This morning was probably a bit chilly but getting used to staying warm in 3 or 4 degrees I’ll take double digits and it felt canny comfy. Got a bit of sun which instantly helps but at that time of day it’s behind the targets and makes it hard or impossible to see. So you end up wishing it and its warmth away :”/  It was misty as well so the target colours were already “pastel” at 60 metres so. Beautiful tho.

Shot 2 dozen at 60m then a dozen each at 50m and 40m as practice for this weekend’s WA900.

Was out Friday night getting some practice in for the WA900. Plan was to shoot a dozen or so at 60m, then 50m then 40m – mostly to get used to the change in distance and put some work into my sight marks. Ended up at 60 metres for a bit longer than that as started off having a bit of a ‘mare through a combination of low sight marks and me not quite doing it right.

This is where I’m at, I’ve got a good thing going but haven’t quite trained my shot enough for it just to be natural in my sub-conscious. Obviously you don’t want to be trying to figure these things out in a comp, you need to hit the ground running.

More training needed, and I’m on it.

Following the session I felt really inspired so I got myself to the field the next morning and sighted in at 80 yards. The furthest I’ve :”ever” shot. It seems like a long way – see the picture.

All went well and I really had somer fun, even hitting X’s. So I’ve entered the Cleadon Open to shoot a Hereford round next Sunday – the day after the 900.

Something interesting is a good anchor point seems easier to achieve at longer distances. So will bear that in mind as something to play asroudm with when I’m next shooting at 50 metres.

Productive session this morning at the field before work, training my shot execution and practicing for the upcoming WA900.

Shot 3 dozen at 50m on a full size 122cm face, then walked back the remaining 10m to get my sign marks for 60m before shooting a dozen there.

Weather was brisk to say the least, about 4 degrees C, so I’m glad to be home getting warm.

Got something good going with the shot process – draw, get alignment and hand sorted, then move head to get the peep sight (I use left eye as a right handed archer remember) and then begin the execution. If I do that right my pin holds really solid on the gold. Need to remember that

I’m gonna try blogging archery progress, see how it goes, doesn’t have to be fancy.

This post is a bit of a retrospective one as it would be nice to begin from the start of getting ready for the 2024 outdoor season.

Did a lot of work over the indoor season, and I mean a LOT, made some massive leaps and breakthroughs largely due to help from my friend, club mate and coach Dillon Crow – (Coach D.) and British Wheelchair Archery Association (BWAA) training camps. We built a new release aid, activating a trigger with a ‘surprise shot’ via my neck, did loads of work on my form and some fine tuning on my bow. Particularly the draw length, which is now almost spot on and my sight pin holds so steady it’s ridiculous (on the shots where i get it right, still working on that).

As soon as the Indoor County Champs were over I decided to move outside. Pending some more in depth bow tuning, which I’m proper excited for, the only equipment change I made was to nudge my arrow rest up a bit to compensate for the thinner outdoor arrows. See the pics.

I’ve had a couple of sessions outside, shooting at 30 metres whilst I get used to my release aid and do my best to keep my shot process intact whilst moving to further distances.

So far I’m really happy and got a good buzz going on. It took a few dozen to settle down but I would guess 4 out of every 6 arrows my pin was holding so steady whilst I executed that it was scary.

This weekend I shot the NCAS Indoor Championships 2023 and scored 548 / 600 for a Portsmouth. This isn’t a great score for me (practice PB of 565) but I was more than happy with how it went given it was only the 2nd time I shot my current release aid and style of shot execution.

I was also happy, and proud, to have won 1st individual team compound with my club Cleadon Archers, and alongside Pam Duncanson, Kev Duncanson and Dillon Crow. In some good company there with 3 amazing archers and I’m more than happy for my score to carry them through haha.

After the first 3 or 4 ends (with spot on sighters) I realised that I had my harness fastened 1 belt hole tighter than usual, which affects sight marks and means that the release aid goes off quicker. A quicker release didn’t help with me getting used to it, and after tightening the belt properly my sight marks changed, so had to deal with that. Can’t complain tho, as this issue didn’t hold me back from an amazing score with other things going on. I’m just glad I found out why the release was so quick.

For the first time indoors I stayed on the line throughout each end and during both details. This gives me more time on the clock as I don’t have to walk to the line and get my bow sorted before I can load an arrow. Instead I can have an arrow already loaded for when the 2nd buzzer goes. This worked well for me and would be my preferred option. I did notice indoors that you don’t get much time for anything else if staying on the line. So need to be prepared with drinks near by. I found that leaving the line if I’m 1st detail helps with this also.

