How was your session today?

BrokenArrows

Hi All,

I'm just getting back into archery now after a 10 year break.

In an effort to spring some life back into this forum how about we post how our training is going.

How about everyone post a scoring attempt and we can keep track of how we are improving. Whether its 5, 10 or 20 ends. Just say to yourself im going to score the next X rounds and post them here.

So today after 45 minutes of practicing I decided to score the next 10 ends to give myself a benchmark.

18 meters - Olympic Recurve - 10 ends = 162 (5.4 average per arrow).

Hopefully ill get back to my 8+ average from many years ago.

Wabbit Ears

nice idea.
I just signed up for Nimes so really need to focus on shooting much much better. Will update this wednesday next when I shoot at a test comp. I dont have 18 meters to practise at so practise if just for form and constistant shooting at the moment.

greysides

I haven't shot much competitively for about 5 years. I've been battling Target Panic so shooting is more about being able to shoot comfortably than considering scores. Helping to run a club, helping at Beginners courses and then induction into the club has severely restricted my practice time resulting in loss of bow fitness which has not helped the TP. Consequently practice is more about fitness and mental form than worrying about scores.

BrokenArrows

I havent scored anything recently.

My last few sessions ive been focusing on my anchor point and release and not paying too much attention to where the arrow is going. Finding it hard to be consistent with my anchor point.

My next session will be tomorrow. Ill score 10 ends and see where im at.

greysides

Don't be afraid to experiment with anchor. Your real anchor point is in your back so sort that first and along the way note the facial references. Things may have changed with your anatomy while you were stopped shooting so getting that sorted before tuning/scoring is doing it in the right order. That a look at archery on YouTube and note the variety of anchors. Ideally you need a hard tissue reference in all three axises.

BrokenArrows

18 meters - Olympic Recurve - 10 ends = 187 (6.2 average per arrow).

Was doing very well apart from the last two ends where I got a 12 and a 9. Shockingly bad, killed my average. Was tired. The stamina isn't there yet.

BrokenArrows

Got my new bow delivered today. Dont need to use club equipment anymore yay. Got it sencond hand on eBay and has almost never been shot.

70" Bow .
25" SF Forged + Riser
32lbs Core Ignite limbs.
8 x Easton XX75 arrows

Looking forward to shooting with it but unfortunately sick at the moment. Booo!!

greysides

Your own will help but it takes a while to really tune it to yourelf. Enjoy!

BrokenArrows

So spent 3 hours shooting and tuning the new bow today.
Went from completely missing the boss a few times to a reasonable grouping.

I got tired so stopped. No point in tuning when tired and not shooting with good form.

BrokenArrows

18 meters - Olympic Recurve - 10 ends = 193 (6.4 average per arrow).

Slightly higher score than last time but shot worse.
The higher poundage of the bow is tiring. I need to hit the gym to get some strength and stamina.

greysides

Do some drawing and holding exercises at home. Start with a few held for a short time and work up. A fortnight would see a big difference.

BrokenArrows

greysides wrote: »

Do some drawing and holding exercises at home. Start with a few held for a short time and work up. A fortnight would see a big difference.

I'll give that a go. It seems to be my biggest flaw at the moment.

At the start of the session I was grouping in the yellow but after 6+ ends it fell apart.

BrokenArrows

18 meters - Olympic Recurve - 10 ends = 169 (5.6 average per arrow).

Shocking.

I've been working on stamina and I think it's improving, but developing a serious case of target panic. Find it so hard to just sit on the yellow and decide when to release. I'm reading almost automatically when I'm roughly near the yellow.

greysides

Focus less on aiming and score and completely on shot sequence. Practice 'no-shoot' drills, coming to full draw and just seeing the yellow through the sight. Hold for a while then let-down. Increase repetitions and holding time slowly, over days and weeks. DO NOT RELEASE!
Forget totally about scoring.

Your physical shot sequence needs a parallel mental thought process. One that puts very little emphasis on aiming. That is already programmed into your brain so focus on what isn't. Distract your aiming thoughts into something useful, like back tension.

When you can again hold on the yellow it will be time to think about a clicker as release trigger but you must be able to draw consistently to your drawlength leaving approximately 3mm for expansion through the clicker. You release on the click.

Seek help from a coach or an experienced archer. If necesary a sports physcologist.

BrokenArrows

Sounds like a good idea with the drawing and not shooting thing. I might have to put something valuable on the target face to give motivation to hold. Haha.

greysides

Basically, if you start, you don't shoot at all until you can hold on the yellow without fuss.

greysides

The key is what you think about.

BrokenArrows

Stuck a target up at home at the end of my hallway and practiced drawing and aiming without an arrow for extra encouragement not to release.

