The Think Tank

This shoot was the same day as our Christmas Party so I was pretty tired and a little stressed to start the day any way. I’ve been struggling a but lately, especially with consistency in my scores: one night I can shoot a 299 and the next night a 296. (It’s been more than a month since I shot a 300). And to make matters worse, my shoulde that’s been really bad the last several days. I’ve been thinking that may be due to my draw length being a touch too long, but i Haven’t had time to get that taken Care of yet.

I started my unofficialt practice pretty rough: first end was a 30 and 2 but after that everything was 29s. That did not fill me with confidence.

Scoring started ok but i was really struggling. Shots were either fast or slow and I was having to Heuval about one out of every three. I knew that could last forever, but it felt like maybe. I was also calling for the other line and I knew that other folks were having trouble too: Raines was down one early and Cabe dropped three in a row. S I knew if I could hold my stuff together I could finish well.

No such luck. I shot a 28 on end 6. He first arrow missed at 3 by a hair and next one dropped out he bottom at six by half a shaft. Three was a x but only barely. The difficulty in shot process continued the rest of round. I didn’t really feel comfortable and ideas having to focus on everything all the time. I never felt like I could just focus on pulling through and hitting my for. Because nothing felt right at all.

I dropped another point on end 9 I think (maybe 8) and then I really buckled down and shot well on the last three, getting all x’s. that was the first three x end I had s owed all day.

There was a long break before the shoot offs because of an error in the brackets which was very beneficial to me at least I was ranked 4th in the first flight, which meant I had a long wait until it was time to shoot. Gary curl was first up. He had run Through a lot people so far and I felt pretty confident that I could beat him. As always I assumed that’s needed to shoot tens: x’s had been hard to come by today but I figured that shooting 60’s would be good enough, and if they weren’t, then it would be good enough for me.

I tried to focus on extending my bow arm and pulling through with my release arm ad hitting my post shot form without overworking the whole process. It was pretty easy in the beginning but I did wind up dropping my third arrow, barely at 2 o’clock. I’m not sure why it happened. Fortunately for me, Gary shot a nine on his first arrow so I had him by x’s already. The second was a little better although the x’s were still scarce.

The next two rounds were easy enough. I shot a 60/3 and 59/2, both good enough to win and pretty easy mentally because the round was in the bag by the 4th arrow so even the miss didn’t matter when I happened.

That put me up against Cabe Johnson for the championship. Strangely enough I felt more calm than I had all day. My shoulder was hurting pretty good, but I knew I only needed six good shots and I could walk. And I figured that six good shots would probably be enough to win, and I thought I had six good shots left.

When I started shooting I made two conscious decisions: I was going to focus on my normal shot process, ie, lock the elbow and shoulder out, push through like I’m supposed to, and try to keep the pressure feeling right on my release fingers. I also decided I was going to check cabes target because I wanted. The extra pressure.

I started my count down: six good shots to go. I pulled up, set my arm and and hand n the right way, anchored well and did the check: everything felt good. I told myself “this feels food. You should be good to go. Just keep pulling and you will have only five good shots left.” The shot went off and caught an x low. I repeated that same process on the last two. Cabe shot a ten liner on his second arrow so I was up by an x going into the final three. I came up on my first,did the same process and hit an x. Cabe had shot twice and one of his was a 10 liner, so I knew I had a little buffer. Two tens and I would tie, and x and a ten and I would win. This is the exact situation I train for all the time.

My second shot was wrong from the start because i was thinking about all that stuff and what I was supposed to do. I recognized that early and let down. I shook my arms out, and settled my thinking on the process.

Two more good shots. The little bit of adrenaline was good because it kept my strength up in my shoulder. Set the arm, push into the anchor, pull.

X.

One good shot to go. All you need is a ten. Ten you win, nine you lose. Just like you practice all the time.

Set the arm, push into the anchor, pull through, keep you arm pointed at the x. The shot came off perfect and drilled an x.

I havent been shooting much (prior to this week) and i have been struggling compared to how i was shooting prior to halloween.

At the end of summer I started recognizing a trick that really improved my shooting: instead of pulling with my release arm, I tried to keep myself at full draw by pushing with my left shoulder. I sort of thought of it as using my left arm to maintain the pressure on my release fingers. This seemed to greatly help prevent my left shoulder from rolling when I was tired, sore, or especially nervous.

However there was more to it than just that. Over the last few weeks of September I started noticing that I was also doing something different with my release hand: I was flattening put my fingers and wrist as well, so that it feels like there is no angle deviation between my arm and hand. This has the added benefit of making the knuckle on my index finger a sharper point against my jaw bone when I’m anchored.

When I do that I seem to hold better and mr release is much easier. My release hand pops automatically back onto my shoulder like it is supposed to and, when coupled with a focus keeping my bow arm extended after the shot, resulted is hyper accurate groups and good scores.

I was just starting to get that system worked out when I moved indoors. But due to holiday preparation I’ve only been shooting once a week for a couple months, and I’ve been forgetting exactly what everything feels like, and my scores (and confidence) have been suffering.

I shot at broken arrow last night in their Thursday night league, and realized that while I have been focusing a lot on my bow arm lately, the reason I haven’t felt right with the pressure on my release fingers thing Is because I had my fingers and wrist in the wrong position. I flattened them out around the 4th end last night and shot the first arrows that felt “right” in several weeks. Almost immediately my groups tightened up, I started hitting inside out x’s and I began to have that (fleeting) feeling that so long as I get my shot setup right I can’t hardly miss. Which is how I felt in early October.

I still think that I need shorten my d loop by about 1/8 of an inch or so, because I feel a little over extended, especially when my shoulder gets tired.

Also: when my shoulder starts to burn that means I am rolling it over. These shots almost always miss in the middle of the nine between 11 and 1 o’clock. These shots NEED to be let down.

If time does not allow a let down, you have to over exaggerate pushing your bow hand straight at the target face.

I also noticed a couple times that I had my bow fingers tensed when I was struggling somewhere else. I have to make sure to relax that hand/arm/shoulder before every shot. Especially when I am nervous.

For our family and friends we are grateful

Please Join us for

Lois, Sue, Chris’

38th Annual Holiday Open House

Saturday, December 1st, 2012
3pm until Midnight?

3634 NE 17th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97212
christian.robertsolsen@gmail.com
suzanne329@hotmail.com
503-287-8747

Regrets Only, Please

As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December’s bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same.