BowCast Blog

Many of you die-hard BowCasters probably know, or will remember when I was somewhat surprised on an Episode of BowCast when Anthony offered up to spend time with anyone who may find themselves in the Salt Lake City area during the off-season and wanted to shoot with him.  As I have been a beneficiary of some consultation on form and technique from Mr. Dixon and the entire FMP team of sharp shooters, I immediately had visions of guys lined up around the block of Anthony's house looking for a "free lesson".  At the time, Anthony assured me that his offer was geniune and we left it at that.   

Several weeks ago, BowCast (and more specifically Anthony)  was contacted by Matt McCampbell who hails from Chicago indicating that he was "going to find himself in the Salt Lake City area.....and could he take Anthony up on his offer."  Matt and Anthony exchanged a few emails nailing down some logistics, and I received an email from Anthony indicating, "One of the BowCast listeners is going to be in SLC to shoot with us - how cool is that?".

Well, I thought it was very cool, but as you will see from the email I received from Matt this morning, it was beyond cool.  It is the very essence of why Anthony and I began a podcast on archery hunting almost a year and a half ago - because we love to "bro down" with folks like Matt, share our experiences in the archery hunting world, learn a little along the way, and make some really great friends as we have done with all of you on BowCast.  Below is the email from Matt detailing the opportunity he had to shoot with Anthony, Launch, Robbie,  and "G".  Enjoy!

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Sunday, June 08, 2008

I am sitting on Southwest Flight 3506 on my way back to Chicago from a terrific weekend in Salt Lake City experiencing that great mixture of exhaustion and excitement weekends like this generally inspire.  The exhaustion comes from the fact that I was out in SLC visiting a good friend whom I had not seen in years, and, as is often the case, we tried to relive our younger lifestyles only to wake up Sunday realizing what a mistake that was.  The excitement is a result of the 5 or so hours I was able to spend with Anthony Dixon, Shawn Monsen and Robbie Anderson from Full Moon Productions on Saturday morning at the Utah Archery Center.

As many of the BowCast listeners know, a while back Anthony made a standing invitation to anyone that if they came to SLC he would be willing to give them a free archery lesson.  As I was going to be out there already, I emailed Anthony to take him up on his offer and it was definitely time well spent. 

I first met up with Anthony at the local IHOP for coffee and conversation prior to heading over to the archery center.  Any fears I had about Anthony being different in-person than on BowCast were quickly laid to rest; he was the same easy going, refreshingly direct individual I had grown accustomed to hearing.  After a breakfast sandwich and an incredibly awkward conversation with our waitress we headed over to the archery center.

While I am relatively new to the sport of bow hunting; I believe that spending time with people as knowledgeable as the FMP crew can do wonders for anyone at any level.  Perhaps the single largest benefit for a relative newcomer like me is that I am still in the learning stage and have not built up a set of bad habits yet, nor do I want to.  Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent, only perfect practice makes perfect.

The next and perhaps most obvious benefit of my time with them is that short of using a camera it is difficult to watch yourself shoot and even then you cannot get real-time feedback on your form.  Having an additional set (or 3) of eyes on my form was helpful; but what’s more, those eyes belonged to guys who really wanted to help me and had years of experience to draw from.  Anthony and team quickly spotted some fundamental issues, including my hand placement and release technique, which I would never have caught on my own.  Simply shifting the placement of the riser in my hand by an inch made an immediate difference in the horizontal groupings of my shots and left only the vertical placement to work on.  In all honesty, had this been all I learned, it would have been worth the trip. 

After Anthony and crew helped me adjust the fundamental issues the next logical area of focus was my bow set-up; after all, if your form is not correct, there is no equipment in the world that can help you.  Again, the changes they made, (shortening my sting loop and shortening my draw length) while minor in nature, had a large impact on my accuracy. 

Once my form and my equipment had been corrected it was time to learn how to properly practice shooting.  Initially, I thought I had that part down; I mean how tough can it be:  (1) Post a target, (2) Shoot at the center of it, (3) Repeat as needed, right?  Wrong.  As I quickly learned, shooting 3 arrows at the same spot is not nearly as effective for improving your accuracy as shooting 3 arrows at 3 different targets.  This simple change, in addition to some other drills Anthony showed me, will no doubt help me continue to improve.

This whole process took about 4 hours from start to finish and ended with us filming a short clip for the BowCast website (on a side note; I never knew how many details were involved in creating a video clip) and then grabbing some lunch.  At the risk of signing Anthony up for weekend after weekend of lessons, I encourage anyone interested in becoming a better archer to look up Anthony and crew if you are ever in Salt Lake City; I promise you it is well worth your time.  Finally, I want to sincerely thank Anthony, Shawn, Robbie and G for taking time out of their weekends to hang out and help me become a better archer. 

Matt