So I've been absent for a while. 3 week vacation, and then I was setting up an indoor range in my basement (more on this in a different post), but most importantly, I spent about 2 months working on my shooting form (not fun one bit).
Anyway, after my first tournament (and my score on it), I decided that there's only so much the equipment can do for me. I am running a fairly good setup and up to that point I was mostly concerned about having everything tuned properly, bow nicely balanced, perfectly spined and fletched arrows ... and with all of that, I shot a 530 of 600. If you spend 20 minutes on ArcheryTalk.com, you'll find that for every 20 posts on "tuning", there's maybe 1 on "form", so it's easy to get misled that a perfectly tuned bow is much of the work to a perfect score.
Not true!
Well, not entirely true. There must be complete "trust" that the equipment will do it's job for the shooter to be able to do his/her job as well. So if you trust your stock bow to do it's job, you're done tuning. In other words, tune until you trust your equipment, and then focus on you as you are the only variable in the whole equation. If you put that bow in a shooting machine, it will put the same arrow in the same hole every time. Consequently, if you were the machine, you'd shoot a 300 every time. So work on becoming the machine and don't worry too much about your bow!
Granted, well tuned equipment is more forgiving, but if you shoot well, you need a lot less forgiveness. The "well tuned equipment" will give you an edge by increasing your X count, but you still have to get to that 300 on your own.
What I did right after that disappointing tournament was research on books that teach proper shooting form. I decided to go with:
Reading them, I figured I need to teach myself how to shoot from scratch. So I spent significant amount of time analyzing every aspect of my shot, from stance, all the way to breathing and the mental game of shooting. Once I had decided on all aspects, next task was embedding them into my subconsciousness, i.e. be able to execute that "perfect" shot without even thinking about it.
To do that I fired about 1500 arrows over a period of 3 weeks in a blank bale, paying attention to EVERYTHING except for aiming. Each shot would take 15 seconds of analysis before it's even attempted. Only now, 2 months (and 4000 arrows later) after the whole "retraining" started I can say I can execute that shot sequence perfectly 9 of 10 times without thinking about it, and still working on making that 10 out of 10.
After the first 3 weeks, I also did a 3 week transitioning program to start shooting at a target. I did this (and I read it in the Idiot Proof Archery book) by starting to shoot at a large target from pretty much point blank range, and walk back while reducing the face size every couple days.
Now, to make sure I'm not doing all this wrong all over again, after 6 weeks of "learning" to shoot I met with coach Bruce Schneller (level 4 NTS coach) to review my shooting technique. There was very little he corrected. Job well done. *fist pump* However I find working with him keeps me even more focused, so I will be training with him once to twice per month to make sure I'm ready for the next indoor season.
Anyway, the result of all of this - last night I decided to shoot a full game for the first time and I shot a 294 of 300. Not a world record by any stretch of the imagination, but just two months prior I was shooting between 255 and 275. So that's quite the improvement. But more importantly, that's done without touching anything on my equipment and with arrows that are missing feathers and have busted tips.
So, you want to be competitive, get your form right. Correct and repeatable form will allow you to hold steadier longer, to hold steadier under pressure and to hold the same regardless if it's the start of the tournament or the last arrows. Once you do that, tweaking the equipment will just be the icing on the cake.
M.
Anyway, after my first tournament (and my score on it), I decided that there's only so much the equipment can do for me. I am running a fairly good setup and up to that point I was mostly concerned about having everything tuned properly, bow nicely balanced, perfectly spined and fletched arrows ... and with all of that, I shot a 530 of 600. If you spend 20 minutes on ArcheryTalk.com, you'll find that for every 20 posts on "tuning", there's maybe 1 on "form", so it's easy to get misled that a perfectly tuned bow is much of the work to a perfect score.
Not true!
