Rick James

Part of why I was so happy to see this league start is so that hopefully some of you (and myself) would be able to learn some new stuff and become more consistent shooters. I think we are seeing that as scores are slowly creeping upwards and we have seen a few personal bests so far.

So what have you learned so far? What are your weaknesses? Why do you miss and what have you done to fix that problem?

HuntingEd

I learned that i need to take the time to "re-tune" my bow after a long hard season... I also learned that i have a tendency to drop my bow arm as well has develop a bad hand torque as i fatigue.

Not to mention that im not as consistent as I should be... Basically that i need to spend more time practicing and tuning

GMMAT

I know my bow arm has been too straight. I've never hit my forearm with the string, but it's been creeping too straight. I brought it "back" today (I shot my week's score at lunch). I shot several of my best rounds.....and only dropped 2-3 points from that point forward.

I think I turned a corner.

Washington Hunter

I've learned how to shoot 5-spot.

I've learned that its definitely a mental game. If I think I'm going to shoot a good round, I generally do. Likewise, if I'm in a pissy mood, I generally shoot poorly.

Rick James

Congrats on your personal best. Anchor that feeling of the perfect shots you made in that game, and what they feel, look, and sound like as well as what you felt like after your best game was done. Visualize the feeling of those perfect shotsbefore every shot as part of your shot sequence and your scores will improve. You probably know this stuff...........golf and archery are basically the same thing......just a different tool. Tiger Woods has some great stuff that you might enjoy reading, google "swing thoughts Tiger Woods" and you will probably enjoy a lot of that. Lots of stuff there that can be applied to archery.

KodiakArcher

If the sight is on the 'x' when the release triggers, (and I follow through!) then the arrow goes in the 'x'.

Too bad I couldn't dust off my form as easily as I dusted off the bow...

RIStrutStopper

I never shot 5 spot before this league, at least not for score. I learned that I'm consisitently an okay shot... not really bad, not really good either. I have learned that if I clear my mind and concentrate, the arrow goes where its supposed to. I have to concentrate and go through my mental checklist on every shot, then I think I will bring up my total score as well as x count.

WhiteBuffalo

I have learned to shoot 300 with a good x count means taking archery shooting to a completely different level of practice, concentration, andequipment setup.

mobow

Now.....we just need to teach you how to .......KEEP SCORE.....

I've learned when a shot doesn't feel right, let er down and start over.

Bols

Alot of good responses here.

I tend to agree with everyone and I hope this has opened some of the eyes of"bowhunters" here that archery is really more than just out firing your bow with broadhead tipped arrows. To be a good shot, it takes concentration, desire, practice, and most of all, a strong mental game.

But on the other hand, if you let it creep into your life too much, it becomes a disease. Though I love the sport, I am trying to keep a watchful eye it doesn't suck me too far in.

I want to be the best I can be. And I would love to make it to some big timetournaments in the near future. But in the end, I gotta realize I have a family, a job, and more to life to worry about. Not that archery, hunting, etc, doesn't have a piece of my heart, because it does, I just need to make sure it doesn't control my ever waking moment. When I'm on the line and practicing archery my love of archery takes over. But when I'm at home, I need to spend more time with my 2 yr old.

Now back to my love of the sport.

I have learned I need to work on my mental game, something that plagued me in golf, something that plagues me in general. I often have mental lapses and I can't seem to get to that next level in terms of mental preparation and concentration.

I would love to know if anyone has any good reads or DVD's on mental preparation. The LAS catalog is full of different books, DVD's, training tools, but I don't know how to sort through them without some personal opinion.

And I gotta agree with RJ, golf and archery are very similar disciplines. Some would argue that form has a greater impact in golf than archery, but then othersmight disagree. You have those who excel in both sports,regardless of their form (because they are excellent at repeating their form, shot after shot), but in the end, itsthe mental game whichsets the winners apart from the losers.