The Think Tank

Things started out very well. We shot Deer course first which is a real bitch with all the steep uphill shots, but I did very well, dropping only a couple on the way up. Oddly I struggled with the close shots more than the long ones.

I was in front of my group by 2-3 after the first seven targets. I went on a little spree of 19’s at intermediate distances which was a bummer, but I finished with a 272, making it my best field round of the year and on a very hard course.

I ate lunch with mom and debbie then we set out on Elk course, again climbing he hill. I dropped a point on the first target, a 20 yard shot, and then again on a 25 yarder. I went on to drop a point on almost every target under 45 yards, which was disappointing, but I figured I would just have to pick it up on the long shots.

In the end I did pretty well on the last half but was sitting on a 270 heading into the last target, a 55 yard flat shot. I was feeling pretty good about myself because I figured I would break 540, but as it turned out that wasn’t to be. I forgot to set my sight And the first arrow skipped off the dirt 20 yards in front of the target. I shot two x’s and a five, for a 15 and a 537. That was very disappointing.

We shot cougar and bear for the Animal round, my first animal round using the new little bonus spots. Those things were not kind to me. In the end I only wound up shooting 6 of those things today, which out me at a very severe disadvantage. I was only off out group leader by 9 points and I was still in front of one guy, but he animals killed me. I also shot the wrong target once, only the 2nd or 3rd spot I’d gotten all day. I did shoot another spot, but that was a 17.

In the end I finished with a 561 which is pretty poor. By contrast Darren shot a 579. It was really too bad.

I was vey frustrated by he animal round and I wound up losing track of my form and in particular my new anchor point. I shot on the practice range for 30-40 mins and it felt like I’d gotten my form back together so I calls it quits.

I’m disappointed by the score, I really wanted to shoot in the 540s and hopefully in the high end at that. Its especially disappointing because of the miss. But then, I’ve shot quite a bit worse than thus with all my arrows on the target, so I didnt do that bad I guess. It’s just a bummer.

On the good end, I never lost my cool today. I stayed pretty calm and never acted out or anything, even when I was pretty frustrated by he animal round.

I feel fairly confident for tomorrow. In many respects I think that hunter courses are easier, so there’s that. But mainly I just need to pay special attention to my anchor point, watch my level closely ( I have been tending to tip the top limb right) and stay Focussed on my ending form. I did a good job of that for much of the day, but I let that slip in the second half and it showed on the scores.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Jun 18, 2011 9:06 AM Target: NFAA/IFAA Field Total score: 537 59x

— Sent from my iPhone

Tonight was the first time I shot in the 50 yard outdoor league at Sylvan.  We shot the large FITA face at 50 yards, which makes it just like the second leg of a 900 round.

I am still using the new anchor point, with my middle knuckle on the point of my jawbone and my bow arm more bent.

Everything seemed to go pretty well tonight.  I felt mostly solid and it seemed like the bow shot pretty well, after having moved my rest farther in the last time I shot.  I did not notice any real trend in wide groups, although I did get some unexpectedly left arrows.  Could have been wind I suppose, I’m not sure.  Looking at the target you can see that every point I dropped was left, between 8-9 o’clock.  I dropped one on each of my first two ends, both at 8 o’clock just barely out, and then later on I dropped two more on one end where I had a group right at 9 o’clock: two were just out, and one was just in.

The only real thing of note tonight was that I had a very hard time aiming at the large FITA face.  I was using a 6x lens and with the gold being so big, and us being so close, I found it very difficult to keep the dot centered in that mass of yellow.  I shot much smoother and felt like I aimed better at the NFAA spots on the practice buts, where my dot fit more neatly inside the spots.

I actually tried to drop down to a 4x lens before we started scoring, but the lens that was marked “4” turned out to be another 6x, so that was pointless.  I definitely want to try a lower power scope for FITA/900’s next time.

