The Think Tank

Today was a rough day for me. My shoulder was a little tired and sore to begin with, but that wasn’t the biggest problem. As had been the case yesterday and the last little while I just felt unsettled mentally: totally unsure of my abilities, not trusting my process, nervous even during practice. Unlike yesterday, where I was able to muscle a few shot in, today I was weak most of the time. I dropped an arrow in practice (never a good sign), I was not holding well and I was all over the ten instead of pounding out consistent holes.

I wound up down five and in second in first flight. I shot a few arrow after the round to try and get myself in line, and they were a lot better but still didn’t feel quite right, until the very end. Then it was as if a switch had flipped: I got my bow arm out straighter, which adjusted m hand positioning a bit, and bang! I was holding better, the nerves died, the nagging feeling I was going to miss went away… Everything was back to normal.

My elimination warm ups went well, I was feeling good and expected to carry the day. My first elim arrow held well and released well (I thought) but missed the X, as did the second. I was really surprised by that. The third arrow was a nine, but it went off too fast. I think I had the release a little hot as I had been speeding it up all weekend trying to get through my shots faster.

I thirtied the next end but only with one X and lost on X’s.

Afterward I went to River City Archery and shot for two hours straight, no breaks. I wanted to cement that good shooting and correct form in my head. Over that time a few other things came together, sort of like dominoes falling in sequence.

By the end if was feeling really good. My hand position was slightly Diffenderfer than it had been: the back of my hand is hard up against the bottom of the shelf, and the bow grip is centered more behind my thumb knuckle / fleshy part of my thumb instead of the center of my hand. After I did that I recognized the feel from the summer. I also had my arm almost straight, with the elbow nearly locked. It almost feels like this “locks” my shoulder into position and relieves a lot of stealing. I also made sure that I had my pinky on the little tab of the trainer thingy.

When I got all if that in place the dot barely moved while aiming, even when I was tired, and plot shot the bow stayed very steady and did not move much. I’ve gotten that part sometime over the last few weeks but not as consistently as when I got it all right today. Even when my shoulder was getting tired at the end, and on a anew of them that I held too long, I never had that “something is wrong” or “oh no, you’re gonna miss” thing going on. That all vanished as soon as I got my proper form back in place.

I left feeling very encouraged. This is the sort of thing that feels like I can repeat, and when I hit those steps, it’s sort of like paint by numbers: get the hand right, get the arm right, aim in the middle, pull through with the release and keep the bow arm aimed at the center after the ahot, and bang! X’s all night.

I even held one way too long, crept a little, pulled it back against the stops and reset and pounded an inside-out x. That made me feel good. Even ones that gots messed up In the middle could be reset and still pound the center. That’s a confidence booster.

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.

I went to Broken Arrow to shoot today because I was working on Halloween stuff all afternoon and it got too late to shoot at Archery World.  I used the Dominator Pro and GT XXX shafts again.

The range was about half full with a bunch of people shooting traditional bows at the 10 yard bales.  I wanted to shoot two rounds, and I knew the time was going to be a little tight, so I didn’t take any breaks on the first round at all.

I started out a little out of synch.  For whatever reason, my #1 target was hitting about middle of the 10 ring at 6 for the first three arrows, so I switched it out.  Likewise, the #2 target was at 3 o’clock for both practice and the first scoring end.  I was starting to get a little frustrated with that.

I was also having some trouble getting into my correct shooting form.  When I’ve been doing well lately I have noticed a certain feeling which is hard to describe: Its not exactly like I’m really pushing forward with my bow arm, but it definitely feels like I am using my bow arm to maintain the pressure on my release fingers.  It also entails getting my release hand (really more like my wrist) into the proper place, which feels kind of like relaxing it until it is stretched out straight behind my fingers.  (As opposed to how it can feel sometimes, which is like I have my wrist muscles contracted slightly so my hand is angled “down.”)

I was not getting into that form consistently for the first 5-6 ends, and the result was poor grouping and some pretty bad shots, where I sort of fall out of my form instead of hitting the proper post-shot performance.  Since I was shooting quickly, I was also getting a little shakey and sweaty, and I was getting frustrated that my first target just kept hitting low despite changing arrows four times.

