# Course Management



## Challenger (Nov 4, 2007)

Explain it to me.


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## blade37defender (Jun 8, 2005)

I don't believe there is an exact definition but more of knowing your limits as an archer and sticking to what you are capable of. That's my definition of it...


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## tryinhardarcher (Feb 3, 2006)

Having a defined set of personal rules as to how to shoot. When to aim where. 
Safe 12
Dead on the 12
Upper 12
Lower 12
Safe 10
What to do when other arrows are where you want to aim


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## WhitetailAce (May 16, 2012)

Any combination of rules/guidelines you set for yourself would be your strategy or game plan for how you are going to shoot a course. Good course management is executing your game plan without breaking any of the rules or going outside of your guideline. On top of that good course management also involves evaluating your strategy/game plan after the round(s) and making adjustments to your game plan based on what did and did not work during the round(s). Good course management should also have at least one goal for the round your shooting.


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## nestly (Apr 19, 2015)

It's simply a plan to maximize your score based on current conditions. 

"Current conditions" include:
Weather
Lighting
Target distance/difficulty
How well you're shooting
How well you're judging


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

When I shoot 3d I am playing a game, I have played this game for almost 10 years now shooting over 40 3d tournaments per season. So everything I am doing when you shoot with me is something I have done hundreds of times in the past and I am making decisions all day long that allow me to play the game at a high level.

Everything from having candy bars and beef sticks in my stool and hydration to asking for umbrellas and cleaning my lens and fixing my footing before drawing to letting down instead of firing to line calling to telling stories to aiming at a 12 ring I can't see to guessing the distance to everything else that is happening on the course. I have a very specific simple to follow 3d game plan that I follow and it helps me to keep on track with what I am trying to accomplish which is shoot 12 to 15 twelves for the weekend and not have any 8's or 5's. 

To me you have got to get into a group with a high level 3d guy so that you can see it up close and personal, just reading or hearing just doesn't cut it. For me it was a local semi pro shooter here in missouri, Blake Allen. He kicked my butt for years and I just couldn't figure out what in the crap he was doing that allowed him to beat me every week by so many points, I lucked out and got him in my group and to say I was amazed doesn't even scratch the surface. He was doing things with his bow and his course management that I simply didn't know were possible or even existed, I have spend the last 4 years getting them into my approach to shooting 3d and it is a good thing.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

When I said I got him in my group, I really got him in. He shot all the local tournaments with us and I traveled with him to the national asa shoots so I was with him a bunch, it took a good two years for me to even begin to get on top of things. 

When you shoot with the really good shooters you won't be able to accept what they are saying as the truth many many many times, why? Because it doesn't sound possible and then when you try to do what they do you will fail really bad. You have to have someone you can trust and commit to what they are saying and it took me a while to listen to my buddy Blake and I had some failures but in the end the lessons to be learned began to change me forever. In a good way.


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## sagecreek (Jul 15, 2003)

Know your limits.


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## eljugador (May 9, 2006)

Padgett said:


> everything from having candy bars and beef sticks in my stool.


If you have candy bars and beef sticks in your stool you might want to chew more thoroughly and, perhaps, try and eat a bit more fiber.


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## sagecreek (Jul 15, 2003)

Padgett said:


> ...
> 
> Everything from having candy bars and beef sticks in my stool ...


Is that for energy or for line calls? :noidea:


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## Garceau (Sep 3, 2010)

Course management - 

Think of it in terms of a road race with the very fastest of cars - be it Formula 1 type, world ralley type etc - it don't matter.

They cannot get around the road course with their foot planted to the gas and never making adjustments. they have to lift, shift, brake etc to make it around in the most efficient amount of time.

Course management on 3D is the same thing - I believe this comes into play much more with ASA than IBO style shoots. There really isn't much to think about in IBO but hold center and make a shot. With ASA you have to figure if you have the yardage well enough to hold on the 12. If you are unsure do you add a yard and hold on, do you aim center and take your 10 and not give up points. Is there a yardage number in your head you feel comfortable shooting solidly at the 12s compared to aiming center and not giving points back?

This changes by day and through the round, is lighting in your favor, are you making good shots, are you judging well, are you familiar with this/that or all the targets etc......


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## Kstigall (Feb 24, 2004)

"Course management" entails a LOT of stuff! Ultimately it is about maximizing your score for not just any given day but for an _entire tournament_. You should learn something on every single target and you apply that to the next target or maybe many targets later........or next week, next month or even next year. After finishing a course accurately assessing how many points you _left _on a course and the targets where you left them and why you left them might be the first step to developing "course management". "Course management" is a collection of "target management".

