#wa 1440

[archeree]

First end at 50m, WA 1440

[archeree]

Saturday & Sunday. WA 1440: 1246 & 1304

Long time, no blog. This weekend was the first WA 1440 I’ve shot since March.

Saturday: that horrible score was a mix of bad weather and me fiddling round with my sight on Friday night installing my new knobs & decals. Stupid thing to do the night before a tournament. Mmmph.

Sunday. Perfect weather.

70m: 316 (PB 334) 60m: 328 (PB 336) 50m: 322 (PB 330) 30m: 338 (PB 350)

I’m really happy with the first three distances. I was *really* happy with 50, especially when I started with 57, all gold. 30m started off badly but I tidied it up as I went along.

Over the past couple of months I’ve changed a lot of stuff. Simplified everything a great deal, since I suspect I had let too much complication and tension creep into my form. Most importantly I changed my anchor to better accommodate the slight change of position at the different distances. Which, incidentally, is probably how I used to shoot when I was shooting quite well a couple of years ago.

Next target :1350.

[archeree]

Saturday. WA 1440: 1316

First round with the new strings and cables - Scout strings to replace my slightly worn factory Hoyt strings.  Surprisingly (and even though my old nocking point was too high and so was my rest) it had very little affect on my sight-marks, and I only adjusted 1 mark down for each distance.

70m: 323 (PB 334) 60m: 328 (PB 336) 50m: 322 (PB 330) 30m: 343 (PB 350)

Took a few ends to settle into 70m (even with 4 sighting/warmup ends) - I just didn't know where my sight mark was supposed to be so I chased things round a little bit.  Steadily improved though from 51/52 to start with to 56s to finish.

60m: not bad.  Settled in quickly but there wasn't enough gold for my liking: one or two 8's each end, only one all gold end. Didn't manage to get above 56.

50m felt OK, and I was pretty happy with the score but again, not enough golds. I'd like to be four gold/two red at worst and I only managed that on three ends.  Also threw a blue on the 5th end.

30m: one pretty unsettled end and then chugged along quite happily with 57s and 59s.  Again, didn't quite hit my happy mark (four 10s and two 9s) each end but would've averaged out pretty well if it wasn't for the two 8s on the first end.

All in all, the baby rhinos danced a fairly relaxed conga line and summoned some happy arrows.  Did leave me with a slightly trampled group of muscles in the middle of my back, though.

[archeree]

Sunday. FITA: 1290

Obviously I wanted 1300 (obviously). I’d been staring at my score graphs going hmm, my FITA scores are still way down in the 1200-1250 range and it’d be a freaking miracle to get 1300. I did shoot a 1281 fairly recently but that was the one decent score I’ve had all this year.

I spent a few ends getting into both 70 and 60m; my warmup ends for 70m had me grouping low and left, but they moved into the middle once I made sure I was tucking my elbow back. I got into a nice rhythm half-way through 60m and I was really, really trying to keep my mental game on-track. Staring at the gold through the ring can turn a bad shot into a not-so-bad low 9 or 8 and I have to work on my mental discipline to keep doing it.

50m was a bit of a mixture, I’m quite happy with three or four of the ends. I deliberately checked my score at this point (I knew that I’d know what my running total was due to the double-scoring at a tourney) and worked out that I’d need 351 at 30m to crack 1300, so I had nine points to drop. Started off pretty well (57, 59) but then had a bad end (54) which put 1300 out of my reach. Still, I finished pretty strongly with a couple of 58s.

Break-down: 70m: 315 (PB 334) 60m: 325 (PB 336) 50m: 309 (PB 330) 30m: 341 (PB 350)

Overall: quietly pleased. Good progress :)

Things to remember for next time: hook in the last joint of my fingers, front arm up, elbow tucked back, thumb around the trigger. Settle on the gold and look through the ring at the gold: relax, let it float. Strong front arm. Accept the shot (shot complete, well done). Sight the gold and do it again.

