The Think Tank

This was sort of an up and down day for me, but on the whole I did not feel very solid.  At times I felt like I shot some good arrows, but I never strong together many in a row.  I did not feel like I was aiming well, and that was affecting my pull-through as well.  After a while I was starting to second guess most everything: my release hand position, how hard I needed to pull on the stops… everything.

When it came to the eliminations, I was feeling fairly confident that I could win if I shot well, but I was concerned that adding nerves to my already sketchy shooting would equal nines.  And I was right.  When I got nervous, my dot was bouncing all over the place.  However, I did a good job of just pulling through the shot even though my dot was bouncing, and mostly shot pretty well.  What I noticed was that I was a bit stiff, and that seemed to translate into high shots.  I shot three nines in the elims, which is a lot more than I’d like, but the shots weren’t that bad and they all missed high.

In the end, my mistakes weren’t too costly.  I won my first two rounds and wound up shooting for the Championship against Sean Elza.  I shot a 59 and 2x and lost to his 59 and 4x.  Even with the low X count, it was another example that 10’s are good enough.  If I’d a shot 60, I would have won.  Also, if I’d shot a three hundred in any of the last three legs of the shoot off, I would have wound up in first for the whole thing.

The final results for the Washington State Multi-Color championships came in yesterday, and I was surprised to find that I finished third.  I shot pretty well the second day, but I shot what I felt was a very mediocre score the first day, so I was quite surprised to find that I had finished in the medals.

Full results can be found here.  My division is A-M-FS.

In case any of you are wondering why it is called the “Multi-Color” championships, it is because we shoot at a target like the one at left, which has multiple colors.  Officially this is called a FITA (Federation of International Target Archery) face, but FITA scores this target differently then the National Field Archery Association does, so there are now two different rounds: FITA rounds, and what most of us call Vegas rounds, named after the World Archery Festival held each year in Las Vegas.  Apparently Washington decided that “Washington State Vegas Championships” did not sound good, and since they also have a State FITA Championship, they went with “Multi-Color Championships.”  This also helps to differentiate it from another commonly shot round, which uses a target that is all blue with a white bullseye.  Washington calls this tournament their “Blue Face” championship.

PS – Back in November I shot in the Washington State Indoor FITA Championships, where I came in first place.  I was surprised about that one too.  😉

I worked late today, and Shannon picked me up around 5:30 to head out to Broken Arrow.  We did not shoot league tonight, so shot a score and finished up around 7:30.  I was very tired all evening and had to keep my focus on pulling through because I kept hedging toward creeping a little bit.

I felt really solid all evening, aside from the fatigue.  I wasn’t aiming quite as steady as yesterday, but still felt really solid.  I shot the 38″ front rod and 15″ back rod (4oz/12oz) again tonight.  I was down only one X after the first five ends.  When I switched targets, I realized that I was almost clean to that point and I woke up a little bit, got just a little bit excited.  I dropped one point on the 7th End (3rd arrow).  I pulled up, settled into my anchor, and came down on the target.  I had held my first two shots a little longer than I liked, so I was trying to pull through a little harder.  The dot came down through the bullseye and out the bottom a little bit, started to come back up, and bam!  The release went off, and the arrow hit low.  Yesterday I tossed a few of those in, but today I think  was just a bit fatigued both mentally and physically, and that didn’t happen.

Dropping the point did sort of wake me up though.  I was still sitting on a very high X count, and I wanted to do well, so I was a bit excited/nervous moving forward.  But that helped to keep my strong.  I dropped a couple other X, one close, one liner, and then I cleaned the last end.

All in all I felt really good again tonight.  My confidence is pretty high after the last couple of nights.  I still get a bit excited and a little nervous, but I’m really starting to get used to the idea that I am a 25+ X per night shooter when everything is setup and working correctly.

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.