The Think Tank

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