# My indoor marathon yesterday, Padgett



## Lazarus (Sep 19, 2005)

So.............are you advocating the use of the " taco bell steak crunch wrap in the truck" as the key to diet as it relates to good shooting? :teeth: 

Really enjoy the specific analysis of personal performance. Good stuff. :cheers: 

You really need to see my custom built 5 X target. It's perfect for that kind of analysis.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

I think the crunch wrap not only added to my waist line it may have caused my funny float early in my warm up.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

I just absolutely hated indoor shooting back when I first started because it seemed like a chore, but now I actually enjoy it and can do it for the entire day. Little things like this just help pass the time and keep things fresh and worth while so I thought it would be nice to share. I don't think it is ground breaking or anything.

Actually my shooting buddy who is 15 years old and a indoor guy did it with me in the morning and he was supprised that he shot 33% inside out x's, he still shoots some shots out into the blue and he has only shot one 300 5-spot round so visiting the blue is a normal thing. By doing this he was really excited to see the good percentage of inside out x's and he had a bunch of good solid x's also, it totally gave him a positive outlook that he is shooting pretty good. I personally think he is going to be a very good shooter and once he realizes that he is a 300 5-spot guy he will never hit the blue again because he is already good enough to not miss the white and just has to realize it himself. I am on a different level than him but I am no different, I am shooting 80% of my shots inside out and once I make a few more mental tweeks I will be around the 90% range, maybe this will be the thing that allows me to get there.


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## Lazarus (Sep 19, 2005)

When shooting in the morning, I have found that a big bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and half and half seems to help me achieve a good hold. (This is not a joke.) Another thing that seems to calm me down is a big cup of warm to hot water with a tablespoon of honey and the juice from half a lemon. 

Don't mean to detract from your post. Just throwing that out there. When it comes down to just one X or two little things can make a difference.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

I hear you, at asa shoots I prefer a hardees breakfast platter on sunday mornings and then about 2 hours into the round I like to down a snickers and it keeps me up and running strong for the last hour of the shoot. On saturday I used to shoot right up to the last minute before heading to the range at noon but I then learned to go at 11 am and get something to eat at the tents and relax for 30 minutes and then make the big walk to the range, then 2 hours into the scoring round I down a snickers. 

Many times in my first two seasons I would have a decent scoring round going and with only 4 targets to go I could feel it happening and my float would get jumpy and I couldn't control it and I would shoot poorly. In the beginning I thought it might be nerves but I finally figured out it was lack of calories.


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

One of the benefits of shooting our Vegas league is that as soon as you clean your spot it gets smaller. Shoot a 300, then you go down to a half shaft. After cleaning that you have to shoot 30 Xs. I've been at a half shaft for several weeks and have been within one arrow of cleaning it four or five times. Three of them were 27x games. My goal, or mindset when shooting the big blue Xs is always inside out. It is so easy to loosen up your focus with the bigger X rings, so I use that as a way to try to keep it tight.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

What do you mean by you have shot a 300 vegas and then you have to go down to a half shaft?


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## Lazarus (Sep 19, 2005)

cbrunson said:


> One of the benefits of shooting our Vegas league is that as soon as you clean your spot it gets smaller. Shoot a 300, then you go down to a half shaft. After cleaning that you have to shoot 30 Xs. I've been at a half shaft for several weeks and have been within one arrow of cleaning it four or five times. Three of them were 27x games. My goal, or mindset when shooting the big blue Xs is always inside out. It is so easy to loosen up your focus with the bigger X rings, so I use that as a way to try to keep it tight.


Performance based handicap. Pretty clever actually. But I sure wouldn't want to shoot for money against slightly less skilled archers using that system!!! :teeth:


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

Padgett said:


> What do you mean by you have shot a 300 vegas and then you have to go down to a half shaft?


