Good Days vs. Bad Days

[Russell2]

Hey everyone I'm new to Traditional Archery and Trad Gang. Yesterday I shot a new high score from 20 yards out. Took my time only shooting 2 arrows at a time. Now today I shot horrible compared to yesterday. Shoot 3 arrows at a time from 20 yards out. What do you guys do to keep your focus on shooting good arrows and having less bad days?

Thanks everyone for your help

[McDave]

One thing you can do, oddly enough, is to not worry about the bad days.  It does you absolutely no good to worry about "bad days" and just adds another thing to stand in the way of keeping your focus on shooting good arrows.

"Bad days" is too vague of a thing to worry about, and offers you nothing you can work on to improve your shooting.  If you have a bad day, and you will probably have many more of them, it's because you're doing something different than you were on the days when you shot well.  Nobody other than maybe a personal coach can tell you what that is, and if you don't have the opportunity to be coached by someone, you just have to figure it out for yourself.

What you have to do is to develop good, solid, repeatable form.  Study Terry's form clock, and try to match yourself to his allignment.  It is hard to know when you're in good allignment, so maybe you can take pictures of yourself or someone can do that for you, and then compare your allignment with his.  Get Masters of the Barebow 3, and learn what Rod Jenkins and others on that video have to say about drawing the bow, release, and followthrough.  By all means, go to classes if you can.  Study Masters of the Barebow IV 4 and learn to apply what they say about concentration and focus.

I've studied this long enough, and have done it right enough times now, that when some element of my allignment or form breaks down, it doesn't take me very long to identify what it is that I need to work on.  But I remember earlier in my archery career when it was more of an accident if I did everything right than it was if I botched the shot.  I would try and try to repeat those perfect shots, only to make the same or some combination of unknown errors again and again.  Most of the time, whatever I thought might be causing the problem wasn't, and whatever I changed only made things worse.

However, eventually, through trial and error, I would stumble on something that would solve the problem, and I would shoot great for a while until I started doing some other thing wrong.  Then it would take me a long time to identify that.  The good thing is that when you identify a particular problem, like torqueing the bowstring, then you develop a body awareness of that particular problem, so when you start doing it again, you're able to correct it a lot quicker than you did the first time.  But I don't know of any easy way to develop an awareness of all the multitude of allignment errors, execution errors, and focus errors that it's possible to make, other than just making them and then learning to identify them one by one.

Well, you could go back and be born with the genes of a Rick Welch or Tiger Woods, but I haven't figured out how to do that either.

[Russell2]

Haha Thanks

[Greg Skinner]

I can echo much of what McDave says.  On the good days I shoot the way I want without even trying.  On the not-so-good days I feel like a dog chasing its tail trying to figure out what I was doing so well the day before.  I guess that is part of the fun of traditional. Usually it is my timing that is out of sync, and all I can do is just keep focusing on the basic elements of solid form and it will come around eventually.  But, as McDave says, I've found it best not to concern myself too much when everything is not quite right, though it is frustrating in the moment.

[Stumpkiller]

Here's an observation.

You can always have a bad day.  Many causes.  But look at the two targets below.  Shooter A may have days when he's hot and days when he's off, and a quiver full of arrows looks like the image on the left.

   

Shooter B may not clack his arrows together very often, but he's always within an 8" circle at 20 yards.  Always.

In 10 years of hunting which shooter will always have venison in the freezer?

What you want to do is practice so that the days look more like Shooter B.  If you can do better?  Great.  If you don't seem to be able to you may need to change something.  Bow weight, form, distance, concentration ability, etc.

[Jake Diebolt]

I have good days and bad days. But I have noticed that, after a year of shooting trad at least once a week (preferably twice when I can manage it), my bad days aren't so bad anymore.

I find that, over time, I hit plateaus in my improvement. Usually, after a while, I'll hit a point where I just finally 'get' something right, like a really solid anchor, and improve exponentially. Then I plateau again for a while. Usually, improvement comes from proper form - for me, recently, a consistent, repeatable anchor and properly set front shoulder have dramatically shrunk my groups. I still have bad days, obviously, but on these days I can pinpoint my form problems and usually recover with my dignity intact.  

