I fired twice today:
- First lot – 20 metres distance, 15 out of 18 hits.
- Second Lot – 20 metres distance 10 out of 15 hits.
- Total arrows fired so far: 131
Observations:
- Both times, my first shot missed high. I still tend to overestimate arrow drop.
- The second lot I was trying to use part of the riser as a gross way to aim, so it’s natural my accuracy fell somewhat.
Lessons learnt:
- Retaining a calm mind remains without shadow of a doubt the MOST important aspect of shooting accurately. It’s really quite surprising how much this is the case. For some reason I think archery makes this fundamental aspect of really any endeavour, become highlighted in a way that I can’t recall being quite the same in anything else aside from long range shooting.
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Using some kind of aiming device is certainly going to improve accuracy, especially in the short term. However, I have some doubts:
- While it will undoubtedly improve accuracy in the beginning, I wonder if it also closes off some doors to instinctive or parasympathetic nervous system methods of aiming which would be far more accurate in the long term (Systema principles).
- I did experience a mild form of this when I simply abandoned any thought of trying to use the riser to aim and instead simply tried to “feel” my way to hitting the target and came pretty close a couple of times to hit the small 4” disk in the centre of the cardboard box.
Finally, at least one other reader may soon be getting into this rather pleasant activity. I sent him a list of the things I got, so as to save another newbie the errors I made from the start.
This post was originally published on my Substack. Link here
