Southampton 720 & H2H

I went into this wondering what was going to happen. If it was flat calm I felt I could be on for a 670+, but if the weather lived up to its forecast then how would I deal with it? Well, the weather certainly lived up to it, and I really struggled over the two days. In the end I shot 617 and 614, about 50 points down on my previous competition PB's.

The first day was a very strong left to right wind and driving rain. On some ends I was being blow across 3 targets. I didn't help that being soaked through I was very cold and wet, and I found it hard to concentrate.

The H2H was the new set system, and despite getting knocked out in the first round, I took it too a one arrow shoot-off with the archer who ended up in third place, with him hitting the X and my shot just below the 10.

I felt that my draw length was still too long, so I took the opportunity after the first day's shooting to shorten my d-loop (easier than changing actual draw length) just to see what affect it would have. I was hoping that it would allow me to brace myself a bit more and prevent me coming off the back wall which happened a few times when I was fighting the wind.

The second day started like the first. Whilst no rain, the wind was just as strong but this time it was the worst kind of swirling wind that changed in all directions. On a few occasions the flags were pointing in one direction but the groups went the other way. The first 3 dozen arrows went very badly, I shot 299, with one end a 42, where I was blown from side to side and shot a 4 and a 5.

The second 3 doz was better and I put in a 313. The big difference was I added an extra long rod weight and this seemed to stabilise things up a bit (although it was a little front heavy). By this time I had also really opened up my stance to about 45 degrees to help stabilise against the wind.

In the second H2H, I went out again, losing 4-2 (two draws and one loss). However, by this time I started to get to grips with the wind and just fully relaxed and I shot some really nice groups and some good end scores.

Over the two days, when the wind died down, I was shooting some really great groups. However, I really am now motivated to learn to be a good windy shooter, and will now practice whenever I can in bad conditions because I can't rely on good weather.

My trigger usage was good throughout the weekend. I have ensured that the placement of the release aid is more consistent in my hand and because of this I have been able to wrap my thumb around the trigger. The release now sits firmly on the middle pads of my fingers, rather than in the first crease. Apart from a couple of half-punches on the first day, I shot pretty clean shots.

One thing about shooting the Monster is that it is very easy to creep off the back wall, and when fighting the wind and tensing up, this happens a lot. This is something I will be working hard on over the coming weeks.