Pin Night

Pin night but since I got a pin last wednesday tonight is just a chance to practice with the clock and shoot for score. I would have really liked to shoot for a pin on my bare bow but if I had I would have missed an interesting experience.

I was shooting Ok but not well. I really feel I am capable of better scores. I shot a 261 which is low for what I have been shooting lately, I am usually in the high 270s. But the miss in the third end cost me. It was due to an early release of my release. I had several of them tonight and at least three of the 8s were due to them.

After the round I adjust the release one quarter of a turn harder. It feel a bit harder to fire I just hope it will not cause movement when I shoot.

After the round Leslie took all of the score sheet and set us up for a elimination shoot off. My score was such that I was not in the first elimination round but I did shoot against the winner of that round it was Mark. We tied with 28 each an X and two 9s for me and I won the one arrow shoot off. I am sorry but I do not remember the names of the others I shot against. Next was one of the young men, he shoots well but I beat him with two Xs and a 9, next was a young lady who I am pretty sure is an adult but is pretty young, she also shoots well. I really did well against her 3 Xs my final opponent was an adult male who also shoots very well I beat him with and X and two 9s for a 28 to his 27. I won the shoot off. A new experience for me and I am sure winning helped but I really enjoyed the whole thing.

I could feel my tension of the competition but I did not feel nervous and just did my shooting routine and keep telling myself "you are just shooting do your routine" and I felt calm while shooting. I shot well during the elimination better than I had been shooting all night maybe I need pressure to shoot well. There was no award or anything and I did not expect one this was just part of the training to get ready for tournaments.

One strange thing did occur which let me speachless. John addressed the whole JOAD class announcing the I and Sasha had won, Sasha the recurve. The he asked me how many times I had practiced since last Tuesday, which was six and how many arrows had I shot during those practices which was a minimum of 60 and averaged around 120. He then made a point that I had shot so well not because I was an adult, that the younger folks really had an advantage, and not because I had a better equipment but because I practice almost every and I shoot more than 500 arrows a week.I know he did this mostly to encourage the other JOAD archers to practice more which is a good thing. I was just surprised by his praise but it was pleasant.

The new adjustment on my release did not seem to have any dilatory effects and I did not have any early releases during the elimination round.