Coaching session with Liam Grimwood

Had a good session with Liam on Tuesday. We worked on some mental aspects, which is the area I need to really focus on now. My technique and form has nowhere to really go now, he said it looks good and wouldn't change anything.

To progress I have to get my head sorted out. The main on is around aiming. I have a tendency to wrestle the dot into the middle. So to combat this, we tried a technique he uses, which is to talk out loud in his mind to pre-occupy the concious mind to take it away from aiming.

During the session we worked on this, and it seemed to work quite well. It got to the stage were I wasn't really concious where the dot was on the target, but the arrows pretty much always landed in the gold @ 70m every time, other than the odd stray when I lapsed a bit.

We also tried a lighter trigger, because it was evident that a stiff trigger was causing me to also fight the bow a little as well. A light trigger is a bit hairy at first, but soon forgot about it (tried it again to night and its feeling pretty nice).

One quantifiable outcome of this was my shot execution timing was like clockwork; it felt really consistent every time, and had sped up by a few seconds.

So, the coming season's focus has now switched to really working on mental strategies, moving away from pure technique.

At last, some decent weather and a good days shooting

Today was a really great day for shooting, and I spent about 7 hours down at the range getting the Monster tuned in and sight marks for all the FITA/York distances.

After attempting a paper tune, I promptly gave up. The Monster never paper tunes that well, and settled for a 1" left, but level tear and got on with getting sight marks and ensuring that centre shot was was good. The centre shot at all distances was spot on after setting it at about 3/4".

I was shooting my 420 Protours, and wondered if they would be too weak for the Monster (originally bought for the C3). Nothing to worry about here. The good shots (and I had a fair few today) drilled the gold at all distances. Some of the groups were fantastic. The speed I am getting from the Monster @ 60lbs is blistering. I would love to be able to chrono the Monster, maybe I will try and borrow one some time.

I focused on a straight, but relaxed bow arm, and pulling hard into the stops, and when executed right, resulted in some great, explosive shots.

The only scary moment was an exploding nock. I had fitted Beiter Pinout nocks to my Protours, because I can use these with the same nocking point setup with my indoor arrows. This was only an issue with my C3 but kept the nocks. It seems these cannot take the brute force of the Monster. I had also shot another arrow that on release sounded OK, but I found it had the nock distorted (it had not been hit by another arrow either). I have now gone back to the Bohning Blazer nocks. These are the only ones that can withstand the Monsters high energy.

All in all, very pleased. The Monster does demand a good technique, otherwise it can punish you, but on the good shots there is no bow I would rather shoot. Having tried out the C3, I am now sold on speed bows. I do suffer with sight marks and the C3 is just too slow. It will be used for a dedicated indoor bow from now on.

Back to the Monster for this year

So after much deliberation I have decided to go back to the Monster for this year. Having shot the C3 for a number of weeks, its clear it simply does not have the speed needed for the big distances. Shame because its a really lovely bow to shoot. However I have always struggled for sight marks (shape of my head!) and I am on the very limit with the C3.

I will put it aside and use it as an indoor bow for next years indoor season, where it will no doubt be a fantastic rig.

I shot the Monster indoors tonight to bed in a new set of strings/cables. I have got to say I love shooting it. The speed of it, and it holds so steady. The draw length feels a little short but then I am going from a 41" ATA to 33".

So the next stage is to get the cams fully timed, and the Pro Tours paper tuned and centre shot sorted. I may have to cut some off the PT's, but nothing too drastic to stiffen them up a bit.

I am sure this is the right choice. I shot it last year and put in some good scores, and it will be good to shoot the same bow for two years running (which will be a first).

Its coming together bit by bit

Shot yet another Portsmouth tonight, and I followed on from Sunday, ensuring that I got the alignment correct and maintained the back tension, and put in a 580.

Still some sloppy shots, but these are easily avoidable and just need to find the consistency again, but its coming together slowly.

SCAS Indoor Champs 2011

After several weeks of struggling I came out of this quite pleased. I ended up with 579, and 6th place out of 38 compounds, in a very strong field. It was also a competition PB as well.

It was not a perfect round and finished weakly, shooting only 115 for the last dozen, but the middle section was very strong, really hammering home those 10's with some very strong shots. My form was excellent, pulling through the shot.

Considering this was competition conditions, under time control, with the pressures that come with that, I feel it was in the right direction.

I shot in the team event, but by this time I was dead on my feet, having out so much into the first session, and shot a rather poor 560 for a FITA 18, but that is just a stamina issue that I know will be sorted in the peak of the season.

Re-occurring theme...

Again, a Portsmouth round shot, some good ends, some sloppy ones, ended on 577.

I had increased my draw length by about 1/6" and this bought my alignment in, but I am losing back tension on some shots and collapsing.

However, looking at the positives, my trigger pressure was good and positive for most of the evening, which resulted in some great shots.

Got to work on consistency. The SCAS indoor championships are on Sunday, and is another chance to work on ironing out my current form issues.

I have also booked a coaching session with Liam Grimwood for a couple of weeks time, and am looking forward to this, as I think this will give me some much needed direction and focus.