A quick little 30 arrows at 18 meters to begin this new indoor season 2026-2027. Let’s see if all that outdoor training this past summer has transferred well…
Timrå is a club up in the North of Sweden. Many Swedish clubs host 30 arrow rounds throughout the season and many of those are possible to do remotely using IANSEO Scorekeeper Lite App.
I did my normal warm up. I expected a comfortable first end. It was not. And the scoring of each of those first arrows was not logical compared to how each shot felt. I was grouped low 9-8-7 and ‘lost’ a lot of points on the first end. So, I calmly reset my posture and kindly told myself to maintain bow arm after release. Then the second end’s first arrow dropped into a low 7…
Self talk is funny. It takes using true and effective words in order to coach yourself into fighting for what you really want.
Shooting reds to start was not making me a happy girl. I really needed to dig deep because I knew that my shooting was better than that score. I knew that my technique was correct for me. So the only thing was the sight – for whatever reason, it needed to be adjusted. I did not tell myself that there was something wrong on my sequence, rather I trusted myself enough to say – Hey let’s move the sight and keep going.
… after doing those sight adjustments, I hit 9-10. Thus, after the first 2 rounds, I was already ‘down’ 10 points.
BUT… then the fun started –> 29 – 29 – 30 – 29 – 29 – 30 – 30… (FYI these scores are displaying as a telephone number on some mobile browsers… sorry I cannot figure out how to fix it).
A couple of those 9s were very close to 10s too. My rhythm was very correct. I stayed in my mental bubble. And I kept telling myself to fight for it, every single arrow, one by one by one.
Even though those first 2 ends sucked, I kept going.
The final end was 10 – 10 – 8.
And even knowing that the final 8 was an extra bow arm push to get through the clicker, that last end was good enough for 284.
As the comp was only 30 arrows – I was done.
My ESM was 88 which was better than my previous last few rounds… so I was content but impatient too.
The other competitors were shooting a little later so I had to wait to find out the final rankings.
***
Since I have another comp this weekend, I decided to take a lunch break then shoot again. This was to replicate a real comp with 60 arrows… so after some yummy treats, I did another 30 arrows.
It started much better than the earlier session – 28 – 29 – 30 – 28 – 29 – 30 and then a 6!
The same issue that I did on the last arrow of the first series – about pushing my bow arm through the clicker – was repeated in an even worse way!
So the self talk happened again – but this time, I knew it was a technique issue. It was one sensation that needed attention and it needed to be fixed fast. The troubling thing that happens with a big bad shot, is that there is a little surge of adrenaline. Since it was the first arrow of that end, I still needed to shoot 2 more arrows. The extra surge meant some extra movements with my bow as my pulse rate increased and became suddenly stronger everywhere in my body at once – from nose to toes and back again. It is kinda funny but I have had it before so instead of trying to calm it down, the trick is to time the shot between the pulses.
–> Just know that you need to train for it if you want to be able to do it. All the breathing exercises in the world will not work fast enough when the clock is ticking. It is not enough time for breathing techniques to settle down pulse rate due to an adrenaline surge between arrows, so do not try to fight it. Learn to shoot with your pulse racing through your body. It is possible and comes in handy when needed. If this happens between ends, then there is more time so breathing can help then. Also, you can try Archery Walkbacks to feel the effects of pulse rate on your shot sequence.
So after that silly little 6 – there was a better ‘flood’ of 9s… 6 in a row. The centre ring was dancing very close but not enough to grab those 10s.
Then a 29 and then another 9 – 8 and a final 10. That 8 was super close to 9 so it was OK for me.
I finished with 281 and ESM of 88.
So 284 and 281 –> 565
My PB is 575 (last done in 2017) so this was under but still much better than a single indoor score I did last season of 535.
***
A little later that evening, I was back at home having a huge bowl of pasta and watching the rankings as the other scores came in. Using IANSEO, I could see every end. It truly is an awesome piece of software!
Since I knew my first ends were low, I had to keep refreshing to see if my come from behind scoring was good enough to win. At half way, I was tied with another archer. All those 30s kept me strong until the very end when I pulled ahead and ended up winning the gold.
As I am a little competitive, I compared my score to all the other bows, age groups and both men and women too. Only a compounder beat me… by one point.
Overall, it was a good competition and training session. Both of my scores – 30 arrows (remote comp) and 60 arrows (combo comp and training round) are National Records for the Master’s category, but I need an official comp to get them recognized.
This weekend will be a 60 but I need to wait a bit to find another 30 and actually travel there.
So… thank you for all the support and good luck to everyone heading back out on the circuit this Fall.
