Hey guys, this is NUSensei.
As of this video, I have over 5 million views on my channel,
most of which come from archery.
That's really cool!
Unfortunately, it also brought a lot of
extra behind-the-scenes work. Things like,
answering emails, doing YouTube comments,
handling Facebook messages, and thankfully I
don't have Twitter. That would really
suck my time. But, it's been
interesting to interact with people, help
people, and learn from people. So it's a
good experience.
Now, admittedly things have kind of quieted
down a bit over the last year or so.
Perhaps, because I've preempted most
begginer questions, and I've made videos
for that. So, people ask less, and thank more.
That's good too! Now, for the questions I
do get, something I feel kind of bad
that I can't really help some people, and
this isn't really meant to be a whinge
or complaint. This is kind of, from
my perspective, some of the problems I
have when I'm trying to help you. So, in this
video we'll go through my top 5
reasons about why I can't really help you.
I appreciate that my channel appeals to
a lot of different archers, and that's really good.
Unfortunately, I'm not a compound shooter,
and I get a lot of compound bow
questions that I can't answer.
I know enough
generally, to guide you in the right
direction, and some things overlap, but
for the most part if you ask me for very
specific, technical information, or you want
me to troubleshoot your bow,
I am NOT the best person to ask. This is
a similar problem to what you might
encounter in real life; this is
especially for your local archery store,
that might be over specialized in
compound, or recurve for hunting, or
target, and it's not enough expertise in
the field that you need, and it might
be compound. Now, the market is compound
dominated; there are far more compound
resources and materials, and generally
more people shoot compound than recurve.
So, I'm in the opposite situation here so,
I'm providing more assistance to recurve
shooters than compound shooters, but really I
just don't know enough about compound
bows to really give you proper advice. If
you're asking me about general things
like, how compounds work, and the
differences between compound and recurve,
then I can help you, but if you are
asking about differences between different
bows like the PSE Stinger X, or the
Mission Craze, or HOYT Carbon Spyder,
or you ask me about different release aids, I don't know.
Look, I don't know you. We're strangers, and
I don't mean this in a bad way but, I
literally don't know who most of you are.
So, it's really hard for me to make a
personal recommendation to you, without
knowing anything about you.
It's like if you ask me what clothing
you should buy. I don't know what you like, I
don't know what you prefer, or need. I'd just be
like, putting out random brand names and just
hoping for the best. That's a similar
thing with archery. I get some kind of really
personal preference questions, things like,
should I shoot recurve or compound. I
can't tell you that. I can tell you
what they are, and why a lot of people
like shooting them, but i can't tell you
what you should be using. So, yeah, there
are some limitations as to what I can do.
It's like, you know, if you do shoot
recurve, and you ask me, what bow should I buy?
Well, there are hundreds that I can
recommend, and without any guidance I can't
really streamline towards a good bow, because,
all the bows are mostly good. So I would
say like, a Samick Sage, or if you're shooting
compound, Diamond Infinite Edge because
these are safe buys. The bows work, you can
find them in most places. So, a lot of my
advice for this sort of thing is very
generic and vague, That's mostly because, if
I don't have much to work with
then I can't really give you much
specific advice. So, if I can't recommend a
certain movie that you would like, then I
can't really recommend a bow that you would like.
Here is a list of bows
that I recommend, that are under 100$.
[Cricket sound]
Look, I get it, you're cheap, and it may be for good reasons.
Maybe you are interested in archery, and
you're not really sure if you'll commit to
it. You want to spend the least amount
of money to try it out.
That's fair. Maybe you have a very limited
budget, you're saving for something, you
have a family, or maybe you're a college
student, or a high school student so you don't have
your own income to support your archery
interest. So, these things make sense.
But, the lower you go,
the harder it is for me to recommend
decent gear. Now, I'm not saying you need to
buy a 2000$ Olympic bow. If
you just go for a basic recurve, you don't need to
spend more than 150$,
but, if you start going below 100$, like,
there's really nothing out there that can
really serve the purpose that you need
it for. You might get youth bows for 50$,
and that might be all you want, but
that's not something I recommend because
it's not a very good archery experience. It's very
limiting, and really if you want to start archery
with the lowest possible price, think
about "Do It Yourself" projects like,
PVC bows that can cost you 10$. But,
if you're not into making your own
equipment, and you don't want to spend more than
50$ or 100$,
maybe archery isn't right for you, at this
point in time.
Alternatively, go to an archery range,
spend 20$ on a single lesson,
and they'll give you an archery fix. But in terms of
buying equipment there's really not that
much I can suggest to you, unless you
have a bit more flexibility with your budget.
Oh, and, some people have been very literal on
what I've been saying about 100$ bows. I had a
message recently where someone pointed out
"I found a PSE Razorback for 99$. Is this a cheap bow?".
No, it's not that kind of bow. The PSE
Razorback is a good bow, it's a standard,
entry level recurve. There's nothing wrong with it.
Normally, these things cost about 120$ - 180$,
and that's what I mean by the typical
standard, entry level bow, that costs
between US$100 - US$200.