[archeree]

Sunday. FITA: 1233

Ugh.  Again?  Good Canadian yesterday, shitty FITA today. Started off well over to the right and took me a while to get them in.  even then, I would flick one shot which felt good way over to the right every so often.  So irritating! (must do: number of clicks to move one colour up/down/left/right at each distance!!).

70m: 307 (PB 334) 60m: 303 (PB 336) 50m: 285 (PB 330) 30m: 338 (PB 350)

I started off tired and struggled for the whole thing.  Ended up taking one weight off the front and back and I think that helped, a little. On my list: centre shot, and single-distance practice in the evenings.  Possibly on the reduced faces I've printed out which means I can practice at 20m but see the face as it would appear at 70/60/50/30m.

The baby rhinos were really dancing for Sarcasmo today, who had absorbed all the mojo in the general proximity of the park and channelled it into an impressive PB.

[archeree]

Sunday. FITA: 1225

What a total shitter.

Started off really well, but half-way through 70m my groups shifted to the right and I couldn't work out what I was doing differently.  I think about half-way though 60 I worked out it may be how I was anchoring, because the back of my hand wasn't sitting so flat against my face.  Corrected that and it helped a little, but after lunch my 50m was JUST TERRIBLE. By 30m my bucket of f*cks was empty, but I did manage to shoot an OK score for that, only 1 point less than last week.  So all in all, 70 and 30 not bad compared to last week; 60 & 50 bloody horrible.

70m: 302 (PB 334) 60m: 313 (PB 336) 50m: 278 (PB 330) 30m: 332 (PB 350)

Ugh.

[archeree]

Saturday. FITA: 1336

When I realised mid-way through 50m that I wasn't going to hit my PB of 1344, I kind of had it in the back of my mind that it would be awesome to get 1337.  So close!

Break-down for today:

70m: 332 (PB 334) 60m: 336 (PB) 50m: 321 (PB 330) 30m: 347 (PB 350)

50m was bombed by an end in the middle where I just sprayed arrows all over the 8 ring and ended up with a 48.  All the other 50m ends were 53-56, really good and solid.  I'd enjoyed 70 and 60m but just wasn't in the groove in 50 (possibly just a tiredness thing as it was a FITA without breaks), but it wasn't bothering me too much because despite feeling that it was a bit of a struggle I had a really good first three ends.  30m was good, not quite hitting my PB, but I can pick it up at that distance regardless of what I've done before.  I know to be hitting a total PB or something approaching 1350, I need to be at about 1000 after the first three distances.  I knew when I had that bad 50m end that it probably wasn't on the cards today, but if I've learned anything this year, it's how to bounce back from a bad arrow or a bad end.  It doesn't give me anywhere near the same internal reaction as it used to.

Day off shooting tomorrow, but a 720 and some team match-play practice on Monday if the weather co-operates.

I've just clicked that this is probably the last FITA for 2012.  Looking back on this year: my first FITA of the year was 1280, so from then to my 2012 PB (1344) is an increase of  64 points.  Or if you just want to count today's effort, an increase of 56 points.  I think I'll have to write up a summary of my archery year on NYE :)

[archeree]

Saturday. FITA: 1334.

It was all solidly good.  Tried out my new Beiter nocks which are a touch looser fitting on the string that my Easton G pins.  They come in a shade of red that I will refer to as BLOODY BRIGHT RED.  You could see them from outer space.  They are a bit heavier and require different sight marks.

The breakdown:

70m: 321 (PB 334) 60m: 334 (PB 335) 50m: 329 (PB 330) 30m: 350 (PB)

A few drooping problems, which can be solved by keeping my anchor nice and high on my face (I think my face creeps up a bit along the string).  I need to focus on a strong first arrow of each end, becauseifI did shoot a lazy 8 it would inevitably be the first arrow.

The excellent stuff: no blues (or blacks, whites, or misses). Only two 7s the entire shoot.  A beautiful strong 30m - 13 Xs, 13 10s and 10 9s.

Next task: re do my centre serving (serving spool, serving material, nock tying thread and D-loop material all arrived today, all in black).