I've been shooting left handed recurve of two years, with sights and stabilisers, clicker etc... and average high 560s for a portsmouth - pb 572 and BM scores outdoors.
In January I got the index finger of my draw hand caught in a kids swing chain link while pushing my son. It was a swing that spins too, and it pulled me right off my feet. And hurt a lot.
After struggling on for a few weeks of rest/use/rest I went to the docs and he told me to stop shooting altogether for a bit, it was probably sprained and would take a while to properly heal.
Well of course that didn't last long... instead I had the brilliant idea that I could switch to a right handed bare bow, the thinking being that I could start over again without my decent left handed scores being a stick with which to beat myself up, and try a different style and have fun - so I bought a new riser and set to it. That was two weeks ago now, and I've shot a grand total of four times in that two weeks.
Now I know I've changed literally everything, and my expectations are suitably low I promise, but I'm all at sea as to how to approach things - last week I managed 461, this week only 402 (tonight in fact, which is why I'm fed up enough to write this). I've tried my usual draw style, which gave me a feel good anchor but only a vague aiming point half way down the hall (horrible not looking at the target), and I've tried 3 under, with heavy arrows and referencing to the corner of my mouth. That let me put the point of the arrow in the white, which works sometimes but I find the face reference really vague.
I actually seem to have the best results from going 3 under and then just winging it, but it comes and goes. I've had three 10s one end (but more often like 10,8,7), then 6/3/2 the next, sometimes a little consistency, sometimes absolutely nothing, and its getting very frustrating. I probably wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't getting any 9s and 10s at all, but I am, and then I can't repeat it - I don't mean not quite, I mean really bad when I think I'm doing the same thing as I did in the previous end. I just feel like I've lost my super power...
I think the problem is that I have no plan. Everything is wrong and I probably need just one thing to work on, and to stop scoring and punishing myself with how bad I am. It's great still being able to shoot 3 or 4 times a week, but if I'm just throwing crap down the range, then I'm just gonna be crap.
I'm looking for advice - whats the first thing to work on, maybe on a blank boss, that will start to get me some kind of repeatable form and get over the miserable slump I'm in (until I shoot my next 10). Archery has always been an interesting and engaging puzzle, but this is just like learning a foreign language by just having someone there babbling at you and making no sense.
The problem is that I think I know what I'm doing, and it all just feels weird and cack-handed, because it is - but I'm probably confusing that fact with actual bad shooting and I don't know how to do better. I know I probably need to start again from the beginning, but I don't know where the beginning is.
Sigh...
In January I got the index finger of my draw hand caught in a kids swing chain link while pushing my son. It was a swing that spins too, and it pulled me right off my feet. And hurt a lot.
After struggling on for a few weeks of rest/use/rest I went to the docs and he told me to stop shooting altogether for a bit, it was probably sprained and would take a while to properly heal.
Well of course that didn't last long... instead I had the brilliant idea that I could switch to a right handed bare bow, the thinking being that I could start over again without my decent left handed scores being a stick with which to beat myself up, and try a different style and have fun - so I bought a new riser and set to it. That was two weeks ago now, and I've shot a grand total of four times in that two weeks.
Now I know I've changed literally everything, and my expectations are suitably low I promise, but I'm all at sea as to how to approach things - last week I managed 461, this week only 402 (tonight in fact, which is why I'm fed up enough to write this). I've tried my usual draw style, which gave me a feel good anchor but only a vague aiming point half way down the hall (horrible not looking at the target), and I've tried 3 under, with heavy arrows and referencing to the corner of my mouth. That let me put the point of the arrow in the white, which works sometimes but I find the face reference really vague.
I actually seem to have the best results from going 3 under and then just winging it, but it comes and goes. I've had three 10s one end (but more often like 10,8,7), then 6/3/2 the next, sometimes a little consistency, sometimes absolutely nothing, and its getting very frustrating. I probably wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't getting any 9s and 10s at all, but I am, and then I can't repeat it - I don't mean not quite, I mean really bad when I think I'm doing the same thing as I did in the previous end. I just feel like I've lost my super power...
I think the problem is that I have no plan. Everything is wrong and I probably need just one thing to work on, and to stop scoring and punishing myself with how bad I am. It's great still being able to shoot 3 or 4 times a week, but if I'm just throwing crap down the range, then I'm just gonna be crap.
I'm looking for advice - whats the first thing to work on, maybe on a blank boss, that will start to get me some kind of repeatable form and get over the miserable slump I'm in (until I shoot my next 10). Archery has always been an interesting and engaging puzzle, but this is just like learning a foreign language by just having someone there babbling at you and making no sense.
The problem is that I think I know what I'm doing, and it all just feels weird and cack-handed, because it is - but I'm probably confusing that fact with actual bad shooting and I don't know how to do better. I know I probably need to start again from the beginning, but I don't know where the beginning is.
Sigh...