Drew and held for 10 seconds on the yellow about 30 times with 30 second break between draws and occasional 5 minute breaks. Didn't have any issues doing it. So it's purely psychological once there is an arrow in the bow and looking at an actual target.

greysides

That's why it has to have a psychological solution. The holding builds strength so the brain has no concerns there and the letting down let's it know who is in command.
Next you will need a shot trigger ie you hold until your shot trigger activates. With recurve that's the click of the clicker as a result of expansion.
But that's for later. Keep up the holding exercises. When you've done them for twice as long as you think necessary, move on to the next step. Along the way build your Mental Process, the sequence of thoughts that pair with the actions. They must be consistent too.

Wabbit Ears

my last session sucked. It seems that when I training my shot sequence is going great but once I'm in a club environment It all goes to hell. Need to work on tuning out distractions.

BrokenArrows

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

my last session sucked. It seems that when I training my shot sequence is going great but once I'm in a club environment It all goes to hell. Need to work on tuning out distractions.

If you train alone most of the time i can see how being in a club and people watching you might have an impact.

Maybe try going to the club more often until you are comfortable there and get to know the people.

Wabbit Ears

Ironically its the fact that I'm completely at ease and having a chat and a banter that is throwing off my sequence. If I were to go full introvert and just shoot completely in my own headspace I think it would be fine.

Just something I need to work in, Its these little challanges that make it all so much fun.

BrokenArrows

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

Ironically its the fact that I'm completely at ease and having a chat and a banter that is throwing off my sequence. If I were to go full introvert and just shoot completely in my own headspace I think it would be fine.

Just something I need to work in, Its these little challanges that make it all so much fun.

Ya sometimes having a too casual an atmosphere will effect things negatively.

A few weeks ago our club had a group of complete novices in for a lesson and the coach asked me to demonstrate with a few arrows. I was having a horrible session but managed to get the 4 arrows in the 8+ area in a nice group. A bit of pressure works wonders.

BrokenArrows

Better today.

Spent the whole session shooting at a small square of yellow paper. While still struggling to hold on the yellow fully, it is improving. Have to keep talking to myself in my head saying "don't realease"

BrokenArrows

Towards the end of my session it was suggested to me that I try shooting at one of the short range targets and see if I had the same problems.

Strangely I had no issues holding on the yellow when the target was only 3 meters away.

BrokenArrows

Better session today. Able to hold longer on the yellow and more consistent shots.

Stamina also improving. Did a 3 hour session today.

Down side, my sight kinda broke. Not completely but lost the ability to adjust the sight without a screwdriver. Need to see if I can find some parts for it online.

BrokenArrows

We had a little fun competition in the club last week.

Teams of 3 made up of compound, recurve and bare bow.

10 ends of 3 arrows each in 2 minutes followed by a round robin with 1 arrow each and 20 seconds to shoot.

It's amazing how stressful it is when someone is counting down those 20 seconds.

Was a lot of fun even tho I shot terribly.

greysides

Sounds like fun. Time yourself shooting normally. I bet 20 seconds gives you ample time when you're not thinking about it.

BrokenArrows

greysides wrote: »

Sounds like fun. Time yourself shooting normally. I bet 20 seconds gives you ample time when you're not thinking about it.

Oh ya 20 seconds is plenty of time but just the countdown was terrible. But that was part of the fun.

MrTime

just wondering if those scores are at 120 cm . 80 cm targets or smaller

BrokenArrows

MrTime wrote: »

just wondering if those scores are at 120 cm . 80 cm targets or smaller

40cm

MrTime

thanks
im a novice only moving to 60cm
helpful to see whats considered good scoring

BrokenArrows

MrTime wrote: »

thanks
im a novice only moving to 60cm
helpful to see whats considered good scoring

good is relative. If you are professionally competing then a score of 550 out of 600 might be considered terrible when you're up against people scoring into the 580's.

But Id consider 550 to be insanely good and something i hope to achieve some day.

40cm targets is the competition standard size so aim to score on that.

BrokenArrows

Getting better. But those misses are just killing my average.
Im shooting on a 40cm vertical triple face.

greysides

Concentrate on concentrating. Form! Get more consistent. You're getting there. Balance the scoring with form work, biased towards form. Score yourself out of 10 based on your technique ignoring arrow score. Build your feeling of the shot. It's your guide and feedback mechanism.

BrokenArrows

Another good session yesterday.
I didnt score but misses were way down.

I also made a small change to my hand position which seems to have helped. It feels like a more stable position which reduced the bow movement which obviously increased my accuracy.

BrokenArrows

Another good session last night.
Those 9/10 groups are getting more frequent and misses less frequent.

The change in grip seems to have made a major improvement.

I was wondering what peoples opinion was on a custom molded grip.
I have all necessary bits lying around the house to make a plastic grip molded to my hand.

I guess the trick is molding it so that it forces your hand into a single position, and then mounting the grip so that its in the correct orientation.
Might give it a go and see how it turns out.

greysides

Use google then work away.

