To be honest, there didn't seem much to write about for a good few weeks. I had an enforced quiet period with me missing a number of indoor and outdoor sessions due to family illness, being away from home for work, recovering from Tennis Elbow and, more recently, retiling the kitchen. Who said life was boring?
So, what has happened in the last two months? I guess the biggest change is the end of weekday outdoor shooting and the start of the indoor season. I continue to shoot outdoors at the weekend as much as possible, weather permitting and, as I said in the last post, this is the first season that I have shot barebow indoors.
My first indoor session was spent experimenting with my anchor point when at full draw. I use the string-walking technique so that I can aim the point of my arrow on the gold and, when I used the same anchor point as outdoors, my arrow sailed way over the top of the boss, despite walking a long way down the string. It quickly became apparent to me that I needed to adjust by anchor point UP so that the end of the arrow ended up pointing further DOWN. (This may seem odd to recurve archers using a sight, but it is the same principle). I settled on a position where the index finger of my right hand was anchored at the corner of my mouth at full draw, and my first scored round the next week saw me score 389 for a Portsmouth, which I was happy with.
However, over the next few weeks my scores steadily declined and it became clear that my anchor point was not really consistent. My outdoor scores had also plateaued and I had one nightmare day where I posted my first Unclassified score, having only ever shot below 2nd class at barebow once (and that was the first time I tried). Clearly I needed help.
Earlier in the year I had volunteered to be a trainee archer for Bea, a prospective Level 2 coach. She worked with me over a number of sessions to improve my alignment and shot sequence, which helped a lot and made me shoot in a much more relaxed manner. However, I felt I needed some more targeted advice so I approached Linda, who has recently become a level 1 coach. She is the club's leading barebow archer and recently came 5th in the National Championships. Linda worked with me to find an anchor point on my face that was repeatable and suitable for indoor distances, and also identified a number of possible problems with the setup and alignment of my bow. We adjusted the position of my rest so that the arrow sat more centrally on the button, and she thought that the nocking point was too high (something that I sorted out later at home). Finally, we looked at my tab and how I was using it.
When I first started shooting barebow I was using my original platform tab, but found that it was quite uncomfortable to use when string walking and I needed a tab with stitches to help judge my hand position on the string, so I bought a Black Widow tab, used by lots of barebow archers. I then used the thumb of my right hand along the top edge of the tab to form a type of ledge that I was used to with my platform tab. Linda suggested that this was prone to movement and suggested that I fold my thumb down and hold it with my little finger, just like recurve, and use the base knuckle of my index finger to reference a point on my face.
My next few outdoor sessions I used to practice my draw and release and managed to get some good groups at short distance. Over this time I modified my anchor point to draw under my chin rather than to a point on my face, and this seemed to give some consistent results. Moving to a longer distance revealed that most of my arrows were falling right with the point aimed at the gold. A few experiments later, I identified that adjusting my string picture so that the arrow lined up between the string and the edge of the riser gave a better left-right result.
The first time scored a round using my revised technique was the Surrey Indoor Championships held at Woking on November 23. This consists of three sessions, all shooting a Portsmouth round, so there are opportunities for a double Portsmouth as well as the standard round. I entered a single session for the fun and experience and had higher hopes of a prize in the raffle than going home with a medal. After a few dodgy sighters, I refined my string picture and settled down into an enjoyable couple of hours shooting. I had five misses, mainly due to dodgy releases after being distracted, but ended up with a score of 388, only one point below my personal best and a good few handicap points below my current running handicap. I left the venue very pleased but later at home was watching the final results being posted to Facebook by another club member when I learned that I had won the gold medal for overall handicap (in the range 66-100). This is the first time have won a competition medal other than by default (by being the only one in a class) so I have to say that I am really pleased and really owe a debt of gratitude to Bea and Linda for their advice.
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| The Evidence! |
Yesterday I shot my first barebow Frostbite round (appropriately named considering the temperature) and managed a score which would have given a handicap well below my current outdoor running handicap, so it looks like things are on the up again!
So what's next? In terms of equipment, I am going to try a smaller sized tab, as I think the X-Large Black Widow I currently have is slightly too big, as it extends outside the limits of my hands. I have also just bought a second-hand riser that is a level above my current SF Premium. It has been a good beginner's riser, but I dislike the cam method of adjusting limb alignment, and I think it's an appropriate time to move on. The previous owner had just become a junior UK champion so I am hoping some of the magic remains in the riser!
