Training notes: Release Aid Appreciation Week

Having now jumped ship to Olympic recurve and having not used a compound or release aid for several weeks I will say that I have a growing appreciation for the modern release aid. For those of us who didn't grow up before the age of release aids and compounds (interesting tangent the release aid actually pre-dates the compound), we often take this little piece of equipment for granted.

Artemis Data 6/15/13

I definitely did, but as I've been learning; finger pressure is a tough horse to train. So I'm retroactively declaring this past week, Release Aid Appreciation Week...

So why is finger pressure consistency so important you ask? Well, variances in finger placement and pressure; even subtle ones, can drastically effect the point of impact of an arrow down range at any distance. Specifically, I've been trying to eliminate excessive first finger pressure; which sends my shot 12 o'clock high to the 7 ring at 18m/20yd. I believe I've made great progress to eliminating the issue as you can see from my score data, with only 4/30 shots in the 12 o'clock high position and in this case only out to the 8 ring.

Also obvious in the shot data are some other finger pressure issues (and probably some subtle anchor drift) that are swinging my shots laterally.

Lateral Swing

Now to wrap up on a good note. Today was the first session I've kept score with my  current Olympic recurve setup. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. I ended the day with a 275/300