This week went well in my archery world. I tried taking it easy so my shoulders and elbow could recuperate. They've been aching beyond belief lately. There are some nights that I can't sleep because of the pain in my shoulders.
As I sit here writing this on Sunday night, my body feels good. Early in the week, I decided to work on my shot from the time I hit anchor until the time the bow fired. I wanted to work on that area of my shot because I want it to seem a tad bit more natural. I feel that I'm very strong throughout my setup and loading of my shot. Those steps are effortless.
The first night I went to the range to work on things, I worked on relaxing my shoulders and hand at the same time while transferring the shot into my back. I shot for two solid hours and focused solely on that part of my process. By the time I left the range, I felt good about the progress I had made. My shot felt fantastic, and my aiming was good enough to put most arrows where they needed to be.
The next night, I decided to blind bale at my house and stay away from the range. I wanted to continue the positive feedback from the night before. I did this exercise on and off throughout the late afternoon and early evening. I'd say I probably shot about 100 arrows. When I finished, I felt good about my session. I realized that I need to keep strong in all areas and just let go of my body and let it relax into place.
On Wednesday night, I headed to the range again to continue practicing. I figured I would work on expanding. I've always been amazed at how us Joes can shoot a round with three perfect shots, then lose the ability to do that again for a few rounds. My goal was to execute consecutive perfect shots and really feel them when they broke. I worked hard for a while and kept score while doing it. When I shoot for score it sometimes changes a few things, but I've been working on making practice sessions and scoring sessions as similar to each other as possible. I will get to the point this year where my shooting in tournaments feels identical to my shooting in practice.
On Friday night, I met Jeff Wagoner at the club for the practice night of our indoor winter league. The league starts next week. We decided to shoot a Lancaster round. I struggled mightily out of the gate. I just didn't seem to be holding well. I focused on following my steps and allowing things to happen on their own. Instead of beating myself up for scoring poorly, I stayed the course and continued shooting. I made it a goal to identify any issues as they popped up, address them and correct them. I did a great job with that by the time the round ended. I saved my round from being incredibly bad and held on to make it an average day at the range.
Going into the tournament on Sunday, I didn't have any of the normal feelings I get. I just wanted to go shoot and practice what I've been practicing. I didn't have any expectations. I just wanted to hold my own and make good shots.
Since I never know what to expect as far as nervousness goes, I was confident when I felt relatively calm. When I anchored into my shot during the first practice end, the pin went to the middle and held like a rock. I executed three perfect shots, two landing inside out in the X-ring. In the next practice end, I did the same but got all three Xs. I was definitely ready for what was ahead. Amazingly, my anxiety wasn't anywhere to be found.
The first few ends of live scoring brought a few of my old feelings back, and I dealt with them like dusting off cobwebs. When the dust had settled after the first game, I felt pretty good about it, even though I hadn't scored well. I had a few minor issues cost me a couple of points that I missed to the high left of the 10-ring, but nothing to get excited about. I think some of the issues in the first game were due to my blood sugar level when we started. My monitor told me that my blood was holding at 61, which made difficult to do some things that would normally seem easy. Since that's a battle I will face from time to time, I made the best of it and don't use it as an excuse. I held my own and did my best.
As the round continued, I began getting in a groove and stroked the middle of the target. I missed one here or there, one on a shot that bobbed a little low and fired before it returned to the center -- that happens once in a while, even to the great ones. When the dust settled and the scores were tallied, I didn't know what to expect. I knew I had shot a handful of 9s in the beginning, but after that, I felt really good about it. I thought that I had piled some Xs up.
Looking at the card when it was handed to me, I saw that my last 30 looked good. I shot a 298 with 22Xs -- a 320 in Lancaster scoring. For shooting a pin and short bars, I consider that a pretty good round. The best thing about the round was that I made more good shots than bad ones. When I was stroking in the last third of the tournament, I felt like I couldn't miss. Every time I got to the bottom left target, my conscious mind and subconscious mind knew that I couldn't miss. I only missed one X on that target out of the 15 arrows I shot at it. Once the hole formed, the pin settled into it nicely, and the arrow followed the pin.
I had a great week of practice. With everything going on this week, I don't plan on shooting too much. I have other things to pay attention to and must direct my attention toward those things. I will be shooting at the Guan Ho Ha tournament on Friday night. If the weather is okay, I'm going to try to get to the Top Gun shoot at Hall's Arrow in Connecticut on Sunday. If the weather isn't good, I'll go shoot the team round at Guan Ho Ha just to get some extra practice in. I set out to make progress this winter in a few different areas. After the first couple of shoots, I feel like I've taken a few steps in the right direction. The good shots feel fantastic and find themselves inside out in the X. Here are the practice targets -- one night when I didn't keep score, and one night when I did keep score. The picture with the card on the target is my target from the tournament. After looking at all of them, I noticed there's not too much difference in them. I'll keep grinding. Can anyone figure out why I chose to put that particular picture at the beginning of this entry?
Well, I realized halfway through my round that if I just trusted my shot, I had nothing to worry about. Instantly, the round became so much more enjoyable and shooting my arrows was effortless. It's the first time I have felt that in a while. I will focus on that and make sure the feeling joins me earlier in the round this week. Oh, it wouldn't be right if I didn't congratulate George Connors. He was in the lane next to me at this tournament, and he had it rolling right from the starting bell. He ended the day with a 449 and 31Xs. It felt really good to see him shoot well. I enjoy seeing my friends do well.
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