Newsletter. DWAA Double Worcester 3rd March 2013

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Francis Leonard
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) It was a significantly smaller Bracken team than the one at the Bournemouth shoot that gathered, in what seemed to be the wee small hours, in a distinctly chilly sports hall.

1 Newsletter Issue 11 March 2013 DWAA Double Worcester 3rd March 2013 The Bracken team of Jo, Arthur, Eric, Nick, Andy, Kevin, Neil, Sarah, Mick and Chandler with Associate member Vicky Burden far left. And so to Salisbury Leisure Centre for the second of our two Indoor Away Shoots of the year. (For a short report and photos of our first, at Canford School in January, please see inside.) It was a significantly smaller Bracken team than the one at the Bournemouth shoot that gathered, in what seemed to be the wee small hours, in a distinctly chilly sports hall. Whether the reduced turnout was because, by definition, the competition is a double round and thus there is no option to shoot just a single round or whether it is because some people just do not like shooting Worcesters I don t know but it is a shame as this, like the Bournemouth shoot, is a very friendly and well organised competition. So it is well worth considering for next year even if you have never shot at an indoor tournament before. All the Bracken archers were in the first, much smaller detail with just 10 of the 18 butts in use. We seemed to get through our 5 dozen arrows in very short order and then retired to the corridor outside to take refreshment and the weight off our feet. The first round scoring went pretty much to form with Nick Kenworthy scoring 270, Eric Bell 255 and Andy Fisher 250 with Jo Anderson scoring 224 in the Ladies competition, with the other Bracken archers also shooting well up to their own standards. After lunch some went off for a stroll, with a few reaching Old Sarum, whilst others preferred to rest and chat. The second detail seemed to take far longer to shoot their 5 dozen before we could reassemble and shoot our second round. Again scoring went pretty much to form, although in at least one case tiredness towards the end of the round caused what had promised to be a reasonable score at the half way point, to slide away to just an average total at the end. Must get fitter! Nick scored a 267 for a total of 537 and 8th place overall with Andy scoring 264 for a total of 514 and 17th place with Eric close behind in 18th with a total of 512. Mick Smith finished 22nd, Neil Lambton 24th, Kevin Edge 29th and Arthur Budd 32nd. In the Ladies competition Jo finished 7th with a total of 454 and Sarah Smith finished 11th overall. In the Junior Gents, Chandler Kenworthy finished 7th with a total of 270. Unfortunately we just missed out on the team prize to South Wilts Archers who scored 2095 to Bracken s For some of Adam s images of the day, please see inside. AJB

2 Bow Tuning: Part 3 ALL THE FOLLOWING RELATES TO RIGHT HANDED ARCHERS. LEFT HANDED ARCHERS SHOULD SUBSTITUTE LEFT FOR RIGHT AND RIGHT FOR LEFT. For a recurve bow or finger shot compound, initially set the bow so that the top of the bottom nock is 5 mm (3/16 inch) above square (measured to the arrow rest). The arrow, when in position on the bow, should be pointing slightly left of centre. Set the bracing height of a recurve at the higher recommended figure for the bow. For a compound bow shot by release aid, initially set the bow so that the top of the bottom nock is level with the arrow rest. The arrow, when in position on the bow, should be centre shot. Before tuning you should set up the bow as you intend to shoot it, as alterations of stabilisation can alter the tune. c) Bare shafts left. Button. Move rest or button right or decrease button pressure. d) Bare shafts right. Button. Move rest or button left or increase button pressure. B) SHOOTING THROUGH PAPER. Tune with fletched arrows and shoot through a sheet of paper held rigidly at least an arrow's length ahead of a boss or net. The object is to achieve straight arrow flight shown by a circular shaft puncture, with fletching tears. The position of any shaft tear can be judged by the fletching tears. Shoot at approximately 10 yards. Adjust as follows :- a) Tail low. Raise nocks. b) Tail high. Lower nocks. c) Tail right. Move rest or button right or decrease button pressure. d) Tail left. Move rest or button left or increase button pressure. C) WALK BACK. Shoot 1 arrow from each of the following yardages. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. First, shoot 3 arrows at approximately 10 yards/metres at about eye level into a boss. Look at the arrows from where they were shot (normally just lower than the chin). Adjust the nock height and the amount the button (or arrow rest for compound) is in or out in accordance with METHOD B below (Shooting through paper). This will give an initial rough tune. There are three methods of bow tuning. In all cases the object of tuning is the tightest group, which usually means getting the arrow to leave the bow straight (not so necessary indoors). If the arrow is wobbling outdoors in a wind, depending on the position of the arrow when a gust hits, it is deflected by differing amounts. Place a 3 inch (75 mm) spot at eye level on the target. With all methods adjust in the following order :- 1) Nock height. 2) Arrow rest or button position and pressure. 3) For recurves, bracing height. Tune 1 & 2 using whichever of the methods A, B or C you prefer. If any results are not consistent, shoot again before adjusting. With all methods, where you have to judge the angle of the arrow, look from where the arrow was shot (normally just lower than the chin). A) WITH BARE SHAFTS. Have 2 shafts with the fletchings removed. From approximately 10 yards shoot 2 fletched & 2 unfletched arrows at the target. Look at the position of impact of the fletched, compared with the unfletched arrows (take no notice of how they tail). Adjust according to the following :- The patterns shown above show the arrow rest / button adjustments. BRACING HEIGHT FOR RECURVES Shoot at a distance at which you can reliably get a fair group. Starting at the lowest recommended bracing height shoot 6 arrows. Increase the bracing height by 6 turns. Shoot 6 more arrows. Continue the process. You should find the group gets smaller and then increases. At the point of smallest group is the correct bracing height. REPEAT ALL TESTS AS ONE ADJUSTMENT CAN AFFECT ANOTHER. When your bow is satisfactorily tuned, measure and make a note of all the settings. Then if anything moves or stretches you can re-set it to the correct position. This particularly applies to the recurve bracing height (check each time you string the bow up). John Howe a) Bare shafts high. Raise nocks. b) Bare shafts low. Lower nocks.