I purposefully did not take any breaks at that time because I wanted to practice getting my shit together when facing adversity.  I was tired, frustrated and not in my proper form.  i figured that was the perfect time to practice turning my situation around.  I couldn’t do anything about the first 5-6 ends, but I could work on the rest.

Looking at it that way seemed to help my head get in a better place.  I really started looking for that proper push-pull thing I mentioned above, and started focusing on making sure I got my release hand back onto my shoulder as it should, and I wanted to keep my bow arm pointing at the target after I shot.

It took a few arrows, but two or three shots later I got one that felt perfect.  After that, I was pretty much off and rolling smooth again.  My shot timing came back to normal, I was holding better, and my groups settled down to normal.  I finished with six X’s.

By the second round, I was feeling pretty good and pretty confident.  I expected to shoot well.  I even remember thinking the words “This is an X, all you have to do is release it” when I was pulling on several arrows.  I just knew they were going to drop in the center as if I’d seen the future.  All I had to do was wait for it to happen.

I also ran my normal routine, where I shot two ends and rested one.

I did start getting a little tight around end 7 because I really wanted to shoot a 300 and I was on track for it.  I also wanted to stay around 25 X’s, and I figured that was either not possible or meant I had to clean it, which I hadn’t been doing much.  My back was getting cramped and sore as well (it’s been doing that for about 6 weeks lately, although no usually this bad while I’ve been shooting).  On end 8 I struggled through all three shots and the last two were poorly executed.  #2 nearly missed, although I did break the whole line into the 10 ring, and the third shot was really bad, where I totally fell out of my form and dropped my arm straight down.  #3 was a solid ten, not an X, but it was sort of lucky because it was a really poor shot. Both shots were high, which is what I kept doing in high pressure situations last year, so I tried to pay special attention to make sure that I kept my bow hand released and did not pop the bow back after the shot.

That gave me a little nudge to make sure that I got my form together.  I knew if I hit my form I’d get my 300, but I HAD to hit my form.  The 9th end was pretty solid, with two inside-out X’s and one just barely out of the X.

I felt a little nervous on the 10th end, really wanting to hit the 300, but also expecting to do so while being nervous about screwing it up at the same time.  It’s very difficult to explain.  I guess I would say that I was 85% sure I would do fine, but 15% scared that I would get tight and miss like I have so many times before.

The trick to falling in the 85% is to get my form setup right, and a lot of that is the pressure-on-the-release-hand-with-the-bow-arm thing, so I that was my focus when drawing up.  I made sure to let my wrist stretch out relaxed, pushed my bow arm forward to take up any slack after setting my anchor, felt the proper pressure on my release fingers, and waited for the good shot.

I started out aiming at 9 o’clock on the 8/9 line, and that made me nervous.   I pushed it back to the center, wobbled around, and felt like I was going to miss it.  So I let it down.  I came back up, did the same setup, settled on the hole in the X, and drained a perfect shot.  My release hand slide smoothly back to my shoulder, my bow arm stayed pointed a the target, and arrow hit an X liner at 6.

The second shot came off in better time and felt pretty good, but not perfect, and hit a solid ten at 5, but not an X.  I drew up on the last shot, felt like I settled in properly, but couldn’t get the shot to go.  I tried hard, I really wanted it, but the shot didn’t want to go.  I started to lose my shot picture, started wobbling, and let down.  I didn’t want to blow the last shot.  I practiced my form, where I wanted my release hand to end up, and then I pulled up again.  I really tried to get my push-pull setup right, aimed pretty solid, but again the shot went long.  I was holding well, right on the dot, so even though it was a little longer than normal, I went ahead and pulled a but harder with my release arm, knowing that I needed to really make sure I exaggerated my proper form.  All of a sudden BOOM!  The shot went.  I popped my bow arm straight out, let the bow float free in my hand, and snapped my release back to my shoulder, and watched the arrow flight straight into the center, just a touch low at 6 in the X.

That felt really good.  I had to let down twice and I probably would have been over time in a tournament, but I was pretty proud to finish out the way I did.  It was my second 300 of the year, and I think it was technically my highest score of the season.  (The 296 is my lowest of the year.)