Christophe of Grey
Leathersmith/Archer
Getting Better
“I shoot but I never improve. How do I get better?” Of course the most obvious answer to that is practice, practice, practice. BUT, practice consistency. “But I don’t have a range I can shot at.” OK, go back to the article I wrote in this series "How To Practice". There really is no excuse for not practicing if YOU really want to get better.
If your goal is to improve your Royal Round scores then the real secret to improvement is simply practicing shooting at the known Royal Round distances of 20, 30, 40 yards. But a few pointers may help. The objective is a perfect round, all arrows in the gold. So use small paper or foam plates you can get at Sam’s – 200 for about $10. Aim small, miss small. Practice for the speed rounds requires different strategies. First off let’s admit that shooting ten arrows down range that miss the target are not as good as shooting three arrows down range that all score five points each! Next, don’t rush and don’t fluster! While we are supposed to nock an arrow with the cock vane away from the bow with feather fletches it really doesn’t matter. Feathers deflect easily and will not cause excessive arrow kick causing the arrow to wag it’s way down range. I practice speed rounds two ways. First without a rush I nock an arrow. The bow is down and my draw hand is placed on the string. Then I sight down range to concentrate on the target. I then quickly raise the bow, draw and release all in one quick smooth move. I’ll shoot two or three ends of 12 arrows each using the complete draw, aim, release flow. The objective is to get comfortable drawing, aiming, releasing in a smooth flowing motion while hitting what you are aiming at. To increase your arrow nocking speed, grab the arrow by the nock, not the shaft. I see folks trying to nock an arrow while holding the arrow by the middle of the shaft. Hard to direct the nock onto the string this way.
While we are thinking about nocking arrows on the string for speed rounds let's discuss how to do that. I mentioned grabbing the arrow by the nock speeds things up. You will be holding the arrow by the nock with your index finger and thumb. Your other fingers guide your hand to the bow string for nocking. this works, however, I have recently stumbled upon and even faster way to nock an arrow. Again, grab the arrow by the nock holding it with your index finger and thumb. BUT make sure the nock crosses over the first joint in your index finger. (The first method here assumes the nock goes across the end pad of your index finger.) Now when you bring the arrow to the string, you run the string over the pad of your index finger and the nock slips right on the string. With some practice, you will get to the point where you won't even have to look to nock your arrows.
Now for the champion shoots, shoots held at war for war points and/or novelty shoots at events we have to practice differently. My favorite practice is to use an eight inch foam square. I toss it out at 20 yards and try to put four arrows in it. The beauty here is that only the first hit occurs at a known distance. The block moves to an unknown distance due to being hit. I have also found that more than four arrows causes you to start splitting arrows as they hit each other in the block. You can also just toss empty one gallon plastic milk bottles out. Again, more than two arrows each and you stand a good chance of splitting shafts.
Stumping is the “official” archery term for this unknown distance shooting. You walk through an area with a friend. As you spot something, a leaf, a dead tree, a log, a piece of trash, you challenge the other archer to hit that item. If you choose to do stumping I would highly suggest investing in bird blunts. You can get these in the same grain weights as your field points so the arrows will have the same flight characteristics as your target arrows. However the blunts prevent the arrow from submarining under brush such that it takes hours to find them. My stumping shafts are painted fluorescent pink with white fletches and nocks for high visibility.