Bournemouth Indoor, Canford School, 20th January 2013: The awful weather running up to this shoot may well have influenced the numbers attending but

Not being too sure as to the state of the roads following all the snow and ice of the previous week I left home early but actually had a trouble free run,

bronze medals for the morning and combined longbow competitions and our two juniors, Saskia and Chandler Kenworthy also won their respective categories.

AJB The very quiet, cold and eerily empty hall first thing.

In all a total of 18 Bracken archers shot throughout the day with 13 shooting both morning and afternoon rounds.

3 Bournemouth Indoor, Canford School, 20th January 2013: The awful weather running up to this shoot may well have influenced the numbers attending but despite a somewhat reduced field it was a very enjoyable occasion. Not being too sure as to the state of the roads following all the snow and ice of the previous week I left home early but actually had a trouble free run, and arrived so early that the Caretaker had only just unlocked the building! At least I had no trouble finding a place to assemble my kit. bronze medals for the morning and combined longbow competitions and our two juniors, Saskia and Chandler Kenworthy also won their respective categories. The club also did well in the raffle collecting most of the wine prizes! Always good to take home something to celebrate with. AJB The very quiet, cold and eerily empty hall first thing. I was soon joined by all the other archers including a very respectable turnout from Bracken, some of whom were entering their first competition. In all a total of 18 Bracken archers shot throughout the day with 13 shooting both morning and afternoon rounds. Neil Lambton and Pete Cheeseborough in action. With a few more bodies in the hall the temperature soon began to creep up. The Bracken Team Overall the scores were excellent with Ciaran McConolgue, Nick Kenworthy and Paul Naidu all finishing in the top ten for combined recurve scores with Andy Fisher and Mick Smith just outside. Pete Cheeseborough picked up two Saskia and Chandler Kenworthy receiving their medals from Lady Paramount, Vicky Burden

4 Shoot Calendar 2013: March: 24th March, Sunday: Captain s Day: National Rounds April: 1st April, Bank Holiday Monday: Swindon, Supermarine: Western Round 20th April, Saturday: FITA 2000, Chippenham 21st April, Sunday: FITA 2000, Chippenham 21st April, Sunday: Lytchett Fun Shoot: Reverse National 28th April, Sunday: Captain s Day: National Rounds May: 5th May, Sunday: Absent Friends, Bracken: Western 12th May, Sunday: Wessex at Bracken: National 12th May, Sunday: Andover Spring FITA 19th May, Sunday: DWAA FITA, Downton 19th May, Sunday: Captain s Day: National Rounds 25th May, Saturday: Southampton Head To Head: FITA 70 26th May, Sunday: Southampton Head To Head: FITA 70 June: 1st June, Saturday : UK Masters National Series Leg 1: FITA 70, Lillishall 2nd June, Sunday: UK Masters National Series Leg 1: FITA 70, Lillishall 15th June, Saturday: BUCS Outdoor Championship: FITA, Lilleshall 16th June, Sunday: BUCS Outdoor Championship FITA, Lillishall 22nd & 23rd June: Saturday & Sunday. 2nd Leg and Worlds Selection Shoot, Lilleshall 23rd June: Sunday: Captain s Day: St George 30th June: Sunday: Lytchett OWL, Western Round July: 6th and 7th July, Saturday & Sunday: National Series 2+3 FITA Star, Clophill 14th July, Sunday: DWAA FITA Star, Swindon 20th &21st July, Saturday & Sunday: FITA, Cleve Archers at Yate, Bristol 21st July, Sunday: Blue Lion: St George Round, Bournemouth 21st July, Sunday: Captain s Day: National 27th July, Saturday: Andoba FITA Star, Andover 28th July, Sunday: Andoba FITA Star, Andover 28th July, Sunday: Bracken, Double FITA 70 August: 3rd & 4th August, Saturday and Sunday : Nat Series Stage 4, Oxford 4th August, Sunday: Double FITA 70, Downton 10th August, Saturday : Nat Series Stage 5 Lilleshall 11th August, Sunday: Nat Series Stage 5, Lilleshall 25th August, Sunday: Captain s Day: National September: 22nd September, Sunday: Bracken Closing Shoot, National 29th September, Sunday: Chippenham Autumn FITA November: 17th November, Sunday: Mere FITA 18 Indoor December: 8th December, Sunday: National Indoor Championships,Venue TBC. FITA18

