Shooting Journal
This page is a repository of all my shooting journal entries. I use these to keep myself in-tune and highlight areas of importance. Writing down my thoughts and impressions after I get finished shooting for the day really helps me cement the lessons in my head, and has proven to be a very valuable tool in the past.
The arrow plots are handled via an one of a few iPhone Apps, called TargetMate, iArcheryScores, or ArcherZUpshot. They are all nifty little apps which I don’t mind plugging at all, especially ArcherZUpshot, which has a suite of reporting features the others don’t. Targetmate allows you to filter the arrow plots by distance or by arrow shot (all first arrows, all second arrows, etc.), while iArcheryScores provides separate plots for each arrow number.
All of these posts are emailed directly from my phone, which allows me to very quickly store my information without any fuss at all, from wherever I happen to be.
Feel free to read on if you like, but don’t expect to find anything very exciting.
- Shooting Journal 4/1/18 April 1, 2018Chris
I came out to shoot after we got home from the beach. Prediction was for 40-50% rain, which was about right. It rained lightly most of the time but hard only occasionally. I primarily shot the red perform x as the gray one seems a little more critical and I have not yet shimmed the bottom cam over.
I’m not sure why, but the sight marks changed steadily through out the day, migrating lower through the afternoon. I’m not sure if that is due to the rain, or the strings stretching (I have shot maybe 100 arrows through that bow so far), or a combination, or something else entirely.
I noticed that when it started raining harder, I had more left and right issues which made me think that I may be having some torque issues. Right at the end I slid the rest forward about 1/4″. That seemed to help quite a bit at 40 yards, but my sights dropped significantly at 20 yards. Strangely, my gap got smaller, so perhaps it straightened out the arrow flight a little? Or maybe it was because the rain had died down again and had been drier for the last 10-15 minutes. Hard to say.
The last group at 80 was very nice as you can see from the picture.
I will need to see what happens when things get really wet again and my grip is sliding around a little more. By the time I made the rest change, the ran had pretty much quit and everything was dry.
I should probably get the grip really wet and my palm real wet and test it.
Bow: Red Perform X
Release: Fulkrum Flex
Notable Changes: Moved Rest forward ~1/4″
Continue reading →
- My first tournament post surgery January 2, 2016Chris
NW Shootup Tour – Jan. 2, 2016
Today I shot in my first tournament since having my shoulder surgery on August 14, 2015. (For anyone who may not know, I crashed my bike on August 6th and suffered a Grade 5 AC shoulder separation).
I shot once in early December but my shoulder hurt afterward so I hadn’t tried again until this last week. Today was only the fifth time I’ve shot since the injury, so I didn’t really have much by way of expectations. I pretty much just wanted to keep my bow arm up after the shot and try to keep my release hand coming around like it should. If you experience any discomfort or complications related to your injury while engaging in physical activities like shooting, it’s advisable to consult with a personal injury lawyer for legal advice and support.
I wound up shooting decently considering everything, finishing with a 298 and 21 Xs. (For comparison, my average for last year was 299.4 and 23.1 Xs). The two points that I dropped were both in the second half when my shoulder was getting noticbly more tired, and both shots were poorly executed. One was against the clock (I fired with 7 seconds left), and the other was a shot I knew I should let down but didn’t want to and muscled through it. A bad plan Under the best of circumstances.
As has been the trend this year, the scores for the shoot were lower than normal, so my 298/21 put me in a three way tie with Matt Schmitz and Tim Davis for first. I won the tie breaker so I finished in 1st place for the qualifier round.
After that we went to the shoot off round. Since I was in first place, I only had to shoot against one person, John Heuvel, which was good because I don’t know that I had many more ends than that in me today. John struggled a little bit today on the score front, but did great in the shoot offs, moving all the way up from fifth to compete for the top spot. By the end of the day he had shot 12 ends in the shoot offs, more than a whole additional round.
Again my game plan was just to try and keep my bow arm up and under control and not to creep on my release. I started out great, with three solid Xs off of very good feeling shots. John shot two 10s and an X, so I had a decent cushion going into the final shoot off end. I was starting to get a little nervous, which combined with my shoulder fatigue and pain made for less steady shots than I had seen all day, but I managed two pretty god shots that were tens and one shot I really thought should have been an X when I released it, but dropped a little low. Meanwhile, John shot two Xs and a 10, which meant we were tied and had to shoot another three arrows to break the tie.
I was pretty trembly at this point, but my game plan was the same. Keep my form together and aim as best I can and try to stay out of the nine. John opensed up with a beautiful X, and I shot a 10 at 3 o’clock. We both let down On the second arrow, and eventually I shot a another 10. John wound up shooting a nine, which meant I all needed was a ten to finish out. May last arrow was pretty shaky, but it stayed a sold 10, which meant I finished with 90 and 3 Xs. The 3 Xs are a little disappointing, but in the end it was good enough to win the day, and I feel pretty good about that.
Continue reading → - Practice Report 062914 June 29, 2014Chris
I was supposed to be shooting in the OBH State Field Championships this weekend, but I’ve been having so many troubles recently that I decided it was a better use of my time to work on my bows instead.
I think I may have discovered a few things this weekend. The biggest was that the bows do not seem to shoot well when the wheels not properly rotated, even if they are in time. I also found some additional timing marks printed in the backside of the wheels, which I didn’t know about. The bow seems to shoot best when the cables are on those marks (or very close).
The other major change that I made was to put the cam adjustments back into the A slot, so that it matches the draw stops. I had previously had the stops in A, and the cams in B.
I worked on the cables a lot, and after all of it, I think I have everything where is belongs, although the strings and cables both are very twisted down. On the blue bow the top stop is very slightly advanced, but even half a twist moves the wheels a lot, so this as good as it gets I guess. The bottom wheel is about 1 paper width behind.
Event Summary Event #37Date: Sun Jun 29, 2014 13:47:17 Location:Sylvan
Bow: Blue Dominator Max
Quiver: Black Eagle X-Impact 120gr
Comment:
END SET End-Set #1Date: Sun Jun 29, 2014 13:47Distance:Variable Distances Arrow# End# 1 2 3 4 Sum Total 1 5 X 5 X 20 20 2 X X X X 20 40 3 X X X X 20 60 4 X 4 5 5 19 79 5 5 X X X 20 99 6 X X X X 20 119 7 5 4 X X 19 138 8 X X 5 X 20 158 9 X 5 X 4 19 177 10 5 X X 5 20 197 11 5 5 X 5 20 217 12 X X 5 X 20 237 13 X 5 X 5 20 257 14 5 5 4 5 19 276 Total 276 Analysis 4 Count: 4 5 Count: 19 X Count: 33 Average/Arrow: 4.92 END SET End-Set #1Date: Sun Jun 29, 2014 18:05Distance:Variable Distances Arrow# End# 1 2 3 4 Sum Total 1 X X X 5 20 20 2 X X X X 20 40 3 5 X X 5 20 60 4 5 X X X 20 80 5 X 4 5 4 18 98 6 5 X 5 X 20 118 7 X X 5 X 20 138 8 5 X 5 5 20 158 9 4 4 X 5 18 176 10 5 4 5 5 19 195 11 X X X X 20 215 12 X X X X 20 235 13 5 X X X 20 255 14 X X 5 X 20 275 Total 275 Analysis 4 Count: 5 5 Count: 17 X Count: 34 Average/Arrow: 4.91 Chris
Sent from my iPadContinue reading → - Practice Results May 11, 2014Chris
I messed around with several things today: I switched the launcher blade several times, from .008 to .012, and eventually settled back on the .010; I added and removed again 1oz from the front bar; and I moved the rest down in increments, eventually ending getting as far down as 1.5 lines. In the end I put it all back where I started. The last thing I did was to move the peep back to 16mm from the nicked arrow.
That seemed to make a big difference. The unexplained up and down arrows I’ve been seeing all year seemed to go away. I know shot about 40 arrows, so I have to wait and see how it goes, but so far it feels good.
I also noticed that the peep was moving. I set it to 16mm, shot a few ends, and the sights were sagging out the bottom. When I checked the peep
It was back to 15.75mm, so I moved it back to 16mm and tied it in.Event Summary Practice Sylvan Mom’s Day.Date: Sun May 11, 2014 13:13:39 Location:Sylvan
Bow: Blue Dominator Max
Quiver: Black Eagle X-Impact 120gr
Comment:
END SET End-Set #1Date: Sun May 11, 2014 13:13 Distance:30 Yards
Arrow# End# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Sum Total 1 X 5 5 5 5 4 29 29 2 X X X 5 5 5 30 59 3 X X X X 5 5 30 89 4 X X 5 5 4 4 28 117 5 X 5 5 5 4 4 28 145 6 5 4 4 13 158 7 X 5 5 4 4 4 27 185 8 X X X 5 4 4 28 213 9 X X 5 5 4 4 28 241 10 X X 5 5 5 4 29 270 11 X 5 5 4 4 4 4 31 301 12 X 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 37 338 13 X X X 5 5 5 4 4 38 376 Total 376 Analysis 4 Count: 24 5 Count: 32 X Count: 24 Average/Arrow: 4.7 END SET End-Set #1Date: Sun May 11, 2014 15:22 Distance:50 Yards
Arrow# End# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Sum Total 1 X X 5 5 5 5 5 35 35 2 X X X X X 5 5 5 40 75 3 X X X X X 5 5 35 110 4 0 110 Total 110 Analysis 4 Count: 0 5 Count: 10 X Count: 12 Average/Arrow: 5 END SET End-Set #1Date: Sun May 11, 2014 16:06 Distance:60 Yards
Arrow# End# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sum Total 1 X X X X 5 5 4 34 34 Total 34 Analysis 4 Count: 1 5 Count: 2 X Count: 4 Average/Arrow: 4.85 END SET End-Set #1Date: Sun May 11, 2014 16:45 Distance:50 Yards
Arrow# End# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sum Total 1 X X X X 5 5 4 34 34 Total 34 Analysis 4 Count: 1 5 Count: 2 X Count: 4 Average/Arrow: 4.85 Chris
Sent from my iPad
Continue reading → - Tournament Report: Chinook Safari June 9, 2013ChrisI actually felt that I shot pretty well this weekend. This was the first shoot since putting on the Bowmar axels and bushings, and it was only Friday night before I got it shooting anything like decent. The only really troubling spot was that my shoulder got really sore and tried by the end of Saturday and started out that way on Sunday. Probably because of that I had a hard time aiming all weekend and used up an awful lot of the dot. I think because of the trouble aiming/with my shoulder I also had trouble pulling and wound up collapsing from time to time, or doing that thing where I sort of pluck my release hand and miss right.Continue reading →
I finished down 11 for an 1309, tied for fourth with Mark Eaves. Sean Elza came in 3rd with 1312 and John Huevel and Ben English tied with 1313. Ben won the shoot off.
I had a few notable flubs: I held too long and shook a lot on a 24 yarder on Saturday and missed it by a bunch. My last target on Saturday I held too long again and crept so bad that I pretty much flinched and fired. I damn near missed the kill ring at 32 yards. It was bad.
Today I dropped some easy ones around 40 yards in the same way, although it did more of that plucking thing than anything else. I also missed my team shoot off arrow at 67 yards out right which was probably the same deal.
All in all I’m pretty satisfied. I wanted to be at or above 1310, but oh well. I hit a lot of hard shots and flubbed a few, but I hung with the big boys and feel pretty good about the whole thing. This score would have averaged out to a 1527 on a 70 target course, which I think would be a postal best.
- Tournament Report – PNWST SilverArrow December 30, 2012Chris
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.
Continue reading →scorecard PNWST – Silver Arrow Dec 30, 201 Qualifying 18m 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) 10(5) 10(6) 30 59 59 X(5) 10(6) 9(4) 29 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 60 119 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(5) 10(4) 9(6) 29 59 178 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 59 237 X(4) X(5) 9(6) 29 X(4) 10(5) 10(6) 30 58 295 X(4) 9(5) 9(6) 28 nines: 5 tens+X: 25 X: 17 average: 9.83 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 1 9 8 9.90 5 1 9 5 9.90 6 3 7 4 9.70 Sent from my iPad
- Tournament Report – PNW shoot up @ Wilderness Archery December 29, 2012ChrisContinue reading →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.
PNWST – Wilderness Dec 29, 2012 Qualifying 18m 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 60 60 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 X(4) X(6) 9(5) 29 59 119 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(5) 10(4) 10(6) 30 60 179 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(5) 10(4) 10(6) 30 60 239 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 299 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 nines: 1 tens+X: 29 X: 23 average: 9.97 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 0 10 8 10.00 5 1 9 8 9.90 6 0 10 7 10.00
—Sent from my iPhone - Shootup tour archery world December 2, 2012Chris
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.
scorecard PNWST #2 AW Dec 1, 2012 round: 1 18m 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(2) 10(3) 10(4) 30 60 60 X(4) 10(2) 10(3) 30 X(3) X(4) 10(2) 30 60 120 X(2) X(4) 10(3) 30 X(3) 10(2) 10(4) 30 58 178 X(3) 9(2) 9(4) 28 X(3) X(4) 10(2) 30 60 238 X(2) X(4) 10(3) 30 X(4) 10(3) 9(2) 29 59 297 X(2) X(3) X(4) 30 nines: 3 tens+X: 27 X: 16 average: 9.90 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 2 2 8 4 9.80 3 0 10 5 10.00 4 1 9 7 9.90 Continue reading →—Sent from my iPhone - Release hand positioning November 30, 2012Chris
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.
Continue reading → - Practice Report 101312 October 14, 2012Chris
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.)
