Bow Walker
01-21-2008, 10:17 AM
Picked this article off the Hoyt website. It gives something easy to do and to practice.
Yardage Judging Made Easy: Tony Tazza
To improve your yardage judging ability you need to practice and exercise your ability to judge yardage. If you were poor at bowling and wanted to improve, what would you do? Hopefully you would spend a lot of time at the lanes and maybe think about some coaching. There are some 3D archers that practice and work extremely hard to hone their ability to accurately judge the distance to McKenzie 3D targets. Those are usually the guys on the podium at the IBO and ASA tournaments. I壇 like to share a couple of yardage judging exercises that work for me.
Calibration
Your eye and brain need to be "calibrated" to effectively learn to judge and recognize distance. At the beginning of the 3D season, my yardage judging is typically rusty from the winter off-season. To get started preparing for 3D tournaments, I begin by calibrating my eye and brain to yardage judging. I値l go out into my local woods and set orange cones out in 10-yard increments on several shooting lanes and on my practice target lane. As I知 practicing I study the location of the cones and try to burn the markers into my subconscious mind. I do this with and without a McKenzie target at the end of each lane. I study the target at 20 yards, then study the 20 yard marker and the target at 30 yards, then study the 30 and 20 yard markers and the target from 40 yards and so forth out to 50 yards. Spending time at each location will eventually enable you to "see" the markers in your memory when they aren稚 even there. I like to do this exercise in a variety of atmospheres such as open woods, open fields, tight tunnels and thick brush. You値l be surprised at how different the markers look in the different environments. I recommend this exercise at the beginning of the season and anytime you feel lost with your judging.
Woods Walking
When I知 unable to practice with McKenzie targets I値l take my rangefinder for a walk. Walk in different types of woods and in different lighting conditions. You値l be shocked to see how much lighting conditions effect your judging (I usually over-judge in low light and under-judge in bright conditions.). As you池e walking around, judge the distance to a specific tree, bush or rock then shoot it with your rangefinder. When you miss the yardage, shoot some items between you and the target and see where you missed. This will help hone your depth perception and help you perfect your ground judging. To mix things up and keep you from getting bored, try to stop 20 yards from a given object then check yourself. Do the same for 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 yards. I like to keep a notebook while I am doing this to see if there is a pattern to my mis-judges under certain conditions.
I know that I'll be trying this idea when I can get into the bush.
Yardage Judging Made Easy: Tony Tazza
To improve your yardage judging ability you need to practice and exercise your ability to judge yardage. If you were poor at bowling and wanted to improve, what would you do? Hopefully you would spend a lot of time at the lanes and maybe think about some coaching. There are some 3D archers that practice and work extremely hard to hone their ability to accurately judge the distance to McKenzie 3D targets. Those are usually the guys on the podium at the IBO and ASA tournaments. I壇 like to share a couple of yardage judging exercises that work for me.
Calibration
Your eye and brain need to be "calibrated" to effectively learn to judge and recognize distance. At the beginning of the 3D season, my yardage judging is typically rusty from the winter off-season. To get started preparing for 3D tournaments, I begin by calibrating my eye and brain to yardage judging. I値l go out into my local woods and set orange cones out in 10-yard increments on several shooting lanes and on my practice target lane. As I知 practicing I study the location of the cones and try to burn the markers into my subconscious mind. I do this with and without a McKenzie target at the end of each lane. I study the target at 20 yards, then study the 20 yard marker and the target at 30 yards, then study the 30 and 20 yard markers and the target from 40 yards and so forth out to 50 yards. Spending time at each location will eventually enable you to "see" the markers in your memory when they aren稚 even there. I like to do this exercise in a variety of atmospheres such as open woods, open fields, tight tunnels and thick brush. You値l be surprised at how different the markers look in the different environments. I recommend this exercise at the beginning of the season and anytime you feel lost with your judging.
Woods Walking
When I知 unable to practice with McKenzie targets I値l take my rangefinder for a walk. Walk in different types of woods and in different lighting conditions. You値l be shocked to see how much lighting conditions effect your judging (I usually over-judge in low light and under-judge in bright conditions.). As you池e walking around, judge the distance to a specific tree, bush or rock then shoot it with your rangefinder. When you miss the yardage, shoot some items between you and the target and see where you missed. This will help hone your depth perception and help you perfect your ground judging. To mix things up and keep you from getting bored, try to stop 20 yards from a given object then check yourself. Do the same for 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 yards. I like to keep a notebook while I am doing this to see if there is a pattern to my mis-judges under certain conditions.
I know that I'll be trying this idea when I can get into the bush.