’ve noticed from time to time, like it sort of shakes back and forth a little bit.  I think its if I get my nose off the string, but I’m not sure.  All I know is, whenever I do that I miss, and instead of letting down I powered through, shot it out at 3 O’clock.

That miss didn’t phase me too much, as I knew immediately what I had done wrong.  I wasn’t happy about it, but I wasn’t terribly upset either.  The next end was solid, 3 big ol’ X’s, and the next end was only a one X-er, with all three arrows on the bottom side of things.  I think that is what I really started paying attention to my grip as well, making sure that I get it set with the webbing between my thumb and forefinger being pushed down.  That gets my fingers angled down a little bit too, and helps keep my bow arm/hand in proper position after the shot.

After that I shot pretty well, finishing with 12 straight X’s and cleaning 5 out of the last six ends.  I felt I could have cleaned it, but I wasn’t disappointed with the ’99.

There was a very long break between the qualifying round and elims.  I qualified in second (behind Matt, who won the tie breaker), and I was a little more nervous than usual.  Stu dropped a couple points and I beat him with a 60/4, and then it was between Matt and I.  I started out OK, 30/2 to Matt’s 29/1.  The second end started out X-X for me, and 10-9 for Matt, so I know that all I needed was a nine to win.  Ordinarily that leads to a nice shot, but I sort of collapsed out of it because I held a bit longer than necessary.  I think I was sort over-focused on the aiming side of things, and not paying enough attention to the rest of my form.  Had I really needed the 10, I think I would have let it down and started over.  As it was, I shot a nine, but it was still good enough to win by two points.  I finished 1st in Championship Flight and picked up $100 bucks.

That last nine bugs me a little bit, because I should do that.  Most days that would cost me the round.  But today, it wasn’t really necessary to win, so I can let it go.

But I’m going to make that mistake again tomorrow.