How to score more points in archery: keep your group centred

By Patrick Huston — British #1, two-time Olympian

There's one thing almost every archer can do tomorrow that will put more points on their scoresheet. It isn't a new technique. It's knowing where your group actually is — and keeping it in the middle.

Most archers aren't shooting with their group centred

I see it constantly — even from archers using a tool that makes it obvious. The group sits a ring off to one side, the archer keeps shooting, and the points quietly disappear. Here's what that costs:

Shoot a 720 with your group sitting off-centre and that's easily 30 points gone — without a single worse shot.

That's not a technique problem. Your shot is doing its job — it's just pointed at the wrong place.

Why centring is the fastest way to score higher

Every arrow in your group is measured from the middle. Move the whole group a ring closer and every single arrow scores more — without shooting any better. A group centre parked a ring off the middle costs you the same as a centre that wanders a ring around during the round. Both are points you've let go.

"If you're not centered by the time you get to the last dozen, you have just ignored points. You've just let them go."Patrick Huston

How to keep your group centred

1. Plot every arrow, not just the score

A score of 9 tells you nothing about where. A 9 at twelve o'clock and a 9 at six o'clock are completely different messages about your sight. Plotting the exact position of every arrow is what makes your group visible.

2. Watch your last-12 group centre

3. Be centred by arrow four

"You should have your group centered by, realistically, arrow four. If you've got arrow four of the whole distance going down there, and you're still grouping in the wrong place, you don't know your clicks per ring, and you haven't adjusted correctly."Patrick Huston

To move the group in one go, you need to know how many sight clicks move your arrows one ring. That's why clicks-per-ring matters so much.

4. Keep it centred as conditions change

Wind picks up, the light shifts, you tire. Your group drifts. The job isn't to get centred once — it's to stay centred, end after end. In wind, that means some arrows landing upwind:

"In order to have a group centered, you need to drift across the middle. You need to have some arrows upwind, which might feel like you're messing it up… No."Patrick Huston

This is exactly where the points are. My athletes have repeatedly shot personal bests in bad weather — not because they suddenly shot better, but because they kept their group centred while everyone around them let theirs drift.

The dose

• Every arrow plotted — in practice and in competition.
• Centred by arrow four of every distance.
• Still centred at the last dozen — and every time the conditions change, re-centre fast.

"You use the technology nicely, and you get them fully centered really quickly, and you keep them there… that could be 30 or 40 points on whatever your average result is."Patrick Huston