Tag Archives: bare bow

photo of Harry Boyce
Feb 15 2021

A virtual walk with Harry Boyce

It’s with great pleasure I get to introduce my next victim, I mean guest to off the arrow shelf. Sadly, due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in the UK we have had to do this remotely but I’m sure you will still enjoy the banter.For the last 12 months it’s been nearly impossible for field archers to meet up in person, with the national society having to cancel it two main tournaments and countless local tournaments it’s been 12 months of challenges for Harry Boyce in his role as the president of the National Field Archery Society, so I’m very grateful for his time.

photo of Harry Boyce
Harry Boyce at the champs

So, let’s get going.  For easy my comments are in bold italics and Harry’s are in italics.

Rob – You are pretty well known to many on the archery circuit, thanks to your past successes in shooting and role as NFAS President, but how would you describe yourself?

Easy going & prepared to give anyone or everyone time to listen to their comments or problems.

Rob – Why did you first get into archery?

45 years ago, I was a youth club leader & along with another local youth club leader we organised an activities weekend for the members, part of which was archery by Friskney Bowmen. Having returned home & informed Terri what we had done over the weekend, she said “I have always wanted to try archery”. I took her along to Castle Bowmen to try it & told her this is your sport, I am not going to get involved with it. As I had always been into shooting rifles & shotguns from around 12 years of age, it didn’t take me long to get interested myself. The rest is history.

Rob – For those that don’t know Terri is Harrys’ other half and a very competent archer in her own right.

Harry and Terri
Harry and Terri

I’m sure others out there would be interested in knowing what you shoot, when you do get the opportunity to shoot round a course. So can you talk us through your kit set up?

As most NFAS members will know I shot barebow for over twenty years. My last barebow set up was a Bernadini riser with Hoyt carbon limbs 49lb at full draw, fastflight string & ACE 520 arrows with 70 grain piles.Fancying a change. I bought a L/H compound, went straight into Unlimited & I have been shooting that for about seven years.

Current set up is a Hoyt Nitrum 34, Fuse long rod with side rod, Hoyt Ultra rest, Black Eagle Challenger 400 arrows with 100 grain piles & Chocolate 3 finger release aid. I’m now going through the motions of thinking about having a go at Barebow again.

Rob – I think you have been shooting compound most of the time I have really known you. I do vaguely remember you shooting Barebow, when I was shooting Hunting Tackle. 

How would you define the appeal of field archery and what makes it such a draw for you, as you have bene shooting for several years?

The appeal of field archery to me is twofold, being out in the countryside & the friendships you make on your journey through archery.Over the years of setting courses & competing at shoots I have seen wildlife that some people only read about or watch on the TV. The most memorable being at a World Champs in Australia when kangaroos came thundering through the course. I didn’t need telling twice to get out of the way. 

What’s better than being out in the woods when everything is in leaf & in bloom with the birds singing. Field archery gives you the opportunity to meet a number of people that become friends for life. In the time we have been shooting, my wife & myself have made friends all over the world.It may have been a long time since you may have seen some of your friends, but when you do meet up again it’s like it was only a month ago & it’s nice to catch up again. 

Rob – Can you explain what your love or passion is that drives your interest in archery?

All my life I have been an outdoor person & shot everything from catapults to rifles & shotguns. The love of it is being out in the countryside with friends. The passion is seeing people enjoying themselves, try to hit what you are aiming at & trying to improve each time you are out.

Harry Shooting
Harry Shooting

It’s hard to describe the feeling of hitting the target that the course builder set so deceivingly to try & make you miss. Introducing a beginner to archery & then watching them to go on to become a top archer in their own right is a very satisfying feeling.  I have been mechanically minded since I was a kid & used to take my toys apart to see how they work. To me a bow & arrow (regardless of if it’s a longbow or compound) is just another mechanical devise, so I still get to tinker with the tools.

Rob – This year’s been challenging for so many people within the archery community and beyond. How has it affected you?

Over the last year I have been fortunate to still be in full time employment. As my work has continued to increase throughout the year it has helped to keep my mind occupied through these times. Like most people I have missed seeing family & friends, being out in the woods & socialising. But in doing that I realise that I have been more fortunate than some people or families & grateful to be able to still enjoy archery once things get back on a normal basis. 

Harry behind the scenes
Harry behind the scenes

Rob – The global Pandemic has impacting our lives hugely.  How are you coping with the lack of shooting?

Although there has been no shooting to speak of over the last year, I have still been working with the committee to ensure that once things are back to normal (whenever that may be) we still have a society that’s ready for us to continue shooting & enjoying our hobby.

It’s also helped to keep my mind off the lack of shooting with all the jobs that Terri has found to do around the house & in the garden.

Rob – Yes, I have seen some of the photos of garden projects Terri has shared. If ten years ago I’d told you where you’d be today, how do you think you’d have responded?

Ten years ago, I would have said that you were wrong (and possibly off your head), as having stepped down after serving 6 years in the position as President, I wanted to take a back seat & was not looking at taking up office again.Having said that, I have no regrets about returning to the job.

Rob – What would you say has been your biggest challenge you’ve encountered to date with your archery? How did you overcome this challenge?

The biggest challenge that I encountered was that less than perfect was acceptable. If I made a mistake in executing a shot, I used to get annoyed with myself because I knew I could have done better. It took me a while to realise we are all human (probably Tony Weston is the exception to that rule) & we all make mistakes. You cannot change what has happened, you can only change what is about to happen. Learn from your mistakes & carry on. I found that the more I relaxed, the more I enjoyed it & the more I enjoyed it the better the score. 

