# What is your practice program?



## T.B. (Jul 15, 2004)

I'm curious how everyone practices (mental and shooting). I realize how much this will vary between individuals current shooting struggles and their search for solutions (which is why I asked the question). What type of program do you follow? How many notes do you take? What is you progression? etc. Don't be afraid to be too detailed, that is what I am looking for as I develop a program for myself.


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

Other than using a 1 or 2 shot drill that's it. Distance falls within my ASA class, 40 yards. I don't shoot spot competition. I quit taking notes long ago.
If I have a problem I shoot it out....


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## N7709K (Dec 17, 2008)

when i shot I worked the close bale regularly to keep shots rolling and building the image of a good shoot resulting in the correct arrow location in the target... and that groups revolved around a singular point of impact. Other than that it was just lots and lots of arrows to bring about working on keeping form and your shot solid under times of fatigue and non ideal conditions. I also never practice on blue face; only inner face/vegas face or 80cm outdoors


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

I shoot one arrow at a vegas face. For years I worked mainly on controlling my left and right hits. Now I am just working on my hold and trying to get the smallest spread both vertical and horizontal.

I shoot about 1 hour with a friend that can shoot circles around me a couple of times a week. This gives some actual competition conditions which allows me to work on the mental game. We shoot one arrow and go and pull. This helps with fatigue and it is not about how many arrows we shoot but how good the shoots feel and hit.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

I transition many times throughout the year, it keeps me fresh and looking forward to things coming up instead of getting bored or frustrated. 

My number one priority during everything i list below is smooth executions so keep that in mind.

1. 3d season coming up: During this time of the year I am coming off of shooting indoor leagues and a few competitions so I am still getting a couple scoring rounds per week but I come outside and start shooting asa scoring rings and make sure my sight tape is good and aiming at the 12 ring without hitting out the bottom becomes a priority. I have to start thinking about judging distance also. When I attend my first few 3d shoots it is all about staying safe while aiming directly at the 12 ring and as a few tournaments go by I then shrink my guess so I can start hitting more and more 12's and still not drop out the bottom.

2. As 3d season progresses I keep getting stronger on the range and scoring higher but then I notice my shooting getting weaker so getting back into the indoor range one or two times per week and shooting a scoring round keeps my shooting strong through out the summer. During this time I rarely aim at any orange dots, I continue to draw asa scoring rings on cardboard and shoot at stuff I can't see to keep sharp on 3d courses. I do shoot two arrows per spot and I use the first shot as practice being the first shooter and then the second shot I use the first one as a marker and aim off of it. 

3. Coming into indoor season I do not shoot many scoring rounds and just pound x's and try and get my shooting back to a good level after the 3d season and then I make sure and allow myself a few weeks of being on the line with other people settle in and then once I feel nice and comfortable with other people I can then enjoy ramping up my shooting.


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## Cryptt (Sep 1, 2015)

I just shoot. Daily. Twice a day if I can. Form comes down to muscle memory and you need to instill constant reminders to solidify that memory and maintain it.


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## michael.tollefs (Jun 7, 2013)

Blank bale to start my warm up and get my release aid working exactly how i want. Then I go back and have a release that is basically hydraulic and i can set it so it goes off and i don't have to do anything so i can just work on aiming. ( my biggest problem was i was scared of my release and i couldn't get it to go off or it went off too quickly.) now after i warmup i can do both. I get back to 20 and can execute my shot. i don't have to worry about my release because i am very comfortable with it (play with it a lot! make it hot make it cold and try different methods and really get used to it so you know it inside and out.) Then just get back there put the sight right on the X and relax. I also found that getting angry and frustrated doesn't work well at all and makes a person tense. if you try to make a positive out of every shot even if it is bad it will help to keep relaxed. even if it is a bad shot learn from it.


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## xavier102772 (Sep 2, 2010)

My practice routine: *Every 2nd or 3rd day.

1. Warmup with arm circles and light stretches for arms, forearms, triceps and shoulders.
2. Review shot process in notebook.
3. Practice between 15-25 shots with the string bow for further warmup and to set in the shot before firing a single arrow.
4. Shoot one shot on the Vegas face or 5 spot and pull the arrow. Repeat for 8 shots.
5. Shoot 2 shots on the Vegas face or 5 spot and pull the arrows. Repeat for 16 shots.
6. Shoot 3-4 shots on the Vegas face or 5 spot and pull the arrows. Repeat for 8 shots.
*Most of the time however, I will just shoot single shots and pull, and will always limit my shooting to around 30-40 shots or less. This really helps to eliminate fatigue as a factor in my shooting. 
7. Finish with one final shot on the Vegas Face and pull the arrow. 

The whole practice session usually takes about an hour. 

I believe in quality over quantity when I practice, so I don't just shoot and shoot and shoot. Don't get me wrong, I love to shoot and would if I didn't know that doing so would lead to an overuse injury sooner or later. And trust me, if you overdo it, you will get injured. Done it. Not about to do it again. Now I train and shoot smart, not long.

While shooting I will be trying to keep everything the same and if I am having issues with some aspect of shooting, I'll try one or two tweaks to my process to see if it improves my shooting or doesn't. Then I'll make notes on any adjustment so I can incorporate it into my process going forward. 

One thing I have noticed over the past few weeks is that when shooting a Vegas face I am far more accurate than shooting 5 spot. I don't do anything differently, but the shot pattern will expand in the 5 spot target. 5 spot, there will be an expanded shot pattern that will fill the X, while on the Vegas target, the pattern will be more concentrated on the Vegas X with only a few moving out into the 10. As you know, the Vegas X is much smaller than the 5 spot X. I believe it's a mental thing related to aiming small to miss small. At least that's my theory.


