Saturday 19th March 2011

@ SOPA

Overcast, rain, showers, sun, sprinkle, no real wind of note

4x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm warmup

70/720 QRE

3x 6 arrow ends @ 60m, 122cm, unscored

Total 114

Shot the SOPA QRE, started strongly with a 53, 50 50, and then it just went downhill from there.  Ended up with a 289 and a 267 to finish.  Not entirely sure what the 100% causes are, but at the end of the day, its just me being inconsistent, be it weather or not.  I had strong feeling ends, but shots were plucking out to the right, and at times kicking up high.  Miscellaneous 6's, 5's, and even one 4 cost me too many points.

That said, I am feeling very sore in the same spot as I mentioned previously, so my change in form is being consistent.  Whether it is correct is hard to tell unfortunately.  Shots going down look good in arrow flight, but I probably have a bit of left/right alignment to deal with also as many of the righ-pushed shots were at the correct center height.

Friday 18th March 2011

@ St Pauls
Overcast with brief sun breaks, showers at times, light breeze.

18x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm unscored

Total 108.

Once again working on NHC method, unscored however and was averaging approximately 52/end or so in good solid progress.  Felt different and while for most part was able to get the right shoulder positions and settings, sometimes it just didn't happen, so still need to determine consistency.

Thursday 17th March 2011

@ SOPA
Overcast, light breeze but not of note, warm.

3x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm, unscored
70m/720 round practice

Total 90 arrows.

Worked on using the NHC method.  Scored a 288 and a 275.  Wasn't spectacular, wasn't bad.  Just a work in progress.

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.

Monday 14th March 2011

Run Time

1.4km - 6min 3sec

@ Sefton

12 x 6 arrow ends @ <8m, blank

Total 72.

After attending the seminar yesterday held by Simon Fairweather, the Australian National Head Coach, I tried using his 'new' methodology today.  In keeping it light with his philosophy, I also didn't shoot an excessive number of arrows since changing form without dropping poundage and shooting a high volume invites injury to your door.

It was interesting to hear and see diagramatically, along with his demonstrations using a thera-tube the biomechanical posture and form that is slightly different to the more common-place alternatives.  While it isn't exactly revolutionary, the changes and differences seem to be quite simple really, elementary.  Of course, getting to them and making them is the harder part as many people, especially older established archers are quite resistant to changes, especially if they have spent years fine tuning their particular method.

For me, it wasn't a huge leap as the action was quite similar to my current one, with the incorporation of a 'Kyuudou' style of draw that utilizes the torso rotation and pulling of the arms simultaneously apart.  The slight differences in how the foot position and shoulders align up however are the points that I am working with.

What I have kind of realised with my 12 ends is that realistically, how you get to the final position isn't that relevant in terms of the final alignment and how you shoot there, since it's just an alternative pathway.  I can do this three different ways and it feels the same once I'm there.  The difference though is that Simons method has been thought through to be the most low-risk injury scenario *provided* that you actually work from a low shooting weight to your final shooting weight.  If you jump straight in, you're just as likely to harm yourself as you would doing it any other way as the muscular groups and behaviours are more than likely weak (unless say you shoot Kyuudou also).

I didn't feel particularly weak, but I did feel at one point the 'strain' that was mentioned in regards to changes in how the body loads up.  The shot didn't quite seem terribly different but my release hand behaviour did change as expected.  Since I was mostly shooting blank (except aiming at arrows on the target already), its hard to fully determine how I might be able to sustain this when shooting at a face, which I hope to do later.

Points for me to work on is rotation of the hips to follow the torso to restore back to foot position.  Ensuring the bow shoulder comes all the way back and straight and maintaining a more centered posture.

Its hard to determine however if I am maintaining the right line of forces through the arm as I have no mirrors or someone watching, and while I could set up a camera, its quite fiddly and also a little challenging to get the propler 'from above' angle required.

That said, I will stick with it this week and shoot the QRE on Saturday with this method if I can and see how it feels.

Saturday 12th March 2011

@ Chatswood Club

ArcheryNSW Coaching Seminar Day 1

@ Sefton

Turning dark, dusk.

3x 6 arrow ends @ 8m, 40cm spot unscored.

Total 18.

Went to the first day of the two day seminar, with James Park giving a talk on compound shooting with touches on recurve shooting also as they were very similar in many ways.  It was a long day, and many slides, to which I learnt a few things to try out.

Tomorrow is the recurve day with Simon Fairweather.

When I got home, I tried out the bow arm position that was mentioned in the seminar, as I have always had a bit of a struggle with it, and the mentioned method preferred by Jim Park turned out to be almost the same as I have been naturally instinctively shooting.  I tried three ends before it got too dark and it didn't feel too different, e.g. I didn't seem to feel more 'relaxed' or biomechanically more stable, but at 8m, its hard to say and see since the aiming was pretty easy at that distance on such a large face by comparison with 18m on the same face.  I will have to examine it closer later next week at slightly further distances.

Thursday 10th March 2011

@ SOPA
Overcast, no wind, humid and warm.

25x 6 arrow ends @ 50m, 80cm, no scoring.

Total 150.

Just shooting arrows again, not working on anything in particular.
Draw shoulder was twinging so decided to finish on 150 instead of more.