Practice BA Oct 14, 2012 round: 1 18m 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) 10(2) 10(3) 30 59 59 10(1) 10(4) 9(5) 29 X(1) X(4) X(5) 30 60 119 X(5) 10(1) 10(4) 30 X(1) 10(5) 9(4) 29 57 176 10(4) 9(1) 9(5) 28 X(4) X(5) 10(1) 30 60 236 X(1) X(4) 10(5) 30 X(1) X(4) X(5) 30 60 296 X(1) X(4) X(5) 30 nines: 4 tens+X: 26 X: 16 average: 9.87 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 1 1 8 5 9.89 2 0 1 0 10.00 3 0 1 0 10.00 4 1 9 6 9.90 5 2 7 5 9.7 Practice BA Oct 14, 2012 round: 2 18m 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(5) X(6) 10(4) 30 60 60 X(6) 10(4) 10(5) 30 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 60 120 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 180 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 X(5) X(6) 10(4) 30 60 240 X(4) 10(5) 10(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 300 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 nines: 0 tens+X: 30 X: 21 average: 10.00 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 0 10 7 10.00 5 0 10 7 10.00 6 0 10 7 10.00 —Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Practice Report: 081412 August 15, 2012Chris
Shannon and I took the Z out to the range last night for a little shooting. I knew that I would probably need to make some adjustments to my new cable guard after the original one broke over the weekend up in Seattle.
I shot primarily at 80 yards. The first thing I did was move the V-bar back down under the String Stop and angle the bars upward two notches. I had been shooting it down there for a couple weeks prior to the weekend, but decided to move it back to get some perspective on how the two positions felt. I really think I like it down lower. It seems to hold better, level faster, and feels more like I’m accustomed to. I’ve always liked weight low on the bow.
I shot maybe 6-7 ends (6 arrows apiece normally, sometimes 7-8, 11 later in the day as it got dark) and once I’d established some decent groups and the same wider-than-tall group pattern, I moved up to 10 yards to see if I was getting any kind of drifting. I was grouping on the right edge of the 5 at distance, and at 10 yards I was right in the center.
I started messing with my cable guard at that point. At first, I moved it in about half an inch so that the cables were about 1/3 of an inch away from the vanes when the bow was at rest. I figured this would reduce cam tilt and eliminate drift. Turned out I was wrong.
I sighted back in (strangely, moving the cables IN – to the left from behind the string – the arrows move right), and then went out to 80 yards again. Instead of eliminating the drift it made things worse. The grouping was a lot worse as well. So, I went back to ten yards and moved the cable guard OUT this time, just a little bit. Resighted in at 10, moved out to 80, and repeated that process a few times until it felt like I had a good horizontal group at distance and and no drifting between 10 and 80.
At 80 yards though I noticed that my group was about X-ring wide but a little bit taller than the 5 ring. I was getting tired and it was starting to get a little dark, so I moved up to 55 yards to see if I had the same thing. I did, so to solve that, I tried some tiller tuning. I put a half turn into the top limb and shot my whole quiver. The group ranged from about three inches under the spot to about a shaft in at 6 o’clock, which was still too tall of a group, maybe even worse than before. So I took that half turn back out, and then another half turn out so that I was half a turn less than I had started. Strangely enough, taking turns OUT of the top limb (thereby lowering draw weight) moves my sights up. I figured out that 1/2 turn = about 6 clicks.
That group seemed better, but it still a little tall, so I took another turn out. I did that a couple more times, finishing (I think) with 1.5 turns out total, though it may have only been one full turn. I kind of lost track.
I shot one really good 6 arrow group, with 4 X’s, a solid 5 and then a 4 at 7 o’clock that I aimed there. I really wanted to get a good 6 arrow group, so I stayed and shot a few more ends, but it was almost too dark to see and kept winding up with two groups: one group with about 7 arrows in the center, and one with 3-4 between 1-2 o’clock on the line or just out.
I think that the bow is shooting better, and I know that it is holding pretty much rock steady, even with both shoulders being sore. I’m not sure why my right shoulder has been hurting lately, but it has been, similar to how it felt around the first of the year but it actually gets sore while shooting which wasn’t doing before.
I’m not sure if I’ll get to shoot again before the RSVP ride since I have to work on the van tonight, but hopefully I can follow up on Thursday.
Continue reading → - Tournament Report: WCW FITA – August 2012 August 14, 2012Chris
I felt pretty confident coming into this shoot, but after only 21 arrows my cable guard on the PSE broke off. I grabbed the Hoyt and switched the sight bar and stabilizers over, but the Hoyt wasn’t sighted in and my first arrow was a 6. I aimed my next two in the blue and pulled an X and a 10 out of them, but moving forward I continued to have left and right issues at the two longer distances. I wound up shooting a 3 and a 8 on the next end because I moved my sight the wrong direction.Mom took the PSE to the Nock Point and got a new cable guard, but she didn’t get there until the lunch break. I switched everything back and shot 50 and 30 with the Dominator, but things still continued to go left and right all day that I didn’t really understand. I started getting pretty frustrated by the time we started shooting 30 meters. I dropped three points in the first two ends, and that really ticked me off. I took my binoculars off and started just shooting for form.
I decided that I wasn’t going to let anything down and I was only going to focus on hitting my form. I only broke that rule once, when my sunglasses slid down my nose and blocked my ability to see the target. I also decided that I wasn’t going to move my sight any more.
I cleaned the last four ends and actually shot some decent groups, although it felt like I grouped in a different spot every end. I finished with a 1342 on the day, which wasn’t too bad I guess given the issues, but I was still disappointed, especially with the 334 I shot at 50.
I had high hopes for Sunday, but those hopes were quickly quashed. We shot the 50m OR round, and right off the bat things were not working well. Almost to a tee, every shot that I thought felt good would miss – hitting four cardinal points and most of the ones in between – and every shot that I struggled through or crept on would hit tens and X’s. Four or five ends of that, and I got really frustrated. I’d been trying to keep my attitude good, but I finally lost and acted a bit of an ass, I’m afraid. Everyone could tell that I was unhappy, which is pretty much the opposite of what I want.
During the eliminations, I shot OK for the first few ends, but by the gold medal match I was pretty much all over the place. I remember one end in particular, around end three of the match, that I thought to myself that all I really needed to do was just stay in the gold. Immediately, on the very first arrow, I bobbled, collapsed and damn near shot a 6 on the first arrow. I backed that up with a 9 and an 8 for a whopping 24, which completely wiped out every bit of the lead I had to that point.
That really ticked me off, but I didn’t know what to do to avoid it in the future. I was so frustrated, and every time I tried to hit my form, the arrows avoided the center as if there were a force field over the ten ring. When I can’t buckle own and shoot good form and get results, I don’t know where to go.
In the end, I won the Gold Medal match by shooting only two tens and a 136, which pretty much tells the whole story. On that day, against those people, it was good enough for the win and that it is all it was. I can’t imagine ever winning another round by shooting 136, and certainly not a medal match.
After everything was all done, I lined up the string with the center of the bow, and I noticed that my scope was way off center, about 1/2 inch outside of the string. I do not remember it being that way prior to the cable guard issue.
I made a minor adjustment to the cable guard, and shot some arrows at 70 meters. After sighting in, I put 8 of 11 in the ten, with two of the three misses coming from shots that I knew were going to miss when I shot them.
I figured there would be additional tweaking of the cable guard required. I felt a little better after I figured that out, but all in all, I was still disappointed in my performance this weekend: both mentally and physically.
Here is the elimination bracket:
Continue reading →
- Practice Report 031912 March 20, 2012Chris
Nothing super special to report here. I was shooting the bow in the 31″ draw slot still. I set it there at Sylvan the other day because the draw felt really too short with the new, high-wrist grip I’ve set up using a wedge of wood under the Spot Hogg grip cover. The 31″ draw feels really nice and I think it is easier on my shoulder, because the straighter arm uses more of the back side of my shoulder instead of the front where it is injured.
Other things of note: I was using the large thumb knob on the release, nestled into the second knuckle on my thumb. (I adjusted it throughout the day until it finally felt really comfortable.) And I turned the rear stabilizer mount around, which allowed me to get the stabilizer closer to the bow and changed the angle so that the adjustment was primarily vertical instead of horizontal. I set it so it was angled down fairly steeply, and that is where the bolt is stuck (and now stripped) so it won’t be moving any time soon. Fortunately, it felt like it held really well in that position, so that is good!
Practice BA Mar 19, 2012 round: 1 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(1) 10(2) 10(3) 30 60 60 X(1) 10(2) 10(3) 30 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 60 120 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 X(1) 10(3) 9(2) 29 59 179 X(1) X(2) 10(3) 30 X(1) X(2) 10(3) 30 60 239 X(2) 10(1) 10(3) 30 X(2) X(3) 10(1) 30 60 299 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 60 359 X(1) X(3) 10(2) 30 X(1) X(3) 10(2) 30 60 419 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 X(1) X(3) 10(2) 30 60 479 X(3) 10(1) 10(2) 30 X(1) 10(3) 9(2) 29 59 538 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 X(1) 10(2) 10(3) 30 60 598 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 nines: 2 tens+X: 58 X: 40 average: 9.97 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 1 0 20 17 10.00 2 2 18 11 9.90 3 0 20 12 10.00
—Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Practice Report – 031212 March 12, 2012Chris
Last night I fletched up 6 of my new Gold Tip Ultralight 400’s, cut to 29 inches, and I went to broken arrow to tune them up.
I started out by changing the launcher to a Standard width .010 blade. Then I shot it through paper. Surprisingly, the tear was perfect up and down and was about .5 to .75 inches to the left. I tried adjusting the rest, but I wasn’t able to take the tear out, so I put it back where I had set it on Saturday afternoon.
After that, I decided to just give it a shot and see how it grouped. I shot for a few minutes, expecting to have some side-to-side variance because of the tear, but after 5-6 site in arrows everything was in a dead straight vertical line. I got sighted it, and decided to shoot a score.
Remember my discussion from the day before about my shoulder humping up, I paid a lot of attention to really extending my shoulder out after I set my anchor. When I did that my bow arm came almost straight and I could feel a difference in my hand as well.
The new arrows were shooting really well. I started out with 3 x’s and then 2 x’s, all very solid arrows. By the half way point I was thinking that I could be onto a really good score. I finished with 300 and 25 x’s, the second highest score of the year, and with arrows 1/3 the size of my XXX’s. That’s kind of crazy good. I’ve never shot a 300 with outdoor arrows before.
Arrow number 2 seemed to hit a little low. It hit the same hole (literally) at 7 o’clock on the 10/x line about 6 times in a row. I eventually switched it for arrow #5 and starting drilling it. (I forgot to make the change in iArcheryScores so it is not reflected below).
Practice BA Ultralight 400 Mar 12, 2012 round: 1 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 60 60 X(2) X(3) 10(1) 30 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 60 120 X(1) X(2) 10(3) 30 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 60 180 X(2) X(3) 10(1) 30 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 60 240 X(1) X(3) 10(2) 30 X(1) X(2) X(3) 30 60 300 X(1) X(2) 10(3) 30 nines: 0 tens+X: 30 X: 25 average: 10.00 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 1 0 10 8 10.00 2 0 10 9 10.00 3 0 10 8 10.00
—Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Tournament Report – NFAA Indoor Sectionals March 12, 2012Chris
Day One:
I hurt my shoulder putting things in the attic on Friday night, so it started out more sore than usual. I also went out the night before for Joel’s birthday, so I did have a fair amount to drink on Friday. I did not have a hangover, but it is something worth mentioning.
I felt pretty confident coming into the day, having shot a 58X on Wednesday. I started out really strong, cleaning my first 4-5 ends, and I was down 1 at the half. I started struggling more and more as the day progressed, and the shots got weaker. I started struggling through my shots, holding a long time, my form started breaking down a little bit.
I finished the day down 5, not terrible but nothing to write home about. My arm was quite sore by the end of the day.
After shooting Sectionals, Debbie and I went over to Archery World to shoot in the Charity Shoot, which was another 40 arrows plus practice. I shot alright, dropping 5 again (on a birdie target), but I had several disappointing shots in the last 10 or so arrows.
All day long it felt like I’d been grouping wide, from one edge of the X to the other. After the charity shoot, I made a minor adjustment to the rest, moving it out 1/2 of a mark.
Day Two:
My shoulder was more sore starting out today than it was yesterday. I shot a few practice ends and I was having trouble already. I told mom that I thought it was going to be a rough day.
In the end, it wound up being almost the opposite of yesterday: I started weak and finished the last few ends pretty good. After I dropped five, I really did not want to finish lower than 110 X’s total. That extra bit of nerves helped me come through my shots stronger than I had been, and my final end was all inside-out; the only inside-out end I shot all day.
Around half-time I told mom that my shoulder was hurting and that I must have been rolling my left shoulder, so she was paying attention. She started paying special attention, and after we were done she told me that it looked like it was humped up. In talking with Debbie and Mom, I decided that I needed to adjust my pre-shot setup by making sure to relax my left shoulder and ensure that it doesn’t hump up while I’m aiming.
Aside from target 3, which had no discernible pattern, I punched out solid holes in the other four targets. It looks like the adjustment to rest had an effect.
