2025 Mathews Shot of the Week ｜ Delta McKenzie ASA Classic; THE SECRET TO JUDGING CONSISTENTLY!!!

Hey everybody, PJ Reilly, Competition Archery Media, down here at the Delta McKenzie ASA Classic, Coleman, Alabama. The sun is out. It's looking like a beautiful day. We just finished the first day of scoring. Matthew's shot of the week. Of course, I'm here with Open Pro Dan McCarthy. And Dan, first off, it's hot and it's sweaty and it's just, this is just hot. It is, it's wet. It's the South in August. How did the round go for you today? Okay. First day, I wouldn't say I did anything extraordinary. I shot 12 up for the round, one eight. Shot, I hit at a lot of them. I just didn't catch as many rings as I shot. I feel like I executed and shot the bow and judge really well, but just missed a few too many by a little bit. So. So you come into this leading for shooter of the year. Do you pay attention to that? Do you pay attention to just the tournament? What's your mindset? You're going to watch, you're going to pay attention to both, but you're really just a strategy for me to come out and shoot the best, best rounds I can. The first day, I'm just trying to like, I manage the course. So I looked at it and thought I was going to try to shoot for around 14 up for the day. Shot 12. Didn't want to take too much risk. You never know. You can take yourself out of it the first day. I just want to stay within striking range on the, on the board and then be as aggressive as I have to be tomorrow. So you had a couple up. So when you started this morning, the, it was much darker than it is now. And there was a couple that were tricky shots, partially hidden by trees and stuff. So I kind of picked one like that. That's got some obstruction and I want to pick your brain about that. All right, Dan. So the bedded buck we have down here and the front and the back are covered by trees at different distances. So depth perception wise, that throws me off. We got to judge this. That throws me off. So how do you get past that? I don't even look at them. Be totally honest. I see the trees that you're talking about, but like all I'm doing when I judge targets like this, most people, if they've ever watched me, like I have a lot of movement when I'm judging. And so like I'm, I'm kind of walking around and I'm getting like, I'll have views over here where I can see the backside of the target. And then over there, maybe some of the front side or vice versa. But I'm really just looking at the target and kind of moving around and judging off of, I don't know, just feel, just feel as far as how far away that is. And it's, um, it's hard to explain, you know, what, what you always say, depth throwing a baseball. That's how you, I think that's an analogy. A lot of people can understand. Yeah. Um, but to me, I feel if I was to give advice or something for judging to people that I think is probably a very, uh, overlooked part of judging is I approach judging just like I do my shooting. And I don't think it matters how you judge, but it's, it's how, how consistently you actually judge. So like a lot of people will put, you know, all this thought and all this stuff into the process of their shot. And so they'll structure wise, they'll want to stand up straight. They're going to draw their bow. They're going to keep their head straight. You're going to try to level everything out. And then they're going to execute that same shot. But then when it comes to judging, you know, one target like this, you're going to walk up to it and you, you're going to look at the body size and you're going to say that body size looks like this distance, but then the next target, you're going to have trees and you're going, well, these trees screw me up. So you're trying to judge off the ground. So now you're going, where's my 20, 30, 40. And so they, they're mixing like four different methods of judging into one. And they're not really ever mastering one process. So for me, I try to judge exactly the same on every single target, like every target, I have the same process of how I'm going to judge it. And then I try to do that 20 targets or 40 targets, exactly the same, just like it's a shot. So I want my judging process to be as, as consistent as my shot process. And then I can actually get better at it versus, well, don't do that. I think, I think people like pull out a different trick scenario and it's, it's really just about doing the same thing over and over and over until you get better at it. Yeah. Right. You know? Yeah. But if you change something every time, then you have to master like four different ways. It'd be like, it'd be like shooting, shooting a shot with a button, you know, a thumb trigger. And then the next shot, I'm going to pull out a strap release. And then the next shot, I'm going to shoot a hinge release. And then the next shot, I'm going to shoot a finger tab. And you'd have to be like the greatest archer of all time to shoot well with all of those different methods. So judging to me, it's, I don't think there's a wrong way. It's just how consistent you actually apply your method, how consistent you are at that. Okay. Well, I didn't know this, Dan, but you have never shot one of these before. We now have the pro shoot on the shot of the week. So we have to get nervous. So, so do I have something to flip? We always flip to see who goes first. What do I got? I got a key. Here we go. We'll flip this key tab here. All right. So we got St. Bernard retreat center is heads. Blank side is tails. Okay. So you get to call it. Which side is what? This is heads with St. Bernard retreat center. Blank side is tails. I'll just call the room number. 