Problems with a Good End

[SteveFSA]

For the past few years I've noticed an interesting phenomenon with myself and others. You shoot a particularly good end and your next end is crap. My son did this just yesterday. He shot a nice 60 (his first) at 70m and gloated about it all the way to the target and back. His next end was a 53 and left him shaking his head.

I've had this happen to me and I attribute it to loosing focus. My solution is to tell my self I made a few good shots but to remind myself there are many arrows left and one good end doesn't mean that much over the course of the day. Also I've even had to think back to a poor shot I made earlier to get re-balanced.

I would be interested to learn how others deal with this.

[James Park]

Yes, interesting phenomenon. Seen it often.
I simply work on the basis that each arrow needs to be shot as well as I possibly can, and it is quite incidental whether I score 60+56 or 58+58.
I know that sometimes I will indeed score a low one (did it too many times at the Nationals, however), and if a low one follows a 60 I just put up with it (not much option in fact).

[OldDog]

It's called the pressure of expectation. :roll:

[Marcus]

I don't really try to shoot 60's. I'm not that good.
I work on averages. For example at 90m I try to average 52. If I shoot a 58 then I keep trying to shoot the 52's and consider it 'bonus points'. Sounds bad, possibly is, however nothing worse than shooting a 58 and thinking "that was easy, I could shoot a 348 at thise rate" then shooting a 42.

I'm happier if I shoot a 312 at 90m without a high scoring end than with a 58, 59 or 60. Have shot a 60 at 90m once, shot a 300 flat. The 60 was nice, but the rest was really bad. Overall better indication of how I'm shooting is my bad ends, not my good ends.

Indoor however is another matter.

[clever_guy]

One word...Hubris

If you attempt perfect ends without the appropriate sacrifices to the Archery Gods you will feel their wrath...

;)

-CG

[chopper]

Indoor however is another matter.


Why?

[archerybob]

Indoor however is another matter.


Why?

cause you only drop a few points in a round (quite a few if your me 8) )

[SteveFSA]

I believe I've made some progress on the good end/bad end problem. This winter, due to my school schedule I'm not shooting a whole lot. I have shot a new personal best indoors and my average is much higher than last year however.

I shoot a weekly indoor league and during each session I purley work on form and mental concentration. I tell myself I have no reason to expect a good score because I haven't been practising. I treat warmup and scoring exactly the same. I focus on a shot routine that includes good ballance, a calm sight picture and good back tension. In particular I let back tension execute my shot (using pure BT release). I try and patiently wait for my release to activate on every shot. After league I put my bow away and don't touch it for another week.

By doing all this and trying to keep expectations very low, my arrows seem to go in the middle and I have shot a new personal best each week.

Go figure. I guess shooting a compound bow at a low poundage one can do very little "training" and still make progress.