As the indoor season winds down and the Field season
approaches, I’ve been thinking about what goals to set myself for the
next season, and what it is going to take to achieve them. To that end, I have developed
a training plan for 2014 that will look at the main points that I need to
improve and work on for the next year.
The Archer..
My general fitness is pretty good, and over the last 4
months or so I have begun to exercise regularly again. I enjoy running and run
around 20k in an average week, plus gym exercise so I have lost 1.5st since
September and I am in much better shape with stronger cardio than I was last
year. This should make a difference when fatigue and endurance becomes an issue
as the day wears on.
I would say that by biggest obstacle that I need to overcome
is confidence. I need to trust my shot sequence and know the shot will go where
I want it, and do not let doubt or worry interfere with the process. Physically
my shot is quite strong and consistent but it is not perfect. The main points
that need to be addressed are bow hand positioning, and release trigger action.
My bow hand position has changed in the last year. I tried a
more relaxed hand but I found it hard to repeat so I went back to having my
fingers pulled in out of the way. I have a little tension in my hand from this,
but I find it easier to repeat so I am going to stick with this and practice
keeping a strong bow arm after the shot so that I do not collapse and drop the
arrow which I am prone to do from time to time.
Release wise, I do not punch the trigger as such but the
release is not as smooth as it could be so I am working on activating the
trigger from increasing the tension and pulling through it. This seems to be
working and my indoor scores have improved from this so I am going to dedicate
a few sessions to solely this.
That leads me on to a big change - the way I practice. When
I go to the club I generally just end up shooting arrows. Most of the time it
is just end after end of shooting at a target - all good practice no doubt but
it doesn’t have much value in training specifics. This year, I am going
to use each session to focus on one particular aspect each time . And make
better use of blank bossing to focus on these without the pressure of holding
on a target.
The Equipment…
All of my field archery equipment is high quality, and I
cannot see any reason to change anything on my field bow - I am happy with all
of it so I need to do a little fine tuning to squeeze the maximum performance
out of what I have.
I am 100% satisfied with my Insanity CPXL for Field, and
unless there is a quantum leap in technology I can see me shooting it for a
long time. I have given the bow an overhaul, making sure everything is clean ,
the parts that move do and the parts that shouldn’t don’t! The
strings have been cleaned, waxed and burnished down ready to face the elements.
The only thing I haven’t done is creep tuning so I will sort that out
before the first field shoot.
Arrow wise, I’ve been tempted to pick up a dozen top
of the range arrows such as Easton X10 Pro Tour or Carbon Express Nano Pro but
I think I can still get more out of my Carbon One’s yet, so I am going to
stick with them for 2014. Before this season begins in earnest though, I am
going to strip them down, refletch them all from scratch making sure they are
as weight matched as possible and for the first time ever, I will spine index
them..
Indexing is something I have never bothered with before, but
I feel I am reaching the level now where every point counts so I want every
advantage possible. No arrow is perfectly uniform, and the spine does vary on
them so you will find that the arrow shaft is slightly stiffer in one plane
than in all others. Spine testers to accurately verify this range into the
hundreds of pounds, so I decided to make my own - No bad for about £25 all in!
The arrow is sat on bearings so it can rotate freely with
little resistance, with a dial indicator accurate to +/- 1 thousandth of an
inch resting on the arrow. A 2lb weight is hung on the arrow, and the amount it
bends is visible. As you rotate the arrow, you will notice the needle will jump
indicating the stiffest plane of that arrow. You mark that plane with a dot/sticker
and fletch your arrow so that this plane is vertical.
The theory behind this is that arrow movement on release for
a compound is vertical, rather than horizontal as seen when shooting off
fingers. By making sure that the stiffest plane is aligned to this on all
arrows, it should be more forgiving of an imperfect shot and
‘fliers’ should be reduced. I put my arrows on the tester and sure
enough a stiff plane was easily visible. A few of the arrows were almost
correctly aligned already but most are off, so this is why I will be
refletching them all.
Once this has all been finished, I am going to go to a
practice evening at St Athan’s gym with the Llantwit Major Archers to
make use of their large indoor facility for a walkback test, and verify my long
distance Sightmarks under ideal conditions. Where else can you shoot back to
your max distances indoors!
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