Indoor Nationals often takes place a week before an Archery Shooters Association 3D tournament. For me 3D archery is my passion and my main focus during March and after The Vegas Shoot! Therefore, my preparation for Indoor Nationals takes a back seat to my outdoor 3D prep during daylight hours.
The week leading up to Indoor Nationals usually consist of my husband snow blowing a path through the snow to our outdoor bag target. Then we several arrows at 50 yards trying to get used to shooting longer distances, since the majority of our arrows over the several past months have only been at 20 yards. Then after shooting 50 yards, we’ll attempt some distance judging—if the snow isn’t too deep.
Finally, in the evenings, I’ll hang two 3 spot Vegas faces and I’ll shoot 12 ends of 6 arrows at a time (72 total arrows). I shoot one extra arrow per end just to make sure I’m stronger on my final 5th arrow durning the Indoor Nationals competition and I prefer practicing on the Vegas 3 Spot Target because I feel the 3 spot target keeps you sharp and allows for the counting of “Super X’s”.
In the past, I’ve often shot my higher poundage, 60 lbs. of draw weight, 3D set up for Indoor Nationals. The number of arrows that we shoot, per end and per round, often makes Indoor Nationals almost as much of an endurance event as it is an accuracy event. That’s why I try to prepare my body for the necessary endurance as well as practicing to be accurate.