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## erdman41 (May 6, 2009)

I shoot scoring rounds for whatever the next tournament is. Two practice ends then scoring.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk


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## offeringplate (Jan 31, 2016)

i would love to here more pratice plans and ideas here. THX ttt


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## Rick! (Aug 10, 2008)

Read notes from previous session.
Write down today's date and goal for this session.
Write down affirmation - long term goal.
Review shot process.
Warm up, blank bale five to ten arrows to feel how the shot is breaking and to check my "hold du jour".
Work on session goal. This can take anywhere from 30 arrows at lunch to 3 times that after work.
Write down notes on what I felt, what the results were, what created best feeling shots and what didn't work.
Inspect gear/bow for maintenance and address as needed if time permits.
Leave session on a positive note.

Sessions can be working on the short bale, working on stance/hips, working on bow shoulder, etc. At least once a month I work on equipment, mainly bow items such as DL, holding weight, cam timing and POI effect, bareshaft tuning to keep nock height proper, etc. About once every 3 months are new strings and bow setup.

I use a lab notebook for my log, it's the right size and is grid-ruled for easy alignment of notes.


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

erdman41 said:


> I shoot scoring rounds for whatever the next tournament is. Two practice ends then scoring.
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk


This ^^^^

At Nationals, the practice bail was about 15 ft and accommodated five shooters at a time. There was no warming up on paper at 18m. We had two practice ends, then started scoring.

Practicing at home this way made it no big deal. I didn't even bother with the practice bale the second day and shot my best 30 of the weekend.


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## bigHUN (Feb 5, 2006)

Practice the longest distance available, these are mostly 70 and 90 meters FITA (or call it World Archery rings), I shoot a full quiver at a time, don't score but keep a track how many down from the yellow ring. At least 150+ arrows per visit and averaging 5 days per week. Maybe a week earlier from tournaments I switch between 50 and 70 meters and paying most attention to detailes, WA is also a best practice for Field, I like to create un-even footing purposely and I can easily concentrate on the upper body-posture.


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## offeringplate (Jan 31, 2016)

lots of useful tips and ideas here, some I have never thought of before !!


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## APBT (Jun 5, 2013)

Saved for later


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## 00rodney (Feb 9, 2015)

practice i just show up and shoot no practicing for me


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## snoopy84 (Nov 5, 2014)

^^^^Funny you put this.. my shooting partner and I use to practice at practice bales before each tournament we went to and we noticed that during the shoot we would both "give out of gas" about target 11 or 12 and the back targets were all more of a challenge than the first half so we tried just to practice during the week and then when we got to the tournaments just sign up and shoot and we have noticed that this has helped us both in more ways than one..


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## thawk (Mar 11, 2003)

I'm with cryptt, erdman41, cburnson, and bigHUN, the rest would take any enjoyment out of practicing, and for me any time I get to shoot I want to enjoy it


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## charliearchery (Dec 17, 2016)

My old club had field round bails setup on 3 different circuits. I warmed up for 15 minutes and then shot two circuits a day. Would try and stand away from the yardage markers to judge distance. 

Also lots of practice at long distances. Will coach you toward consistency.


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## allizzie (Dec 7, 2009)

Mike do u use a hydraulic exclusively what kind??


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## baller (Oct 4, 2006)

I'm like some on here so far, when practicing I will tend to shoot scoring rounds of whatever tournament I'm preparing for with some differences. Normal practice I will start scoring cold, no practice ends or anything. Normally I will shoot WA/NAA indoor rounds (23s at baby x vegas) for a couple reasons...its a good difficult game that gives me a good measure of my shooting, and I tend to get sloppy if I shoot blue faces too much. If I don't have 23s set up or am not planning on shooting NAA events I use the Lancaster scoring format to track my scores as it puts a premium on inside out shooting on the vegas face. I use the ArrowNautics app as it lets me see at a glance every scoring round I shoot and I can spot trends. If after a round I find that I'm below my average I work on whatever caused that below average score, all while scoring the next round. My indoor practice sessions are usually 120-150 arrows.

Outdoors I practice using the WA50m round or shoot a NFAA 600 round 40-50-60y. I will also shoot a 60 or 120 arrow round at a 50cm field face at 50y, all depends on what tournament i have coming up. I know this face size is not used for 50y on a field round but this again makes me focus on making better shots. I score this round like a NFAA indoor 5 spot round, 5 arrow ends. All these rounds give me the same thing I have indoors, a difficult test of my total skill that I can track my scores on. My outdoor practice sessions are usually 72-144 arrows (either two 50m rounds or 2 600 rounds).

The only time I'll shoot 2 ends of practice before scoring a practice round is my "mock round" my last practice before a tournament, usually the day before the tournament where I shoot the tournament round with timing. I also shoot my practice inside out, making any line calls irrelevant,if its touching the line its the lower score (only exception is NAA indoor round). I've found this gives me a better representation of how well I'm shooting over a given time period, and also makes me focus on making better shots not just in practice but tournaments as well. 

This has worked for me for 20+ years, I've learned that for me there just is no substitute for actually shooting your bow, and if you can, shooting your bow under pressure. Eventually shooting for score is a daily thing, not an intimidating thing, and eventually shooting under pressure becomes just another day shooting your bow. About the only time I'll shoot without scoring is extremely bad weather (super cold, poring, stupid windy etc) or when I'm setting up/tuning new gear. Bad weather days or days I can't get to the range I either blank bale or just hang it up and spend time with my kids. Tuning days usually end in at least one scoring round.


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