So, if you can find this kind of bow,
for a cheaper price, fantastic! That's a
good deal. But, I'm not literally saying
every bow below 100$ is crap.
What I'm saying is, under $100 you
often find cheap, fibre glass, plastic like,
youth bows. Over 100$ you start
seeing the wooden recurve, which work for
anybody who just wants to get into archery.
That's the division.
So, you can get a decent bow for a better
price, but if you are looking at a decent
bow below a 100$, you're
really limited, and I can't really recommend, say
fibreglass bows as your first choice.
That's just for recurve, by the way, if
you're looking at compound, you need a
lot more than 100$. I'd say
for like, the cheapest, decent compound
bow you should budget at least
US$300 - US$400, for a
decent set of options for a first compound bow.
One of the biggest limitations is
that, I don't have access to a lot of
equipment. I don't have access to
products that people want me to review.
Sights, stabilizers, risers, limbs. I can't
get these things without spending
thousands of dollars in things I don't need.
It was only last year when I was
starting to be given some products to
review, the Samick Sage, and the OMP Adventure 2.0, but
personally, I only have one bow that I
normally use. That's the Win&Win Inno CXT
which you've seen me shoot in my Olympic videos.
So, I haven't really handled that many products
outside of the people in my club. You know, I
sometimes help out, and I've handled their
equipment. I don't have much shooting
time or any shooting time with any other
product. So, if you ask me about,
differences between the HOYT Excel, and
the HOYT Horizon, and HOYT ION X, I
don't really know, I mean even with like,
Win&Win products, you ask me how
is the WinEX? I don't know either. I can
only say from what I've seen or handled
or heard, but for the most part, I don't
have access to the products that you want me
to review, or give you advice on. I mean, you
can still ask me, but I'm probably not
going to give you a good answer,
just because i haven't used that many
bows. I am, for the most part, a self funded archer, and
I'm not going to buy 20 bows just to
review, and then use them at different days of the month.
This is the advantage that pro shops
have. There are a few pro shops that do
have YouTube channels. I recommend
channels like "Lancaster Archery Supplies"
and normal "Archery Supplies". They do
regular equipment reviews for new stock,
and new products, and they're often the
first to know about new releases, so
they're probably better sources than me.
I'm not really in the loop, I'm very
reactionary, like, when something comes out, I'm like
"Oh! It came out!", I may try it out, but
beyond that I'm not going to be the leading
edge in reviews, and I just don't have
much experience in handling things. Like
I said, you can ask me, but I'm probably
not going to be a good source.
A lot of people see me as the online coach. That's cool!
I don't really see myself as a
coach but, you know, if other people see me
as a respectable figure of authority or
information, then that's great.
Unfortunately, a lot of coaches will say the same thing here;
Archery is very personalized. I can't
really help you unless I know who you are, or
I have seen you shoot personally.
Now, of course people still ask, that's
fine, but there are two problems that
come with this. The first problem is
that often people lack the expertise or
vocabulary to accurately describe
the problem. So, it's kind of a little
vague as to what the problem actually is.
The second thing is, sometimes what you
described isn't the actual problem. Maybe
you have a preconceived notion of what you
think you're doing wrong and that can
kind of form a biased opinion or a
skewed opinion towards something.
So, I'm a little weary about giving you advice right away.
I have to assess the
sitation a bit more carefully, and the more
information I have the better. The best
information is a video form check. If you
actually give me something I can see and
watch, I can give
you more accurate feedback. It's not
perfect, but it's better than just having
text where, what you describe doesn't
match the problem. It's similar to the
whole, like, "House M.D." thing where the
patient always lies. I'm not saying that as
a student you lie to me, but sometimes
what you say masks other things,
and as a coach,
I would have to see past the
problem that you say, to identify the
real source.
Otherwise, I'm just giving you advice
that might steer you away from certain
things, but doesn't solve the actual
problem. So, yeah, unless I can actually
see you shoot, either in person, or at best
through a video, then it's sometimes just really
hard for me to give you more accurate feedback. Other
things like technical knowledge or general
advice, yeah I can share that, but yeah, your
specific shooting style, form, or technique
is yours, and I can't give you that much
training and coaching advice over the
internet without something a bit more visible.
So, that's my 5 most
likely reasons why can't help you. You can
still ask me, of course, but, you know, if I don't
know, I'll tell you I don't know.
Not because I'm being a snob, or because I
have better things to do, but if I can't
help you then,
I'm not going to pretend I can help you.
And hopefully you'll find the information elsewhere.
I'm just one source, there are many other
people you can ask, and many other videos,
channels, and websites, and blogs, and
handbooks that you can look up. But, for
the most part I can handle a lot of
things, but I might not be the best
to ask for others. So, hopefully this gives you
some more insight as to where I come from.
Feel free to continue asking questions in
my videos, or through email, or Facebook, or
through my monthly Q&A's. I'm quite happy to help out.
But there are limitations which
I admit I have. So, that's my take,
hopefully this gives you some more
perspective as to where I'm coming from,
and how you can help yourself, and help
me help you. Otherwise, this NUSensei,
thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.