NFAA Sectionals Mar 10, 2012 Day One 20yd 1 2 3 4 5 sum balance X(1) X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 25 25 X(1) X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 25 50 X(1) X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 25 75 X(1) X(2) X(4) X(6) 5(3) 25 100 X(1) X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 25 125 X(1) X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 25 150 X(1) X(3) X(4) X(6) 5(2) 25 175 X(1) X(2) X(3) X(6) 5(4) 25 200 X(1) X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 25 225 X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 5(1) 25 250 X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 5(1) 25 275 X(1) X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 25 300 5: 5 X: 55 average: 5.00 arrow statistics arrow 5 X average 1 2 10 5.00 2 1 11 5.00 3 1 11 5.00 4 1 11 5.00 6 0 12 5.00
—Sent from my iPhoneNFAA Sectionals Mar 10, 2012 Day Two 20yd 1 2 3 4 5 sum balance X(1) X(2) X(3) X(6) 5(4) 25 25 X(1) X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 25 50 X(1) X(2) X(3) X(4) X(6) 25 75 X(1) X(2) X(3) X(4) 5(6) 25 100 X(2) X(3) X(4) X(5) 5(6) 25 125 X(2) X(3) X(4) X(5) X(6) 25 150 X(2) X(4) X(5) X(6) 5(3) 25 175 X(2) X(3) X(4) X(5) X(6) 25 200 X(2) X(3) X(4) X(5) X(6) 25 225 X(2) X(4) X(5) X(6) 5(3) 25 250 X(1) X(2) X(4) X(5) X(6) 25 275 X(1) X(2) X(4) X(5) X(6) 25 300 5: 5 X: 55 average: 5.00 arrow statistics arrow 5 X average 1 0 6 5.00 2 0 12 5.00 3 2 8 5.00 4 1 11 5.00 5 0 8 5.00 6 2 10 5.00
Continue reading → - USAA Nationals D1 February 25, 2012Chris
Mom and I are up in Seattle this weekend so I can shoot in the USAA Indoor National Championships, the first Indoor Nationals ever held in the Pacific Northwest. I signed up late, so the only shooting time available was 5pm both days, so I shot later in the day than I usually do for tournaments. That was pretty nice though, because I was able to lounge around the house and relax most of the afternoon.
I warmed up 4-5 ends downstairs on the practice range, then shot the two official practice ends. I started out very well, felt really strong and like I was executing really well. In fact, I felt like I actually shot better than I scored. I finished the first thirty arrows with a 290, and I felt like I shot around a 293-294. I had three or four arrows that felt really good, I held well, I wound up in the proper post-shot form, and the arrow missed by the tiniest sliver imaginable.
The first end of the second half was good, all 10s, but the next three were all 28s. That was rough. I did not feel I was holding well, I was holding longer than I like, and my form was feeling stiff. My shoulder was also getting pretty sore. Around the 15th end, I started feeling a little better, but it wasn’t until the last 2-3 ends where I thought I was actually drilling it again.
I had been bouncing back and forth with Justin Carver all day (up a point, down a point, tied… ), but coming in the final stretch I was up one point and I really wanted to stay there. I got just a touch nervous, which gave me a little extra boost in the energy department, and I came through my shots much faster and stronger and I drained three inside-out X’s. I also used my new trick, thinking to myself “You can’t miss.” Several weeks ago, I started reprogramming myself so that whenever I say that, I execute a perfect shot. (In the past that always preceded a missed shot, but a few weeks ago I started turning that weakness into a strength. Now whenever I think that, I double down on my form and make damn sure I drill that shot.)
I finished with a 579. I really think I should be more along the lines of a 585, and I really don’t like dropping below 580, but all in all I’m not too disappointed with this score. Last time I was up here (for the WSAA Indoor FITA Championships) I shot a 1156. I would really like to get into the 1160s this time around.
I do not know where I placed overall, but I was the top spot in my group by two points.
USAA Nationals D1 Feb 25, 2012 Day 1 18m 1 2 3 arrows sum balance 10(10) 9(7) 9(8) 28 58 58 10(7) 10(8) 10(10) 30 10(7) 9(8) 9(10) 28 58 116 10(7) 10(8) 10(10) 30 10(8) 10(10) 9(7) 29 58 174 10(7) 10(8) 9(10) 29 10(7) 10(10) 9(8) 29 58 232 10(7) 10(8) 9(10) 29 10(8) 10(10) 9(7) 29 58 290 10(7) 10(8) 9(10) 29 10(7) 10(8) 10(10) 30 58 348 10(10) 9(7) 9(8) 28 10(10) 9(7) 9(8) 28 56 404 10(7) 9(8) 9(10) 28 10(7) 10(10) 9(8) 29 57 461 10(10) 9(7) 9(8) 28 10(7) 10(8) 10(10) 30 59 520 10(7) 10(8) 9(10) 29 10(7) 10(8) 9(10) 29 59 579 10(7) 10(8) 10(10) 30 nines: 21 tens+X: 39 X: 0 average: 9.65 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 7 6 14 0 9.70 8 8 12 0 9.60 10 7 13 0 9.65
—Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Practice Report 021512 February 16, 2012Chris
I went to shoot at Archery World after work on Wednesday evening, the first time I have shot since Maure went to the hospital. The wheels felt a little spungy, something I have been thinking for a few days now, so after I was done I had Joe check them for me and they were out of time by about 1/4″. We fixed the wheels, and it felt much, much better. The wall was very solid. I shot for a little while after that, but my arm was pretty tired and I made a few mistakes due to fatigue and a sore shoulder.
I also changed the weights on the stabilizers. I started out with 6oz in the front (including the Doinker) and 15oz in the back. I changed it to 4oz/12oz (including the Doinker), but after a few ends it felt like the bow was rocking backward so I put another ounce on the front. (That makes it 5oz/12oz.) That felt like it was holding very well.
Continue reading →Practice AW Feb 15, 2012 round: 1 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) 10(6) 9(5) 29 59 59 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 X(4) 10(5) 10(6) 30 60 119 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 179 X(4) 10(5) 10(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 59 238 X(4) 10(6) 9(5) 29 X(5) 10(4) 10(6) 30 60 298 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 nines: 2 tens+X: 28 X: 18 average: 9.93 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 0 10 9 10.00 5 2 8 5 9.80 6 0 10 4 10.00 —Sent from my iPhone - Practice Report 020512 February 6, 2012Chris
Practice today was nothing special. My chest and shoulders were tired from working out the day before, but all in all I thought I shot pretty well. I upped the weights on the front/back stabilizers as follows: Front = 6oz (including Doinker), Back = 15oz.
I felt that combination held pretty darn well. In fact, it may have been a bit too solid. The arrow that dropped held dead center on the spot, but that sort of lulled me into a sense of security and I wasn’t really thinking about pulling through like I should have been. It went off and missed high-right, the typical spot for a weak shot.
After that I paid better attention to pulling through and everything worked pretty good. The shots at 3 O’clock on target 2 were all three a bit of a surprise, as they felt pretty good and held pretty well. Ditto for the high arrows on number 1, although that target was hanging on the high side the whole day. The first 4-5 arrows (including practice) were all in the same spot, right at the very top of the X line, so the two that went a shaft-width higher were barely in the ten. Both felt like pretty good shots to me.
Practice BA Feb 5, 2012 round: 1 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 60 60 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 59 119 9(4) X(5) X(6) 29 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 60 179 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 239 10(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 60 299 10(4) X(5) X(6) 30 nines: 1 tens+X: 29 X: 22 average: 9.97 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 1 9 7 9.90 5 0 10 6 10.00 6 0 10 9 10.00 
— Sent from my iPhoneContinue reading → - Practice Report 020212 February 4, 2012Chris
I worked out at the gym the day before, and my arms and shoulders were very sore to start. That is probably why, but I had a very hard time shooting consistently good shots. I also kept getting an arrow out the left on my number two targets despite changing arrows twice. I’m not sure what this about. At first I thought I was doing something different with the way I held me release, but even when I was paying special attention, I kept popping out to that same whole at 9 O’clock.
Practice BA Feb 2, 2012 round: 1 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(1) X(3) 9(4) 29 59 59 X(1) X(3) 10(4) 30 X(1) X(3) 10(4) 30 60 119 X(1) X(3) 10(4) 30 X(1) X(5) 10(3) 30 60 179 X(1) X(3) 10(5) 30 X(1) X(3) 10(5) 30 60 239 X(1) X(5) 10(3) 30 X(1) X(3) 9(5) 29 59 298 X(1) X(5) 10(3) 30 nines: 2 tens+X: 28 X: 20 average: 9.93 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 1 0 10 10 10.00 3 0 10 7 10.00 4 1 3 0 9.75 5 1 5 3 9.83
—Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - NW Shootup Final January 29, 2012Chris
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.
NW Shootup Final Jan 28, 2012 Qualifying 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance 10(3) 10(5) 9(4) 29 58 58 X(5) 10(4) 9(3) 29 X(4) 10(5) 9(3) 29 59 117 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 59 176 X(4) X(5) 9(6) 29 X(6) 10(4) 10(5) 30 60 236 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 60 296 X(6) 10(4) 10(5) 30 nines: 4 tens+X: 26 X: 16 average: 9.87 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 3 2 1 0 9.33 4 1 9 6 9.90 5 0 10 6 10.00 6 1 6 4 9.86
—Sent from my iPhoneNW Shootup Final Jan 28, 2012 Eliminations 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) 10(5) 10(6) 30 59 59 X(6) 10(5) 9(4) 29 X(6) 10(5) 9(4) 29 59 118 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 10(4) 10(6) 9(5) 29 59 177 X(6) 10(4) 10(5) 30 nines: 3 tens+X: 15 X: 6 average: 9.83 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 2 4 2 9.67 5 1 5 0 9.83 6 0 6 4 10.00
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Continue reading → - Practice Report – 012612 January 26, 2012Chris
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.
Practice Broken Arrow Jan 26, 2012 round: 1 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 60 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 120 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 180 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) 9(6) 29 59 239 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 X(5) X(6) 10(4) 30 60 299 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 nines: 1 tens+X: 29 X: 26 average: 9.97 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 0 10 9 10.00 5 0 10 10 10.00 6 1 9 7 9.90
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Continue reading → - Practice Report: Broken Arrow 012512 January 26, 2012Chris
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.
Practice Broken Arrow Jan 26, 2012 round: 1 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 60 60 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 120 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 59 179 X(4) X(6) 9(5) 29 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 239 X(5) X(6) 10(4) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 299 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 nines: 1 tens+X: 29 X: 25 average: 9.97 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 0 10 9 10.00 5 1 9 6 9.90 6 0 10 10 10.00
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Continue reading → - Practice Report: Broken Arrow 012412 January 25, 2012ChrisI started the day by shooting through paper with the new Shootoff release. I had managed to work out the left/right tear at Debbie’s and it was still gone, but I had about a 1″ tear high. I tried adjusting the rest, but I couldn’t get it better.I hadn’t shot it through paper since adjusting the control cable the week before, and I started to figure that must have been the difference. I shot a few arrows at a target and I still felt like I was getting a little up and down inconsistency, so I read an article on paper tuning and followed its advice and put on the .010 blade (replacing the .012). That took most of the high tear out, so I went over to the target to started shooting. After a few ends, I felt like I was shooting pretty well, but it seemed like the draw was just a bit long. I compared the Avenger to the Shootoff and found that the Shootoff was about 1/8 of an inch longer from the handhold to the point where the d-loop would be. I replaced the d-loop and shortened it by 1/8″, and things very a lot better.I settled down and started focusing on form. Again, the new release felt really good in my hand, and I seemed to aim better and more consistently for time. As the night progressed, I got more comfortable with it and started getting a little more aggressive on my back tension, and everything was working really well. In the end I shot 17 ends before it was time to leave (there was a Blazer game), and I cleaned them all. When I counted everything up, my first ten ends scored 300 and 24x, making it a personal best since returning to shooting.
Practice Broken Arrow Jan 24, 2012 Round 1 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(5) X(6) 10(4) 30 60 60 X(4) 10(5) 10(6) 30 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 60 120 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 60 180 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(5) 10(4) 10(6) 30 60 240 X(5) X(6) 10(4) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 300 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 360 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 X(5) X(6) 10(4) 30 60 420 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 480 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 30 510 M(4) M(5) M(6) 0 nines: 0 tens+X: 51 X: 40 average: 9.44 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 0 17 13 9.44 5 0 17 12 9.44 6 0 17 15 9.44
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Continue reading → - NW Shootup BowTech January 25, 2012Chris
I felt that I shot pretty well on the whole, I did a very good job of holding my form after the shot was gone, but I was in one of those all-or-nothing modes. Really good shots that hit x’s, or really bad shots that missed by a mile. I finished with a 295 / 20x, and that was with a goose egg on the final end.
I felt fairly confident going into the eliminations. Whenever I shot a good shot, it hit an X. I felt pretty calm as far as nerves… a little jittery, but nothing bad. Just the kind of thing that usually will keep my strong and on my toes. My practice arrows were all X’s, and I X’d out my first end as well. The second end started well for the first two arrows, but I flubbed my final arrow and shot it right out the top at 12. It was one of those shots that took a little too long but felt good right up until it broke, and then I flopped my arm straight down and my release hand went crazy.
Qualified 4, finished 5.
NW Shootup BowTech Jan 22, 2012 Qualifying 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 59 59 X(4) X(6) 9(5) 29 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 58 117 X(4) 9(5) 9(6) 28 X(4) 10(5) 10(6) 30 60 177 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 237 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(6) 9(5) 29 58 295 10(4) 10(6) 9(5) 29 nines: 5 tens+X: 25 X: 20 average: 9.83 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 0 10 9 10.00 5 4 6 4 9.60 6 1 9 7 9.90
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Continue reading → - NW Shootup Cascadian January 25, 2012Chris
During the week between the last NW Shootup and this one, I had creep-tuned my bow and managed to take out all of the unexplained up and down misses by removing one half twist from the control cable.
I had ordered a new release, a Stanislawksi Shootoff, and it arrived on Friday morning just before we went down to meet Debbie in Lebanon. We got there around 3:30 and I started shooting the new release. It felt really nice in my hand and after I got everything adjusted, it felt like I was much more consistent for time and hand position. I also felt like I was aiming better. The only thing that bothered me was that I kept hitting the right side of the target, just in the 10, over and over again, especially on my second arrow. There was a big hole there, so I just thought I was being pulled into as sometimes happens.