295 isn’t that bad, but I do feel I could get into the 298-300 range without too much trouble.  The spot is very large for 50 yards, so that should be doable.  Also, my x’s were a little low at 12.  I would like to get that up to 15+.  Basically I think I should be about the same on this face at 50 yards as I shoot indoors at 20 yards, so 299-300 with 20-25 x’s would be very good.  Of course, wind will play a factor, but it was pretty still tonight.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Jun 13, 2011 6:49 PM Target: FITA Total score: 295 12x

— Sent from my iPhone

I shot for a long time today at Sylvan, probably about 6-7 hours. The good news is that my shoulder feels pretty good after all that, which is really good. Especially when you consider that I shot 3 hours on Thursday and Friday both.

The scoring wasn’t too bad either, although it was nothing to write home about.

I wound up walking a full 28 target field course although I did it in two sections: I fooled around on the practice range for a while, then I shot B15-28. I finished with a 265/19x which wasn’t horrible but quite a bit lower than I would have liked. It was one of the lowest scores I’ve shot so far, barely beating the 262 that I remember shooting my first time out.

On Friday I started experimenting with a new anchor point, moving my hand down under my chin instead putting my middle knuckle where my ear meets my face, and bringing the string more down the center of my face. This seemed to eliminate most of my left/right issues, though I did notice that the shots I struggled on still missed left instead of right, especially at distance. I wasn’t terribly comfortable with the new anchor because it felt floaty: i didn’t have a solid reference point for my hand, so I had trouble finding the same spot, and this was made more difficult because of my beard. It also meant that I raised my peep up about an inch, which felt much more comfortable and had the added benefit of raising my sight marks considerably, which was nice.

I shaved the beard down to a goatee (or a van dyke, there is some confusion over the difference) which helped some but in the end I just didn’t feel all that comfortable. I was having a harder time aiming solidly as well, probably due to the floaty nature of the anchor.

After the first 14 I decided to mess with my anchor a bit more. I had liked the feel of it higher on my face, so I moved it up some so that my middle knuckle was behind my jaw bone. That felt very good, much more solid and my aim settled down a lot. I had to lower the peep down a bit to compensate, but it only lowered my marks about 1 line, so no biggie there. I also tied in a kisser-like knot just above the serving to act as a second reference point, since I’m still a little unsure of the anchor.

With the string down the middle of my nose, the kisser goes between my lips just the right of the center as I recall. I will have to double check that he next time I shoot. My anchor is behind my jawbone, with the jawbone between the middle and ring finger knuckles. That puts my index finger sort of crammed into the back/side of my neck. My chin is touching the string as well, lightly on the point of the right side.

Because I’m anchoring further back now, behind my jawbone, my bow arm is bent a little bit more to make up for the extra length. This feels very comfortable and sort of allows me to pre-stress the muscles in my back. The explosion is a little more pronounced as well.

I also have been holding my release a little differently with the new anchor: I’ve been putting my forefinger into it a little more, tipping it in my hand so the thumbnut is up in the webbing between my thumb and forefinger.

That is the setup I used on the second half.

Before I went out I shot for a while on the practice range and it felt like my sights were drifting a bit to the left at the longer distances: my last end at 80 had all 8 arrows grouped in a 5-ring circle but centered about two inches outside of the five. Only one arrow caught, at 9 o’clock. I shot four arrows at 20 after that, and they were center/right xring, so the deviation wasn’t as drastic as it had been when the longer distances missed to the right (before changing anchors).

Nevertheless I decide to see where we were at and Shannon and I went out on B1-14. Things definitely went better this time out. I was holding very well, especially in the beginning, the new-new anchor point feeling very solid. This allowed me to pay more attention to hauling back with my release arm and less on aiming, which really worked well. I definitely feel that the shots that drop out the right side at 3 o’clock when I’m still aiming well are caused by a little creeping. This new anchor really feels locked in and makes creeping a bit harder.

