Tuesday 15th March 2011

@ St Pauls

Overcast, turned sunny, slight breezes but not significant.

1x 6 arrow end @ 30m, blank

12x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, blank

1x 6 arrow ends @ 90m, blank

Total 84.

I continued today with using the 'new' methodology by the NHC, along with explaining it and drawing the diagrams on the chalkboard for other club members to see.  Some of them got it straight away, others were a little skeptical about it, indicating that they are in the camp of "resistant to change" as mentioned.

I shot 1 end at 30m to see how it would go, which was fine, and then moved out to 70m, as I am hoping to shoot a QRE on this weekend.  At 70m, my groups weren't any worse, but its hard to tell if its any better when shooting on a blank.  That said, it didn't feel harder to shoot once I got into the rhythm of shooting in that manner, though a good percentage of time I kept forgetting to turn my hips but only my shoulders so I still ended up with a twisted torso.

Expansion is still a challenge but now for a different reason since it is a literal expansion instead of the usual method.  The shots that do happen easily feel pretty solid and go down really well.  Will see on Thursday how it goes when I shoot on a target face.

Strength wise, I can tell distinctly straight away that my bow shoulder is much better in not being as tired with the front shoulder set back further, but I am distinctly feeling the 'area' that Simon mentioned that would be a higher load than the more 'traditiona' methods.  This say to me that I am probably doing things close to be right with the technique.  I'll continue with it and see how it goes.  Arrow volume wise, I'm bringing it down as shooting excessive arrows with poor/incorrect/inconsistent technique is far worse than shooting a lower volume well and reinforcing good shooting.