From the Lions' Den - A freestylers' journey.

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
It's on my left arm & the 'tapered' end is towards the string. What's wrong with that?
The writing should read from top to bottom so everyone knows what brand it is. It is a serious part of their advertising. Unless of course it has been fitted on the outside of the arm by mistake... or for the photo only.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
This is getting needlessly petty Geoff, so I'll make this clear & then I hope it'll be an end to it...

1) In the photo, the guard is EXACTLY where it'll be during shooting.
2) The writing on the bands is in the correct orientation when my arm is by my side.
3) The logo on the guard is in the correct orientation when my arm is extended towards the target.
4) I don't give a **** what Beiter thinks, unless they pay me!

Fairy Nuff?
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Again, no scoring. Friday was all about setting the new sights, which I'm well happy with, & practicing the process.

- Good decision really, as it took well over an hour before I was happy with both. Started high left, then low right, eventually got the grouping just about centered but man, I was all over the place in the middle part of the session - 'surrounding the gold' would be an apt description.

If I can start shooting tomorrow as I ended yesterday, I'd say there's a chance of a top-ten finish, going by last years' results. Towards the end, once I finally felt 'in the groove', I was hitting 2/3 golds - but still nowhere near enough X's.

- Although if they have a 'most reds' medal, I'll deffo be in with a shout of that!

Biggest concern is actually the weather, as the 'direct' route is up the Pennines to Alston then down the windy side (Hartside Pass) to Penrith.

- Could be an interesting trip in a car that doesn't weigh much more than me ;)
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Fun is where you find it.

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger"

This is me coming down Hartside a few years ago - briskly but smoothly ;)

 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
I was too shattered to do the write-up last night.

It sure was an interesting day!

When I set off, the skies were clear, the winds were relatively light, even the sun peaking through from time to time.

- A big change from a couple of hours earlier when I wasn't sure if I was walking the dog or flying a kite, in a car wash 🌧

The run up Bellister Bank was incident-free, there was some standing water but mostly avoidable. The run down Hartside was an absolute JOY! No traffic to get in the way, totally stunning vistas over the Eden valley to the Lakes, with a hint of dark, foreboding storminess lurking over the peaks, I loved every damned second of it! Even in a clapped-out Micra, that is a road to challenge & delight, a road which separates 'drivers' from mere 'motorists' with every swoop & bend.

Langwathby. 5 miles from destination, 15 mins ahead of schedule. In a great head-space. What could go wrong?

The Eden bursting its' banks all the way back to Appleby, that's what! The single-track box-girder bridge was impassable - apparently a 'snorkel' Land Rover had attempted it earlier, made it over the bridge but then got carried away by the current on the flood plain (the clue's in the name, guys) on the other side.

So, on the advice of a group of 'Red Socks' I made my way north towards Lazonby, along back roads not totally unfamiliar to me. Here's where the Lazonby road ended:-


Last chance. Armathwaite. 2/3 of the way back to Carlisle. HOORAH, the bridge is open! The water is within a foot of the arch tops but it's do-able.

I made it to the venue in time to register, build & judge-check Magaera, only missing the first round of sighters.

Sighters! I may as well have spent Friday night knitting for all the good that sight-setting session did :( High right from the start, took four ends before I got it even close, eight before I was happy. The stressed last hour of travel & rushed set-up had ruined my previous buzz of course, groupings were pretty awful really. The first session ended with a paltry 234, although the last 2 ends were somewhat encouraging.

A break barely long enough for a quick half-smoke outside helped calm me again. The second session felt much better, even a couple of 29's, but a couple of loose ends - including an embarrassing 16 on the very last end - left me on an improved but still barely acceptable 248 for a total of 482. Hey, at least I wasn't last.

So that's my first county championship in the bag. My own is next month.

The journey home, I decided to take the longer-but-safer A6/M6/A69 option but even that proved to be only just do-able. Although the bridge at Warwick Bridge was OK, the plain on the east side was inundated, there was about 100 yards of slow-flowing water to crawl through, axle-height mostly but deeper on the inside.