I had some rough ends, dropping a point in the middle on a 25 yarder (up hill, which I seem to struggle on), and then a 17 on the 80 walk-up that was a big bummer. All three misses were in a quarter-sized group at 9 o’clock, by the line in the four ring. The 60 yard shot was the only one that made it, an inside out X, but still on the left side.

Toward the end I started noticing that the 4th shot on ends where the first three were clean were more difficult, and a few times I actually had a voice in my head saying I was going to miss. Usually I did. I’m not sure if that was my old demons from before, or if it was my subconscious telling me something was wrong and I needed to let down and start over. I was positive and assumed the latter, and I did a better job of letting down when that happened the last few targets. (although it did happen again on 27: I shot 3 x’s and then a four by less than 1/4 inch at 9 o’clock.)

Looking at the target you can clearly see that most of the misses are out left. There are only two arrows outside the 5 ring to the right (a few others were low also, which caused them to miss, but they would have still caught had they been higher). The vertical variance is pretty good. Very few arrows missed the five ring high-low. Again a few shots were left-and-high so they missed, but had the windage been on only two or three would still have missed.

The horizontal variance is a bit troubling, especially on the first round, though it has been plaguing me all along. I did make a very minor adjustment to my rest before I left, moving it in towards the riser by 1/2 the width of the sharpie mark on the rest. I shot two ends after that, one at 50 and one at 20 and the left-right seemed pretty good though it is hard to tell with so few arrows to compare.

My x’s were also low, tallying only 44 for the whole round. That puts them at 39% of my total arrows. I would like to get that total up to 50% or higher. Hopefully that will come with figuring out this left-right issue.

The target below shows only the field courses, not the practice arrows.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Jun 5, 2011 1:38 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Field Total score: 536

— Sent from my iPhone

This was not a very good day for me.

Yesterday I adjusted the rest by bring it out about 1/8 of an inch (maybe more) which brought the arrow around into true center-shot.  I was concerned because the arrow was very clearly pointing pretty far off to the right, and I just don’t see how the arrows could be flying well.

It seemed like things were going pretty well yesterday afternoon at Sylvan, but that was not the case today.  Today it was back to how it had been when I first moved outside: lots and lots of left and right variations, and very little correlation between what I feel are good shots and where the arrows land.

I actually started out pretty well at 90 meters, but I pretty much shot at least one 8 every end.  My first three ends were OK, scoring 55-55-52-57 (the 52 was thanks to an unexplained 6 on the right side).  After that things really started falling apart.  I whimpered out of 90 meters with a 51-49, the last end consisting of a 10-9-9-8-7-6 for a total of 319.  That’s not so great, but not awful I guess, when you consider this is the first scoring round at 90 meters that I have shot in nearly 10 years.

70 meters was a disaster.  I shot a grand total of 1 x at that distance, and I liberally peppered the red with errant arrows.  A few of the shots were poorly executed, but strangely enough, those few badly performed shots were the only ones that actually went more or less where I expected them too.  I told mom at half time that it felt like things were so screwy that when I did actually manage to hold well and execute a good shot, the only thing I knew for certain was that the arrow would not land in the middle.

I tried to keep my mental game on track, but I was highly frustrated by half time.  Call me crazy, but when I hold in the gold and release OK, I don’t think I should shot arrows in the blue.

During the break at the half I moved the rest back in to where it was before I attempted to replace launcher last week (28mm, measured from the end of the T-square and against the inside of the rest).  I took a guess at where to put the sight to compensate for the drastic left-right adjustment I had made while mom went to hunt down some lunch.

The lunch break was one hour long, and then we started shooting 50 meters.  My first shot at 50 was a 9/10 liner at 9 o’clock.  A couple of clicks brought it in pretty well.  My arm was very tired and sore, given as how I had already shot 72 arrows this point, and my aim was suffering accordingly, but more than that, my mind was so messed up from trying (unsuccessfully) to hit some spots at the longer distances, that I my form pretty much sucked.  I was wobbling all over the gold, I was holding the release wrong (not choking up on it and not getting my knuckles into my jawbone on the anchor)…  everything was just off.