It is a handicapped league. Say for example you start out the league hitting mostly nines, a few tens, and a couple of eights. The guy running the league will set your “spot” at the nine ring, meaning you have to cut line of the nine ring with each arrow to “clean” the end. You have to shoot ten ends and keep all of them inside, or touching the nine ring. When you do that successfully, you’ve “cleaned” your spot and it now becomes smaller. You then have to shoot inside out gold. You can’t touch the nine line or it’s a miss. As you improve and clean that “spot”, it changes to the ten ring, meaning you have to shoot a 300 score to clean your spot again. After that it goes to a half-shaft ten, meaning half or more of your arrow shaft has to be inside the ten ring or it’s a miss. After you clean that, you have to hit Xs, followed by inside out tens. I’ve only ever seen one guy with that “spot”.

Each miss is counted, and the lowest number of misses wins the pot. (Usually a quarter per person shooting.) Quite often there are ties, which result in a shoot off where your spot is decreased to the next lower spot for the first two ends, then the third is closest to center. First miss is out. There is also a team score, but I won’t get into that.


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

Lazarus said:


> Performance based handicap. Pretty clever actually. But I sure wouldn't want to shoot for money against slightly less skilled archers using that system!!! :teeth:


It evens out quite well actually. They usually win a couple, then have to improve to keep winning. It's really fun.


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## erdman41 (May 6, 2009)

cbrunson said:


> It is a handicapped league. Say for example you start out the league hitting mostly nines, a few tens, and a couple of eights. The guy running the league will set your “spot” at the nine ring, meaning you have to cut line of the nine ring with each arrow to “clean” the end. You have to shoot ten ends and keep all of them inside, or touching the nine ring. When you do that successfully, you’ve “cleaned” your spot and it now becomes smaller. You then have to shoot inside out gold. You can’t touch the nine line or it’s a miss. As you improve and clean that “spot”, it changes to the ten ring, meaning you have to shoot a 300 score to clean your spot again. After that it goes to a half-shaft ten, meaning half or more of your arrow shaft has to be inside the ten ring or it’s a miss. After you clean that, you have to hit Xs, followed by inside out tens. I’ve only ever seen one guy with that “spot”.
> 
> Each miss is counted, and the lowest number of misses wins the pot. (Usually a quarter per person shooting.) Quite often there are ties, which result in a shoot off where your spot is decreased to the next lower spot for the first two ends, then the third is closest to center. First miss is out. There is also a team score, but I won’t get into that.


Jealous of your league. Eau Claire has over 60k population and not one spot league all freaking animal targets.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

Awesome league, I would love to be in a league like that one.


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

Keeps it fun for everyone. I shot a 300-24x last night and lost to a 10 year old girl who cleaned her spot. There was a higher score than mine that also lost.


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## sharkred7 (Jul 19, 2005)

erdman41 said:


> Jealous of your league. Eau Claire has over 60k population and not one spot league all freaking animal targets.


Come up to Bloomer Scott. We have some pretty good shooters there to push you. We came close to having 2 60X rounds shot tonight. There are several flirting with them also. We have about 120 shooters in a town of 2000ish??


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## erdman41 (May 6, 2009)

sharkred7 said:


> Come up to Bloomer Scott. We have some pretty good shooters there to push you. We came close to having 2 60X rounds shot tonight. There are several flirting with them also. We have about 120 shooters in a town of 2000ish??


I did last year. Must have been the night I was shooting as it was Chad, Cullen, myself and a bunch of guys who tried to get rid of their arrows as fast as they could to get back to their beer.

So with Mouldy's changing to a yearly unlimited rate and being about 5 minutes from my house. Just seemed the smarter way to go.

Still seems crazy how Bloomer can have that many shooting spots and no leagues in Eau Claire. Plus Eau Claire has an awesome field course that about 3 people use.


