Target Panic/Pistol shooting

I’ve got a good friend, who’s suffered from target panic for years. He told me a while back, “I’M CURED!” Now… anyone who’s had this disease knows how difficult it is to get rid of, especially in a month, like my friend did. So… the obvious question was, “How in the #$%$* did you pull that off?!

He tells me he has a friend who is a very successful competitive pistol shooter. This pistol shooter told him “most” folks have their aiming process all wrong. He said most folks try to aim (concentrate) on the mark while seeing the front and rear sights in their periphery. In my words, “BURN A HOLE.” He went on to say, they “should” concentrate on their sights while seeing the mark in their periphery. Hmmm.

My friend went on to tell me from the time he begins to draw, all he (now) concentrates on is the tip of his arrow and when he comes to anchor he sees the mark in his periphery. After one month he swears, declares and proclaims, “IM CURED!”

I must say I was skeptical. I mean… how do you “cure” this darn stuff in one month? Well… the test would be a pressure situation—wouldn’t it? He goes on a pig hunt and when he got home I made the call. “How did your shooting go?” His reply, “I shot four hogs and hit all of them in the boiler room and one was walking fast at 20 yards. I’M CURED I TELL YOU, I’M CURED!”

What do you think?

[McDave]

In Marine rifle training, they taught us to focus on the front sight, with the rear sight and the target being blurs. In traditional archery, we are taught to focus on the target with the arrow point being a blur.  I never really understood why the difference, but I've never heard anyone argue about this, like they do about so many things, so I've always focused on the target when shooting a bow.

I'm not sure why the change works for your friend, but I hope it is a permanent cure.  I still don't understand why we are taught a different way to aim in the first place

[Dan Jones]

Jim Casto R:

If I were your friend, I'd be very cautious about proclaiming myself "cured" of the panic. I hope that he is indeed rid of the malady. However, I was once "cured" by a long layoff, but then . . . .

When I read about "cures" for target panic, I'm often reminded of what a veteran archer from the 1960's, perhaps it was Jim Ploen, once wrote about curing target panic:  If you put a cigarette paper under your heel, you'll be cured of the panic . . . . . . . . .for one shot.

[McDave]

While I tend to agree with Dan that anything you do different that will occupy your mind may "cure" target panic until your mind stops being occupied with it, there are exceptions to every rule, and hopefully Jim's friend has found something a little more permanent than the cigarette paper in the shoe trick.

What "cured" me was to not focus on the target until I was at full draw and satisfied that my form and alignment were good.  Since I could always draw to full draw as long as I didn't intend to shoot, and I'm not going to shoot as long as I'm looking at the back of the riser, I have hopes that the cure may last a long time.  It is possible that Jim's friend may be doing that too; he may be focusing on the arrow point without aiming until he is at full draw.  I tried looking at the arrow point after reading Jim's post, and it works as well as looking at the back of the riser for me.

[Bowguy67]

Originally posted by McDave:
In Marine rifle training, they taught us to focus on the front sight, with the rear sight and the target being blurs. In traditional archery, we are taught to focus on the target with the arrow point being a blur.  I never really understood why the difference, but I've never heard anyone argue about this, like they do about so many things, so I've always focused on the target when shooting a bow.

I'm not sure why the change works for your friend, but I hope it is a permanent cure.  I still don't understand why we are taught a different way to aim in the first place

Imo shooting instinctive is different than firing anything by aiming sights. Let me put it another way. If you wingshoot w shotguns most guys don't use the bead, least guys I know don't. It's prob blurred in the periphery but I've never noticed or looked for it. We've heard the term instinctive shooting is like learning to throw a baseball, bet the arm isn't in focus only the target there as well. Hope those made some sense

[McDave]

Yes, it makes a lot of sense.  I've hunted ducks for years, but never really focused on the flying duck.  My average was about 50%. A couple of seasons ago, it occurred to me to start focusing on the duck, rather than the bead.  My average went up to about 2/3.  It might even go higher than that, except sometimes I revert to focusing on the bead, and I have to remind myself to focus on the duck.