No one can manage a course or tournament for you because they are not the one aiming at a given target. Accurately understanding what you are capable of and what needs to be done is paramount. I know guys that have done fairly well at a fairly high level for _many _years and yet they seem to always come up a bit short or have obvious reasons why they blew the last 4 targets, for example, to drop from say 6th to 15th when if they had used just a moderately accurate "course management" they may have made the podium. 

You can be the very best race car driver and have the best car but if you wreck the car you can NOT win. It does not matter that you are blowing every car off the track for 80% of the race if you put it into the wall and can't finish. At the end of the year you don't "win" by leading the most laps for the season! For some time Kyle Busch was a great driver but terrible at finishing races........he was bad at "race management". Then he learned how to finish races at or very near the top every week. Jeff Gordon was a great driver at a very young age he was also very good at knowing a car and managing the race so he was running for the top at the end. 

Some of the very best MLB pitchers weren't the hardest throwing, they did not throw the very best slider, they may not have had the ultimate change up and maybe their curve wasn't the very best for a given game but they could still flat out beat a great line up. Greg Maddox comes to mind.......

The SOY winner in many if not most ASA classes is very consistent and rarely gives many points away. In an archery tournament I am not a home run hitter and I'm not a one base at a time guy. I do whatever I need to do to maximize my score _for the tournament_ for that weekend. 

An example, a lot of people in the area were surprised to see the scores I put up last year in the ASA. Only because my scores in local tournaments weren't higher. I was asked many times last year, "How is that you do well consistently at national ASA shoots but in local shoots you don't do as well"? My answer is, "Because I am not trying to maximize my score. For me local shoots are where I experiment, learn and train for the ASA tournaments. I will push the envelop here so I will make less mistakes next weekend." Part of my "course management" for the ASA shoot London Ky next weekend is to learn more about what I can and can't do by shooting a new local course this afternoon.

Different archers may approach a target differently because they both know their strengths and weaknesses.


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## sagecreek (Jul 15, 2003)

Low 12's is a whole different ball game. Risk/reward Don't bet against the odds too much.


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## nestly (Apr 19, 2015)

Yeah, in IBO, course management is basically assessing your tendency to over-estimate or under estimate the distance based on the animal/set and hedging that way. Since the 10 and 11 are concentric, there's no consideration of risk/reward, you're always gunning at the 11.


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## jonnezmy (Jul 7, 2021)

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## dougmax (Jul 23, 2009)

I took this a whole different way being that I take care of one of our two 3D courses…I thought this thread was about grass cutting, weed trimming, back stop building and target placement. Kinda like Bill Murray in Caddyshack….then the guy mentioned the candy bar in his stool.


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## Milo357 (May 4, 2014)

My course management has become hit all 20 targets, then the rest is gravy...


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## IBOHunt3D (Jun 6, 2006)

Lots of great ideas on course management here.

I will add though, some have said for IBO, always aim center 10. This is normally true. However, I have occasionally used some of the ASA tricks in IBO shooting. If, for example, I come to a target that is somewhere between 43 and 50 yards, a distance that I personally know I don’t judge well. I always end up judging under, and shooting low if I hold center 10. On those targets, I will actually aim for the top of the 10 ring, or the area between the 10 and 11. My thought is if I aim near the top of the 10, and I am good on yardage, I’ll hit the 10. If I judged it short, and it’s a bit longer, I won’t fall out of the bottom of the 10 ring, and may have a shot at the bottom of the 11.

Course management all boils down to knowing your limits and how you shoot each target on the course. You use that knowledge and understanding of your shooting to decide how to approach each target.

There will be some targets that you will just plain like, at any distance. Those are the ones that you will judge with to a high degree of accuracy, and will hold on dead steady. Gun hard for the 11 or 12 on those targets.

There will be other targets that you will just plain not like, at any distance. Those are the targets you really have to manage. If those targets are out beyond where you feel comfortable judging them, you have to decide if you want to aim center or high 10 to not give anything up, or maybe you feel confident enough to aim at the connector line between the 10 and 12 rings.

That’s what course management is all about. Knowing when to take risks and when to shoot safe. 

The better you are at judging yardage, the better you are at picking a spot and hitting it, and the better you are at shooting in adverse conditions under pressure, the easier course management becomes.

Shoot as much 3D as you can, with the best shooters you can join, make mental notes, practice with purpose, and keep a training journal. Learn each target, how you judge it, and how you shoot it.

You do that, and soon enough you’ll be managing your way around the 3D course like a boss.


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## 3-D Quest (Jan 26, 2007)

IBOHunt3D said a mouthful with this:

“Shoot as much 3D as you can, with the best shooters you can join, make mental notes, practice with purpose, and keep a training journal. Learn each target, how you judge it, and how you shoot it.

You do that, and soon enough you’ll be managing your way around the 3D course like a boss.”




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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