SUPPLEMENTARY EXPLANATIONS FOR THIS TRAINING UNIT
While 300 arrows correspond to an average training volume for competitive athletes, athletes who are not used to this volume are pushed to their physical and mental limits. If, in individual cases, the shooting technique is no longer implemented cleanly with increasing load, it makes sense to interrupt the training so that no technique errors develop.
MATCHES 1 AND 2: The white back of a 3-spot is used as the target image (half a spot for compound). The athletes shoot at the strip vertically and count their hits. Stripe shooting shows the archer whether there is a noticeable vertical or lateral scatter. The result of the hit detection forms the basis for training sessions to reduce any conspicuous arrow scatter.
MATCHES 3, 6 AND 8: A single arrow score will earn the top three archers five, three or one match point, that is, exactly as much as a match over 36 scoring arrows. The high number of points awarded for the arrow that goes into the match emphasises the importance of this arrow, which also decides on the victory of a match and the advancement in the competition in major tournaments.
MATCH 5: In target practice with precision pressure, the archer shoots at half a target that is folded in the middle. The archer has to weigh up whether to risk a high number of rings with courage, thereby running the risk of the arrow missing half the rest, or whether to avoid a high risk and then achieve a relatively safe lower number of rings.
MATCH 7: Outdoors, on windy days, if the wind pushes the arrow to the right into the figure-eight ring, the archer stops with the sighting pin in the left figure-eight ring so that the arrow hits the centre of the target. Archers who do not train this stopping will have problems aiming next to the centre of the target. This section of the training is aimed at learning how to stop. For recurve archers, the size of a round beer mat makes sense; for compound archers, the round target point may be smaller.
MATCH 9: The match series ends with Match 10, in which balloons of the same size are attached to the target. With three arrows and three balloons, each athlete can add up to nine points to his or her score.
When shooting out without a break, the athletes should come back to their clean shooting technique at the end of the shooting training. According to the rules, the specified 30 arrows must be shot in order for each athlete to reach the target of 300 arrows. Abandonment of the shoot-out would result in disqualification from the competition as per the rules.
About the stretching exercises: any training day with a high arrow count should end with stretching to maintain mobility and joint flexibility.