I decided to shoot it on Saturday. In the end, that turns out to be a mistake. I felt that I shot pretty well as far as form went, but I kept getting side to side misses that I could not explain. I dropped three points in four ends, and my X’s were sucking. I was very frustrated and disappointed and started to lose my mind a little bit. I don’t remember exactly what I was thinking, but I kept trying to nail my form, and the arrows kept edging out side to side. By the 8th or 9th end, I was more or less resigned to the fact that this score was in the toilet, and I calmed down and started really analyzing my shots, and even under critical examination, I thought I was shooting pretty well.
The eliminations went much the same, with me missing three arrows out of my six, all sprayed left and right, the last of which was off of what I really thought was a dead perfect shot. The frustration and disappointment were back in spades, I went outside and shot in the rain for 45 minutes trying to figure out what went wrong. Then I came back inside and shot another several hours, until my shoulder was just dead. In the end, I figured out that the new release just dropped arrows out the right.
After dinner, I went out into the garage and discovered that the new released had a pretty big left-high tear. The old release was almost perfect, but it too had a high-left tear. I did some work on the rest and go the left/right taken care of, and it even looked better on the Shootoff release, but I didn’t trust it and decided to shoot the Avenger, even though I tend to struggle with that release as the day wears on.
Qualified 8, finish 9.
NW Shootup Cascadian Jan 21, 2012 Qualifying 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 59 59 X(4) X(5) 9(6) 29 10(4) 10(6) 9(5) 29 58 117 X(4) 10(6) 9(5) 29 X(5) X(6) 10(4) 30 58 175 10(5) 9(4) 9(6) 28 10(4) 10(6) 9(5) 29 58 233 X(4) X(5) 9(6) 29 X(4) 10(5) 10(6) 30 60 293 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 nines: 7 tens+X: 23 X: 12 average: 9.77 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 1 9 6 9.90 5 3 7 3 9.70 6 3 7 3 9.70
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Continue reading → - NW Shootup Broken Arrow January 25, 2012ChrisAgain, I did not do an entry in a timely manner, so I am doing it now ten days after the fact.I felt that I shot really well. I can’t remember a single shot that I thought was really bad. There were a few that were less than perfect, but I thought everything was pretty decent on my end. On the target things were different: Many shots felt like they were edging out, especially high and low. I started thinking that maybe my bow was a little out of tune, probably the wheels. I decided to do some creep tuning before the next weekend.I dropped two nines on the day, both on shots that I felt were pretty decent and missed at 5 o’clock.I qualified 2nd (again), and felt pretty positive about my chances of winning. I won my first elimination round easily, 60/4x to 58/?x. Both shots that missed were a little high, and felt pretty good. In the Final, I pulled up for my first arrow and right before it went off, my arrow were bumped and my sight slide straight right and my release broke. 9 and 3:30. Major bummer. I adjusted my quiver, and shot two X’s. I was down 1 X and 1 point, with three arrows to go. At this point I wasn’t too confident, but I knew I still had a chance if I shot X’s.Unfortunately, I held long on two of the three and let loose with a pair of bad shots which missed at 5 and 11, and that was all she wrote. I qualified and finished 2nd.
NW Shootup BA Jan 15, 2012 Qualifying 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 60 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 10(4) 10(5) 10(6) 30 60 120 X(5) 10(4) 10(6) 30 X(4) X(5) 9(6) 29 58 178 X(4) X(5) 9(6) 29 X(4) X(5) 10(3) 30 60 238 X(4) X(5) 10(3) 30 X(5) 10(1) 10(4) 30 60 298 X(5) 10(1) 10(4) 30 nines: 2 tens+X: 28 X: 16 average: 9.93 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 1 0 2 0 10.00 3 0 2 0 10.00 4 0 10 6 10.00 5 0 10 9 10.00 6 2 4 1 9.67
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Continue reading → - WSAA MultiColor Day 2 January 25, 2012ChrisMom has it written down that I was feeling sick to my stomach, but I don’t remember that. I’m writing this a couple of weeks late, so its easy that I just forgot.I was disappointed in my performance the night before, but I also knew that I had it in my to shoot well. I’d shot pretty well in Bow the week before, and a couple of times in practice. Above all, I did a very good job of keeping my focus on my form.I remember fighting through a few shots, but I did a good job of letting down when I could and pushing through when I had to. I also did a much better job of holding my form after each shot than I had the night before. I was pretty much right on it. Around the 8th end I started getting a little nervous. On 9 was I really starting to feel it, but I managed to pull out three solid X’s by telling myself to stay strong, hit my form, and hold it afterward.Between ends 9 and 10, I went into the back room and practiced my form, telling myself to just hit my form like I had been all day and everything would be fine. But I was nervous. Really nervous. This would be first 300 of the year, and I really wanted it!By the time I got to the line, my heart rate was way up and thumping away in my neck in the manner that usually means bad news for my shooting. My first arrow was bouncing all over the target, so I let it down. I came back up, told myself just to pull and hit my form and the rest would take care of itself. The shot went off in about the right amount of time, and I drained a solid X. I thought I had it at that point. My second arrow was more wiggly than the first, my dot was bouncing all over the gold. I kept pulling, but I was starting to feel like I couldn’t pull it off if I was going to be this nervous. I let down once, came back up quickly, and shot a less than perfect shot which caught a ten line at 9 o’clock. Now my heart was really thumping. I took a deep breath, checked the clock, and pulled up at 24 seconds. I knew this was my last chance at this arrow, there would be no let downs. My dot was all over the place, I was struggling just to keep it in the gold. I told myself that I could hit it if I just held my form after the shot, but I didn’t really believe that. I held it a long time, struggled through the shot, and forced myself into proper form after the shot, but it missed and I wasn’t surprised at all.I was disappointed about missing the clean score, but it wasn’t like I shot a bad arrow, I was just way too worked up to hit three in a row. That wasn’t good, I knew, but it was good enough for the day. 299 / 22x was my best score and had a lot of things to build on, so I called it a win and moved on.My two day total was 596 / 38x.When the scores came in, I wound up in 3rd behind Sean Elza (598/39x) and Jon Huevel (599/50x).
WSAA Multi Jan 13, 2012 Day Two 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(6) 10(4) 10(5) 30 60 60 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 60 120 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 X(5) X(6) 10(4) 30 60 180 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 240 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 59 299 X(5) 10(4) 9(6) 29 nines: 1 tens+X: 29 X: 22 average: 9.97 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 4 0 10 7 10.00 5 0 10 8 10.00 6 1 9 7 9.90
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Continue reading → - WSAA MultiColor Day 1 January 25, 2012ChrisI am writing this very late, as I did not update anything at the time. Therefore my recollections are probably imprecise.I was in the middle of the worst part of my ear ache / jaw issue, and I had just recently started in on my medicine, which was upsetting my stomach. I had had a very hard time sleeping due to pain and intestinal distress.Mom and I went to Archery World to shoot for an hour or so before we went to dinner, and then Chinook for the 7pm line. I don’t remember much about the actual shooting, except that one of the points I dropped did not feel so bad, it just went a little lower then the others which had been knocking a hole at the 3 o’clock position. I do remember being disappointed that I had dropped the three points, because I thought that was probably too many to be very competitive. Although, I don’t remember getting very upset about it, I just more or less rolled with the punches. I do remember joking that I had shot “The Usual” since I had so frequently come in with a 296/297 and 16-18 x’s.
WSAA Multi Jan 13, 2012 Day One 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(1) X(5) 10(6) 30 60 60 X(1) X(5) 10(6) 30 X(5) X(6) 9(1) 29 59 119 10(1) 10(5) 10(6) 30 X(1) 10(5) 9(6) 29 59 178 X(1) X(5) 10(4) 30 X(1) X(4) X(5) 30 59 237 X(1) X(4) 9(5) 29 X(1) 10(4) 10(5) 30 60 297 X(5) 10(1) 10(4) 30 nines: 3 tens+X: 27 X: 16 average: 9.90 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 1 1 9 7 9.90 4 0 5 2 10.00 5 1 9 6 9.90 6 1 4 1 9.80
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Continue reading → - NW Shootup Nock Point January 8, 2012Chris
My jaw and ear were hurting very badly over night, and because of that I got very little sleep. I was taking ibuprofen and pseudaphed every three hours to keep the pain and inflammation down. By the time I started shooting I was also in quite a bit of pain from my neck muscles cramping. It apparently showed in face, because several people asked mom if I was feeling alright.
My game plan for shooting was the same as it had been before: Just keep shooting my form and trust that the arrows would find the middle. I started out feeling pretty confident given how things had gone the day before in Bow.
My practice ends were pretty good, but as usual by the time I got to the scoring rounds I was getting tight and having a harder and harder time getting through my shots. I started right off with a miss on the first end off of a really crummy shot, one of the ones where I aim pretty good and think it is there right up until the point of release, when my bow arm flies around and my release hand pops straight back. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day. If half of my shots felt like good ones, I’d be surprised.
I finished with a 297 / 15x. I was frustrated and disappointed because I really wanted to better my scores from the first two Shootups to help ensure a higher position at the Final, but instead I was worse. No help at all.
I qualified in third and tried to stay positive for the eliminations, which in my heart I felt I would lose because every time things got a little bit tough, I shot bad shots and hit nines. Still, I tried to keep my head together and kept telling myself to hit my form. I went on to lose my elimination round and wound up in 4th place. As usual, the two guys shooting in the round immediately after mine shot a 58 and 57 respectively, which sucked because I shot a 59 in mine.
Upon later reflection I realized that while I had been telling myself to “hit your form,” I had not been holding that form after the shot. When I made an effort to hold my form after the shot, I did a better job of getting into the correct post-shot form.
I also bought the Neat trainer thingy from Cory after the shoot.
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Jan 8, 2012 10:48 AM Target: FITA Total score: 297
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Continue reading → - NW Shootup Bow Washington January 7, 2012Chris
We got to Wilderness Archery about an hour early, and I warmed up a little. I was feeling a bit nervous but not too much. I did a very good job of keeping my focus on pulling through my shots, and not thinking about my score. Around the 6th end I started feeling a little bit nervous since I had not yet cleaned a whole half in a tournament or league this year. It was mild, but there was a level of excitement and nervousness that continued to grow. By the time I was in the 9th end, I was very nervous. My heart rate was noticeably high, and I was bobbing all over the target when I was aiming.
I missed my second arrow on the 9th end, meaning that I cleaned my first 28 arrows, a new record for me. My X’s were lower than I would have like, but I was satisfied with the 299. I placed second, 2 X’s behind Rick.
When the Elims came around, I was still sort of nervous feeling but I held it together pretty well on the first end. On the second I was fighting my release pretty bad, and I tried letting down several times, but finally I pushed a rough shot and hit a nine at 12 o’clock on my third arrow. I figured that would be it for me, but Kitt missed his last arrow as well, which meant we tied. I was irritated I had dropped the point and I was determined not to lose the shoot-off. I let my first arrow down three times. Kit was done with all three before I had fired my first shot. I struggled through them all, but I came out with three good shots nonetheless, and finished with three X’s. That was good enough to win.
I was still nervous and still struggling in the Final, and I shot another 9. I figured that pretty much did it, and that assessment proved to be correct. I stayed in in 2nd place and won $66 bucks.
NW Shootup Bow WA Jan 7, 2012 Qualifying Round 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(1) X(3) 10(4) 30 60 60 X(3) X(5) 10(1) 30 X(1) 10(3) 10(5) 30 60 120 X(1) X(5) 10(3) 30 X(1) X(3) X(5) 30 60 180 X(5) 10(1) 10(3) 30 X(1) X(3) 10(5) 30 60 240 X(1) X(5) 10(3) 30 X(1) X(3) 9(5) 29 59 299 X(1) 10(3) 10(5) 30 nines: 1 tens+X: 29 X: 18 average: 9.97 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 1 0 10 8 10.00 3 0 10 5 10.00 4 0 1 0 10.00 5 1 8 5 9.89 NW Shootup Bow WA Jan 7, 2012 Eliminations 20yd 1 2 3 sum balance X(1) X(3) 10(5) 30 30 X(1) X(3) 9(5) 29 59 X(1) X(3) X(5) 30 89 10(1) 10(3) 9(5) 29 118 X(1) 10(3) 10(5) 30 148 nines: 2 tens+X: 13 X: 8 average: 9.87 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 1 0 5 4 10.00 3 0 5 3 10.00 5 2 3 1 9.60 —Sent from my iPhone
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Continue reading → - League Report – Chinook 122811 January 1, 2012Chris
Shannon and I went out to Chinook to shoot in their Wednesday night league tonight, since I was going to be at Blazer games on both Tuesday and Thursday.
We left late and arrived while they were scoring their second end. I put my stuff together while they were shooting their third end, so I started cold on End 4. I shot three pretty good shots to start, but my second target was barely in at 11 o’clock. The other two were X’s.
I struggled most of the evening to put together many good shots in a row. The first several ends followed a very similar pattern: First shot good, second shot bad, third shot good. I did that for the first 4-5 ends, dropping three points in the process.
Towards the end I really focused on hitting the second arrow, and I started getting some X’s on that target, but I was still having a hard time keeping things together. My form was just off. I kept feeling like I was pulling through strong, but when the shot went my release hand popped out and away instead of coming back to my shoulder like its supposed to. Sometimes I think that I just tense my muscles instead of actually pulling. I’ll have to investigate that in the future.
Ends 5-6 were six solid X’s on pretty good shots, although one of them I held a long time. End 7 was a 2X with the third arrow just barely out left. I was thinking about wanting to finish out with all X’s and that is probably where I went wrong.
I shot pretty well for the rest of the time until the last end. I wanted to finish with a three X. I always want to finish strong, I think it is important. First arrow was a solid X, right in the hole I’d been in all day. Two was inside out. Three was tough. I pulled up, tried to pull through but it wasn’t there so I let it down. I came back up, kept telling myself to hit my form, to bring my hand back to my shoulder, but instead my release hand jumped straight out behind me and my bow arm shot straight up. The arrow was middle nine at 9 o’clock.