Still, I started out OK.  I only hit a couple of X’s, but I did at least manage to keep most of them in the ten ring (59-59-58).  That’s when things really went to shit again.  Mostly this was due, I think, to a combination of fatigue and poor form for the above mentioned reasons, ending with 53-55-55 and groups just a little bit bigger than the gold.  I shot 339 at 50 meters, which is about what I should have shot at 90 meters.  <Sigh>

30 meters did start much better.  On the field courses I’ve been shooting, the 5-ring is about the same size as the X-ring on the FITA target, and I’ve been drilling that all day long.  However, today I manged only to keep them mostly in the 10-ring, which was OK in terms of this tournament, but not in terms of actual grouping.  That being said, I still went 59-60-59-60 on the first four ends, and my X’s steadily increased.  By the 4th end I was starting to feel a little more back to normal.  My aim was steadying up, my grip was better and consistent on my release, I was getting through my shots faster, and I started actually shooting X’s.  Strangely enough, I did not shoot any more 60’s on those last two, but on the final end I did at least shoot 4 X’s.  Sadly, and very disturbingly, I missed my last shot at 9 o’clock by about 1/4 inch.  That not only surprised me, as I thought it was a decent shot (not perfect), but it also kind of pissed me off.  The only thing I hate missing more than my first shot is my last shot.

My total on the day was 1335.  I certainly have shot worse than this before, but this is probably 30-40 points under where I expected to be.  Perhaps it is just another case of setting my expectations above my current shooting level, but I don’t think so.  I think this score just sucked.  I do think a fair amount of this was due to me shooting poorly, but I also think that the bow was not shooting as well it could have been, especially at the longer distances.

Hopefully I can build on the last part of today, and go into tomorrow with a little bit of momentum.

We will be shooting an Olympic Round (Eliminations) followed by a 90o round.  Scoring start at 10 AM.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Apr 30, 2011 10:46 AM Target: FITA Total score: 1335

— Sent from my iPhone

First off, I have been lax the last few days about sending in these practice reports, so I’m writing this five days later.  Naturally, I can’t remember everything that happened, but I do remember a few things so I will mention those.

I picked Shannon up after work and headed straight out to Sylvan.  I shot one end at 70 yards for practice (two liner 5’s at 9 o’clock and two inside out X’s), then went straight to the lower course again.  I had shot on that course the other day and wanted to compare.

I had shot a 270 that day, and I really felt I could get into the mid 270’s this time out.  That was my goal.

I did not start out as well as I had the previous time I shot this course.  I dropped 8 points in the first 9 targets.  I felt I was shooting pretty well most of the time, but I was a little surprised by a couple of the misses (especially the 80 yarder, which I thought I nailed but in fact missed by about an inch at 2 o’clock), but more or less I knew what I had done to miss the ones I that missed.  My groups were wider than they were tall, which made me think I was probably gripping the bow a little bit.  That reminded me that I had been trying to put the edge of the handle down the middle of my life line the other day, which is more palm than I have historically used, but seemed to work well the the other day.  I tried to pay closer attention to that.

Heading into the uphill 55 yard target (A23) which had given me so many problems the last few days, I was a little distraught.  I felt like I was really trying and shooting pretty well, but I was a little frustrated because I was doing worse at this point in the game.  Mindful of the difference in my grip, I paid special attention to that, tried to clear my mind, and pulled up for the first shot at the up hill.  I really wanted to clean it.

My first shot was nicely executed and it hit dead center.  The next shot was pretty good, but it was 6 o’clock 5/4 line when it fired, and it missed by about half an inch low.  Second shot was a another X.  I struggled through the 4th shot, letting it down twice, before finally executing a shitty, weak shot which hit several inches low.   I was disappointed because I’d really wanted the 20, but still it was an 18 which was better than I had done on my last two attempts at this particular target.