5 What s Your Plan for the Outdoor Season? On the opposite page I have published the away shoots diary for 2013; something for everybody? For some of us having more time to shoot at the field in Cranborne will be all we need for the season. Shooting, chat and supporting our club shoots will satisfy many of us. However, you may well have enjoyed the indoor away shoots over the winter months and now want to experience some outdoor away shoots. I have posted a rather full calendar of events this year for a number of reasons (including so that Linda Harding and I have some idea where George and Laura might be!). If you want some away shoots to cut your teeth on then, as well as our shoots at Bracken and our Captain s Days, I recommend the following: st April. Fun Shoot at Lytchett. This is a reverse National. You shoot 2 dozen at 50yds, 4 dozen at 60yds then your sighters! It sounds silly, however it is a good shoot at one of my favourite locations. I have also listed the British University Outdoor Championships (BUCS). Students make up 16% of our membership, and many of our elite archers are students, or came through to the top while they were students. As BUCS is the students premier event, it is good to see who is shooting well at this event. Some of our associate members compete at events like these. I plan to report on the National Series and BUCS as the season progresses. So what is your plan for the outdoor season? I will place the entry forms for all of the local away shoot in the Folder as they are published. All the shoots have closing dates a couple of weeks or so before the shoot date so you need to plan in advance if you want to shoot. As with the winter shoots you need to pay, in cash, when you sign up for the shoot. Whatever your plan, enjoy your shooting! Eric Bell th June. Owl Shoot, also at Lytchett. This is a Western Round (4doz at both 60 and 50 yds) These two shoots, along with our own Opening Shoot, Absent Friends and Wessex should prepare you well for our Double FITA 70 in July. Our outdoor finisher is our Closing Shoot on 22nd September. The Eagle eyed among you will have noticed many other shoots listed (in the smaller print). To get a National Ranking position you have to submit scores from 3 FITAs (3 90,70, 50 & 30m for men); 2 FITA 70s and have entered a Head to Head. I have listed 9 opportunities to shoot FITAs and 5 opportunities to shoot FITA 70s which are reasonably local to us. Our Friendly FITA 70 doesn t count as it is not a Record Status event, yet. I have also listed the 5 legs of the National Series for those of you that want to follow our most significant domestic competition for both Recurve and Compound. As George Harding is mentioned above, I thought it would be a good opportunity to publish this photo of George in action that Eric sent me a while back.