The last arrow was very frustrating because the only reason I missed it was because I was nervous because it was the last arrow. That’s a big fail in my book, and something that I always try to avoid. I hate missing my last arrow more than anything else. Even more upsetting, I was telling myself to hit my form, and in practice it was probably the worst shot of the whole night.
I finished up with a 296 and 21X. The score was disappointing, but the X’s were OK. My take away from today is that I need to keep working on my form and make sure that I always hit my form, that my hand comes back to my shoulder and the bow arm pops straight forward. When I do that, I nail X’s all day.
After I got back I discovered a neat new program from arrow plotting and scoring called iArcheryScores. It pretty much does everything that TargetMate does, but it has one feature that I really want: it tracks individual arrow performance. Below you can see there are arrow plots for each of the arrows that I shot tonight. I switched out Arrow 3 because it felt like it was going high, so that is why there is only one mark on that target.
So far it seems pretty neat.
Arrow Order: 4-(3)-6-5
League Chinook Dec 28, 2011 round: 1 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) X(3) 10(5) 30 59 59 X(4) X(3) 9(5) 29 X(4) X(6) 9(5) 29 58 117 X(4) 10(6) 9(5) 29 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 60 177 X(4) X(6) X(5) 30 X(4) X(6) X(5) 30 60 237 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 X(4) X(6) 10(5) 30 59 296 X(4) X(6) 9(5) 29 nines: 4 tens+X: 26 X: 21 average: 9.87 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 3 0 1 0 10.00 4 0 10 9 10.00 5 1 9 8 9.90 6 3 6 4 9.67 Continue reading →—Sent from my iPhone - Tournament Report: NW Shoot Up 1 & 2 December 12, 2011Chris
Saturday Qualifying Round
This will be a combined post for both days.
I started out shaky on the first day, a little nervous I guess. Dropped my first arrow high-right, then shot a 27 on the 4th end. The X’s were pretty good: I was popping out holes inside-out in the X, but I was having trouble stringing together more than two good shots in a row. The 27 came off of three crappy shots in a row, and that pissed me off enough that it knocked some sense into me. I started really focusing on my form and doing better.
The only thing to note was that it was very dark where I was shooting and I was struggling to see a bit, especially on the bottom bale where I started. I also got gyped out of an X somewhere along the line. My count showed 19, but the official score was 18.
The eliminations were not good. I was very nervous and bouncing all over the target while I was aiming. The shots felt OK, but only one of them felt perfect. My last one in particular was crummy. I was very disappointed.
I finished 5th in the First Flight.
I shot my 2315’s on Saturday, but I bought some new Gold Tip Triple X Pro’s to shoot on Sunday.
Sunday Qualifying Round
I got to Archers Afield a little early on Sunday so I could shoot the Gold Tips a bit and see if they were flying well. They had a little bit of a knock-high tear, but they seemed to be grouping well, so I went with them
I felt more confident on Sunday. Things started out pretty good, I felt like I was shooting my shots really well. My first target was practically inside-out X’s all day, except for a couple. For some reason my number 2 target kept hitting high, right around the ten line. The shots felt good, and arrows were hitting the same holes, but they were high. I switched arrows twice and finally started getting X’s, but without that little issue I think I would have scored about 5 X’s higher. All in all I thought I shot the qualifier round pretty well.
The three points I dropped was disappointing, but only one of them was really a bad a shot. The first point was on target three, and I think I just aimed too hard and didn’t pull through. I was getting a little tired and I did that thing where my release hand pops funny and it went straight high.
The second point I dropped was on target two, and it was just a touch right of where those high arrows had been hitting, missing by a hair. The shot felt good. It actually hit the exact hole where both practice arrows had gone.
The third was my first arrow on the last end, and I had a pretty good focus on form because I was feeling a bit nervous, but it came off a little fast and missed by about 1/8 inch at 7 o’clock. I think it came off fast because I was excited and pulled through a little too hard.
I finished 2nd in the First flight with a 297/18. My target looked a lot better than that.
Sunday Eliminations
I felt better going into the eliminations on Sunday that I had on Saturday. On Saturday I just knew I was going lose. I didn’t feel it. On Sunday, I knew I could do it. I was nervous that I wouldn’t, and I sort of expected to win the first and lose the second due to nerves, but it was just a different mindset. My arrows had been landing so well that I knew the only question was hitting my form. If I hit my form, I’d hit X’s. It all came down to that, and that left me feeling pretty good. I wasn’t overly confident because I have had some issues being consistent under pressure, but I had some more confidence in my equipment than I have of late, and that just made me feel better.
Chuck Bakies was my first opponent. I was very focused on my internal mantra and really wasn’t all that nervous at first. I was excited, but not really nervous. Or maybe I should say nervous but not scared? It’s hard to explain.
I pulled up, held solid, and shot a perfect, dead center X. That felt really good and proved to me that I could do it. The next shot was was likewise calm, and likewise dead center. For whatever reason, that was when the nerves started in. I pulled up on the third arrow, started to aim and found myself bouncing around. I started to push through it, but then thought “No. This is isn’t right. Let it down.” So I did. My hands were starting to sweat and my heart was accelerating, but I told myself “Just shoot your form. It’s easy to shoot your form. The arrows will go where they go.” I pulled up, but I was still shakey: my dot was bouncing around the target more than I like. Not awful, but more than I like. But, I just kept pulling through my shot, telling myself to hit my form and then boom! The shot went off, and the arrow hit a ten, just a hair out of the X. A very solid shot.
That made 30 and 2 X’s for me, 29 and 1 X for Chuck. I felt fairly confident at that point, but I did not want to get cocky. I still had three arrows to go, and that was a long way. The new, larger arrows make a big hole in the target and I could see it clearly through my scope, and since it was right dead-center in the middle, I locked onto that hole and pulled through as cleanly as I could. The shot went off well, and the arrow slid silently into the same hole in the center of the target. That one felt really good! The next arrow was a tough one. I was starting to feel pretty confident now, and that can be as deadly as being too nervous. I started to aim too hard, losing my focus on my form in place of trying to hit the X. I let it down, closed my eyes, and shot a perfect shot which landed on the crosshairs of the X. Now I felt good. Even if I shot a 9, I was still going to win on X’s, so all I had to do was stay in the yellow. That took some pressure off, and I drained another inside-out X.
Next up was Jim Valencort. I’ve known Jim pretty much since I started shooting, and that is always fun, shooting with people you know. Jim shot really well in the qualifying round, ending with a 299 and 15 X’s. The archer in the higher seed gets to pick their shooting position, left or right, and Jim opted to take the left, leaving me on the same target. I was feeling a bit nervous again, but nothing out of control. I thought that was a good thing. I knew I was going be strong with the extra adrenaline, and I just needed to keep my focus, keeping pulling through and hit my form, and I figured I could win it.
The first arrow was a little tough. I let it down after bouncing around a bit and I felt myself tightening up on the aim. I took a breath, told myself again that I just needed to hit my form, and ended up shooting a perfect shot that drilled the X. Jim was shooting faster than me and I heard his second arrow hit virgin paper, and the crowd’s reaction told me it was probably a nine, but I made sure not to look at it. “You just need to shoot your form,” I kept telling myself. My second arrow was much like the first: I struggled a bit, let it down, and then shot a solid X on a near perfect execution. The third arrow started out well, but I struggled though it just a bit. When it went off, I didn’t like the shot. It didn’t feel bad, but it felt a little tight, my release hand came out a little instead of straight back like it should, but the arrow caught an X 9 o’clock. It wasn’t a bad shot, but it wasn’t perfect either, and I felt I had gotten away with something.
30 and 3 X’s for me, 29 and 0 for Jim. On the way down to pull our arrows, Jim and I were joking around a bit. “My knees were shaking so bad I could barely stand,” Jim told me. I laughed, but didn’t say anything. Bob Green always told me never to let anyone know you are other than calm and in control, so I just smiled and kept quiet.
I knew the match was mine to win. I had a one point lead, and three arrows to go. All I had to do was shoot my form, and it was all done. Saying it was easy… doing it in front of a room full of people is another. “You have to shoot ’em first,” I told myself. “You don’t have anything yet. Just shoot your form.”
First shot was an X. Second shot was another X. Both felt really good when they came off, and both hit just about dead center. I hadn’t looked at Jim’s target, but I’d heard virgin paper again instead of the soft spot in the center, so I felt confident that I had it no matter what. Still, I wanted an X. I wanted to drain the last shot, in front of everyone, like it wasn’t ‘nothin’. Like a pro.
I pulled up, bounced around a little, tightened up, held it too long. I almost pushed through, but finally I said “Nope!” and let it down. I shook my head, took a breath, told myself to shoot my form, just hit my form. I pulled up, held pretty well and shot a good shot. I didn’t get my X, instead hitting the same hole from my first round just a hair out of the X at 12 o’clock, but it was a totally solid 10. Debbie said that both rounds looked like 6 X’s through her binocs, but up close there was a sliver of yellow, so it was a 30 and 2 X. I honestly don’t know what Jim shot, but didn’t matter, because he couldn’t catch up. I had won.
I was very proud of myself during the eliminations. I didn’t shoot a single bad shot, and I think I laid down 11 perfects out of 12. That’s pretty good under pressure, and definitely the best I’ve done since starting again. This is something that I think I can look back on in the future when I find myself shooting with some nerves, remember what I did here, and duplicate it.
Today was a very good day!
—————————————
Start date: Dec 10, 2011 10:58 AM Target: FITA Total score: 296 19x
Start date: Dec 11, 2011 2:04 PM Target: FITA Total score: 297 18x
— Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Washington State FITA Championships Day 2 November 20, 2011Chris
I don’t really have a much time to go into details here, but I finished up a little bit better on the second day, scoring 580 on the day. That is in line with the 290 average I wanted to maintain, even if it is on the bottom end. All in all I felt I shot very well. I was actually on track for about a 585, but I got into a little jag where I couldn’t get my poop in a group, and I dropped seven points in just nine arrows (accounting for all but one of the misses in the outer yellow that you see at left). Aside from that stretch I felt very solid.
I am unsure of placement because I shot Friday-Saturday and there were still guys shooting on Sunday who weren’t done yet. I will post an update when I hear from WSAA.
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Nov 19, 2011 11:33 AM Target: FITA Inner Ten Total score: 580
Tens: 40 Nines: 20 Shots with proper execution: 57/66
Two Day Total: 1156
— Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Washington State FITA Championship November 19, 2011Chris
We started this line at 7pm and did not finish until after 11pm, so at this point it is is after midnight. As such I am going to keep this brief.I shot 288 on both rounds today, for a total of 576. (600 is possible). My general rule is that I shouldn’t drop below a 290, so I was a bit off of that but not so far as to be really disappointed. (FITA tournaments score this target differently than most. For FITA, only the very small dime-sized X-Ring counts as a ten. Everything else in the yellow is a nine. The X-Ring is not really visible in the image at left, because it is underneath a pile of hit indicators. For comparison, using normal Vegas scoring, I would have shot 596/36X out of a possible 600/60X.)
I felt that I shot pretty well most of the night. I stayed pretty calm and focused on my form and usually when I missed I could identify why. I got shakier as the night wore on and my shoulder got sore, but that is par for the course right now. I really need to into the shop to shoot 3-4 times a week (instead of once a week like I have been), and I also need to get into the gym as well and build up my shoulder strength.
I don’t know my placement so far because a lot of people did not shoot tonight: you have to shoot two of the three days (Fri-Sun), and only a few adults shot the Friday line. I’m guessing that score should put me in the top 5-6, but I find it doubtful I would be higher than that.
All in all I feel OK with today. I messed some up, but I shot pretty well overall. Tomorrow is the next day, as the man says.
The rest of the post will be my self critique and shooting notes. Read on if you like, but it will prolly be boring. 😉
Continue reading → - Practice Report 090511 September 5, 2011Chris
Shannon and I went shooting this afternoon, the second day in a row I had gone out. I shot yesterday for about 3.5 hours, so my shoulder was a bit tired to start out today, though nothing too bad.I had spent most of yesterday working on my new Freak Show rest, and after about 30 minutes today I found that I felt it was not quite right yet. (I should mention that I am shooting my 328’s again, thanks to the Freak Show which mounts behind the TEC on my Contender Elite, allowing me to shoot a shorter arrow. I was shooting FF 200 vanes and 100g points.)
I rummaged around in the cook shack and found some paper I could use to papertune, and found that I had a very small low-left tear. (The nock-end was low-left). I made some minor corrections, which got me shooting bullet holes and seemed to make a difference in the grouping, though I still sort of think there might be a slight right-ward drift as I go to longer distances. Its sort of hard to tell: I shot several ends that grouped pretty much on target at 10 and 80 yards, but as has been the case since returning, pretty much every miss is right, and more often than not, high-right. I really don’t know what causes that, but it is very frustrating.
I quickly got some sight marks and we set out for a field course. I felt I was holding pretty well, but I had much the same experience as I did the last time I shot: it felt like my sight marks were not quite right.
The first target (15) was a 36 fan, which should be easy since it is a slightly oversized target for the distance. My first arrow was well executed, though I was having a lot of trouble seeing due to standing in the bright sun and shooting into the shadow. It hit about one inch high at 1:30. I adjusted my sight up three clicks and the second arrow was a 5/X liner at 11:30. Number three was in the same basic spot, but it was a five. The fourth shooting stake was in the shade, so I could actually see well. I aimed solidly, executed well, coming to rest with my bow arm forward, extended at the target and my release on my shoulder. The arrow drilled the X.
The next couple of shots are close ones, a 15 and 28 fan, which I cleaned. (Barely on the 28 fan, a poor shot that was aimed left barley caught at 11 o’clock). On target 18 (44 yards) My first shot was slightly right and about 1/4 out of the spot. The other day when I shot that target, I put all four arrows into a quarter-sized group in the same spot. I adjusted my sight and shot two nice 5’s touching each other a little high in the spot, then a couple more clicks and I shot a five at the bottom.
