Thursday 20th August 2009

@ Sefton

Afternoon weather, warm, sunny-ish.

6 arrow sets, 12 sets @ 8m, 60cm target face yellow only

Total 72 arrows.

I stuck on some spots today and did some shooting with some aiming. I was happy with the majority of the results, and yes, I know that it is only 8m, so grouping should be easy, but I was happy with the control and results of the shooting.

Tuesday 18th August 2009

@ St Pauls College Oval

Warm, Sunny, slight odd breeze at times. Clear skies.

28x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm face, no scoring.

Total = 168 arrows

I had my netbook out today with the delay to watch my shooting, and it worked quite well since I made a simple cardboard shroud around it to keep the sun off the screen. I could see my posture and bow arm movements, and also the release action.

I shot reasonably I thought today, managing to keep 90% or so of my shooting within the red of the target face, well within the acceptable range of scores for an '1200' score. Later on in the afternoon, with some discussion with Rob, I concentrated more on my bow arm actions and also trying to keep relaxed and waiting for the shot to "happen" than to force it through the clicker.

Since I have been only shooting at home with a short distance, I had to move the clicker out about 1/8th of an inch and 1mm ontop of that to get a comfortable draw for 70m, but it worked quite well. I think I'm quite happy with todays shooting. Volume wise, it's also quite considerable, and will no doubt try and solidify my bow arm action.

Sunday 16th August 2009

@ Sefton

Nice day, warm (24°C), in the shade with target in sunlight.

6x 12 arrow ends @ 8m

Total 72.

Today, I built myself a plate for my netbook to sit on. The reason was last night my brother was kind enough to find for me and show me how to do time shifted video that I had been looking for. He found it using VLC player under capture devices, which permitted a variable time shift depending on how you set it. The only thing is that it appears to only work on v0.84, not v1.0 or v1.01, so if you want to use the function (Open Capture Device - Ctrl+A, then in Advanced settings, caching value in ms = the delay) make sure you have v0.84 (unless you can get it to work with older versions).

I had the netbook set on the plate with the 1.3MP USB webcam, and a 2.5 second delay, which was enough for me to take the shot, and then turn my head without changing my foot position, to watch the feed.

From what I could see of the feed, my arm dips a little, but no-where as much as it did a long time ago. I have definitely become stronger in keeping the arm up. Shoulder rotation is very slow after the release, to the point where my alignment is fine during the shot I think. Kendo and the exercising of my triceps have helped in this definitely. I seem to be leaning backwards a little after the show, indicating that my bow is heavy, but when I took some bow weight off the stabilizer and riser, it felt very un-natural to me, and I couldn't shoot with it very well, so I put them back on. If I concentrated on the form and keeping my body in position, it is corrected, but it takes more concentration and other aspects get worse. I can also see that my release is so-so. Some are very visible in that they are not plucking, but opening, not releasing. I can see the elongation of the fingers, which shouldn't be that visible if a good release occurs (which I did have some).

Having the playback is very useful, and when I have the time to bring it all out, I'm sure I'll continue to use it. Some pictures below show the plate and general setup of it.

Saturday 15th August 2009

@ Sefton

Afternoon shoot, sunny but in shade.

4x 18 arrow ends @ 8m

Total 72

I had my camera set up with a timer interval, changed between 5 to 10 seconds with various speeds of shooting. I found it was initially difficult to concentrate on hearing and feeling the clicker instead of the camera shutter (nearly released on a camera shutter at the start) but towards the end, was not hampered by this.

Shooting was so so, nothing specific to speak of. Some releases were not so good however as the photographs indicate in regards to follow through position of the hand/fingers. The set can be seen at my Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dchiou/sets/72157622042657322/ .

I also got new wraps and refletched my arrows so they look pretty spiffy.

Thursday 13th August 2009

@ Sefton, Afternoon

No wind, light conditions good.

3x 20 arrow ends @ 8m

Total 60.

About the same as yesterday.

Wednesday 12th August 2009

@ Sefton, Night under light.

Cool, no wind

3x 20 arrow ends @ 8m.

Total 60.

It was a bit of a struggle to get through the last 10 or so arrows in the end. Not shooting for almost a week is probably not so good when shooting large arrow sized ends without much break between ends (16m walk isn't very long).

Managed about 50-75% backtension, but must continue to have strong and deep grip position. Was happy with how the bow arm was keeping up.

Thursday 6th August 2009

@ Sefton
Warmish, no wind, clear skies, bright.

6x 10 arrows @ 8m

First end was very relaxed, very easy, straight through, good release.
Then returned to usual form, however concentrated on not stopping release fingers, as result, did not have sore right shoulder.

Bow hand control seems to be better, less bow arm drop when concentrating on not dropping.
Concentration on aiming however seems to mess with release relaxation.