Take-away: I know that I can shoot the groups/scores/ends that I think I should be shooting - All I need to do now is to learn how to shoot 20 of them consecutively, then I'll reach 570+ land.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Yeah, and we have round two of windy winter wetness rapidly encroaching 🌪

Shot much better tonight than I did then, much tighter groups, at one stage I was on a run of 11 consecutive golds - until an 8 ruined the run :(

I'm putting a lot of the improvement down to the arrival today of this wee gadget-


-which fitted nicely onto my old SwooshBand, which can be worn over my DuRag without slipping & sliding around. Never had to touch it all night, once I'd found the sweet spot. Didn't need to flip it up between ends either. The only thing it obscures is the pin to my left eye. Apart from those, the benefits are exactly what you'll read when you research them.

The rest of the improvement, I think J-Kam deserves the praise. I've watched many hours of vidz this week, due to being bored silly flying spaceships for now.

... I might even do a scoring round on Sunday ;)
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Last Sunday just didn't happen. Stayed home, full of snot & phlegm, drinking lots of tea & hugging a heater.

Yesterday was better.

Again, no scoring, just practice of the form changes. For a while, I was banging in good, tight, central groups with the odd loose shot sneaking into the red but it didn't last, an hour in I was back to 8" groups again.

- So I made a 'big change' I'd been thinking of for a week or two & removed the shelf & pinky-grip from my tab a la J-Kam.

It felt WEIRD!

...NO WAY could I get the index-knuckle hard against my jawbone - but it's so easy just sitting here in front of the 'puter.

It would be understandable, I hope, if I was re-assembling the tab right now, and sayin' nowt. But half-an-hour is too short to properly assess anything in this inscrutable sport, so I'm sticking with it for the next session at least.

To be fair, my groupings weren't too bad, certainly no worse than before the strip-down. I did have to come down a whole 15 turns to get the group on the face though. Didn't worry at all about zeroing, all I was interested in was tightening the groups. So I'll persevere.

...but I have the feeling that might be next Friday, I have a hankering towards spending Sunday afternoon watching England v Ireland with a beer or two ;)
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Friday (yesterday) didn't happen either :(

During the week here was an update to one of the compos I want to shoot next month (The Green Lane Stafford), apparently half the hall is being taken up with a film set so only seven bosses will be available, hence entries are very limited, hence I had to put my application in a week earlier than intended, hence I didn't have enough left for petrol.

This prompted the rapid sale of my old Avalon Tec-X sight, completed earlier today to a young archer in Wales.

So now I do have enough money for petrol, and tobacco, and 'essential consumables' (milk, bread, bacon, iceberg & tomatoes) until benefits day.

With only 2 practice sessions left before the DNAA indoor open (8th) I'm not getting my hopes up for anything impressive in the score department, between missing so many sessions recently & the tab-related (possible) form change above, but sod it, I'm gonna enjoy the experience anyway!
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
The 'shelf-less tab' experiment is officially over.

Whilst horizontal grouping narrowed to no more than an inch, vertical was ... let's just say less than acceptable. Blue to blue, in fact. (6 arrow ends, all afternoon)

'Chin-cup' shelf re-attached, sights re-zeroed, and I'm banging in golds again - 4 out of six anyway, and the 'loose' ones, I knew they were going to be 'off' as soon as I let go. Actually a bit before, really. Mostly because I was getting in 6 shots to most peoples' 3.

Friday the plan is to shoot half a round in threes, slowing to 'competition pace' as much as I can. Get my head in the right mode for the county open. If I can break 500 for the first time in competition, that'll be a good day.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Honestly, it's not looking good for breaking 500 in the county indoor tomorrow 😔

I spent the first part of the session fine-tuning my sighting, then banging in a decent volume with 6 arrow ends. After 40 minutes I was feeling pretty confident about my shooting, good shots were totally destroying the gold & even loose shots were still close blues at worst. Then I took a smoke break, pinned up a fresh face & started 'compo mode', slowing right down & scoring 'proper' 3 arrow ends.

- But the results were pretty damned poor & I don't know why*. 8 ends, 8 golds 11 reds & 5 blues, averaging 8 points/arrow. That's only a projected 480 for the full round, which is slightly worse than my last compo.

* OK, i do have a couple of theories. One is to do with 'pain & medication', which I'll have to try a few wrinkles to confirm, the other is anchor/string-picture/release. The rest of my form & shot cycle I'm not unhappy with.

