I would guess that you're unaware of the cause of the bad shot that starts the downward spiral, and then continue making the same error, either shot after shot, or often enough to drive you crazy. You shoot a good shot and then shoot a bad shot, and they both feel the same. You try to change something you think might be causing it, and it either doesn't help or makes things worse.
Here are examples of two things I worked through in my last session with Rick Welch. He spent 5 seconds identifying these problems, and the rest of the two-day session making me aware of what I was doing and teaching me how to control it. As a result of this, I was able to progress from hitting the animal somewhere most of the time to hitting 15 animals in a row in the 10 ring at unknown distances from 15-30 yards.
The problems he identified were picking up my head, and creeping. After he identified these two problems, and shooting some more, it became clear that I could not tell if I was picking up my head or creeping. After each shot, I would look at him and he would either shrug his right shoulder, indicating I had creeped, or raise up his head, indicating I had picked up my head, or tell me that the shot looked good, indicating that I had done neither. I couldn't tell the difference.
The first clue was that if I missed to the right, I was probably creeping. Then after many shots where he would tell me I had or had not creeped, I could begin to feel the loss of back tension when I creeped. Then he taught me how to lock in my back tension so I wouldn't creep. This last is specific to his method of shooting, and doesn't apply to a dynamic release, but everything else does. I think he saved this for last because he wanted to see if I could control it on my own, or maybe because he knows people don't want to lock in back tension, because it feels weird, and they have to be convinced that it is necessary.
My clue on picking up my head was that my hand wasn't on my face after I released the arrow (another thing specific to Rick's method that wouldn't apply to a dynamic release). My second clue was that I hit low. I always thought that when I hit low it was because I was dropping my bow arm, and maybe I was some of the time. But trying to not drop my bow arm when I was picking up my head is an example of applying the wrong solution to the problem. I still can't tell when I pick up my head, but I know if my hand isn't on my face and I hit low that's probably what I did. If I focus on keeping my head still on the next shot, then I won't pick it up.
Not that you have either of these two problems, but they are examples of problems one may have that one is not aware of. It was helpful to have Rick identify them for me and help me solve them, but they would both have been evident on a video, assuming I knew how to recognize them. I know how to now, but I'm not sure I would have been able to recognize them on my own before going through the session with Rick, because I wouldn't have been looking for them.
Topic: Does this sound familiar to anyone? (Read 1310 times)
