# What is the "bridge" in blank bale and bridge



## mike 66 (Jan 21, 2010)

The bridge is when you finish you hard work on the bail and then go to the hard work on targets


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## Moebow (Jul 8, 2010)

mike66 has it. Develop your form on blank bale then when you start to shoot at something with the intention of hitting it you need to bring your good blank bale form with you. You will find that as you start to concentrate on a target to be hit, your form will often break down. When that happens, it is back to the blank bale to fix your form then back into the bridge to continue to improve. The thing that makes this challenging for many folks is that they are too impatient to work the blank bale long enough and hard enough to groove in their form BEFORE they try to "hit" anything. Then being honest with themselves on targets to determine the slightest breakdown in form that sends them back to the blank bale. A very good program to become a better archer but as I say, hard for the impatient types to accomplish.

Arne


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## Rugby (Feb 13, 2003)

Thanks for taking the time to answer guys, much appreciated.


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## [email protected] (Aug 3, 2010)

The hardest part of the BRIDGE is the archer having the self discipline to enfore the rules.If your form goes bad or your sequence goes to pot your done.You go back to the previous distance tommorrow no more arrows that day.It is meant to be harsh to establish learning to only shoot when the shot is prepared and to teach to let down if it isnt.Most archers lack the discipline to be completely honest and enforce it but in the end it is for their benefit.Len Cardinal is the brige guru and has a great coaches disc on this subject.Great source from an awesome teacher.


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## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

oops double post
Allen


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## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

[email protected] said:


> The hardest part of the BRIDGE is the archer having the self discipline to enfore the rules.If your form goes bad or your sequence goes to pot your done.You go back to the previous distance tommorrow no more arrows that day.It is meant to be harsh to establish learning to only shoot when the shot is prepared and to teach to let down if it isnt.Most archers lack the discipline to be completely honest and enforce it but in the end it is for their benefit.Len Cardinal is the brige guru and has a great coaches disc on this subject.Great source from an awesome teacher.



Exactly right! Done right the bale becomes a relaxing pleasant activity, almost an old friend. But the bridge is hard work. It's discipline and disappointment and frustration and time consuming. But nothing else will make you a better archer and give you control over your shot.

As far as how to do it. Start close with a large target, 5 yards and 24" seems to be good for compound archers. 36" for recurve. Precision accuracy is not important at this stage. Consider the entire target as the X ring. Shoot this target for several days at 5 yards. If you have no "less thans", then step back a couple of yards. Keep the big target. Stay at each distance no less than 3 days. It's normally at this distance when I've had my first less than. As soon as any shot breaks down or is less than the shot that you developed on the bale, stop shooting for the day. Then at your next session, go back to the previous distance. If you get a less than at this distance, it's time to head back to the bale for a few days. Len says at least a week, but two is better. Then start over at 5 yards. 

When you get to about 30 yards, you start reducing the size of the target. Again do it gradually taking at least 3 days to become accustomed to shooting each smaller size. 

You can see that this is a highly disciplined approach to improving your shooting. It's not easy. One archer took a year and a half to complete the bridge. But he did win an IBO championship when he finished. And quite a few others since.

Allen


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## avluey (Dec 31, 2010)

Wow - as a novice I had never heard of this. I can be honest and say that I would not have the patience for that program - I can imagine the benefit of sticking with it though.


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## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

Bernie has a little less stringent bridge program in his book "Idiot Proof Archery". This is usually good enough for someone just trying to get over TP. However, my goals are a little higher, so I use Lenny's more disciplined approach. I do have to admit that I haven't finished a super disciplined bridge yet. But it's because I keep changing my shot sequence. Hopefully I've settled on one now and will be able to do it the Lenny way.

Allen


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