About the timer – I noticed afterwards that this is the first time I’ve ever shot a comp where I wasn’t too bothered by the time. Usually I’m in a panic and my shot execution timing suffers. I think this is due to a combination of being much quicker at loading the bow and all of the timer experience I gained shooting matches at the National Tour in Surrey and the National Disability Championships at LiIleshall. 

And about my release. It still felt a little too hot/quick with me only getting 1 second or so of expansion before it goes off. I’m of a mind to try and slow it down a bit but will persevere with it how it is and see if it improves over time. I have a feeling it might slow as I learn to anchor with more  finesse. It might even teach me to do such things and keep me on the right track.

Overall I enjoyed a good session, shot with some good dudes and really appreciate all of the efforts that organisers and the judges put in to these events.

Next up for me is to keep training with the T.R.U. Ball Beast XT release aid and keep an eye out for more Portsmouth rounds.

Archeryn00b Corner

A Portsmouth round is usually shot indoors at 20 yards. 20 ends at 3 arrows per end are shot on a 60cm target face giving a total of 60 arrows and maximum score of 600.  It’s a little bit different as it’s an imperial round that uses 10 zone scoring, rather than 9, 7, 5 etc.

Compound archers usually shoot at 3 different, vertically arranged faces, 1 face per arrow. I gather this is mostly to avoid damaging your own arrows and prevent arrows from filling the 10 ring and deflecting other arrows out. The compound 10 ring is only 3cm in diameter so it’s quite a small area to hit and can easily be filled up with 1 or 2 of the fatter indoor arrows.

So, the 2mm aluminium sheet turned up and Dillon made a trigger/lever for the T.R.U. Ball Beast XT release, which was quite impressive to see to be fair. It’s bent into a shape that lets me get close to the release and start pushing/pulling before it goes off.

It’s still very hot, often going off just as I’m settling into my sight picture,  so I’ve packed it out with some foam to slow it down a bit.

Tonight I tried it out at 20 yards and shot 3 X’s in my first ever proper end with it – so taking that as a good sign.

https://www.crowwithabow.co.uk/

This evening I’ve been doing some release aid work with Dillon https://www.crowwithabow.co.uk/ in my archery room that you can cook in. A few weeks back we had one of my Tru-Ball HTF hinges working very nicely by activating it with my neck, but hinges being hinges there’s a few issues with it that we think a trigger might solve.

So, we’ve been trying some things with my Tru-Ball Bone Collector Beast (the one on the right) and have had some success activating it with my neck. To prototype we attached a good ole allen key to the trigger with some nock point thread. This does the job but the lever needs some tweaks that aren’t gonna be easy with the way it is currently made.

Enter the newer version of the Beast, the XT Hybrid, which allows you to change the trigger. I was lucky enough to get one within 24 hours of looking as the next day Dillon was off to The Archery Company for a tournament. They were one of the few, if not only places in the UK to have one in stock.

This evening we’ve been making a trigger lever out of 1mm aluminium sheet. It’s a good plan and works nicely. I can get much closer to the release aid and find my alignment but the aluminium bends a little too easy as I gradually pull against it. Some 2mm is on order and we’ll continue once it arrives…

Recently I read the book Zen Golf by Dr Joseph Parent and was so impressed I want to share some thoughts and a recommendation.

Usually I find a self help book a bit of a slog, reading for a little while and putting it back down until the next time I force myself to read some more. Like a good fiction novel this was a real page-turner. I’m after improving the mental aspect of my archery game and because this book contained so much on-point information I couldn’t put it down.

To get all of the information it’s going to take a bit of unpacking, and I’ll probably read it again at least one more time. Fortunately I read it on my Kindle which meant I could highlight important areas to look back over as a summary.

What I’ve taken from it so far is to find a balance between trying too hard and not caring at all. Shot preparation – breathing, setting my centre of gravity and picturing how the nice shot will happen – these are the areas I’m currently working on and practicing, with great results so far. I also got a lot of information relating to mindset that I haven’t seen so far whilst learning and practicing mindfulness and meditation. In particular how my thoughts are not my mind, but contents of my mind. This is helping me when I practice being in the moment, clearing my mind and just letting thoughts drift by.

As I say this book is going to take a bit of unpacking so I’d imagine that this post will be the subject of updates in the future as I get more into it.

At yesterdays practice session I shot a WA50 scoring 585 which is a new PB, beating my previous of 552. Really happy with that, mostly because my shooting has been all over the place for weeks now and last night I started to put it all together. With definite improvements on previous setup, which is a relief.

Feeling quite positive as still have plenty of things I know myself what I’m doing wrong and what to work on.

Onwards to 600+ ..