The next target is uphill as well and had given me some trouble the last time I shot.  I really wanted to stay clean from this point, since I wanted to stay in the 270’s, so I was pretty careful with these shots.  I let down twice, and one of the shots was sitting at 3 o’clock when it went off, but it still stayed in the spot.  As it turned out, my first shot was dead center, but it looked low so I adjusted my sight and put the last two side by side on the X line at 12.  One was in and one was out.  Still, they were all 5’s so I called it good.

The next target is a 35 fan, which shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but I had 18’d it the last two times because it is a heavy sidehill and I kept forgetting to watch my bubble.  I was mindful of that, and again I was careful and did not try to force anything that felt slightly off.  I let down three times on this target, but in the end I shot good shots and scored a 20.  Only 1 X though.  All three 5’s were out to the left, in the direction of the slant.

The next two are a 20 yarder and a birdie, so I wasn’t worried about them.  I shot X’s all the way, and then it was onto the last target, a nice and flat 65 yarder.  I dropped two on this one the last time I shot it, and I really wanted to clean it this time.

I was a little nervous.  I knew I was down 9, so a 20 would put me at 271 which was better than the last time, though not as good as I wanted to do.  I decided to play my little game in my head, telling myself that a 20 would win and a 19 or worse would lose.

I pulled up, held well and shot a nice shot on the first arrow.  I thought it would be an X, but it turned out to be just out of the X at 1 o’clock.  The next arrow was a little scary as I bobbled left when it went off, but it stayed solidly in the five.  The third arrow was a little shakey on the aim, but well executed.  I was disappointed to to see that it was a mid-five at 7 o’clock instead of the X that I wanted, but at least it was a five.

Then it was the moment of truth, the last arrow.  I knew I wasn’t going to miss the four, so I had a 270 at least, but I really wanted to clean out the end of the course, and I REALLY wanted to hit my last arrow.  The only thing I hate worse than missing my last arrow is missing my very first arrow.

I decided it was time to be extra careful.  What I mean by that is that I wasn’t going to force anything…  if I held too long, if I wobbled too much, if anything was wrong at all I wasn’t going to shoot it.  Normally when I hold a second too long, or wobble out of the spot a little bit, I might try to pull it out.  But not this shot.  It was going to be perfect or nothing.

My first try I pulled up, held rock solid in the 5, but could not get the shot to go off.  Undoubtedly it was because I was nervous.  I let it down.  Second time up, I did not hold very well and gave up on it quickly, letting it down again.   Third try was like the first, though I held it just a bit longer trying to get it to go.  I let down for a third time.

Shannon asked if something was wrong, and I said I was just nervous.  I shook out my shoulder, looked at the target, saw the arrow hitting the X in my mind, then I played my training game again.  “X you win, 5 you lose,” I told myself.  I let that sit in my head for a moment, then I said “Alright.  Now, just shoot your form.”

I pulled up, held solid, felt where my release hand was going to be after the shot, pushed forward with my bow arm just a bit and Blam! The shot went off.  The last time I had seen the dot in my scope, it was right in the middle.  The arrow sailed down range, dropped slightly along its arc and landed almost silently.  Even before I pulled out my glasses, I knew it was a win.  The X ring was torn out.  No paper sound meant an X, and a quick look through binoculars confirmed it: Inside out X, on the edge of the upper-right leg.

That felt really good.  Not only did I lay down a new best since my return to shooting, but I also fought through some nervousness and in order to do it, I had to clean some targets which had been giving me trouble.  I was very proud of that.

I did feel that I was still getting some excessive left and right movement in my groups, but all in all I happy with how I shot, and especially how I finished.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Apr 22, 2011 5:51 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Field Total score: 271 28 X’s

— Sent from my iPhone