Next up is the 70 walk-up. I set my sight, adjusted for the down angle, and it at 5 o’clock 1 inch out of the spot. 65 went in the X, and 61 and 58 went right beside the first one, so that all three were in a group the size of a quarter. The exact same thing happened the last time I shot this course also.
After that I was getting a little frustrated. It feels like the only times I ever shoot really consistent groups on a field course, they are outside of the bullseye.
The next target is a 40 yarder, and my first shot was mid-four at 1 o’clock. I held well and felt like I executed OK, but the bow rocked backward (top limb toward me) like happens sometimes, so I wasn’t all that surprised to see the highness. The next shot I made a effort to extend my arm after the shot, and it drilled the X at 11. Next shot was next to it. The last shot I was really thinking about pulling through with my right shoulder and back, and pushing with my left arm, and it went off very fast while I was on the left edge at 9 o’clock. It missed by about 1/8th of an inch. That was frustrating too. Now it felt like I was having trouble shooting well and coupled with the grouped misses I was disappointed that I was not going to wind up with a score in the range I want to be in. I know I can average around a 275 in my head, I just can’t seem to prove it to myself when practicing. The only pair of 275’s that I have ever shot were both in tournaments, one at the Sectionals and one at the State Field.
Pretty soon I was down 9 points and coming up to the uphill shot that always seems to have my number. I remembered that for whatever reason I needed to be about one half bubble to the left to hit the spot on the up hill, so I bubbled over, pulled through well and hit a five at 1 o’clock. Two clicks up and I drilled three X’s to finish with my first ever 20 on that target. I felt pretty good about that.
The next target is uphill as well, and I did not check the angle on my phone. I just shot it for the same 10 degrees as the previous target, which I think is incorrect. I think it is more like 7-8 degrees, which is probably why my first shot was out the bottom. It probably would have caught, but I dipped down just as I shot and missed the spot by about 1/4 inch. I adjusted my sight, drilled two X’s, and I was thinking that I was going to come out of these two targets down only one point, and blam0: a poor shoot, juked to the left with a funky release and a miss at 7.
The next target is a 32 fan which has also caused my trouble in the past, mainly with level issues. I paid special attention to my level, shot two nice X’s and an outer-edge 5 on the left side, then a weak-ass dip-and-collapse shot at 5:30. Just for self satisfaction, I shot another arrow, which held OK and felt OK but did the bounce-back thing and went to 1 o’clock on the pro-line.
The next two are a 19-17 and an 11 which I aced, then it was on to a 64 walk-up to finish up. My first shot was a little left when it fired and was a jar-licker at 9. The target was very shot out so it was hard to tell if it caught or not, but it looked about 1/4 of a shaft in to me so I counted it. The next three were pretty solid shots and were all X’s, ranging from 9 to 3 in a straight line.
The final score was a 268. Going over the targets again, I fell safe in saying that 5 points can be chalked up to sight issues, on ends 1, 4 and 5. The rest are mostly all my own. Still, if I had not had those unexplained misses, that would have been a 273. I also had a couple of pop-back misses high, which were otherwise well executed shots. Thinking about that makes me feel a bit better and closer to my goal, but I don’t like having to do fancy math after the fact to translate what my score “Should/could have been.” I need to get to the point where it is just where I want it to be, no if’s and’s or but’s. Until then, I just have delusions of grandeur that don’t quite match the reality.
After that I went to the practice range again for a little bit. I shot a few arrows at 80, pulling a pretty decent 24 out of my ass with two bob-left-and-release-funny shots which touched each other at 9 on the 5/4. My last shot was actually well aimed and executed and landed at 11 on the 5/X line. I had one miss at 11 also, which is exactly where it was when I released it.
Then I moved up to 50. My first shot did the pop-back thing and hit a pro-line at 5. Then it was an X off a nice shot, a five at 3 barely in and two crappy shots, both of which felt like they popped back and went at 12 and 1 o’clock respectively, about 1/2 inch out.
I adjusted my stabilizer weights so that the front two are almost touching, leaving the other two where they had been: one around the middle, and the other one at the very back. I honestly don’t remember the next end for arrow placement, but I do remember that it felt like I held a little better. The bow definitely was not popping-back any more: it fell just slightly forward after the shot of its own volition, but did not swing quickly down like it has in the past.
My last end was a pretty decent group. The first shot between the upper X legs, and the second was a bit of a struggle and was a 5/4 liner, clearly in. The next two shots were both a little slow to release as well, but they were inside-out on-the-cross X’s.
Hopefully the greater weight distribution out front will keep the bow from popping back like it has been. I just hope it doesn’t put undo stress on my shoulder having the weight out so far.
—————————————
Start date: Sep 5, 2011 3:24 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Field Total score: 268 29 X’s.
— Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Outdoor Sectionals June 18, 2011Chris
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
Continue reading → - League Report – 061311 June 14, 2011Chris
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
Continue reading → - practice report – 060511 June 6, 2011Chris
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
Continue reading → - Tournament Report – WCW FITA Day 1 April 30, 2011Chris
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
Continue reading → - Practice Report – 042211 April 27, 2011Chris
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
Continue reading → - practice report – 042011 April 27, 2011Chris
I shot this round with Mom, after having adjusted the rest a little bit and installing the knurled knob on the release. I did not write a report at the time, and I don’t really remember anything substantial about this day. I finished with a 270, which was 6 point better than my previous best on the same course, but it was 11 X’s better, which is significant.
I felt I was holding really well, and mostly I felt like I shot very well. However, when I missed I missed pretty big, which was a bit concerning.
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Apr 20, 2011 6:04 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Field Total score: 270 33 X’s
— Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Practice Report – 041711 April 17, 2011Chris
I picked up Shannon and we went out to Sylvan today around noon.
I shot for about 45 minutes or so on the practice range to get new sight marks (I had made some adjustments to my rest the last time I shot), with marginal success. I started out shooting at 80 and thought I had a pretty good mark, although it was hard to tell for sure because I seldom got two arrows to land next to each other.
I started out shooting the Doinker stabilizer, but it just feels too light, so I switched it out for the 4-rod Kudlacek with the silver weights. I had tried the other 4-rod with the heavier weights before, and it felt good, but it really hurt my shoulder after a day of shooting so I went with the lighter weight one to see if would be a little better, since it was heavier than the Doinker by lighter than the black 4-rod.
I also was using the knurled knob on my release today, which I just purchased from Lancaster. For the first part of the day I had it in the inside hole on the release trigger, but eventually I moved it to the outer hole on the trigger. I liked it better on the outer part.
After I got what I thought were pretty decent marks, I decided to walk the the A1 course. I hadn’t shot a field course is probably 10 years, and I really felt it on a few targets. The uneven footing and side-slanting hills were unfamiliar to me and translated into some missed shot, especially left and right with the side slopes. I rarely ever look at my level, but I was trying to keep an eye on it today because I would level to the terrain which often times led to my bubble being buried in one side of the other, and naturally that meant arrows out the right or left, accordingly.
I also had some issues with my sight marks. For the first 7-8 targets, my first arrow was low every time. I eventually started adding a yard or so to everything over about 40 yards, and 2-3 clicks for everything between 25-40. That helped a lot, but that is also when I started missing more from side to side thanks to the leveling situation mentioned earlier.
All-in-all I felt pretty good about the field course. I only shot a 262, which is not really very good, but several of those points that I dropped were good shots that hit low because of poor sight marks. 262 puts me on pace for a 524, which is about where I expected to be based on the practice range shooting, and I actually think that without the sight marks problem I would have been in the 530’s somewhere, which isn’t really all that bad. As I recall, low 540’s is about the best I ever did before, so this wasn’t a bad starting off point, all things considered.
After the field course, I went back up to the practice range and tried to get better marks. I’m not sure what accounted for the change, but 80 yards was off by almost 2 full lines, and 20 was off a little bit too. Both low. Since 20 and 80 are the fixed distances that all the other calculations are based on (using Archer’s Mark for iPhone), it makes sense that everything would be off if those two were wrong. And, since 80 was significantly off, it makes sense the longer distances were off more than the shorter ones. After I got those marks shot in and re-entered them into Archer’s Mark, my calculated marks were much better. I tested them by shooting 40 and 60, and both seemed pretty much spot on, although maybe just a click or two high. Still top of the X ring at worst, though.
Since my shoulder was a little sore, I decided to remove one of the silver weights on my stabilizer. I chose one of the silver ones because they are lighter, and I only wanted to remove a little weight. I’m hoping for a nice balance between being heavy enough to help me aim well, while being light enough so it doesn’t hurt my shoulder too much.
I also monkied with the knurled knob on my release at this point, moving it further out and rotating it up, so that it really got into the fleshing part of my thumb. I really, really liked this. Its a little twitchy, so I have to keep my thumb off of it the whole time I am drawing and settling in, but being able to get a good amount of my thumb on the release makes me get through the shot fast and easy. It is really great. My shoulder actually felt less tired and sore after 30 minutes of shooting this way than it did when I started that segment, which is fantastic.
Plus, it just makes my form feel natural. I pull up, settle in, let the dot get into the spot, then I put that knob into the webbing on my thumb and about 1-2 seconds later bam! The shot goes. Everything feels controlled, I’m not struggling or fighting my way through. My form felt all around better too, more controlled, bigger explosion on the release side. No fighting to keep my dot on the spot while I’m pulling through. No craziness in the bowarm, where it explodes wierd, or collapses, or just feels crappy as soon I release.
This way it just feels smooth and simple.
I’ve had flashes of that feeling here and there since I started again, but this was the longest period I have gone feeling like it was pretty easy to hit spots. And I was slapping arrows all the way out to 80 yards, on good shots. I shot one 25 at 80 yards, and a couple 25’s and 24’s at 60 yards, with the misses coming off of shots that I knew were going to miss when I shot them because of aiming problems.
I feel very encouraged tonight. I didn’t break any records today, but its another one of those performances that feels like something I can build on. Although I do feel a little apprehensive as well: So far, every day that I’ve left the range feeling encouraged has been followed up by a day that was just thoroughly frustrating.
Hopefully today will be the end of that streak.
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Apr 17, 2011 2:27 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Field Total score: 262
— Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Practice Report 0403011 April 3, 2011Chris
The weather cooperated nicely today by being overcast but dry, so I took my bow out to Sylvan this afternoon to start getting it setup for the outdoor season.
I forgot to transfer my T-square to my new quiver (which I got as a birthday present from Mom and Mo), so I wasn’t able to really measure anything before I started messing around. Still, for the 2613’s I had the nock point at zero when I had the T-square in the center of the launcher fork, so I should be able to get it back there again easily enough.
Since I didn’t have the square I just had to use the level to find the right spot for the rest. I also had to level out he rest, because I had it tipped a little bit toward the strings (not on purpose, that is just how it wound up when I set it up the first time). I leveled that to the cable guard – since there isnt’ really a good, level spot to measure on any where else – then I brought the rest up until the shaft was more or less level as well. It was a little hard to know if it was dead level, since I had to jury-rig a system with my limb-pod and stabilizer to find “level”, so the setup was basically a rough starting point.
I started out shooting at 20 yards and it grouped pretty well, all X’s so I figured that was good and moved to 40. I was a little bit wiggly, but more or less things seemed pretty good. Good shots were mostly X’s or just out. I wrote down my sight mark and moved on. (I wasn’t using my new Archer’s Mark app because I didn’t have anything to get the measurements/weights that I need for the initial calibration).
When I moved out to 60 I noticed some left and right variation in the groups, and I also noticed that I was having a great deal of difficulty holding well. I’d been planning on putting the Kudlacek stabilizer, so I went out to the car and grabbed the old 4 shaft stabilizer with the black weights. I think these weights are heavier than the silver weights on the other bow.
It felt quite a bit heavier, but man what a difference the extra weight made in the aim. At 60 yards I was holding pretty much inside-out spot, and the groups closed in to just a little bigger than the X ring, unless I did something that I knew as going to put it out.
I took a guess at the 80 yard mark, and my first shot hit 3 O’clock X line. My next arrow was a little low left in the 4 (where I aimed it), and my next 3 were all spots: 1 X, one low five, and and one at 12 O’clock on the line. My next end was about same.
I moved back to 40 for a few minutes, and I was holding inside-out X ring and slapping arrows together. I doubled checked my 20 yard mark, and again I was holding very well and slapping arrows.
All in all I felt pretty good about how things went today. I like the added weight and general feel of the Kudlacek stab, so I’ll probably stick with that in the future. I want to shoot at distance a lot more, but I was pretty confident after shooting this afternoon.
Continue reading → - Practice Report – 032311 March 23, 2011Chris
We tried to shoot outside today, we even went out to Sylvan, but by the time we got there it was pouring rain so we went over to Archers Afield and shot there.
The first 4-5 arrows were pretty shaky on the aim and scattered a bit, but I got things under control by the time I started scoring. (I adjusted the left-side v-bar to stick out away from the bow a little more, offering some off-center balance to see how it felt. I think it may have steadied me up a little, but I’m not sure how much if really helped.)
I cleaned the first 5 ends, mostly shooting 2x’s and a pretty close miss, although I did have some legitimate fat-shafters in there too. All in all I felt I was shooting very well, and the v-bars were still helping to keep my aim under pretty good control. I do think I want to add a little additional weight to the v-bars though. Tonight I added 5 stabilizer weights on the bow behind the stabilizer, which helped to steady things down.
The first five ends were really easy, my aim was good and my shots were coming off clean and smooth. In fact, things were so smooth that I forgot to go through my mantra of focusing on form, feeling where the bow and release will end up. Instead I was just sort of blanked out. End six started with two almost perfect X’s, and when I was aiming the third one I distinctly remember thinking to myself “you cant miss”. Naturally, I proved myself wrong instantly by shooting a six O’clock 9.
