#arrow volume

I’m lucky to have such a wonderful support circle of friends, family, professionals, and fellow archers to constantly keep me motivated, provide feedback, and to help me through difficult times. I can’t thank you enough! I know I’ll need you again, and I want you to know that I’ll always be there for you as well 💖 Hopefully, this particular road to recovery now has a few more breadcrumbs on it for others to help them find their way.

Since I can’t shoot as much as I want to yet, and Norm and I usually go to the range together, I’ve been finding various things to keep me busy while he’s shooting. This week, I made a chainmail(le) “bracelet” for our scope. This particular weave is commonly known as helm chain, and is a fairly simple pattern. It’s really good for making things like bracelets and necklaces since it naturally likes to lay flat. If anyone is interested, I usually order my rings from The Ring Lord and when I want to try a new weave or need a reminder, M.A.I.L. (Maille Artisans International League) is a wonderful resource.

Now I want to add more chainmail to other parts of my gear but I’m not sure what, or where .. any suggestions?

2017 OAA Target Championships

I’m still dealing with back issues and haven’t been able to do any training since last week.  Hopefully, my physio appointment this week helps me start the healing process. The only shooting I did do was at the Ontario Provincial Championships this weekend in Sault Ste. Marie where I shot 262 arrows in practice and competition. Norm, Shannon, and I all piled into the car early Friday morning for…

Making Mistakes, Making Progress

This week was pretty tough. I still managed to shoot near to my average arrow volume, but that’s only due to having another double double 720 this weekend. In total, I shot 432 arrows this week, but it should have been a much higher count. Earlier in the week I strained my back while doing some gardening and it’s still sore. The hardest part was resting; basically doing nothing for three days.…

Something’s Different

After last weekend’s tournament I was feeling really confident with my form, but something changed early this week that’s causing my bow to swing in front of me instead of tapping my leg after release. This week, I shot 518 arrows. I spent a while on Wednesday shooting in my garage trying to figure out what had changed. I have a…

Now that Summer has officially arrives, it’s almost a guarantee that it will at least be reasonably warm out. But this week, most of those calm and warm sunny mornings have turned into quick torrential downpours, followed by more sun. On a couple days, it even switched back and both several times throughout the day!

Early in the week, I shot my first Canadian 900 round at The Archers of Caledon. Every year on the Summer Solstice, they host a fun 900 round that starts at about 7pm and runs until about dusk. The timing works out really well, being the longest day of the year, we can usually finish the full round just before it’s too dark. Afterward, we celebrate with pizza and mingling (or more shooting inside)! I had a really good time, and can’t wait to do it again next year! The weather was absolutely perfect, too. Calm, warm and for some reason, the bugs left us alone!

On Sunday, Norm and I headed out to Peterborough to shoot a tournament at the Peterborough Fish and Game Club hosted by Peterborough Archers. We had a really good time, and the volunteers did a wonderful job organizing the event and making lunch. I started off the round a little rough, but finished really strong to manage a non-training personal best score. After lunch, as we were about to start the second round, a series of intense storm cells moved though and the round had to be cancelled. It was pretty fun waiting for one of the cells to pass before we could pack up without everything getting soaked or blowing away.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Here’s a short video that Norm took as it started to hail:

On the way home, we drove through another one of these storms, with even more hail. The entire road was covered in a thick layer of hail and water that only lasted no more than a few minutes before it was sunny again.

Before arriving at home, we took a detour to have ice cream on the patio at Dairy Queen. Even though half of the tournament was cancelled, it was still a pretty great day.

Tuning, Training, and Pens. Oh my! – May 7, 2017

Here are the details for this week (Monday May 1 to Sunday May 7): this week was another light week. I shot 450 total arrows, almost entirely on my new bow. This week was mostly about continuing the tuning of my new bow and just trying to get my arrow volume back up. I’m still having trouble finding an ideal brace height for the new bow, partly because the string jig that we have been using may…

My Weekly Summary for April 30, 2017 – NEW BOW!

Here are the details for this week (Monday April 24 to Sunday April 30): this week was another light week. I shot 259 total arrows. I did spend much of the early week looking after Norm (who had injured himself) as well as getting the vegetable garden ready for transplanting the seedlings, and much of the weekend tuning my new bow. I think I’ve managed to work through most of last week’s fatigue,…

My Weekly Summary for Apr 23, 2017

Here are the details for this week (Monday April 17 to Sunday April 23): this week, I shot 389 total arrows, most of them outside at 70m. I had another minor form change early this week, that I’m still trying to incorporate into my shot cycle. Unfortunately, it’s requiring me to use my muscles a little differently. That means there’s a lot more fatigue! We also started actively working on…