Archery – Back to the Workshop

Archery – Back to the Workshop

One of the things that separates the best from the rest is the ability to adapt to changes in conditions, equipment, etc.  How do you get good at change?  Practice changing!  So make sure to add some time to experiment with new equipment, new shot elements, and new training routines.

It’s important to spend some time between intense archery competitions to experiment.  Confidence comes from knowing that you can bring good performance fundamentals to bear with any situation.  In the past, I’ve relied too much on never changing my equipment to try to have confidence.  After all, it worked “last time.”  But last time, the light was different, the wind was different, and most importantly, I was different.

Plus, you never get to find out if there’s something that will work better than your current setup.

Before you tinker with yourself, your shot, or your equipment, make sure to document what you’re doing now, and the whole tinkering process.  Make sure you can get back to where you start.  That’s part of the scientific process.

I’ve been pretty heavily adding muscle stretching and weight workouts in the past year.  My goal is for the bow to be light compared to my ability to pull it.  My goal is to be comfortable competing with a bow 4lbs heavier than the one I’m actually competing with.  I’ve had some shoulder troubles in the past from not keeping them flexible.  So I’ve added a lot of daily shoulder flexibility workouts, so that they don’t have a chance to tighten up.

In addition to workshopping my self, I’m taking the time to measure, adjust, and re-tune my bow.  I’m trimming my tab down further, re-tying nocking points, and eliminating opportunities for things to loosen up.

Recurve Bow tuning guides:

One strange problem I hit was because the MyBo Crescent Clicker that I use doesn’t have a plastic tip.  Every once in a while, the metal clicker would rub against the metal arrow point when the clicker was about to drop.  Sometimes that creates a scraping sound, and I would tend to flinch, possibly ruining my shot.  At first, I put some electrical tape on the clicker, which immediately eliminated any scraping.  But taping a concave edge doesn’t really work to maintain a reliable clicker edge.  But another workshopper suggested that heat-shrink tubing may do the trick.  So far, that’s working well to prevent the arrow from scraping, and to maintain the reliable edge of the clicker.
 So keep tinkering and experimenting.  But make sure to take notes the whole time.  That’s the only way to really learn from the process.  Otherwise you’re not experimenting, you’re just mindlessly changing.

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