Fortunately, that woke me up and I tried to focus on my form to finish up from there. It took a few arrows to get back in the swing and I was struggling just a bit, but everything was very solid 10 ring, but only 1x 30s on 7-9.
I knew I had a good round going, and I really wanted to stay clean the rest of the way, so each end I got a little more nervous/excited. By the last one I was fairly amped up. No butterflies or anything, just a level of excitement and a feeling that if I dropped a point here I would be very disappointed in myself.
I used that excitement as motivation. While I was aiming I made sure I was staying strong, doing my push-pull routine and going through my mental mantra of focusing on form. I literally told myself “shoot your form and you will hit x’s. All that matters is your ending form position”. The first two were solid shots, both nearly inside-out x’s. That left me feeling very confident on the third and final shot. Although, not overly confident like before. Instead, while I was aiming I told myself “I don’t care where the shots goes, I am going to hit my final form position”. The shot went a second later and landed a dead center, inside-out, hair-splitter X.
Round 1: 299 19x
I still had an hour before the shop closed, so I decided to shoot another round. I really thought I could clean it and get the 300 I’ve been waiting for.
I started out OK, but I could tell I was getting tired, struggling a lot to get through my shots, and holding a long time, even though I was still going through my mantra of form first. On the second end I drilled the first arrow, fought through the second, let it down, and fought through it again, and shot a horrible, weak shot which went skirting out into the tomato patch. (As it turned out, it actually broke into the nine ring by about a millimeter, but it was still ugly.) I tried to recover on the third shot, fought it as well, let it down, and shot another horrible, ugly nine, though this one was inside-out gold at least.
I took a breather and drank some soda pop, then came back sort of fired up and shot 3 solid X’s, though I was still fighting through every shot. Ends 4 and 5 were both difficult again, and I dropped a nine on each one. At that point, I was very frustrated and contemplated going home, since I was struggling so hard, shooting bad shots (something I don’t really want to practice), but I really hate to end on a bad note, so I solidered on. I took a look at my trigger tension and discovered that the setscrew was loose again: instead of being 1/2 turn from firing on its own, it was 1.5 turns. I readjusted the tension to where I normally keep it, and started shooting again.
Now that the release was not so hard to pull through, I started coming through my shots pretty easily again. After a couple arrows, everything was feeling pretty natural again. Since I wasn’t holding each shot so long, my shoulders started to recover a bit and my aim settled down again to almost perfect, which in turn made it easier to concentrate on my form, which I did a good job of.
One thing to note: especially when I get tired, I have to make sure that my bow arm stays strong through the whole shot. Working a very subtle push-pull thing seems to work very well. Usually I envision a rod extending between the back of my bow hand and the knuckles on my release hand, and then I see that rod extending out a little bit, pushing my hands away from each other. I have no idea if that is at all representative of what actually happens, but when I think that my bow arm winds up with a little forward movement after the shot and the shots are solid. When I forget to do that, or lose track of my bow arm, it tends to stop the forward motion and things get ugly fast.
After that I shot 3x’s, 1x, 3x’s, 1x and then another 3 solid x’s to finish out the round. The arrows that missed the x were all solid tens, mostly just out at 3 O’clock but still solid 10. Except for one. I had one arrow sneak out a long way at 3 O’clock, barely fat-shafting through the line on target 2. I hung to the right on #2 all day, despite changing arrows.
I finished that round with a 296 18x, and a total of 595 37x for the pair.
I actually feel better about the shooting than the score makes it look. For the most part, I felt very solid and composed today, and even though I went through the one rough patch, I definitely feel I can build on this sort of shooting. I need to cement my mental process in place, watching myself to ensure that I am thinking about my form and feeling it in my mind before I actually release. One promising trend is that whenever I start to feel anxious at all, that mantra comes through loud and clear, and when that happens, I drill the x. That is very encouraging.
Technical note: I took the old chrome stabilizer weights off the riser and them on the V-bars after I got home today. This will put a little more weight down low on the bow, which I think will make the bow balance out a little better.
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Mar 23, 2011 6:05 PM Target: FITA Total score: 595 37x
Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Practice Report – 032111 March 21, 2011Chris
I shot the Contender today at Archery World. I did not track my shots in Targetmate, so I don’t have an arrow plot for today.
I shot at least 120-150 arrows yesterday, so my shoulder was tired when I started today. Still, it wasn’t too bad.
The first hour or so went very much like they had gone yesterday at Archers Afield: Pretty good but only about 3/4 of the time. One consistent factor in both days is that I could not aim well at all. My dot kept dancing all around the yellow, and unless I shot a spot on perfect release the arrow either missed or fat-shafted a 10. There was very little consistency.
I mentioned to Mom that I was having a very hard time aiming, and she suggested that maybe we should try a V-bar setup. We had spotted a stabilizer/V-Bar combo in the consignment case for $200. We went and took a look at it today, and it turned out to be a pretty impressive set: A 34″ Doinker long-rod, a stabilizer weight for the long-rod, a Doinker adjustable V-Bar bracket, some other kind of down-angle fixed V-Bar bracket, two 10″ V-Bars with weights and an additional 5-rod Kudlacek stabilizer with a down-angle quick-release. All said and told, when new, these items probably cost $600 bucks, so the $200 price tag is quite fantastic.
I bought it and put the long-rod and v-bars on the bow, with the v-bars pointing straight back at about 45 degrees out from the bow. The inside rod poked me uncomfortably in the belly, but I gave it a few shots anyway.
The results were less than impressive. I still couldn’t aim for sour owl bowel and any shot that was less than perfect was a big stinky nine. Needless to say I was very disappointed.
I adjusted the the v-bars so they were pointed down at about a 45 degree angle and pulled them in toward the bow so they wouldn’t poke me as much. This resulted in a much better aim and three solid X’s. Unfortunately, the rear bar was still poking me uncomfortably, and this time it was in the junk.
I adjusted the v-bars to about a 60 degrees down-angle, and pulled them in as close to the bow as I could and tried that. The result was a rock solid aiming on the first arrow and a dead center X. The next two were a little bit shakier, with some movement in the sight, but it was very controlled movement, if that makes sense. Two good shots and two solid X’s.
The bow felt very well balanced, and after the shot the bow did not move much at all.
I kept shooting it that way, and things kept going well. The aim was greatly improved, and even when I had to hold the shot longer than usual or struggled a bit, the shots just kept finding the 10 ring, with about half Xs, maybe a little more.
With the aiming thing settled down, I was able to spend more energy focusing on my bow hand and my form. Both things came together much easier without having to pay so much attention to aiming. Even on the shots that I struggled through, the arrows still were solidly placed in the 10 ring.
I shot one 8 at nine O’clock, but it was off of a shot I really fought through. My aim was pretty much 10 ring solid the whole time, so I kept fighting. At the last second, the sight slipped out to nine O’clock and it fired. I hit pretty much where I aimed.
I dropped one other shot after that, again at nine O’clock, again off of a struggled shot. Aside from those two, everything else was an X or a solid 10. After 4-5 ends, I started feeling pretty confident and then even when I fought through shots, they still hit X’s.
I ended on 6 solid X’s off of 6 shots that were held almost dead solid. And my arm was very tired at that point, having shot for almost three hours again today. (With very few breaks.)
For the first time that I can remember (since I started shooting again), I left the range feeling very confident and encouraged. I’m very excited to shoot tomorrow.
One other thing to note: I switched the points on the three arrows I shot today, using the 75gr points. I think they were working better than the 100’s.
Continue reading → - Practice Report – 031911 March 19, 2011Chris
I shot my new Contender Elite today. I spent the first couple of hours working on getting the bow tuned up and ready to go, so there isn’t a lot of actual shooting to report on.
The first thing I did was turn the draw weight down. It was at 62 lbs. when I received it, and I backed it down to 57. (It looks like one full turn = 2 lbs.)
I started out by shooting it through paper and I found that I had about a 1.5 inch left tear. I adjusted my rest by moving it in toward the riser as far as I could. There was still a slight left tear, but I was out of adjustment on my rest, so I just left it. I will probably need to slide the launcher shaft out a little bit so I can get my rest back into the middle position of my adjustment.
I shot for about 40 minutes after that with mixed results. I thought that my draw was a little too long, so I had one of the guys there at Archers shorten it up 1/2 inch, bringing it to 30.5 inches. (That is what I thought it should be. I’ve done measurements in the past that suggested 31 was correct, but 30.5 is usually what feels right. When you factor in release rope/D-loop, it makes sense.) I also dropped the draw weight down to 54 lbs.
After that, things felt a lot better. I started holding better and my left shoulder started feeling better, thanks to the reduced draw weight primarily I think. I also pulled the peep down about 1/4″ because I had been fighting with it a little bit. Moving it down stopped all the struggling to see. I pulled up, set my anchor and everything was right.
I shot a few ends on the same target, then I put up a new target and started keeping score. I was already tired and struggling a little bit to aim on some shots, but I wanted to get an idea of where I was at. I took a short break, then shot two practice ends. My sights were a little low from the peep adjustment, but I got those up into the X by the second end. I felt a little unsteady on the aim, bouncing around the whole gold sometimes, but mostly staying in the 10 ring.
Once I started scoring I tried to stop thinking about the equipment, and focus on shooting my shot like normal. Things started settling down when I refocused my attention like that.
I noticed some side-to-side variation all day, and that carried over the first 3-4 ends on the new target. I started paying attention to my bow hand. The grip on this bow is quite a bit smaller than it is on the Scepters, which I actually like quite a bit, but it does feel different in my hand. I started curling my last three fingers in on my bow hand, so that my pinky finger is touching my palm. I couldn’t do this easily on the other bow without my fingers touching the handle and applying some side-to-side pressure.
That grip feels very natural to me, and it seems to work very well. After that, I never had an arrow go farther astray (horizontally) than the edge of the X ring. Two of the points that I dropped were before I started paying attention to my grip, and both of them were in the same hole at nine O’clock.
There was one peculiar thing that I noticed today. I took two breaks during the scoring ends, after ends 3 and 7, and both times after I came back my first two arrows were low. One of them caught the bottom of the 10, the other was just out on both ends. The two nines were almost inside-out in the same hole.
I’m not sure what to make of that. I will have to watch that in the days to come.
All in all, I thought the bow is shooting very well. I shot 19 X’s this afternoon, which I’m pretty sure is my highest Vegas X count since I started shooting again. That is not to be confused with a “good” X count, but it is showing some improvement already. I will be happier when I get that up to around 22-25, which is about where I was when I quit.
The 296 is not fantastic, but it too is my highest Vegas score since I’ve been back. (I have had two rounds where I only dropped 1 point on the day, but they were both incomplete. One was only 7 ends, the other 8 ends.)
After I got the bow hand thing figured out, I was mostly dropping arrows in the same holes when I shot well, and those holes were in the X ring. When I struggled, things opened up a little bit, but still they mostly caught liners or were barely out. I didn’t have any that were near the tomato patch, unlike the last several times I shot the Scepter, which had one or two out there every day.
One thing to note before shooting next: I need to retie the bottom nocking point. It is a little too low, which allows the arrow to slip up and down about 1/8 of an inch. It’s not a lot, but it certainly may account for some of the vertical variances I saw today.
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Mar 19, 2011 2:54 PM Target: FITA Total score: 296 19x
— Sent from my iPhone
Continue reading → - Tournament Report: NFAA Sectionals Day 2 March 13, 2011Chris
I felt tired and shaky all day, especially in my right forearm, which had me concerned all day. My head hurt a little bit and I felt sort of lightheaded off and on as well, which I think is the result of the pseudophed that I took prior to shooting, coupled with the headcold I think I am getting.
I started the day off a little nervous and felt a bit like I had something to prove, that I can shoot better than I’ve been showing. Unlike usual, when I feel that I do better in higher pressure situations, today I did not answer that call at all. I dropped 7 x’s between the first two and last two ends. That’s more than half of my misses in 1/3 of the ends.
Especially as the day work on, the more I tried to step up, the more I lost track of some part of my form, which is too bad because I’d say that at least 20-25 of my shots were a bit of a struggle to get through.
I did manage to shoot some very good arrows today, but all in all I don’t think this was a very strong performance, especially when you consider that arrows that I dropped (IE, when I really felt I needed to clean the ends).
I didn’t get particular upset over any single arrow or shot, which is good. In fact, two or three of the missed X’s came off of shots that I thought I had performed pretty well, and those didn’t phase me at all. I was trying to shoot for form, and when I hit my form I called it good, even on the few occasions when those shots missed.
Overall I am disappointed with this weekend. I feel that I could have / should have shot 6-10 X’s better. At the same time, I feel that I shot an awful lot of really good shots and a lot of inside-out arrows as well, so I that is encouraging.
One concerning trend is dropping X’s in groups: I shot something like seven 3-X rounds over the course of the weekend, which more or less equaled the number of 5-X ends I shot. That is way too much. Missing is bad enough, but missing in multiples is something that I really can’t let myself do. I have to special attention to this moving forward. If I drop one, I have to made damn sure I don’t drop another.
One thing to note, on a few occasions this weekend when I hit my form perfectly, I could see the arrow flight and it looks pretty horrible. I need to check it through paper and see if it is messed up. If so, that could account for the lack of forgiveness I am experiencing.
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Mar 13, 2011 12:54 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Indoor Total score: 300 49X Weekend Total: 600 99X
Continue reading → - Tournament Report: NFAA Indoor Sectionals Day 1 March 12, 2011Chris
I started feeling like I was getting sick last night, and that translated into today. I had a headache trying to come on most of the day, partially plugged up ears and a scratchy throat. I took pills which helped make me feel better, but I was sweating like a pig and I was having a really hard time getting through me shots strong.