Rob – I am always curious what people feel they can pass on to other archers, especially newbies. If you could reach every newbie archer out there with one single piece of advice what would it be?

When you look around at the archers consistently winning their class, remember that they too were just like you, a beginner at one time of day. The only thing that will stop you from doing the same is you. Learn as much as you can from everyone you can. Knowledge of how to shoot and become a top archer can be free. Once gained, knowledge cannot be taken from you.   

Once again, I would like to say a huge thanks for your time Harry. It is very much appreciated.

Thanks for reading, stay safe and well.  

target faces
Jun 19 2020

Target panic techniques – Draw, track, come down

So I’ve covered a couple of techniques so far (drawing down and blank boss shooting) in this series of posts on target panic.
So the third technique I’m going to cover here is one I’ve adopted from Jay Kidwell’s excellent book “Instinctive archery insights“. I’ve written about his book before and would advise anyone who is interested in aspects of coaching or target panic to pick up a copy. It is a very easy read and offers some great insights. The book was recommend to me by another coach and I really should type up a full literature review on it for the site.

cover of Instinctive Archery Insights

Instinctive Archery Insights

There is a little preparation required for this approach and it is not something that I suggest you try with your normal draw weight bow. So one thing you will need is a lighter draw weight bow. I use a 16lb draw weight take down recurve with my students.
In addition to a light poundage bow, you will need a few modified target faces and a 6 sided dice. Okay, so I know this may sound a little strange, some would go as far as to say a bit far fetched, but stay with me. I have found that using a six sided dice can prove very helpful and no, I’m not talking about gambling or playing snakes and ladders. Likewise the simple modification to the target face will help promote focus.

Simple target face with couple of lines added

Simple target face with couple of lines added, one horizontal and the other vertical.

The objective of this technique is to help the archer overcome the urge to release as soon as they have drawn up. Instead they develop the skill, neural pathways or retrain their brains to draw up and track onto and off the target. Overcoming the desire to release immediately the arrow is on the gold or when the archer thinks its on the gold.
Anyway back to how a six sided die can help along your with archery practice.
As many of us spend hours on the range training alone, it is very easy to fall into bad habits or repeating the same pattern again and again. In some ways we want to be able to repeat good form, but in this exercise we need to include a random factor. Hence the six sided die.
In Jays book he describes how a coach or shooting buddy call out a number, to denote the number of times you draw up and track across the target. There are a couple of important facts. The archer track across the target without releasing the arrow. Secondly they do it a number of times specified randomly so don’t form subconscious patterns.
To provide the random factor when alone I used the dice.

six sided dice in a clear box

Dice in a box

I modified the dice so there was no 1,5 or 6. This was easily done by sticking a blank label over the numbers. I wanted the die to show 1 four, 3 two’s and 2 threes. This may sound strange, but you don’t want too many higher numbers when performing the exercise as you would get fatigued, nor do you want a single occurrence.
I then housed the die in a small clear plastic tub large enough to allow the die to roll and clear enough to see the result.
So the second thing I done is modified a couple of targets by drawing lines on them through the centre, one vertically and one horizontally. When on the boss it gives the archer something to focus closely on when moving on and off the centre spot.

Remember, since you undertake these exercises multiple times, it is advisable for you to use a lighter draw weight bow.

In Jays book there are 3 exercises and rather than going into detail of how each of them work I’m going to explain how I use them and adapted them for my coaching style and students.

Step one

Me trying to remember to shoot

Me trying to remember to shoot

I’ll got through these step by step

  • First, fit one of the modified target faces to the boss so you have one line horizontal and another vertical.
  • Pick up you light draw weight bow and set yourself up at about 10 to 15 yards from the target boss.
  • Roll the die to get your random number, lets say 3.
  • Draw up and when they get to full draw and aimed / focused on the gold or in this case centre of the target, you move to the right to the edge of target and then  back to the centre. Once at the centre track left, again to the edge of the target. All the time maintaining full draw whilst not releasing. That is the crucial part, not releasing.
  • In this example  you would pass over the centre 3 times before coming down. Right, left, right and down.

The lines on the target provide a guide for movement. The theory is you are retraining your brain to be able to draw up,  centre on the target and then move off and back on without releasing. The movement to the left and right doesn’t have to be huge, ideally 3 to 4 inches at most.
The advantage of using the pizza base targets are they aren’t that large so you are tracking left and right only a little.
An alternative to this method is rather than tracking left to right, you track up and down, moving vertically through the centre. This is why there are both horizontal and vertical lines drawn on the face.
Try practising this technique for a few weeks and slowly it will help you build confidence and control.

The next step

So by this stage you have hopefully learnt to be able to draw up onto the target and move off it. A subtle development of this technique is when pass over the centre, you actually stop and hold on the centre for a moment.

From my experience these exercises work well, with the die providing a random number of reps you have  to perform.

Development

When you have mastered either or both of theses techniques you can progress to a slightly different version. In this version you combine the above exercise of moving over the centre spot of the target but on the final pass you lock onto the centre and you actually release the arrow.
When I am coaching these technique with students I recommend, they don’t perform them for long periods of time. Even with using a light draw weight bow there is quite a lot of strain on muscles, not to mention the concentration required. Ideally 15- 20 minutes seems to be optimum. Any longer and it can become tedious and the students tend to lose concentration.
The other thing is to practise these techniques over a few sessions, as it will take time for you to retrain your brain into being able to draw up, move on and off target spot etc. It is not something you can do once or twice for a couple weeks and then stop. Overcoming potentially years of subconscious neurological programming takes time and effort. So give yourself time to learn these skills. It does help if you practise them.

Thanks for reading.