Second Class Citizen

It is just over one month since I decided to strip down my recurve and start shooting barebow.  In that time I have shot nine scored rounds at distances ranging from 80yds down to 40yds with mix of both imperial and metric rounds.  My first round was a Long Metric II (3doz at 70m and 3doz at 60m) for which I scored 182 giving a handicap of 67.  As this was my first attempt at 70m barebow, I initially struggled to find the correct string-walking position, but eventually found that drawing immediately below the nocking point allowed me to sight the point of my arrow at the top of the boss. 60m was better as I was able to sight on the gold with a drawing position slightly lower down the string.  For the first time out I was quite pleased at achieving a third class score.

My second and third scored rounds had to wait until Bank Holiday Monday, nine days after the first, due to other commitments, and they were both WA 70m rounds, forming a double round.  As you are probably aware, with double rounds like this, only the first of the day can be used for calculating official handicaps or for claiming (single round) records.  Of course, you can still claim a record for the double round.  This time, I had a better basis for sighting, so I had fewer misses overall on the first round, but all went-to-pot on the afternoon round, resulting in a score that was 57 lower than the morning score.  I am not really sure what happened, but maybe it was tiredness setting-in after lunch.  Whatever the reason, I was happy with second class scores (59 & 62 h/cap) for both halves (of which I could 'count' only the first).

The following evening I shot a National with a score of 264 for a handicap of 62.  The difference this time was the lower proportion of misses compared to the 70m rounds the day before.  Clearly, the shorter distance will have an effect, but I think being able to sight on the gold rather than at somewhere else above it also helps.  Anyway, I was happy with the another 2nd class score.

My next scored round the following weekend was another National.  I scored a little lower this time but managed another 62 handicap, giving my third, second class score and qualification for a Second Class award.  Looking back at the dates I realised that I had achieved this within a week.  However, looking closer at my round statistics, I could have achieved so much more.

Two of our club members are working to become AGB Level 2 coaches, and one of them approached me to ask if I would mind being one of her 'learner archers'.  I will write separate posts on the training sessions, but one of the first things we agreed was a set of achievable goals for the short, medium and long terms.  My immediate choice of short-term goal was 'less misses', as this problem has plagued me for the last few months both in recurve and barebow.  As I have just started shooting barebow, I have found it easy to put more statistics into a spreadsheet for analysis, and this time I have added the number of hits and total arrows per round, then calculated the percentage hit rate.  You can see the numbers in this table:

Date	Round	Score	Handicap	Class	Hits	Arrows	%Hits	Adj Score	Adj h/cap
17/05/2014	Long Metric II	182	67	3rd	41	72	57%	320	59
26/05/2014	WA 70m	195	59	2nd	44	72	61%	319	52
26/05/2014	WA 70m	138	62	(2nd)	40	72	56%	248	56
27/05/2014	National	264	62	2nd	56	72	78%	339	57
31/05/2014	National	254	62	2nd	54	72	75%	339	57
01/06/2014	Hereford	396	61	2nd	94	144	65%	607	54
03/06/2014	National	296	60	2nd	60	72	83%	355	56
08/06/2014	Short National	327	64	3rd	67	72	93%	351	62
15/06/2014	American	388	63	2nd	74	90	82%	472	58

As expected, there are less hits at longer distances, but my hit rate does seem to be improving slightly.  As an exercise, I decided to calculate a notional score if I had a 100% hit rate (Adj Score), based on the average score for my actual hits and the equivalent handicap (Adj h/cap).  Two things stand out: (1) the worst adjusted handicap figure is at the shortest range and (2) four of these handicaps are at a first-class level (although not necessarily at qualifying distances).  This validates my short term goal of less misses and has given food for thought on why there appear to be problems at shorter ranges.  I have some ideas but that will have to wait until the next post.