A Day of Highs and Lows

Today's archery practice was … interesting. Let me start off, though, with some most excellent news:

JOHN MADE BOWMAN!!! WOOOOOO!!!!!

During the last timed end, I was actually watching where his arrows landed rather than where my own did. I'm SO over-the-moon excited for him!

I began practice today with a right-handed longbow. It was every bit as awkward as I expected it to be--every muscle in my body tried to revolt against what I was asking it to do. I had to consciously think of everything, from which foot was on which side of the line, to which eye I was aiming with, to where my aim point was. It all felt so foreign.

I scored 8 points on my first end at 20 yards, and 5 points on the second end. 😂 I do think that with monumental amounts of practice, though, I could become at least proficient in shooting right-handed.

Then I switched back to my own bow and began both a Royal Round and the IKAC with a timed end at 20 yards. It was like my entire body heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed … and it showed in my shooting. I scored 21 points!

That was immediately followed by what is probably the worst untimed, 20-yard end I've ever shot. I scored three points. THREE! I don't even know what to do with that. I tried to cut myself some slack, given my mental state this weekend, but oy. That bugged me for the rest of the day.

I managed to bounce back, though, with a decent 9 at the 30 and 5 at the 40. I went right into my second Royal Round. Ironically, both RRs were a total of 38 points (yay, consistency?).

20: 3
20T: 21
30: 9
40: 5
TOT: 38

20: 16
20T: 15
30: 5
40: 3
TOT: 38

WELL below where I've been shooting this season, but again, given everything, I guess I'll take what I can get. We did the timed ends at 30 and 40 to finish off the IKAC, and my score wound up totaling 95 points--just 4 points shy of my current record. That was surprising. If I hadn't had such an atrocious 20-yard end, I'd have had a new record.

20: 3, 16
20T: 21, 15
30: 9, 5
30T: 4, 11
40: 5, 3
40T: 3, 0
TOT: 95

We were pretty tired by the end of the IKAC, but wanted to take a crack at the SSAC as well.

It didn't go well, score-wise. BUT! I did manage to do this:

And I was pretty proud of it. 😊

Archery in the Fall

Our outdoor archery season is rapidly drawing to a close here in the northeast. I've been trying to get in as much shooting as possible in the time we have left.

On September 29, I had a really off day. I shot both the IKAC (including two RRs) and the SSAC.

20: 14, 20
20T: 9, 14
30: 3, 5
30T: 3, 3
40: 1, 2
40T: 0, 0
TOT: 74

The higher of the two RRs was:

20: 20
20T: 14
30: 5
40: 2
TOT: 41

Ugh!

The SSAC was equally awful that day. I did the Full Course and the Par 3.

Full
Timed: 30
Untimed: 17
TOT: 47

Par 3
Timed: 13
Untimed: 21
TOT: 34

For comparison purposes, my scores on record for the SSAC are 32 (shot the following weekend) for the Full Course and 29 for the Par 3 (which I shot the prior weekend).

That awful day notwithstanding, however, I have some good news to report: as of the September update, my Royal Round average has increased to 54.67! I am sooooo close to Bowman, I can smell it. If I can figure out a way to practice frequently throughout the winter, I feel like I may be able to kick off the 2020 archery season with a 60+ average.

On a non-score-related front, I had an epiphany at the range today. Elena let me try shooting her (right-handed) bow. To do so, I had to adjust my gear. I moved my shooting glove to my right hand, and I FLIPPED MY BACK QUIVER TO THE OTHER SHOULDER.

Why did I yell that, you ask?

My quiver is DESIGNED FOR A RIGHT-HANDED ARCHER.

That's why it slips constantly, and I feel like I'm wrestling with it all the time. This thing has driven me bonkers for more than a decade, but I just assumed that that's kinda just what back quivers do when you're a well-endowed woman (my seatbelt in my car also slides all over the place on me, so the logic seemed sound). But OMG. When I put that quiver on the other way this afternoon, it was like night and day. That thing was glued in place.

I'm so mad.

I'm also relieved, because as a leatherworker it should be a simple matter for me to alter it to a left-handed setup.

What will it be like to not have to fight my quiver anymore?!

I can't wait to find out.