Thursday 13th January 2011

@ SOPA
QRE
Overcast, winds up to 30 km/hr, 24°C.

4x 6 arrow ends warmup
70m/720
2x 6 arrow ends cooldown.
Total 108.

Tried to focus more today on getting a solid deep hook on the grip while maintaining a shoulder and hip turn into alignment during the draw phase. When at anchor, trying to push out towards the target and a solid release.

For most part it worked okay but there were times where I probably didn't fully concentrate and suffered for it. The wind was proving to be a hinderance at times, but I can't really blame it for my poor shots as the execution was taking too long and releases were being thrown all over.

The second half was getting worse. The trend seems to indicate my second half isn't getting stronger but deteriorating. I would hope to be able to improve on my second half in the future.

Session: 1 ( FITA 122cm at 70 metres )

1  = 51  51 2  = 49  100 3  = 39  139 4  = 52  191 5  = 47  238 6  = 47  285

Session: 2 ( FITA 122cm at 70 metres )

1  = 36  36 2  = 48  84 3  = 48  132 4  = 45  177 5  = 46  223 6  = 45  268

In shooting the cooldown ends, Ricci looked at me shooting one arrow and told me that I was 'pulsing' with my back/arm in that my elbow was pulling down, then coming back up before going back down, then up etc. I think that is possibly why my engagement isn't happening as I am breaking off the continous expansion, causing the rest of the system to fail. I will try to work on improving expansion to be more consistently pulling.

In addition to this, I did notice that with the target numbers and timers removed, I was shooting a lot more relaxed and getting through the clicker easier in the cooldown. This indicates a mental state issue that I hope with more shooting will resolve so I maintain a more relaxed state.

Tuesday 11th January 2010

@ SOPA
Mild temperature, wind gusts ~25km/hr, overcast.

3x 6 arrow ends warmup
70m/720 QRE
3x 6 arrow ends cooldown
Total 108 shot

After Monday's QRE, I was a little more settle, not really nervous anymore, after all, I doubted that I would be consistently shooting worse than yesterday.  The wind was still frustrating me much however.  After the first set of the 70/720, I felt pretty reasonable however in the second set things were not going so well.  I managed to identify that my release grip depth was too shallow and slipping, especially on a letdown in the first end that resulted in a miss as it came out of my fingers.  I managed to keep the grip reasonable for most part, and also pushed my hip around to help with my shoulder alignment.  It kind of did the job for a brief while until I forgot to do it.

The resulting score was better than Monday, but still quite a bit of improvement for consistency.  My cooldown ends were about in par with the scored ends but they felt much easier to get through, probably due to the 'pressure' of it being a scored QRE event.  In this case, I hope the more I shoot, the more relaxed I can be, and also maintain shooting enough arrows to stay stong through the shoot.  The scorecard is below.

Session: 1 ( FITA 122cm at 70 metres )

1  = 43  43 2  = 46  89 3  = 54  143 4  = 45  188 5  = 50  238 6  = 39  277

Session: 2 ( FITA 122cm at 70 metres )

1  = 34  34 2  = 42  76 3  = 45  121 4  = 52  173 5  = 43  216 6  = 33  249

Monday 10th January 2010

@ SOPA
Windy gusts upto 30km/hr, light rain sprinkle at times.

3x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm warmup
2x 70m rounds
1x 6 arrow end cooldown.

Total 96 arrows shot.

Being the first QRE since 2007, I was a bit nervous for no reason at all, quite silly really....
My scorecard from their electronic score keeping system:

Session: 1 ( FITA 122cm at 70 metres )

1  = 41  41 2  = 51  92 3  = 45  137 4  = 40  177 5  = 34  211 6  = 42  253

Session: 2 ( FITA 122cm at 70 metres )

1  = 28  28 2  = 39  67 3  = 36  103 4  = 40  143 5  = 41  184 6  = 38  222

	It was a interesting shoot, I think the pressure got to me a little, but when I got to the apathy state I was more relaxed and shot better, but my arrows were pitching lower than expected, not entirely sure why.  I know that a lot where poor releases and some hitting my bow arm, but the scoring was significantly worse than my usual practice rounds.  In addition, the wind was quite challenging to shoot with also.
	In any case, it doesn't matter, all the more for me to work on.

Saturday 8th January 2011

@ UNSW
Indoors, 15m range with Fluro tube lighting.

I shot an un-kept count of arrows.  I was pretty tired from Kendo training earlier but thought I would drop down to their facilities and shoot to see what it was like.  I'd estimate maybe 30-40 arrow shot in the space of the 3 hours i was there in a mix of 3 and 6 arrow ends.

My form wasn't great, the lighting wasn't helping very much either in forming a solid sight picture.

The resulting thing from my visit however was the loss of 2 arrows in their layered carpet target.  Unfortunate.

Sunday 2nd January 2011

@ Sydney Bowmen
Some sun, overcast, gusty winds running in the early afternoon.

4x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm unscored
6x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm scored
1x 6 arrow end @ 70m, 122cm unscored
5x 6 arrow ends @ 30m, 122cm unscored
1x 9 arrow end @ 30m, leapfrog
1x 2 arrow end @ 30m, X shoot-off
1x 18 arrow end @ 30m unscored
1x 9 arrow end @ 30m unscored

Total 134 arrows.

70m round scored was a 292.  Could have been a bit better as every single end had at least one 6.  Bumping that up to even just a 7 would result in 298, bumping to an 8 would be a 304.  Just got to stop the silly outlyers from happening.

Tuesday 28th December 2010

@ Sefton

Cool, overcast, slight wind movement.

2x 6 arrow ends @ 18m, 40cm 6 ring no scoring.
5x 6 arrow ends @ 18m, 40cm 6 ring scored (Indoor)

Total 42 arrows.

Indoor round scored at 267.

Bow shoulder deltoid was worked pretty hard, as shooting speed and return rate was faster than other distances.  First several ends, release also did not feel normal, quite poor plucking resulting in flicked shots.  More concentration upon the release provided smoother feeling releases, while aiming with the open ring was not strained too much with the increased focus.

Sunday 19th December 2010

@ Sydney Bowmen
Initially cloudy and overcast, turning bright sunny with strong gusts of wind

All ends at 60m, 122cm, no scoring
10x 6 arrow ends
19x 7 arrow ends
1x 16 arrow end
1x 3 arrow end with 30lb recurve
1x 6 arrow end with 26lb wooden recurve
1x 6 arrow end.

Total 224 arrows.

I didn't shoot very well today, mainly attributed to the 2 hours of sleep I had Saturday night due to having to go to the hospital for something.

My groups were consistently to the right of the center when I didn't have what I would describe as perfect shots.  A range of group sizes between shotgun in the 7 ring, to small groups of about the 9 ring size but not in the middle were put down range today.

Good exercise at least for my back.