Target Panic -a cure for me

[The Night Stalker]

I have always focused on a spot to shoot at through the draw. Well over the years I had problems reaching anchor, not being able to hold on anchor, etc. I have been told there are many forms of target panic. A few years ago, I went to Rick Welchs shooting school which changed my way of shooting for the better. I still had a problem with holding, Hold, Hold You know what I mean if you ever shot with Rick. Last year I broke my elbow and discovered Moebow's rotational draw video. My shooting improved but I still had problems with the hold. I tried the tab sear of Joels but I still had issues. I tried the counting by having my wife count but still I was not as accurate as would of hoped. I emailed Moebow and talked about the breakdown of my shot.
This is what I do and how it works for me. I can not focus on the spot through the shot. I raise my bow arm and block the target with my riser, I concentrate on the area of the shelf towards the back of my riser. My arrow is pointing to the left ( look at Moebow's video). I draw out, back and around to engage my back muscles. My string hand comes in to my face. I use a cavalier tab so my top of my tab goes against my upper cheek bone, my thumb is locked under my jaw bone. My nose touches my feather and then I slide my focus to the left gradually until I get my sight picture. When I am ready, the shot happens as I pull through the release. I think puuuullllll. When this happens, I am crazy accurate. I moved back in and have been doing to bridge method. I have shot out to 25 yards. I am not saying that the TP will show up again but it seems to be gone using this method. I broke 15-16 ribs with my right collar bone back in April so I feel myself getting stronger everyday.

[Rigs]

Just out of curiosity, where can I find Moebow's vid?

Happy hunting,
Jason

[Ed Q]

I was able to beat your kind of target panic in a similar way as you, but only temporarily.  Instead of blocking the target with the riser so as not to focus on it, I would purposely draw somewhat higher without really looking at the target, allowing me to come to full draw.  Then, I would allow the target to come into view and slowly align the arrow downwards towards it.  This worked for awhile, allowing me to come to full draw, until I developed a new form of target - the kind that causes one to freeze away from the target, preventing one from lining up the arrow with the target even at full draw.

I've been working on just coming to full draw, then acquiring the target, holding, slowly pulling back, and then letting down without releasing numerous times.  I sometimes let one fly, but I try my best to not to do that.  The only time I'll release is when I do some blind blank bale to work on form, but then I always go back to the draw, hold, let-down exercise.  I'll continue to do this in the hopes of getting better control of this TP.

[moebow]

Rigs,

My videos are on Youtube.  Do a search for "TheMoebow1" and they will come up.

Arne

[poekoelan]

Night Stalker,
Sounds like the problem I used to have for years and still some times creeps up on me. I don't think I have it beat 100pct, but now I understand it. Once I made the comparison of shooting a bow to shooting a rifle, a whole new level of control started to open up.

I was aiming ( or concentrating, or burning a hole, choose your terminology ) too early in the shot process. Now I don't even think about aiming until I can feel my finger buried in my anchor point.

Think about it, you don't aim a rifle until the stock is against your shoulder. The stock against your shoulder is your "anchor point" in rifle shooting. Once the stock is against your shoulder, THEN you proceed to line up the shot.

So when I shoot my bow, I now think of reaching my anchor point the same way I think of a rifle stock reaching my shoulder.

After I licked that problem, I started to learn more about good form ( mostly from this site ) and things have gotten way better.