Inconsistency is normal when you're just starting out (I still struggle with it - I consider myself a beginner). Stumpkiller  demonstrates this perfectly: An occasional bullseye could be random chance, but consistently shooting a 'killing' shot is what separates luck from skill. THAT is what we strive for - and we cannot forget it.

[Northwest_Bowhunter]

I can never shoot that many shots in the kill zone all at once (I lose focus after a few arrows).  But every morning I get up and go to the backyard and at about 15 yards shoot one in a 9" circle.  I get it and shoot it from many other random distances but the first one of the morning is what really concerns me.  After work I do a "perfect practice" round.  Some days I my mind can't figure out which eye to aim out of, other days the arrows are possessed.

[Jock Whisky]

They are ALL good days. Some are just better than others, that's all.

JW

Had an old archer give me some advice, and found it to be on the mark--in his case anyway.  :^)  

He said you can always depend on your form to carry you through.  If you have your form burnt into your mind, you'll never have a bad day on the range, but some will be better than others.

[Russell2]

Thanks everyone for your advice

[ishoot4thrills]

I try to shoot everyday anymore and only shoot 3 arrows at a time and then go pull them and shoot 3 arrows again, etc. That's what Byron Ferguson says he does, 3 arrows per end.

Then, I just hope I'm having one of those good days when I'm drawing on that once in a lifetime whitetail!  

[zetabow]

It's very simple, I work to a level to try and make my bad days like most other peoples good days, that way I can shoot with confidence and the bad days are very rare.

[Bonebuster]

On bad days shoot only ONE arrow...then pull it.

It gives your mind a break between shots, and maintaining the concentration level necessary for really good shooting is easier.

I usually only shoot one arrow at a time whenever I`m out shooting. This came about by accident, as I have two boys usually shooting with me, and when there gets to be several shooters putting arrows in the target the collateral damage gets to be unacceptable...especially since I am the one who buys the arrows. Anyhow, I noticed by shooting only one arrow my shooting seemed to improve. Then I started to really pay attention as to where all my hits were. By the end of a forty or fifty arrow session, my "one shot" groups would have totalled up to a very impressive tight group.

A question you should ask yourself, is on day two, were you tired and possibly a bit sore from shooting the day before? Even if you are shooting a bow weight you can handle, if you are new to using those muscles required to draw and hold a trad bow, this could be a factor.?.
You know how muscle and strength building works. We literally tear the muscle up, and it responds by regenerating itself a bit stronger in response to the excersize. For a short time after excersize, the muscle does not work to it`s capabilities.

There is alot of help available here to answer your questions. I think many of us on here would agree, that we spent alot of time on trial and error as we learned what we are doing. I know that if there was Trad Gang back in the eighties, it would have saved me a ton of effort and prevented some bad habits.

McDave mentioned Terry`s form clock. Allignment, and a solid, comfortable full draw are like the foundation of a house.

McDave also mentioned the possibility of someone taking photos of you shooting, or BETTER YET, a video of your entire shot process. I found this EXTREMELY helpful and do it quite often.

Keep it fun and put in lots of effort, but don`t let it turn into "work".    

[USN_Sam1385]

I have found certain ways to help focus myself on the task at hand. The one I use the most is a sort of quick meditation between shots.

Let me elaborate. I live on 3.5 acres surrounded by forest, and that is surrunded by abut 100 acres more of forest. My backyard is very shady and covered in mature trees. The backdrop for my target is the forest. (Terrible if I happen to all out miss the target.)

Anyhow, in between shots I close my eyes, tilt my head back and take in a deep breath. I keep my eyes closed for about 5-8 seconds and just listen to everything around me. The way that the wind blows the leaves on the trees... the birds chirping... even the extremely faint hum of cars on the interstate 5-10 miles away.

This mini-meditation tunes me back into the world and re-centers all of my energy. I then draw and shoot my bow.. and when everything clicks.. it almost feels as though I am connected to the bow, the arrow, and even the target through some sort of energy.