I felt pretty confident after shooting last night, and I tried really hard to keep my focus on maintaining my form. It was difficult to keep my mind purely on form, though, because Archer’s Afield is kind of dark (so I struggled to see a little bit) and I was a bit nervous. My shoulder felt a little weak as well, so I wasn’t holding as well I have been the last few days in practice.
My first two practice ends were 10 almost inside-out X’s, which built a little confidence, but I started my scoring ends with 4 X’s and 3 X’s, which was disappointing. I missed my fifth shot on the first end, and the shot was a struggle, and by the end I had lost track of my bow arm and the shot felt tight. I knew it was out when I shot it.
For the most part I did a good job of feeling my form while I was aiming, focusing on the position I wanted my bow-arm and release arm to wind up in after the shot. When I did that successfully, I pretty much always drilled the cross hairs on the X. Basically, my score perfectly reflects my good shots: the ones that I focused on my form while I was aiming, and my bow came to rest on my hip and my release hand was on my shoulder (or just above it) the arrow was inside out. When I failed to focus on my form, or struggled a bit and therefore lost track of something (usually my bow hand and/or arm), the arrow missed and missed badly. There were perhaps 4-5 arrows where I felt my form was less than perfect and the arrow still caught.
Three arrows do stand out:
- On the second end, my aim was solid X ring the whole time and my bow arm/release hand wound up in perfect position, yet the arrow hit at 6 O’clock mid-five. The only thing of note was that it felt like I was looking through the bottom of my peep. I’m not sure if that means I had my head out of position or if my anchor was slightly off, but it’s something I need to pay more attention to. I have seen the exact same thing in practice a few times.
- The exact same thing happened on the seventh end, and the arrow went in the exact same hole.
- On the 8th or 9th end, my third shot was feeling perfect for a long time, but I held it a little long. I was sitting rock solid on the X the whole time, so I kept pulling. Right at the very end the dot bobbled down out of the X and of course that was when I released. The shot was beautifully executed and hit exactly where I aimed it. Unfortunately, I had aimed it just under the X.
The 12th end saw a similar problem, except that instead of sliding out of the X, I crept on my release arm just a touch and put the arrow at 12 O’clock mid-five. I was very disappointed in that, because I always try extra hard to clean my last round. I did shoot two perfect shots on 4 & 5, both literally splitting the center of the X.
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Mar 12, 2011 11:25 AM Target: NFAA/IFAA Indoor Total score: 300 50x
Continue reading → - Practice Report – 030211 March 2, 2011Chris
I shot at Broken Arrow today.
I was very tired due to spending the last two nights out, but despite that I felt pretty good to start out. Still, I alternated shooting and resting to try to keep my arm and back fresh: shooting two ends and then resting one.
Things started out very good. I decided to keep my pinky finger out on the pinky slot on the release Instead of bunching up like usual in the hopes that it would aid in getting through my shots a little faster, especially when I was tired. It worked very well, although in the early going it worked a little too well: I had two shots go off way early, one before I was even really on the target. Fortunately I was able to push that up to the five.
Aside from those miscues, things went pretty well in the beginning. From the first shot, my hand was snapping back onto my shoulder like it is supposed to, and every time it did that the arrow went inside-out in the X, almost without fail. I did drop two x’s out the right side, after struggling a bit. I think that I wind up doing something with my hand, because when I struggle but also pay attention to my bow hand, the left/right deviation is greatly reduced.
When I moved to the upper bales, things got tough. I let down one shot and struggled through two others on end 7 but managed 5 x’s, though two of them needed help. When I started out on end 8 I was really trying to shoot solid shots even though I was very fatigued and my right arm and back were trying to cramp. The first arrow was dead center, but the next four were awful. They were all weak, and I k is I crept badly on at least two of them. I went Smurfin’ with #4 and ended up with a 24 1x. Yuck.
I took a longer than normal break after that and started back with a renewed vigor to keep my release hand touching my shoulder on the follow through, which was my main focus all day. I though somewhat about keeping my bow arm user control, but mostly I was thinking about my release hand, and that was working very well.
I ended up shooting 5x, 4x, 5x & 5x on the last four, bringing me in at an even 50x’s. I was really happy with that, because I put a little pressure on myself to finish clean, but I still buckled down and stayed focused on the form in order to make it happen.
I definitely had a higher number of inside-out shots today than any other day I’ve shot, and the 50 x’s is also a high since I started again. Most importantly, I felt more natural and some of the nuances of my old form were present today, specifically after a good shot my hand would be on my shoulder, but came out of that form by shrugging my shirt back into place and touching my chest withy release hand, just the way I used to.
I feel pretty encouraged by today’s shooting, despite the blueberry I killed.
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Mar 2, 2011 4:43 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Indoor Total score: 299 50x
Continue reading → - OBH State Indoor – Day 2 February 27, 2011Chris
Today was the second day of the State Indoor championships in Lincoln City. I didn’t shoot quite as well today as I did yesterday, which is somewhat disappointing as I know I can do better than I did. But, hey… This weekend was only my 11th and 12th day of shooting after a very long gap, so I guess this isn’t a bad jumping off point.I started the day tied for 13th (out of about 40), but due to the one arrow I shot in the blue today, I dropped a few places in the final rankings. The crew running the tournament was pretty green this year and didn’t do a great job of posting scores, so I never saw the final tally, but I know that I wound up somewhere between 16th and 20th.
As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, Debbie Lane also started shooting recently and her urging is what pushed me over the edge into deciding to shoot again. She shot this weekend as well, and did pretty darn well. In fact, she won her division!
Continue reading →
We’ll both be shooting in the NFAA Northwest Indoor Sectionals in Tigard on March 12-13. I for one am excited for the chance to improve on my performance this weekend. - OBH State Indoor – Day 1 February 26, 2011Chris
Today was the first day of the Oregon State Indoor Archery Championship, and it marks the first tournament I have competed in since 2002. Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City is playing host to this years tournament.
Our friend Debbie Lane is the person who convinced me to start shooting again. She was shooting in this tournament and I decided to join her. Debbie arrived early in the day and went to practice early and was in the cabin when we arrived.
Maure came with Mom and I this weekend and Shannon, her brother Kevin, her mom and dad (Sheri and Brad), and Joel all came to watch me shoot today and cheer me on. I really appreciated the show of support from everyone and wanted to make sure I said a special “Thank You!” to all of them. It really meant a lot to me.
Today I shot a 300 with 49 X’s. For those of you who may not understand the scoring, I’ll give you a quick overview. You can see at left a plot of all my shots today. The white area is worth 5 points, the first blue ring is worth 4, the next is worth 3, etc. The innermost ring in the white is called the X-ring, and it counts as 5 plus an X. X’s are used as tie-breakers. One round consists of 60 arrows, so a perfect score is 300 with 60 X’s.
I haven’t seen the final scores from today, but I feel confident that the leader will be in the 58-60 X range, so my 49 X’s should be well short of that. However, I feel that given that I’ve only been back for three weeks or so (after not shooting at all for seven years), I shot pretty well. My personal goal for today was to shoot a 300 with 50 X’s or more, and I came pretty close to that. Better than the score, I felt that I was performing my shots very well for the most part. Three or four on every end felt about perfect and hit pretty much dead center, which is encouraging. A couple weeks ago I was lucky to get 5-6 perfect feeling shots per day, so this was big improvement.
In fact, today was the first time since I came back that I shot a 300, so that was good. By the competitive standards of my youth, the 300 alone is a fairly low bar, but I’m more or less starting over here so I’ll take it.
I definitely feel like I can pick up tomorrow where I left off and improve on it a little bit. Hopefully I can kick the X’s up some and get over 100 X’s for the weekend, which will satisfy my original goal.
I shoot the 2pm line tomorrow as well. Any and all positive thoughts that you throw my way will be greatly appreciated!
The rest of this post is just a shooting journal for my own records. Read on if you like, but its doubtful there will be anything very meaningful in it.
Continue reading → - Practice Report – 022011 February 20, 2011Chris
Due to Blazers games and the weather predictions, it seems likely that I will not get to shoot this coming week, so I went to Archers Afield today early and tried to get some good shooting in.I shot the blue Scepter again today, having re-served the string last night and tying in a new nock point. I checked the arrow flight first thing to ensure that that the nocking point was correct, and it was still shooting bullet holes.
At first the only other people shooting were two girls shooting long bows, and since they were shooting very quickly, I decided rather than make them wait for me every end I would shoot a 3-spot target.
I started out shooting blank bale for a couple of ends just to make sure I had the feel for my form. Then I shot two practice ends, dropping a point on each one. When it came time to start the scoring ends, I found myself feeling a combination of nervousness and excitement. Like I’d been through the testing, the bow was shooting pretty well, and I felt like it was time to get down to business and start shooting the scores that I know I can still shoot. The focus on score rather than form made it a little hard to concentrate on the actual shot process, but I viewed it as an excellent opportunity to practice shooting while feeling a little bit nervous. I figured I’ll probably feel that way at State.
I did my mental one-arrow shoot-off training technique for the first four or five ends, the whole time I was feeling nervous, and it had only nominal success. I dropped a point on each of the first few ends, but the other 2/3 were pretty good, so I guess that’s not horrible. Its just not as good as I would like it to be, or as I feel it will be with some additional practice. I think the new bow will be a good change too.
Starting on end 7 or 8, I felt a lot better. I had much better focus on proper form, keeping my bow arm controlled, letting the bow swing straight down so the wheel hits my belt, and my release hand snaps around to touch my shoulder. I also remembered the proper grip on the bow. The riser is coming straight down the outside of my thumb from the joint, with the first knuckle of my index finger just a little over the shelf. In this position, if I were to extend my index finger it would be in front of the bow.
I cleaned my last three ends, scoring 3x’s, 1x (both very close), and 2x’s, again with the miss being very close.
By this time several other people had shown up and were shooting 5-spots, so I put my NFAA face back up and started shooting again. I shot pretty well, although looking a the arrow plot I see that there was a lot of up and down variation. Things were pretty controlled for the first six ends, although as I got more tired and my shoulder became more sore, it was increasingly difficult to keep up the proper form.Between ends 6 and 7, I took a long break and spoke with Kris Demeter for about 20 minutes and I put my tennis elbow band on. My first shot took a little long to release, but it was dead center. The second shot was a little bit shakier, but felt pretty good when it came off, so I was very surprised to see that it hit in the blue. Only by about 1/10 of an inch, but it was a smurf nonetheless. I was surprised, and made a special effort to shoot solid, strong shots after that. All three arrows were inside out.
The next end I pulled up and felt like I held and released well, but I couldn’t see the arrow anywhere. I got my glasses out and looked and saw that the arrow was at 6 O’clock, between the left to targets. I have no idea why that happened. My next arrow went 6 O’clock mid four ring. My third shot did the same thing, so I went over and shot through paper. It shot two perfect bullet holes, so I went back and shot another end, all of which were 5/4 line low. I adjusted my site and shot another end, all of which were low again, this time 5/X line, but still low and not terribly consistent.
I was very tired, but I was trying extra hard to make sure I was shooting strong and I didn’t feel I was shooting that poorly. I really have no idea what happened.
I quit after that because my arm was very sore and I didn’t think I could shoot well enough to do much testing. But I do know that I didn’t shoot badly enough to miss the target
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Feb 20, 2011 1:07 PM Target: FITA Total score: 293 13 X’s
Start date: Feb 20, 2011 1:07 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Indoor Total score: 149
Continue reading → - Practice – NFAA – Archers Afield February 20, 2011Chris
Shot a 60 arrow round today with the blue scepter, no practice. I started out really well for the first 20-25 but I got a got pretty tired in the shoulder after that. When that happened the groups opened up some.I did some smurfin’ early, and I’m not sure why. It was out to the right which is something this bow has been known to do.
The biggest I remembered today was that I need to feel the form, the ending position with my bow arm forward and controlled, the wheel coming to rest on my hip and my release hand hauling around to touch my shoulder. It is especially important to focus on this for shots that I am struggling on.
Even after is was tired, I shot really good arrows when I kept this at the forefront of my mind while I was aiming.
All in all I felt pretty good about today
I do need to re-serve the string though, because it is loose.
Additional information: —————————————
Start date: Feb 18, 2011 5:13 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Indoor Total score: 299
Continue reading → - League, Archery World February 17, 2011ChrisStarted out alright, but I got tired pretty fast. After 15 arrows or so things started feeling like something on the bow was changing. The valley felt spongy and my groups were all over the place. Sights kept creeping lower and lower. By the end of the night I was having trouble seeing through my peep even.
After things started going south, I started getting frustrated but I did a good job of keeping myself pretty calm about it. I kept trying to focus on the form, but it difficult because shots I thought were ok were scatter from four line to four line, left and right. The only real consistency was that most everything that missed missed low
After I got home I checked the tiller and the rest andfound that both were off. I made some corrections, adjusted the wheels so they were square and evened the tiller and tried to level out the knocking point.
We will need to see how it tunes later this week.Additional information:
—————————————Start date: Feb 15, 2011 6:26 PM
Target: NFAA/IFAA Indoor
Total score: 295Continue reading →
- scorecard December 31, 1969Chris———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Chris Roberts-Olsen <christian.robertsolsen@gmail.com>League Chinook Dec 28, 2011 round: 1 20yd 1 2 3 arrows sum balance X(4) X(5) 10(3) 30 59 59 X(4) X(5) 9(6) 29 X(4) X(5) 9(6) 29 58 117 X(4) 10(5) 9(6) 29 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 60 177 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 X(4) X(5) X(6) 30 60 237 X(4) X(5) 10(6) 30 X(5) X(6) 10(4) 30 59 296 X(4) X(6) 9(5) 29 nines: 4 tens+X: 26 X: 21 average: 9.87 arrow statistics arrow nines tens+X X average 3 0 1 0 10.00 4 0 10 9 10.00 5 1 9 8 9.90 6 3 6 4 9.67 —Sent from my iPhone
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Chris
www.thinktankblog.org
