I have decided that it is time for a change. 'But why'? I hear you ask. Well, the bottom line is that I have not really been enjoying my archery as much as I should lately and have found myself in a bit of a rut. You know that I have been recording my scores and handicaps for this blog, and the graph of the handicap figures on my records page tells a story.
My best shooting was during July and the back-end of August last year, when I got quite close to achieving second-class scores (handicap of 50 or less) on a couple of occasions. However, since October, my handicap figures have headed upwards so that they are currently bouncing between third-class and unclassified, with no apparent downward trend. I have tried some one-to-one coaching to help me with technique and clicker setup, which has helped me shoot in a more relaxed manner but it does not seem to be having the right effect on my scores. My conclusion is that I am thinking too hard and need to simplify things. A number of fellow club members suggested that I try barebow.
I tried barebow last week.
I liked it.
For the first time in months I felt that I was able to shoot 'instinctively', without worrying too much about aiming, back tension, etc, etc. I simply left off my sight and stabilisers and didn't use my clicker. To aim I used what I subsequently learned was the 'gap' method, where the string is held at the nocking point (as in recurve) and aiming is by means of sighting the end of the arrow at a point below or above the gold. At first I used trial and error and fired a lot of arrows very high over the target. However after a while I found that I had to aim the arrow at a point on the ground halfway between the 30m shooting line and the target, which is really quite strange at first, but you do get used to it. Once I had found my aiming point on the ground (a convenient clump of daisies) my shots became remarkably consistent, considering I was not using a sight. I even managed what could pass as a group.
Over the week I did a little more research into barebow techniques using some basic knowledge I had picked up from other barebow archers at the club, and concluded that I should try an alternative aiming method: string walking. The idea is that the point of the arrow is aimed at the gold on the target, but that the drawing hand is moved to a position below the nocking point to give the correct arrow elevation before release. A position close to the nocking point will give an aiming point farther away than a position further away from the nocking point. The key is to find the correct position for each of the distances in a round.
On Tuesday evening I decided to bite the bullet and removed my clicker and sight block altogether. I took some advice from Dave about the basics of string walking, then took myself off to the practice range. At 30m I again missed with the first couple of half-dozen arrows until I found the correct position of my drawing hand. Many barebow archers who string-walk use a tab which has a vertical line of stitches, and these can be used to repeatedly gauge the correct hand position. As I was still using my recurve platform tab, I had to rely on what I had available, so I used the width of my fingers as a guide, which was surprisingly successful. However, the finger spacer and platform made this method quite tricky, so I went and found a basic, leather 'beginners' tab and used that for the rest of the evening. This made measuring easier, but was much harder on the fingers so I will be ordering a barebow tab before long!
After about half an hour at 30m on the practice range I decided to see just how far I could shoot barebow, so joined some other members who were shooting a National round on the short range and had three ends remaining at 60 yards. The first end I had six misses over the top; the next end I had three on the boss and the third end I had six scoring arrows, totalling 18 points. It doesn't sound a lot, but is more or less what I was getting at the same distance with my sighted recurve bow. I always found 60yds difficult - more so than 80 yds. At 50yds I had a few misses, but managed scores of 30, 22, 26 and 22 for the four ends I attempted, giving a convenient average of 25. If this is converted to a handicap, it gives 63, which is not very far off what I was achieving at recurve. But, as the AGB classifications for barebow differ from recurve, a handicap score of 63 equates to a second class score whereas it would be unclassified for recurve. The 30-point end equates a handicap of 59, which is not too far off a barebow first class score. If you want to see the relationship between classifications and minimum handicaps, I have prepared a cross-reference table for all age groups and bowstyles.
All of this may be beginner's luck, of course, and I may fall back into bad habits. Nevertheless I will continue as long as I am still enjoying myself and will do my best not to overthink things again.
