Thanks to the advice givers! (Torque the String)

[Jeff U]

I had heard of "torquing the string" but had no idea what that meant or knew I was most guilty of the very act.

After reading here that it is the tendency to rotate your string hand as you draw, the palm wants to face the ground rather than stay in the plane of the string, I figured out that I do that.

Also, explains the callous on my ring finger.

As I became conscience of the problem and worked to correct it, my accuracy has improved dramatically.

Thanks guys!  (Especially Terry Green & McDave)

[McDave]

Thanks Jeff, I write about these things, but since I am not an expert archer, you have to take what I say with a grain of salt.  Try it, and if it works, fine, if not....

There seems to be two different ways to achieve the goal in instinctive archery: concentrate on the point to be hit to the exclusion of all else, or focus on form.  Maybe they're not mutually exclusive.

But I'm coming to the realization that for me, focusing on the form is more important.  It kind of came together for me when I shot the deer that is in my avatar, last January in New Mexico.  When I made the shot, it was really unreal.  I remember more about drawing the bow and coming to an anchor than I do about isolating a single hair on the deer, which I can pretty much guarantee you I didn't do.  But I hit the deer right in the heart and it ran 40 yards or so and then died.

I have started shooting in my backyard without wearing my glasses, which means that the target is blurred.  Which enables me to focus more on my form.  Which makes me shoot better, for some strange reason!  I have put more arrows into a two inch bullseye at 25 yards that I can't even see, really, by being able to focus on the way I draw the arrow and the way I anchor, and the way I allign my shoulders with the target, than I can when the bullseye is in clear view.  And before, I always wondered why I missed.  When the target is a blur, it's easier for me to "feel" why one shot that is a miss is different from another shot that goes into the bullseye.

People in this forum have talked about repeating a movement 1,000 times to get it right.  More power to them, and I'm beginning to understand what they mean when they do that.  I can't do that, because it would ruin what I want to get out of archery, which is fun, relief of my stress at the end of the day, and just the joy of seeing the arrows fly.  So I shoot a lot of arrows and hope to stumble onto the same thing by trial and error.  And I'll pass my trials and errors along to you as I discover them.