This weeks Challenge
Anyone who’s been on an archery elk hunt in the west understands that sometimes you have to move pretty quick to get set-up for a chance at a good bull. 99.9% of the time you’re not on level ground, so when the time comes for the shot your heart may be pumping pretty good and trying to hold your pin steady on a big bull might just be impossible, if you’ve not trained yourself to handle the pressure.
So, for this weeks challenge we’re going to get your heart rate up and force you to shoot your bow while hearing the thump thump thump of your heart!
Equipment needed: archery target, bow/arrows, 3 field markers (cones to mark shooting locations), backpack with some weight in it, and some water…Oh ya, maybe a towel…
Here’s the set up: Set your archery target in a safe location, got back to 30 yards and set-up your first shooting location. Then step back another 10 yards and set up another shooting location, which makes this a 40 yard shot, and yes let’s step back another 10 yards for your final shooting location at 50 yards. Place your bow and quiver at your 30 yard shooting location.
Start out with a nice easy warm up. Jog from the 30 yard marker down to the target, touch the target and jog back to your bow, do this 3 times. When you reach the 30 yard shooting location the 3rd time pick your bow up and take a shot at the target. After the shot sprint to the target, jog back to the 40 yard marker, sprint to the target, jog back to your bow picking it up and walking the 10 yards to your 40 yard marker, draw and shoot, set your bow down.
Sprint to the target, jog back to your bow, sprint to the target, jog back to your bow picking it up and walking to the 50 yard marker, draw and shoot. You can vary this as needed, but the entire idea is to get some cardio work in and get comfortable at shooting your bow with an elevated heart rate. If you want to take it a step further, you can repeat the sequence with your backpack strapped to your back. I generally will put 20 or 30 lbs in my bag and do a final rep on the sequence.
Big bull down!