Wabbit Ears

BrokenArrows wrote: »

I guess the trick is molding it so that it forces your hand into a single position, and then mounting the grip so that its in the correct orientation.
Might give it a go and see how it turns out.

IMHO molding a grip to your hand, if you're not completely sure of the best grip, exasperates a problem rather than fixing it as now you have a comfortable, but wrong, grip.

BrokenArrows

I created a removable grip and it feels nice but i havent shot with it because with my regular grip my shooting has been massively improving every session.

Had a 3 hour session today and make some adjustments to my stance and anchor point.

I also made a change where im slowing down my draw to try and be as close to the yellow as possible by the time i anchor. This made a very big difference.

At the end of my session i was still having very nice groupings.

Below is the last shot of the day, which based on my previous long sessions is very good.

BrokenArrows

Amazing session today.

I installed a clicker. From what I was told I was expecting weeks of struggle to get used to it but within 30 minutes it was running smoothly and it had a drastic impact on my groupings.

I was shooting 4 arrows an end and more often than not 3 of the arrows were in the yellow and occasionally all 4.

Very happy with myself.

Edit: and as a side effect it completely eliminated my remaining target panic. So strange, I suddenly had no issues sitting on the yellow waiting for that click. The mind is a very strange thing.

Banbh

Congrats BA on your constant improvements. Do you have a link to where I might get a target like yours as, at the moment, I'm using a bag of rags tied to the side of a shed.

BrokenArrows

Banbh wrote: »

Congrats BA on your constant improvements. Do you have a link to where I might get a target like yours as, at the moment, I'm using a bag of rags tied to the side of a shed.

They're the targets at my local club.

Google "layered foam butt". There are plenty of suppliers.
It's just a bunch of high density foam strapped together with ratchet straps.

If you have any furniture makers near by, they use this foam for cushions. So maybe you could strike a deal with them for any scrap off cuts.

Edit: lots of people use scrap plastic bags as DIY targets. Here is a pretty good one. https://youtu.be/-4zhWIpX61w

BrokenArrows

Another good tuning session today.

One of the club members noticed my arrows were fish tailing a lot as they left the bow so spent a while tuning with a bare shaft.

1. Determined the arrows were too stiff for my poundage.
2. Increased the poundage to the maximum by screwing in the tiller bolts the whole way.
3. Evened them out so that the distance from limb to string was the same at the top and bottom.
4. Adjusted the brace height to give maximum arrow speed.

Bare shaft was initially about 80 CM to the LEFT of my group. After the above adjustments it was about 30 CM still to the left.

5. Softened up my button & adjusted the center shot a little.

6. Bare shaft still about 15 cm to the left but better than it was and fish tailing is significantly reduced.


7. Shot a bunch of ends to readjust the sight as it had changed significantly with the above adjustments.

So the conclusion is the arrows are not a perfect match to the limbs. I also confirmed this by consulting the Easton charts. Theyre just a bit too stiff.

Options remaining are to add some weight to the front of the arrows which should help but ill leave that for the moment. Competition coming up next month so want to practice with what i have for the moment.

Also ill probably be increasing the limbs poundage at some point this year so according to the Easton chart they should match a 40-44lbs limbs at 29" draw which looks like a good step up for me.

Either way at the end of the session i was grouping in the 9/10 area with a few ends with all 4 arrows in the 10.
And because of the reduced fish tailing my bad shots should be a little more accurate.

greysides

Good work.

BrokenArrows

Someone else has to be occasionally shooting. I can't be the only one posting in this thread. Haha.

greysides

Shooting but not scoring.

Banbh

I was clout shooting in a field that has been grazed bare but there's a bit of a hill so after a couple of rounds, I was puffed. There's an app on my phone that helps me to mark out 180 yards, which I believe is the correct distance, but I started at half that and nearly came within 10 yards of the clout on a couple of shots.

Will try again tomorrow and might try the beach when the tide is out. The sí who steal arrows can't get them on beaches.

BrokenArrows

Banbh wrote: »

I was clout shooting in a field that has been grazed bare but there's a bit of a hill so after a couple of rounds, I was puffed. There's an app on my phone that helps me to mark out 180 yards, which I believe is the correct distance, but I started at half that and nearly came within 10 yards of the clout on a couple of shots.

Will try again tomorrow and might try the beach when the tide is out. The sí who steal arrows can't get them on beaches.

That's a pretty impressive distance. How many arrows are you shooting at a time. Would be a pain to walk that distance and back each time.

Banbh

I was only shooting at about 80 yards, six arrows at a time. They should rename it aerobic archery.
Are there any clubs that organise clout shooting?

BrokenArrows

Banbh wrote: »

I was only shooting at about 80 yards, six arrows at a time. They should rename it aerobic archery.
Are there any clubs that organise clout shooting?

Never heard of it. I had to Google what it was.

Just back from the club. I did a scoring round for the monthly club league. Shot pretty well, but had two misses which prevented me breaking 500.