When I purchased my bow back in July I was really happy. WNS Forged Elite Alpha, Soul Black Flash (for some reason I keep trying to write Blash!) limbs, A/C/C arrows and a DeCut sight amongst other bits and pieces. New bag etc.
I have shot this rig for a couple of months and my scores per session have been slowly improving (ignoring the Bray I and II I shot which were simply awful. More on those in a moment) so I thought I was happy with the setup.
Portsmouth round scores were hovering around 485 with a PB at 488 equalled on Wednesday last week.
However, I couldn't help but bring myself back to the Bray rounds that we shot at the end of September. Yes, the target face is physically smaller, but, I really felt that my rounds should have been higher than the 177 and 188 that I ended with.
Analysing and re-analysing the shoot in my head, along with why I am not scoring better on the Portsmouth, has lead me to a couple of conclusions:
1. Form is okay. It's not great. On some shots my head is not level, putting the arrow high or low. I try to use a mark on the wall to set my height but it doesn't always work. It will come with practice.
2. My release is not good. I still tend to pluck the string occasionally, sending the arrow left. On other occasions it feels like my fingers are hooked too far in (on the first joint) and I cannot release.
3. Towards the end of the round my forearm on my draw arm is aching. Just in front of the elbow, in the muscles that control finger movement. This should not be the case, I should not be feeling pain in my forearm (or any!) muscles at any point. This points to a massive issue.
Can you see where this is going yet?
I discussed this with the coaches (two level 1 coaches and a former level 2) and they all agree with my own assessment. This was all sparked from a thread on this very forum.
Yep, the hardest thing for an archer to admit. I am over bowed.
My lovely new Soul Black Flash limbs are 38lb at 28". I have the limb bolts wound out but I am overdrawing to approximately 29.5".
As you can possibly imagine, this hurts. Not my pride (too much) but definitely the bank balance.
It's not the archery shop's fault. They sold me what I asked for - I was shooting 36lb limbs previously so figured that 38s wouldn't be too much different. What went wrong was that I was shooting the 36lb limbs some 20 years ago and they gave me frozen shoulders.
Doing this before I injure myself again is a good thing.
So, I need new limbs. Probably new arrows too.
I having been looking over the weekend for KAP Winstorm II Carbon Foam and the only place I can find in the UK that specifically lists them is The Archery Shop in Poole and they only list 20lb weight on their website.
Any suggestions gratefully received, I suspect that I will need some new X7 arrows too. I think this is the bit I am most gutted about as my current ones were a gift from my parents for my birthday.
I have shot this rig for a couple of months and my scores per session have been slowly improving (ignoring the Bray I and II I shot which were simply awful. More on those in a moment) so I thought I was happy with the setup.
Portsmouth round scores were hovering around 485 with a PB at 488 equalled on Wednesday last week.
However, I couldn't help but bring myself back to the Bray rounds that we shot at the end of September. Yes, the target face is physically smaller, but, I really felt that my rounds should have been higher than the 177 and 188 that I ended with.
Analysing and re-analysing the shoot in my head, along with why I am not scoring better on the Portsmouth, has lead me to a couple of conclusions:
1. Form is okay. It's not great. On some shots my head is not level, putting the arrow high or low. I try to use a mark on the wall to set my height but it doesn't always work. It will come with practice.
2. My release is not good. I still tend to pluck the string occasionally, sending the arrow left. On other occasions it feels like my fingers are hooked too far in (on the first joint) and I cannot release.
3. Towards the end of the round my forearm on my draw arm is aching. Just in front of the elbow, in the muscles that control finger movement. This should not be the case, I should not be feeling pain in my forearm (or any!) muscles at any point. This points to a massive issue.
Can you see where this is going yet?
I discussed this with the coaches (two level 1 coaches and a former level 2) and they all agree with my own assessment. This was all sparked from a thread on this very forum.
Yep, the hardest thing for an archer to admit. I am over bowed.
My lovely new Soul Black Flash limbs are 38lb at 28". I have the limb bolts wound out but I am overdrawing to approximately 29.5".
As you can possibly imagine, this hurts. Not my pride (too much) but definitely the bank balance.
It's not the archery shop's fault. They sold me what I asked for - I was shooting 36lb limbs previously so figured that 38s wouldn't be too much different. What went wrong was that I was shooting the 36lb limbs some 20 years ago and they gave me frozen shoulders.
Doing this before I injure myself again is a good thing.
So, I need new limbs. Probably new arrows too.
I having been looking over the weekend for KAP Winstorm II Carbon Foam and the only place I can find in the UK that specifically lists them is The Archery Shop in Poole and they only list 20lb weight on their website.
Any suggestions gratefully received, I suspect that I will need some new X7 arrows too. I think this is the bit I am most gutted about as my current ones were a gift from my parents for my birthday.