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## mikesmith66 (Aug 8, 2008)

cbrunson said:


> It is a handicapped league. Say for example you start out the league hitting mostly nines, a few tens, and a couple of eights. The guy running the league will set your “spot” at the nine ring, meaning you have to cut line of the nine ring with each arrow to “clean” the end. You have to shoot ten ends and keep all of them inside, or touching the nine ring. When you do that successfully, you’ve “cleaned” your spot and it now becomes smaller. You then have to shoot inside out gold. You can’t touch the nine line or it’s a miss. As you improve and clean that “spot”, it changes to the ten ring, meaning you have to shoot a 300 score to clean your spot again. After that it goes to a half-shaft ten, meaning half or more of your arrow shaft has to be inside the ten ring or it’s a miss. After you clean that, you have to hit Xs, followed by inside out tens. I’ve only ever seen one guy with that “spot”.
> 
> Each miss is counted, and the lowest number of misses wins the pot. (Usually a quarter per person shooting.) Quite often there are ties, which result in a shoot off where your spot is decreased to the next lower spot for the first two ends, then the third is closest to center. First miss is out. There is also a team score, but I won’t get into that.


Cool idea. I'm gonna bump it so I can find it someday and bring it up with my local leagues for next year. 
Thanks!


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

mikesmith66 said:


> Cool idea. I'm gonna bump it so I can find it someday and bring it up with my local leagues for next year.
> Thanks!


PM if you want more details.

(sorry Padgett for hijacking)


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## ron w (Jan 5, 2013)

kind of a hike, but there's a pretty healthy handicap 5-spot league at Rib Mountain Bowmen, in Brokaw. almost 2 full, 16 shooter lines , two nights a week (Wed. & Thurs.) for 10 weeks and they start the 1st week of the year. with Hwy.29 being a major thoroughfare, now, it's not too bad a drive, anymore.


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## sharkred7 (Jul 19, 2005)

erdman41 said:


> I did last year. Must have been the night I was shooting as it was Chad, Cullen, myself and a bunch of guys who tried to get rid of their arrows as fast as they could to get back to their beer.
> 
> So with Mouldy's changing to a yearly unlimited rate and being about 5 minutes from my house. Just seemed the smarter way to go.
> 
> Still seems crazy how Bloomer can have that many shooting spots and no leagues in Eau Claire. Plus Eau Claire has an awesome field course that about 3 people use.


It's cuz they can get back to their beer we get so many, LOL. I know what you mean about the field course, you and I are 2 of them I wish we had more field shoots up here. I am planning on road tripping south as often as I can to shoot field, let me know if you're interested in riding along. Maybe we can get some others to join us.
John


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## erdman41 (May 6, 2009)

sharkred7 said:


> It's cuz they can get back to their beer we get so many, LOL. I know what you mean about the field course, you and I are 2 of them I wish we had more field shoots up here. I am planning on road tripping south as often as I can to shoot field, let me know if you're interested in riding along. Maybe we can get some others to join us.
> John


Yup you, Mike, Cullen, Chad, and myself is about it. Pretty easy to tell when only have to change targets once a year lol.

Road trips would be great!


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## EPLC (May 21, 2002)

I feel so fortunate to live in an area where field archery is still active. It may not be what it once was but there are at least 8-10 clubs within 10 to 100 miles still running shoots weekly.


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## ron w (Jan 5, 2013)

you're lucky, there's nothing around me at all. only a broad head league at my local club that runs in the summer months. closest being Eau Claire or Racine areas. at least 2-1/2 hrs. away. i recently bought a cottage on a small lake in upper Michigan and there's a club about 20 minutes away that has a field course and a league in the summer. i'm anxious to have spring come to get up there and find out about it !


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

I thought the topic was...............


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## stromdidilly (Jan 8, 2014)

ron w said:


> you're lucky, there's nothing around me at all. only a broad head league at my local club that runs in the summer months. closest being Eau Claire or Racine areas. at least 2-1/2 hrs. away. i recently bought a cottage on a small lake in upper Michigan and there's a club about 20 minutes away that has a field course and a league in the summer. i'm anxious to have spring come to get up there and find out about it !


Spring? If you're talking about the UP you must have mistaken that for "late winter" lol


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

For me this kind of stuff keeps me from getting frustrated, I am to the point where if I shoot less than a 60x I feel like I failed or less than a 300 vegas. Just this week after making this thread I went in and shot for a hour or so and for some reason I wasn't scoring or keeping track of anything and I was shooting pretty good but after a break to talk to the owner I came back and ended up being frustrated and quitting for the day. Yesterday I had a snow day and didn't even go in and shoot taking the whole day off.

