Paper&Rubber Magazine / April, 2013 19
For me, tournament preparation starts weeks, even months out from the actual date of shooting.
Through my many years or shooting, the single most important physical aspect of my shooting I need to master is my bow fitness. As archery is a finely tuned, repetitive sport, we need to be able to repeat a shot exactly the same up to 150 times per day. If you cannot do the same thing each and every time, it’s likely your scoring will suffer.
Adding to the fatigue is the long waiting times and competition stress, so we really need to ensure that we are capable of shooting at least 50% more arrows than is required.
How I like to optimize my bow fitness for a particular competition, for example a World Cup or World Championships, is by gradually increasing the number of arrows I shoot per day up until the event. I start this around 4 weeks out from the event, and during the first week I aim to shoot approx. 80-100 arrows a day, 5 days a week.
During this week, I would be focusing on building my strength and aiming to solve any form issues I felt I had. I would also use this week to incorporate any form or gear changes I wanted to make, such as trying a new release aid or style of release. I would concentrate on shooting the primary distance that the event required, such as 50m for our target stuff or a mixture of 30m and 50m if I was training for 3D, and during this week I wouldn’t be focused on scoring my arrows shot but observing my shooting and trying to tighten my groups if needed.
Focusing on good shot execution is important during this time as you are setting the foundation for what the following weeks are built on.
Around 2-3 weeks out from the competition is when I would start to shoot a lot more arrows and aiming to be shooting 140-180 arrows a day, 5 times a week, which is roughly twice the number of arrows required for a 720-World Archery round. During this time, I would be focusing on consistently repeating my shot process that I have been working on in the following weeks and settling into any changes to form or gear that I have made. I wouldn’t be making any new changes, unless absolutely necessary, as during this time I am focusing on consistency of form and repeatable results. In these weeks I will be focusing on scoring my shooting, looking for any trends that may emerge during my shooting. For example, if I notice that during the middle ends of a scoring round I am dropping more points than usual, I may look at possible ways to prevent this from happening. I know from experience that sometimes in the middle of shooting I can lose focus and let my mind wander from shooting, so I would look at strategies to help maintain my focus throughout the full number of scored arrows.
When it gets to one week out from the competition, this is when I like to start winding down my shooting, should roughly 80-100 arrows a day, and generally none the day before I leave. During this time I am focusing on keeping my bow fitness up so that I can arrive at the competition as bow fit as I possibly could be and ready to shoot.
A couple of things to note; for me, I have never enjoyed shooting blank butt. I loathe the thought of shooting at an empty target from 5m away, and as such I never do it. The reason that I don’t like blank butt is that I find the feeling of the bow when shooting blank butt is never the same as what I feel when I shoot 50m. So if I am having form issues, for example if I was experiencing some target panic, then I would stick with 50m but change the size of the target, or use a different scope housing. For me, this works best because I am still concentrating on aiming and shooting shots, which I would not be as focused on if I was shooting blank butt. I do know there is a place for blank butt with some people; especially those people starting out shooting or who are making large changes/recovering from bad target panic, it’s just not for me personally.
Another thing is that all year round I am working on my mental game. It never stops. I am always envisioning me shooting arrows at the target and the arrows landing right in the middle. We all know what the feeling of a great-shot arrow, so I try to feel that during the day, whether I’m working or studying, I will take a moment to focus on that feeling and see my arrows landing in the 10. What I have found this does it that it gets my body accustomed to that feeling and increases the chances of me feeling that way when I am actually shooting arrows.
Hopefully this has giving you an insight into some of the prep work I do before shooting a major competition.