Trying to understand how instictive works.

[Matthew Bolton]

For the two years I have been shooting trad I have never switched out of instinctive...never needed to. What I don't understand is how it works. How come I can pick a spot on a deer or target, draw, hit anchor, hold a second and shoot and hit where I am looking? Thanks for your input!

[Javi]

The same way you can throw a ball or shoot a basket... it is a learned skill

[Matthew Bolton]

So it's kind of just a muscle memory?

[Terry Green]

Get Jay Kidwell's book....Instinctive Archery Insights....that explains it to a "T"

Its a subconscious way of aiming.

[Bowhunter57]

Originally posted by Terry Green:
Its a subconscious way of aiming.

Matthew Bolten,
Welcome to Trad Gang!    

Most people's brain has a learning computer of sorts, that's built into their eye/hand coordination.

If you're given a tennis ball and are asked to throw it into a waste basket, that's only 10 feet away...you throw the ball and it goes in the basket. Simularly, if the same task is performed with a baseball, despite its' weight difference...the ball is thrown and the basket is hit.

Why? How?
As your hand holds the ball, the weight is calculated and the necessary energy is used to propel the ball to attain the trajectory needed to get the ball to hit the basket.

It's instinctive eye/hand coordination.

The same thing is going on with shooting a bow. The bow and arrow combination is shot with the same motor skills of the same archer. Unknowingly...or subconsciously, your brain is calculating the necessary need for the bow to be held, in order for the arrow to reach its' intended target.

The bow's draw weight and the arrow's flight trajectory is a known. It's the brain's ability to calculate what it can do with this combination to attain the goal...or hit the intended target.

I hope this helps and didn't confuse you.   :D  
Bowhunter57

[Stumpkiller]

Start to think about it and you'll mess yourself all up.  

How do you aim when you point your finger at something?  You can either look down your finger carefully, or just know where your finger is pointing because it's on the end of your arm and you're familiar with how it works from having pointed a lot in the past; plus your periperal vision triangulates it based on your spacial perception.

Same with an arrow.  Practice enough and your brain knows where to put it.

Do you aim your car when driving by lining up the hood ornament with the road?  No, your brain interprets the surroundings and, even though you're off to one side, you know when you're going down the middle of the road and pointing straight.

[Bowhunter57]

Originally posted by Stumpkiller:
Start to think about it and you'll mess yourself all up.

There's more truth to this statement then most people/archers realize.

Archery is 80% mental and 20% ability.

Bowhunter57

[skilonbw]

I work at the instinctive a lot since I shot so much rifle and shotgun before trying the instinctive style with a bow so I have a tendency to let my bow go high when shooting so i practice by picking multiple small spots on say a 10yd bale to get a feeling for the spot and the reference I create with draw as I shoot.

[MikeW]

Originally posted by Stumpkiller:
Start to think about it and you'll mess yourself all up.

What he said!

[Cherry Tree]

Look at where you want to hit and focus but its a different kind of focus and only you can find it, you will probably feel like its hopeless sometimes but then out of the blue it may just hit you    

[JINKSTER]

let me toss this one out there..
 
ever played "Mumbly Peg"?...or toyed around with "Throwing Knives" or Tomahawks?..where you have to "Visualize" how many revs the blade should make in order to "Stick It"?
 
this is the very "Visualization" Byron Ferguson speaks of when he says..
 
"Become The Arrow"
 
Just like the direction, revs and arc of a throwing knife?..you must see and "visualize" the path and arc of your arrow before it is ever loosed..and thank goodness it's a whole lot less complex than throwing blades. LOL!

[dragon rider]

In my opinion "instinctive" is the worst possible name that could be given to a shooting method, because it implies that it is instinctive.  

There's nothing instinctive about it.  If there was, you wouldn't have to practice - you'd do it naturally just like you breathe and duck when something's thrown at you.  

It's a learned behavior. As you practice a system of looking at what you want to hit and shooting, assuming consistent form, your brain figures out where your bow hand has to be to hit the spot you've selected.  It factors in distance, what's in your peripheral vision and all the other clues it needs to get the arrow to the target and remembers them.  The shots that don't get the arrow to the right point get wiped out of the memory banks, and the ones that work are kept. When you've practiced enough the whole process becomes subconscious, which is why it's mistaken for instinctive, but it's a learned behavior.  