It'll come, but I really need to be shooting more than twice a week, at least during the outdoor season, to hit my goals for the year. I have an idea or two about that, but it might even need a new thread for discussions before any decision is made.

Ooh! Almost forgot to mention, during the week - after doing quite a bit of chin-testing at home - I switched back to the Mk I 'chin-fin' rest & put the Mk II 'jaw-cup' on my SPT tab. I found it somewhat less confusing to have a single contact-point to sense, rather than two. There's also a slightly tender spot on the inside-ish of my jawbone, just at a good anchor point. It's like a clicker for the nock end! I just need to get used to using it again, making it subconscious, and my scores will rocket!

That's the theory, anyway ;)
 

Whitehart

Well-known member
Honestly, it's not looking good for breaking 500 in the county indoor tomorrow 😔

I spent the first part of the session fine-tuning my sighting, then banging in a decent volume with 6 arrow ends. After 40 minutes I was feeling pretty confident about my shooting, good shots were totally destroying the gold & even loose shots were still close blues at worst. Then I took a smoke break, pinned up a fresh face & started 'compo mode', slowing right down & scoring 'proper' 3 arrow ends.

- But the results were pretty damned poor & I don't know why*. 8 ends, 8 golds 11 reds & 5 blues, averaging 8 points/arrow. That's only a projected 480 for the full round, which is slightly worse than my last compo.
What do you expect you shoot one way all evening and then change to another way (number of arrows and timing) of shooting for the comp - your subconscious brain is all over the place- totally confused and out of its comfort zone.

You should always practice the same way - ideally the same format as the competition.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
yes, technically you are absolutely correct Whitehart - But why do you think that phrasing it in that way is an empowering response?

I mean, bearing in mind all that I've written regarding the what's & why's of my archery journey?

Dunno. Maybe you just need a hug?
 

Big George

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
Honestly, it's not looking good for breaking 500 in the county indoor tomorrow 😔

I spent the first part of the session fine-tuning my sighting, then banging in a decent volume with 6 arrow ends. After 40 minutes I was feeling pretty confident about my shooting, good shots were totally destroying the gold & even loose shots were still close blues at worst. Then I took a smoke break, pinned up a fresh face & started 'compo mode', slowing right down & scoring 'proper' 3 arrow ends.

- But the results were pretty damned poor & I don't know why*. 8 ends, 8 golds 11 reds & 5 blues, averaging 8 points/arrow. That's only a projected 480 for the full round, which is slightly worse than my last compo.
you might be fixating on chasing the score and when some scores drop you can tense up unconsciously and you start getting a vicious circle.
From what you wrote it appears when you weren’t thinking of scoring you where getting good results but as soon as you started “competition“ it went south. Two possible options come to mind. First treat every arrow as a competitive arrow, start scoring them for each end. If you do enough of this then there will be no difference between training and competion. Secondly just treat the competition as training, write the scores down on the sheet but don’t track them. Just concentrate of form, good releases etc. Maybe even drop the poundage a bit so your technique is under less pressure (I was forced through illness to do big drop in poundage last year. When I restarted shooting the draw weight was relatively light and my technique took a big step forward. I shot a local age record outdoor (720, 60m) and have done several indoor pbs this winter (I won’t depress you with my Portsmouth score which really surprised me when we totalled it up). It’s only my third year of competitive shooting. Sometimes dropping back can actually give you a big step up. Working my way back up in poundage but making sure technique stays solid.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Turned out to be quite a satisfying day 🏹

No, I'm not gonna beat m'sel up over that 3!

DNAA 2020.jpg

- Even though it cost me my first competition 500 for the Portsmouth.

No, I'm quite content with 498. It's my compo PB after all :D But what is really pleasing & confidence-inspiring is the strong way I finished the round - despite increasing pain. Tight, accurate groups. I feel I'm so close to 'getting it' & moving up a step or two now. I'm totally knackered, fully plan to have a stumpy or two, chill out & have an early night. But I'll sleep happy, which is a rare & precious gift.

Note- I had zero idea of my score until I took the pix for my records. I don't 'fixate on chasing the score' All my efforts are on form & cycle. I'd rather have a perfect group than a perfect score.
 
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