Well, not entirely true. There must be complete "trust" that the equipment will do it's job for the shooter to be able to do his/her job as well. So if you trust your stock bow to do it's job, you're done tuning. In other words, tune until you trust your equipment, and then focus on you as you are the only variable in the whole equation. If you put that bow in a shooting machine, it will put the same arrow in the same hole every time. Consequently, if you were the machine, you'd shoot a 300 every time. So work on becoming the machine and don't worry too much about your bow!
Granted, well tuned equipment is more forgiving, but if you shoot well, you need a lot less forgiveness. The "well tuned equipment" will give you an edge by increasing your X count, but you still have to get to that 300 on your own.
What I did right after that disappointing tournament was research on books that teach proper shooting form. I decided to go with:
- Idiot Proof Archery: How to Shoot Like a Pro-Step by Step (by Bernie Pellerite)
- Idiot Proof Answers (also by Bernie Pellerite)
- Archery (by USA Archery)
Reading them, I figured I need to teach myself how to shoot from scratch. So I spent significant amount of time analyzing every aspect of my shot, from stance, all the way to breathing and the mental game of shooting. Once I had decided on all aspects, next task was embedding them into my subconsciousness, i.e. be able to execute that "perfect" shot without even thinking about it.
To do that I fired about 1500 arrows over a period of 3 weeks in a blank bale, paying attention to EVERYTHING except for aiming. Each shot would take 15 seconds of analysis before it's even attempted. Only now, 2 months (and 4000 arrows later) after the whole "retraining" started I can say I can execute that shot sequence perfectly 9 of 10 times without thinking about it, and still working on making that 10 out of 10.
After the first 3 weeks, I also did a 3 week transitioning program to start shooting at a target. I did this (and I read it in the Idiot Proof Archery book) by starting to shoot at a large target from pretty much point blank range, and walk back while reducing the face size every couple days.
Now, to make sure I'm not doing all this wrong all over again, after 6 weeks of "learning" to shoot I met with coach Bruce Schneller (level 4 NTS coach) to review my shooting technique. There was very little he corrected. Job well done. *fist pump* However I find working with him keeps me even more focused, so I will be training with him once to twice per month to make sure I'm ready for the next indoor season.
Anyway, the result of all of this - last night I decided to shoot a full game for the first time and I shot a 294 of 300. Not a world record by any stretch of the imagination, but just two months prior I was shooting between 255 and 275. So that's quite the improvement. But more importantly, that's done without touching anything on my equipment and with arrows that are missing feathers and have busted tips.
So, you want to be competitive, get your form right. Correct and repeatable form will allow you to hold steadier longer, to hold steadier under pressure and to hold the same regardless if it's the start of the tournament or the last arrows. Once you do that, tweaking the equipment will just be the icing on the cake.
M.
Hello!
ReplyDeleteHow would you feel about being a guest blogger for archerytoronto.blogspot.ca ?
Hey! Thanks for the consideration.
DeleteLet's take this "offline"... Added a contact email address under my profile.
My son is turning 8 and is so keen to learn. We are in the junction in Toronto... does anyone know of a place that will take him?
ReplyDeleteIn Toronto there are a few places... I've seen the instructor of this place --- http://www.shawnsarchery.com/, with his students at many local tournaments. They are at Danforth and Pape. Also, depending how much you're willing to drive, and how far, there's a few other places around GTA - http://www.classicalsport.com/ in Oakville, http://www.peelarchery.ca/ in Brampton, http://www.archersofcaledon.org/ in Caledon and http://www.yorkcountybowmen.com/ in Aurora... All these have lessons for beginner and intermediate archers.
ReplyDeleteNice Blog
ReplyDeleteArchery Master 3d APK
This is a nice post you sharing. Thank you for your good experience shared with us.Most important one is your story was dramatic.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I still shoot regularly even though I haven't contributed to this blog much. And I still don't tune much and I still work on the form almost daily. That has taken me to shoot about 20-24 baby X, with 299 or 300 (big X scoring) with a personal best of 26X / 300. Again, not world records here, but not terrible for a basement shooter. :)
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