It is just like throwing a ball to hit a target, other player's glove, etc.  When you first start, you're lucky to hit the ground consistently.  After a while, your subconscious has it figured out so that as was said you can throw a tennis ball and a baseball and hit the same target - but that doesn't make the process instinctive - it's still learned behavior.

That's also why so many guys who are truly good shots go back and work on the bale from time to time - if your form's not consistent, you're going to make your internal computer's job impossible.  It can work just fine with distance and windage, but it can't work worth a damn with form variables.  To be a truly good shot you have to work on form until the variables are gone and you learn to trust your shot so your conscious mind isn't trying to mess up the shot by telling your subconscious what to do.  All the subconscious needs the conscious mind to do is pick the spot to hit.  Otherwise, thinking "can only hurt the ball club."

[LinemanARK]

There is a lot of good info here please keep it comeing it is truely helping me become a better archer. My new bow will be here this Tuesday so I'm ready for this new adventer to start in my life I just wish I would have started sooner and could have had some one close to show me the ropes. I just hope with me starting at 36 I have enough time to perfect my skills to pass on to my boys.  Thanks for all the insight Mike

[Larry247]

I can say this because i have mastered the art of shooting a traditional bow.

Instinctive shooting is no more than pointing and shooting.

I still amaze myself sometimes by just picking a spot and trusting myself enough to loose the string.

Confidence in yourself and your abilities is the key.

[Giovanni]

I can instinctive shoot, and I gap shoot. Instinctive shooting is very quick on the first shot, but in my experience, gap shooting will produce more consistent and tighter groups. I kind of like having the best of both worlds. I have four arrows on my wall that were hit dead center in the nock, and I was gap shooting when I did it. I guess thats why I lean more towards the gap than instinctive.

[JINKSTER]

well?...i'm just now in the middle of developing my trad style..read up on and researched both gap and instinctive including howard hills "split vision" technic..and here's my final sumation..

I used gap shooting as a stepping stone too learn instinctive.."split vision" technic was sort of the transitional period between the two..but i know this..the HUGE benefit that instinctive posesses over gap (for me) is that with gap?..you hafta know/judge your distance..with instinctive?..you dont..the con about instinctive?..if you dont practice like a madman and stay on top of your game?..you're probably better off gapping..but i also believe this..very few of the great exhibition shooters use gap..like byron ferguson they use instinctive..and i dont think we'll ever see the day that a gap shooter pops asprin tablets out of the air..but there's several instinctive shooters that can and do..i'm digging the instinctive cause it trips me out that i no longer hafta guess/judge yardage..and that's quite the rush when your busting knocks in the xring from.."i dont know". LOL!

[ironmike]

how many poor lost souls wander through life trying to figure and explain that which they do not know.instinctive shooting can only be done and not explained,just as wisdom is in the moment,and can not exist out of the moment.....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...ooooooohhhh.mmmmmmmmmmmh.

[Breeze430]

Instinctive shooting is akin to shooting a shotgun. If you look at the bead you just missed. If you shoot at the whole bird..you just missed. if you shoot at the whole clay..you just missed. Next time out shoot at the whole bail, or wall... There is a pattern developing here..

[JINKSTER]

Originally posted by ironmike:
how many poor lost souls wander through life trying to figure and explain that which they do not know.instinctive shooting can only be done and not explained,just as wisdom is in the moment,and can not exist out of the moment.....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...ooooooohhhh.mmmmmmmmmmmh.

LOL!...tell ya what..take a gap shooter and let him get ground charged by a 350lb bore hog from 30yds out and watch how quickly he becomes an instinctive shooter! LOL!

If he doesnt?..he'll be at the local ER getting stitched up..if he's lucky.

[beendare]

I can tell you from my short time learning instinctive style [but over 20 years shooting a compound]

 You have to have an understanding of good form especially as a beginner- so that you can feel when a shot does or doesn't go where you intended it to go. Other wise its possible you can be repeating the same error over and over.

As an example, I sometimes push my bow hand from side to side thus making the arrow loose line. If you had a reference-like a sight- could see where the sight was at the shot, thus knowing you pushed it. With instinctive no sights you don't have that tool so its important to be able to "feel" a good or bad shot. Hopefully that make sense...