Reluctance to Change
Consider this: In my years of attending competitive events, the single most common regret I hear at the end of scoring is, “I waited too long to make a change.” I believe this stems from an archaic dogma that ‘One should not really make changes to equipment right before, or during an event.’ Instead, the archer ‘fights’ their way through, believing their form and/or execution, while very repeatable that day, (typical groups, just in the wrong place) is somehow incorrect and needs adjustment.
What makes things more complicated, is that from day to day, the human component of our shooting system will certainly have variations; we are not machines. Add in environmental factors like lighting and visual distraction, and the arrow impact mistake counts grow rapidly, while the score… does not.
As a barebow archer, once you progress beyond the beginner level, making adjustments should never be foreign or intimidating. I’m not saying that everyone can or should make huge drastic changes willy-nilly; the magnitude of acceptable changes you can make on the line should always parallel your skill, which should have been regularly explored and established confidently in previous training sessions.
If you really want your game to be at its best, you should know what adjustments or techniques can move your shot groups in any given direction, ideally without increasing group size. This is the essence of Barebow tuning that I’ve found many do not acknowledge, instead believing that tuning is a ‘one time thing’ done only during bow setup, and can be forgotten about after the first few times the arrows land in the yellow.
The reality is, tuning should be a continuous and ever evolving process in your shooting system, because many of the variables in your system can and often will change on any given day.
Written By: Elton Wong, Barebow Basics and Barebow Bulletin Contributer
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