117. All right, here we go. Heads. Heads it is. Boom. Got it. So I shoot second. So you get to, you get to pick. I'll shoot second. All right. Shoot second. All right. The bedded buck. Now is this one any, now you just said you do the same thing every time. So the bedded buck is no different than the coyotes and the hill country. As far as how I judge it. No, like I, I want to walk up to it and I don't want to use any like preconceived notion of over judge or I under judge out here. I'm just going to shoot them all how I see them. And if I'm wrong 20 times, it's just the way it is. But I have to confidently come out and try to judge them for what I see them for and judge the same way all day long. Okay. In order to like go home and figure out like, okay, well I consistently made this mistake. Then maybe I can fix that. But if I'm changing my method, every single target, it's really hard to like be constructive for criticism after the fact, as far as like what you have, how do you improve yardage judging if you did it differently on 20 different targets? Gotcha. Like how do you get better at it? All right. I like that. Well then. All right. I have a number and I'm going to go for it. So we're going to play better ball here. So we get two shots. If you don't like your first shot, you can keep going. Or if you shoot a 12, you can go for the 14. Yeah. Or you can spend both, both of them shooting at 14. I like just want 14 points. Best ball. I like it. Better ball here, Dan. All right. I'm confident. Is it better ball or is it best ball? Best ball, best ball. I like that. All right, Dan. So we, the second happy Gilmore movie just came out. And so in honor of that, before I shoot this, I'm going to have to go to my happy place before I shoot this to get in the right mindset. What's your happy place look like? You know what it looks like? Mine's similar, except it's in front of my, my boat or the cockpit. Although today I would, I would take a brisk November morning in a tree stand. I can't rule that out. That's for sure. There's 104 heat index right now. Something like that. All right, here we go. Happy place. Oh, just left in line. I just felt it shift and left as I shot the alternating. All right. Yep. 10. I like my number. I like it. I like your number too. All right. I'm going right for it. So you can go for 14 right out of the gate if you want. I am good shot. That's what I'm supposed to say. I had a feeling that I hadn't moved my sight yet for my last target. That was going to be really bad. I was sitting there. I was like, I've judged it twice. Did I check it? But I'm like, I don't know if I moved it from the last target. So I'm aiming at it for a while. And then I'm like, I better let down and take a look. This is shot of the week. So we can do that. But for sure in the actual tournament, I'd have to shoot that shot. No, we have different rules. Re-aim it. Different rules. Just under it or catch the bottom. You got it. Clip the bottom. My fletchings look good. All right. So I have no choice. Gotta put the pressure. I have to go right at it. Finally, I get to shoot one of these though. First off, that's ridiculous, but I got to stand right here. I've been watching him do this for years. I've learned so much. So I have to. Hey, I like that. Yeah. That's ridiculous. I mean, I know you shot it once already, but still to dial up a 14, that's insane. All right. So my first one went there. I'll stay with you. Okay. Here we go. Oh, just high. So nobody's out here. I shot 48. 45 is what I shot. Oh, gotcha. If I'm going to lose shot of the week, a 14 to Dan McCarthy, dialing it up. I'll take that all day, but let's go check these out. All right, Dan. So, man. So actually this one was a 10. So that was my first shot. This was actually a better shot for me. That was not a good shot. I kicked it. They're both pretty good shots. I was, but I was three yards. I've put extra on it. We did. Did you shoot your second shot for the same as your first shot? I did. I didn't move there. 44.6. We clicked it at, but you shot it for 45 yards. I did. Yeah. From back, what'd you shoot it for today? I shot it for six and a half. Okay. And were you over? I hit right there. That was my hole. So I thought he was five, five, five and a half this morning. But like, for me, I try during the round, I'm trying to just clip the tops of them. So like I, a lot of times, if I see them for six, I'm going to shoot it for seven or I'm going to shoot it for, it's like, I'm literally just trying to nip the top of it. And then actually when you're shooting at 14, you want to try to save, you know, in a, oh yeah. That's because you don't want to shoot a five off top. So it's like, you're trying to play that safer round, but I thought I'd hit it with that number this morning. I thought I'd be the top, you know, right in the top of it, but I just went right over it. I hit about, I think I, I think that's my hole right there. So I missed it by like a quarter of an inch or maybe it was this hole, but I was just over top of it. So when you were aiming back there, could you see this ring or you just know where it is? I couldn't see the ring, but I could see a light spot. There was sun was shining. I could kind of see a light spot that I was aiming. I knew I was aiming kind of on the bottom side of it, but I just was a really good aiming spot. Dude, that's insane. 14. A lot of luck in this game. Well, Dan, always appreciate your knowledge. Appreciate your time that you spend with us out here. I know it's hot and all that, but yeah, good luck with the rest of your round and we're shooter of the year. All right. Thanks PJ. It's always a pleasure. All right, folks. Another episode of Matthew's shot of the week. Hey, thanks to everybody for tuning in this year. We appreciate you. I appreciate all the comments. Next year's another year.