Honestly, I'm not sure what's happened to my shooting. I shot three times this week, and not a single time was I even close to being on pace to hit 290s. I'm constantly letting down and redrawing, my pin is all over the place, my arm won't steady, and my anchor must be changing, because I'm not getting left/right misses, whereas I used to just hit a bit low. I'm not submitting a score because I didn't even finish a round. I got really frustrated, and I'm not sure what's changing. Of course, then I start to change little things in my form, and it just gets worse, because I can't get consistent. I think my biggest problem is I must have TP, because the second I draw back and go to put the pin in the middle, my bow arm drops down. I can never keep my arm up. I think I really need to have someone look at my draw/shot sequence, because I can't remember what I was doing differently when I was able to shoot in the 290s. Needless to say, I'm REALLY frustrated. Any recommendations?
So, I MAY have figured out what my issue was (or part of it). Some of you may have caught my review of my new stabilizer in the equipment review forum. The stabilizer has adjustable screw in weights, and I THOUGHT it felt best with three of the four weights attached. I went out today and shot a bit, and noticed that I simply wasn't getting a steady hold still, and it felt as if I was torquing slightly (which didn't make sense since I've really worked on my grip over the past year). So I decided to remove all of the weights but one. I shot two ends as a final practice, and it felt much better and as if I was holding much better. I dropped two 9s, but it's gusting outside today, but even with the wind I felt much better. Now, to the target guys. Why would REMOVING weight off the front help me? You always see guys in the open class throwing on 36" stabs with V/side-bars, etc. The extra weight actually seemed to HURT my hold, encourage my arm to drop out, and even possibly torque a bit. Now, I haven't shot enough with the one weight, yet to determine if that was truly the problem, but for right now, it seems to be the most logical thing.
Mass weight vs. peak holding weight. That is the secret formula. Now it is a matter of finding the right balance for your own individual shooting. I'm not ruling out the fact that you may or may not have had target panic (or still have it), but fatigue could have been an issue as the mass weight of your bow could very well be too much for your arm to sustain throughout an entire round. Remember, the poundage of most indoors bows is usually in the low to mid 50's. They aren't worried about speed, only about comfort throughout an entire round, and fine-tuning the balance I explained earlier. V-Bars and longer stabilizers are used for various reasons. One reason being the stabilization of the bow. The second being, balance of the bow. With dropping weight off of the front of that stabilizer, you have dropped mass weight as well as changed the balance of the bow. This combination may have been enough to fool your TP for a while or it could very well be the key that unlocked your mass weight vs. holding weight balance. I'm definitely no seasoned indoor tournament archer, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to balance, stabilization, and setting up the dynamics of a bow for your own individual shooting preference.
I'm hoping I have it at least somewhat figured out. I may do a few aiming drills downstairs tonight because it's raining out, and I'm not going out to shoot in it today. I just feel like once I put those weights on the end of that stab, I started straining much more. I was getting more left/right misses than before, but everything else (I thought) had stayed the same (anchor, grip, etc). We'll see.
I would say that the extra weight on the end would cause up and down misses, mainly low. With the extra weight on the end, it should make your groups tighter left and right due to more weight out there that you have to move to miss left and right.
Makes sense, but I also shoot on a side hill, so my feet are always like this \. I have to cant my bow slightly to level it up (it's a pain). The extra weight seemed to make me put more effort into the canting, and I'm not sure if I was twisting my hand/wrist during the shot because of this or not.
I guess the hill is your biggest culprit for the left and right. Kudos to you for the scores you've been shooting on uneven lies. I can't touch ya and I'm shooting tucked inside of our pole barn. :d
Yeah, I'm not sure my scores would be much better on flat ground, who knows. I know that my scores lately (well the few ends I was shooting) are terrible Here's a shot of my range. It's slanted out to about 22yds, and then it flattens to 30yds. In this picture I'm at about 24 yards or so out.
Matt, I am no pro, but unless you were used to the extra weight, I could see where someone would want to grip more (causing left to right) if the weight were different up front. It took me a bit to get used to the 11.5 inch Octane, the only that does that is more shooting and handling your bow. At night, just picking it up, carrying it around. I know I am a goober, but sometimes for no reason what so ever, I'll go down and just pick the damn thing up and hold it or swing it. I know I am lucky to be able to get 16 to 17 yards in the basement to shoot, so I do that from time to time too, (at random) but just "getting used" to the change is huge IMO.
Yep, I agree with this as well. Anytime we can train ourselves to become more "machine" like, it is going to help. Part of that is getting use to the mass weight if indeed it helped you hold better. Because quite honestly, my arm would fatigue pretty fast when lugging around a ProElite, 30" stabilizer, side bars, decent size sight, etc, etc, etc. But I think when playing around with that system, I may have held better with the added weight. From there, you gotta build those muscles to eliminate the weight of the bow causing problems with your shooting arm. Goober or not, I like what Ben is suggesting.
Thanks, guys. I will shoot with it setup as is (one weight up front) to finish out the league, and then I will try adding weight and see if I can get used to it over time. I haven't been able to shoot much other than when I shoot my round for the league. Weather is too crappy and I don't have any distance inside to shoot.
Definitely sounds like there was to much effort in holding the bow up due to the additional weight of the modules on the stabilizer.The target panic would come about because of the anxiety of getting the shot off before losing your aiming point.Sounds like you are on the track,if there is tension in your body you will not shoot to your potential.Good luck!
Well, shot a little better tonight. I was 3 shots (yes 3 shots) away from shooting a personal best (294), and on the 28th shot, I shot an 8 followed by two 10s. I was SOOO ticked. But I shot my highest X count yet and had to settle for a 292.
Okay, here is a good question to ask since you got a good solid round under your belt with the less weights. Do you feel like you held better this round over your best round with the full on weight stack? The only reason I ask is, it might be a deal where you must work your way up to the stabilizer weight in which you hold the best. If that is what you have on the stabilizer now, great. If not, you might be working your way into something relatively good in the next few weeks by adding weights when you don't feel that bow arm fatigued.
I definitely held better this time around. Do I think I was the steadiest I can be? No. The last two ends I had more noticeable float than early in the round. My first 3 or 4 ends each had 2Xs apiece. It slowly dropped after that. I'm not as conditioned as I should be since I only shoot about once or twice a week right now, plus it was windy today, so part of it could be that. I may add one weight this weekend and see how it is.
