With the title of this entry, a lot of your are probably wondering why I started it with this picture. Well, it's because Jacob and I shot the NFAA Mid-Atlantic Sectionals at the same host site in upstate New York. Although we shot both of our rounds at different times, we did get to catch up with each other at the end of the last line on Sunday.
We had both discussed going to Reedy's Archery in Massachusetts to shoot in their annual Vegas tournament, but we chose to stay in our home state and attempt to exorcise the demons that this tournament has give us on occasion here and there.
I've made a few changes since the last time I wrote anything. I had to stop shooting my caliper release because of the pain in my shoulder. For some reason, the day after shooting the caliper I would get a lot of pain in the top of my shoulder. Although I was executing much better and more relaxed shots, I knew I needed to go back to a handheld. I'll have to work more to figure out why I get all of the shoulder pain while shooting a caliper because I believe that style release is a much better choice for me.
Since I knew I had to go back to a handheld, I decided to lengthen the draw length a little bit to experiment with a few things I've been feeling for most of the indoor season. Anyone who knows me, knows I hate change. I just can't stand changing things, even if I think the changes will make things better. I finally got to the point where I thought I could make things better, so I added two twists to each cable and headed to the range. Most of your probably are thinking that it's no big deal, and it probably isn't to most people. But for me that's a huge change. Call me odd, but that's just the way I have always rolled. I always think I can make something work, even if it isn't quite right.
The first night of league after changing the draw length, I could't believe the difference. Although my holding pattern stayed the same, I definitely realized I could get away with shots that were less than par, which hadn't been the case the entire indoor season up until that point.
When the dust had cleared in league after making the changes, I shot a 450, the first 450 I've shot with that bow since the first round I shot with it indoors in October when I thought I would be ready to roll. When you shoot a bow that well out of the gate, you can usually expect that it's a shooter. Although I haven't shot the bow poorly, I haven't felt like it was very forgiving at all -- until now.
After a few more practice sessions, I changed the pin for the NFAA Mid-Atlantic Sectionals. Instead of shooting a solid, large dark pin, I put my .019 fiber back in. The fiber shows up much better on the 5-spot target, and the solid pin shows up better on the Vegas target. For some reason, I lose the solid one on the white background during the 5-spot rounds.
I decided to shoot the first two lines of the sectionals at the location I chose because I had so many other things to do during the weekend. When I arrived at the host site on Friday evening, I was a little frazzled due to a bunch of things that had gone on since the time I had gotten out of work. I normally shoot in a Friday night league, so I figured staying on that path would be beneficial to my shooting. Since I'm used to shooting on Friday nights, I would feel like I was shooting in my normal league. Sometimes we have to use our mind to play tricks on ourselves, which is what I did in this case.
After getting there and organizing my gear for the tournament, I had to wait for more than an hour for the line to start. I hadn't anticipated being there that early, so I needed to find something to do while I waited. A few other people were there, so I began conversing with everyone, and before I knew it, it was time for the practice ends to start.
When I shot three Xs and two fives in the first practice end and followed it up with the same score the next practice end, I wasn't sure what to think about the first scoring end when I stepped to the line. I could feel my nerves, and my shot felt loose during the first end. My pin float was larger than normal, but I ignored it and focused on making the best shots I could. I battled through the first game and dropped an X in each of the first three ends. Although a start like that can get in many people's heads, I knew I could clean out if I just executed the the things I have been working on in practice, and I do practice much more than others.
As the round continued, it seemed to be a roller coaster ride, but I never experienced any hair-raising corners. I stayed focus and worked hard to get through it to the best of my ability. I made some incredible shots, and they broke loose just like they do when I'm in my basement, a feeling I've been becoming more accustomed to during scoring rounds.
When the clock started at the beginning of the last round, I drew my bow and shot the shots one shot at a time. The last five shots of the round felt fantastic. I loved bringing the feeling out the door with me at the end. It was good knowing that I would be shooting on the 9 a.m. line the next day. I would be able to take those shots with me and start off in the same place the next morning. I ended the round with a 300 56X 29 inside out round. They count inside outs on every round in our sectionals to break ties. I was happy with the round. For shooting a pin and short bars, I knew that I had put up a competitive and respectable score.
The next morning found me at the site bright and early. I felt fairly calm and relatively relaxed. After putting up the score I put up the night before, I figured I would just try to shoot the best I could and see where I landed at the end of the round.
Once again, I missed a few during the two practice ends, but I felt much better than I did the night before. My shots seemed to break a little cleaner, and I executed all of them just as if I were in my basement.
When the scoring round started, I felt a few nerves that I hadn't felt up until that point. My hold was a hair larger than normal, but it was still pretty good. I executed all good shots but got a little unlucky with a few arrows, as they barely missed the X. It could have been where the pin was sitting when the shot broke because all of my shots felt good.
