Thoughts on the Side

Walked into the range on Saturday, looking forward to trying out my new v-bars. Behind the counter, I saw a couple of short Doinkers, and figured they must be the new side rods I ordered. They seemed pretty heavy for v-bars, though. A little down the counter, however, there was a box with a "sold" tag and my name on it. Inside, was a Shibuya bracket (in silver) and a package of Doinker v-bars. Much lighter than what in truth was a pair of short stabilizers (for compound bows), this was actually my new equipment. Spent some time getting the bracket straight on the bow and the side rods set to a down angle to maximize stability. Anthony brought out a blue Shibuya bracket to show me, but I decided to stick with the silver one. In another case of caring about colors more than I'm used to, the blue just was not quite right with my bow, and the silver both provides a contrast to the handle and matches my sight.

Took the bow out to the range, and took a pair of warm up ends totaling seven arrows. Felt pretty good about my setup, so even with a slightly fatigued shoulder, I decided to dive right in.

First five ends:

End #	End Score	Running Total	Compared to 25 Pace
1	28	28	+3
2	28	56	+6
3	24	80	+5
4	22	102	+2
5	24	126	+1

Opening a little better than a 23, I would say. Shoulder shaking a little, but that's just fatigue. No pain to speak of, and things are looking pretty good. That's when the wheels fell off the wagon.

6	15	141	-9
7	24	165	-10
8	26	191	-9
9	23	214	-11
10	24	238	-12

Sixth end just absolutely killed me. No idea what happened. The end itself didn't feel particularly different from all the others. All three arrows just landed in the outer rings.

If you throw out the low, I averaged 24.78 points per end. Essentially, I gave away 10 points in the sixth end. If I were to get those 10 points back, all I have to do is find two more points over the other 9 ends and I'll be back over 250. Might even be able to do it this weekend.

Because of how my shoulder felt all throughout last week, I didn't shoot any extra arrows on Saturday. Shot my full round and stopped. Probably the plan this weekend, too. Don't want to overwork my shoulder and end up back where I was in July and August and into the fall. Much better to back it off a little bit now, and take it just a little easier than I might otherwise like to.

Couple more weekends at the range, then I'll head back out west. I'd like to get my second 250 before I leave. All I can do, though, is take care of myself and try my best.