For me I am to the point where just keeping enough track of things to see that I am shooting really strong keeps me mentally fresh and able to shoot the high volume that I enjoy. I know that last year one of my favorite days came on a day where I only shot a 300 59x because I actually shot 56 inside out x's, the only thing I was keeping track of was the inside outs but I was so proud of them that the miss didn't bother me. I think the day before I had shot a 60x and I had around 15 shots that were on the line and 7 or so on the outside looking in and it was a ugly stinking 60x round. 

Don't get me wrong, if I was actually going to a bunch of leagues and competitions this winter I would have done at least one or two days of scoring rounds in my training per week and this type of general shooting where i kept track of where the arrow was the other days but this year I can't go to competitions or leagues so I am just training.


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## Lazarus (Sep 19, 2005)

An ugly 60x is 1,000,000 times better than a pretty 59x...........if you're keeping score.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

Yeah, if I was in a big competition I would agree a ugly 60 x would be just fine. For me though I am trying to shrink my group and at this point seeing the group is getting harder and harder because almost 100% of my shots are hitting the x in general training so finding a easy way to keep track of the group is what I am looking for.


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

The best way to keep track of performance is to compete. If you can truly shoot that good, you should compete.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

I'm not bad, I shoot with a real pro indoor guy and I am reminded that I am not on his level every time I shoot with him. I agree that competing is the way to go, I know that last year I was in two leagues and it took me a few weeks to get comfy to be on the line with other people and we finished up shooting some vegas rounds and I easily shot 300's every night at one of the leagues except for one week when I shot a zero with a misfire on one shot. I think I actually shot 26x's that night.

This year I am not competing, I am not even getting to go to the first few asa shoots so I am stuck in my little indoor range here in marshfield mo suffering.

So even though competing is the key that you can't leave out there are some things that I am finding at home that really help me score high, like in 3d I only shoot asa scoring rings drawn on card board with a sharpie. It really is something that makes my shooting way better and there is no extra effort required, for indoor finding a way to judge if my group size is shrinking with my general shooting is something that i have always wanted a way to keep track of and this may be a way.


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

So shoot against those practicing. I use to shoot with this new kid in 3D. I'd spot him points. Big time points, 30, 50 even 80 points. Try that weighing on your brain....

All those in favor of Padgett spotting 25 points and 5 X in a 5 spot raise your hand.


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

Well, I don't see a lot of reason why you wouldn't or couldn't justify it. Tournament success can not only pay for the trip, but you could also end up getting new bows, sights, and everything else you could imagine for free. Never missing and X for 100s of shots puts you right up there with the top level pros.


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## ron w (Jan 5, 2013)

some people just want to shoot well, and aren't all that interested in competing. 
in my teens and early 20's, I speed skated, indoor and metric (OLY style). I loved it enough that the actual competing was second fiddle to just skating for the enjoyment and excitement of doing it. I skated with and against all of the American Olympic skaters of the time and had access to their coaching as well. 
sometimes you do stuff just because you like to do it.


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## unclejane (Jul 22, 2012)

I'm not anywhere near being in competition condition for any class, but I try to intentionally put myself in pressure situations in practice. If I'm shooting at our local shop and the really good shooters happen be there, I'll try to insert myself on the line in between them. Our state director shoots there quite a bit as well as a few other guys who are really really good shooters. So I go up and shoot with them on purpose, even tho all I'm doing is trying to keep it in the gold. 

When I got two really experienced shooters on each side of me pinwheeling it over and over, that really forces me to concentrate.

I also try to shoot the opposite situation, where there's a million kids with arrows bouncing off the targets and going into the walls, etc. Or the local hunting shooters with bows that sound like shotguns when they go off. I like to be on the line with them too as much as possible, and even try to be on the line with them even when it might be not so comfortable.

It's all good practice, some really good informal pressure and totally great fun too.

One o' these days I'm going to be strong enough to actually start entering competitions, which should help also.

LS


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