After getting through the first few ends, I began to stroke. My shots seemed effortless, and I could feel every one of them. I stretched the fishing line and pulled the X out of the target toward the bow until the line snapped. Every time it snapped, I knew that I had landed another X. The boat quickly began filling up with enough Xs for a fish fry, and I knew there was no stopping me on this day.
I had two recurve guys on my bale while shooting, and they both had to keep telling me how impressed they were with my shooting. When we got to the last end, they both reminded me that it was the last end. So when I walked to the line and waited for the clock to start ticking toward zero from the 4-minute park, I felt a little bit of extra pressure, knowing I had an opportunity to beat my round from the day before. Although the shots weren't my best shots of the day, I stayed the course and put them all in the X to finish my round. I ended the round with a 300 57Xs 35 inside out Xs, a success for me.
I put together two good rounds for the sectionals and was pretty happy about it. I shot a 600 with 113Xs. In the old days, they counted both rounds in the sectionals, which I think they should still do. However, now they keep the best of your two rounds, so my round that will count is the 57X round. Now, we will have to wait for all of the scores to get tallied up down the eastern seaboard to figure out where I stand. In past years, this would put me on the podium. I'd like to make it since I will be heading into the senior division next year. I would be nice to end my last year in the young guy class on the podium. Time will tell.
Although I couldn't be at the host site on Saturday, I decided I would go back on Sunday to see how everyone had done and to catch some of the last line. I figured I could catch up on some stuff with my teammate Jacob Slusarz at the shoot. As always, I wanted to ask him some questions about shooting stuff, too. That's one thing I recommend to everyone out there: Always ask good shooters questions that can help you with your game. Good shooters know a lot, and great shooters know even more. Since Jacob is a great shooter and a great friend, I ask him a lot of questions. Our topic of discussion today was holding weight. He recently bumped up his holding weight and it has helped him a lot when he feels some nerves. His pin might not sit as steady as normal, but the change isn't much, and the bad shots during nervous moments aren't nearly as bad.
I felt good to catch up with Jacob and also chat with his mom for a bit. They are good people. I'm glad I met them a few years back. I like to follow Jacob's journey and watch him shoot. It's a pleasure. I also like to interact with him because we have similar feeling about a lot of different things when it comes to hunting, shooting and our fathers. It's easy to route for someone like him.
As I watched him shoot his round a little bit, it felt good to know that all of the changes he made a few weeks ago have allowed him to get back on track and enjoy shooting. Although great shooters and good shooters make shooting look easy, we must all remember that shooting isn't nearly as easy as people make it look. All you have to do is talk to a bunch of people who shoot really well to determine that it really is much harder than they make it look. All people feel nerves, and all people put pressure on themselves, whether it's a little pressure or a lot. The people who make it look easy have found ways to use their mental strength to persevere. That's the part that I can appreciate the most when watching great shooters shoot great shots under pressure.
Although Jacob pounded the first day with 300 60Xs and 58 inside out Xs, he felt like he shot a little better the second day. He basically shot the same score, shooting 57 inside out Xs instead of 58 on the second day, both stellar rounds. Here are both of Jacob's rounds.
This weekend was a big step in the right direction for both of us. We have both been working on some things to get us back on the path we want to follow. Although the sample size is small, I feel confident that we both made great strides. My shot felt the best it has the entire indoor season. Although all of them weren't up to snuff, I can easily say that 50 to 75% were spot on. Even the other shots that didn't fit into the top tier weren't that bad. I believe my inside out X count kind of speaks for the shots. My perfect shots go inside out X, and I shot a little more than half of my arrows inside out on the second day.
As I close this up tonight, I just wanted to stay congratulations to everyone across the region who shot good rounds this weekend. There were a lot of tournaments going on, and many people shot well in the places they were shooting. When I look at Jacob, I sometimes like to think I'm his age, but then I quickly realize that I'm 30 years older than him. He's one of the nicest young men you will ever met and he's mature beyond his age. That's a really nice thing to see at this day and age. It also felt reassuring to know that he's usually my teammate when we shoot as teammates in different fun team events across the region in the summer. Although we weren't teammates at the host site where we shot the Mid-Atlantics this weekend, I still felt like it was one and the same: I route for him, and I think he routes for me, because that's what good friends do. Between the two of us, we shot the two highest scores at this particular host site for the weekend. Here are the two cards we got returned to us because they were our low scores that weren't counted
I'll be at the Winter CanAm Classic in Syracuse, NY, this weekend shooting at ASA 12s. I haven't done that in a long time, so it should be interesting. I don't really have anything set up for it, and my bow is going 250 fps. I plan on being in the NY State Big Buck Club booth selling some of my books on Saturday when I'm not shooting. Stop in and look me up if you're interested in one of my new books.
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