6 Aiming Is Overrated! Like many, I like to know how I m doing; I measure this by scoring rounds. Many of you will have previously read my recipe for happy archery: I don t expect to shoot a personal best (PB) every time. I hope to shoot within a range of points based on the average of the last four or five times I have shot that round. As long as I m within my range I m happy, and progress at a measured and sustainable rate without the feeling of failure when I don t get near my PB. PBs could be a bit of luck, with more than the usual number of arrows hitting higher scores by chance; they could be b e c a u s e t h e b ow a n d arrows are tuned better and are more forgiving than they have been in the past. We all like to hope that PBs come along because our technique has improved, a n d b e c a u s e o f t h i s improvement in technique we have achieved a new and repeatable level. We don t get PBs because we are aiming better, ergo aiming is overrated! Just to be clear, my definition of aiming is looking through the sight pin as it hovers over the g o l d. A l l t h e b i t s o f technique that lead up to this point in time, during, and following this point in time are really important. How many of us have the feeling that coincides with the words: It was all looking so good, I don t know what happened there!? We have an expectation of hitting the gold or getting close and sometimes it just doesn t get close enough! I spend less than 10% of my archery time shooting scored rounds. The rest of the time isn t spent just plonking arrows; I am always working on some aspect of my technique, or fine tuning the equipment. Expending greater amounts of my effort looking through the sight pin at the gold has greater prominence when I am scoring a round. Your editor taking careful aim. But was I actually achieving anything? Read on. The hope is that other aspects of the shot are well enough rehearsed to be on auto pilot (sub conscious) by the time I am scoring. The rest of the time, if I am using a target, I do let the sight pin hover over the gold before I relax my hand to release the arrow, however, I reserve the greater part of my conscious mind to focus on the aspect of the shot that I am working on. By changing the focus of my conscious mind away from aiming, to the thing that I am concentrating on allows the thing to be centre stage. Because it is centre stage, hovering over the gold before I release is relegated to an auto pilot activity. Hovering over the gold as an auto pilot activity is okay, it lets me feel the effect of t h e t h i n g t h a t I a m concentrating on. Even better, when developing technique, take the target away, blank boss is the way to go! Shooting blank boss means that you practice and develop aspects of your technique without the distraction of wanting to hit or get close to the gold, you divert no percentage of your concentration to aiming or scoring! Whether you shoot blank boss or shoot with a target, I think that relegating aiming to auto pilot and concentrating on aspects of shot execution is important so that you can consciously improve an element before lodging it back into auto pilot. The better your technique, the more consistent your shot execution will be and the fewer I don t know what happened there! moments you will have. Eric Bell Part two of this article will appear in the next issue.

7 DWAA Double Worcester, Salisbury Leisure Centre, 3rd March 2013: All photos courtesy of Adam Brown.

2013 Shoots at the Cranborne field: As you will have seen from the Shoot Calendar on the middle page, Bracken is holding 3 shoots at the Cranborne field this year; our own Absent Friends on May 5th

8 2013 Shoots at the Cranborne field: As you will have seen from the Shoot Calendar on the middle page, Bracken is holding 3 shoots at the Cranborne field this year; our own Absent Friends on May 5th and our Double FITA 70 on July 28th as well as hosting the Wessex shoot on May 12th. These events do not just happen on their own, they take a considerable amount of organisation before the event and a great deal of work on the day. Although all club members are more than welcome to shoot in these events, we also need volunteers, whether they are shooting or not, to assist with the multitude of tasks that need to be done to ensure these events run smoothly, and therefore reflect well on the Club, It matters not whether you have any previous experience with helping out at events such as these or whether these will be your first such competitions, there are many tasks that anyone can undertake and assist in the overall effort. A far from comprehensive list of jobs that need to be attended to for each shoot includes setting out the field, moving and setting up target stands and butts, attaching target faces, erecting banners and signage, erecting gazebos and judges enclosures, checking toilet facilities, organising the raffle and ticket selling, assisting with the catering and generally making our guests welcome. So, no shortage of jobs. There is something for everyone in the club to do and what we need are the members to do them. Some of the initial setting up may well take place on the day before the event to ease the pressure on the morning of t h e s h o o t, s o t h e s e Saturdays also will need covering. As the events approach you will find clipboards up at the field on Sunday mornings ready for y o u t o s i g n w i t h a n indication of when you can volunteer. You can also sign up on the Forum. The more people we have, the easier it will be for everyone and the smoother the events will run. These shoots are all great fun, so please make a note of the relevant dates in your diaries and make sure you volunteer when the lists become available. Many thanks. AJB Sport England How far can you go initiative: With the start of a new outdoor season fast approaching, this seems to be an ideal time to draw your attention to a recent initiative from Sport England. Full details can be found on the Sport England website but to sum up, it is all about setting yourself one or more targets or goals for the coming season. It is always a good idea to have something to work towards, be it a certain colour ribbon, a new classification or just a specific score over a particular distance. It really does not matter what your target may be, just have something to aim for. However, do be realistic with your goals; not everyone can achieve Master Bowman status in their first season! Whether you would wish to go the whole hog and join the ranks of Social Media devotees and tweet updates of your progress to Sport England as suggested on the website is entirely up to you. But whether you wish to publicise your intentions or keep them to yourself, do consider setting yourself some sort of challenge for the coming season; it will really make your archery even more enjoyable, especially when you achieve your goal. AJB ALL members are warmly invited to submit contributions for inclusion in the Newsletter. Items can be either ed to arthur.budd@talktalk.net or handed directly to me.

Allington Castle Archers

Allington Castle Archers Nocking Point March 2014 Dates for your diary The Indoor Portsmouth BA Friday 7th Portsmouth 14th, 21st, & End of season fun shoot 28th The Outdoor Fun Field Shoot 2nd attempt