Hypnotize me so i can shoot better.

[sputterman]

Guys when i first started trad i was shooting so good,i thought i was gona be the next byron fergusion.Now i've been shooting so bad my confidence is gone and i talk myself out of every shot before i even pull my bow back.

Fun factor is deppreciating and blood presure is rising. HELP ME IF YOU CAN PLEEEAAAASE!

[sputterman]

Wana buy a bow.lol sike!

[Lefty]

Forget the bullseye and get back to the bale.  So close you can't miss and work on form.  Baby steps back as you maintain your form.

[gregg dudley]

This game is 90% mental.  Every time I think to myself, "I'm going to drill this." I do.  Every time I think, "I'm going to screw this up." I do.  You have to approach each shot with confidence.  Go back to ten yards and don't stop shooting there until your confidence returns.  If ten is too far, start with five.

[leatherneck]

We all get like this time and time again. What you need to do is take a couple days off and relax. Then go back to the basics. Scoot up to about 5-yards and start practicing on form again until your confidence builds back up. Then move back a little at a time back to your comfort range. If you start getting sloppy again then scoot back up. Also, shoot only one arrow at a time. Don't worry about a group. You only get one shot when hunting so those others are for nill. Plus it will make you concentrate more knowing you only have one shot. I'm sure there will be other good ideas but this is the stufff I do when I get sloppy/discouraged. Hope this helps.
Keep the faith and by all means, don't sell that bow!The dark side is tempting sometime but you must resist.

Mike      

[leatherneck]

I type to slow, Chris and Gregg beat me to it.

[sputterman]

Thanks guys, I appreciate all of your help.
This is the only roller coaster i,ve been on because it don't have a height requirement.

PS i don't like roller coasters.

[sdpeb1]

I've been going through the same thing for over a month. I know I have to go back to the basics, I keep thinking it will get better but it doesn't. We have all heard the definition of stupidity, doing the same thing over and over with the same results. I'm taking a couple of days off and then do a week of blind bale and close bale shooting. - Steve

[TomMcDonald]

Don't put a time limit on it either.
People say I'm gonna do a week or 3 days or whatever.
I reckon patience in your recovery is paramount.

[McDave]

It's very similar to golf.  You start doing a little something wrong, and then you begin experimenting with this and that to see if it will help.  Then pretty soon you're doing two things wrong....  Then you go to a golf pro and he straightens you out, until you start doing the next thing wrong.  Even the greats like Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods have their own pros who can't play golf as well as Jack or Tiger, but who can see flaws neither of the players can see on their own.

It's really hard to know what mistake we're making, because whatever we're doing feels natural to us, since we repeat it again and again.  People are lucky if they live near an archery pro who can watch them shoot and straighten them out.  Not as many of them around as golf pros, unfortunately.

Since I don't have an archery pro I can drop in on, the best thing for me is to just make a game out of figuring out what it is I'm doing wrong.  I know I can shoot well, because I've done it before.  If I'm not shooting well, it's got to be one of three things: concentration, form, or equipment.

It's hard to focus on concentration if you're focusing on either of the other two, which is why people recommend focusing on the other two by shooting at a blind bale.  You can watch your arrow flight or focus on your back tension without worrying about where the arrow is going to hit.

Then when you're out of ideas about form or equipment problems, it's time to focus on concentration, which means you shoot for accuracy and put all thoughts of form and equipment out of your mind.

Sometimes nothing works, but if you've had these slumps before and come out of them, you know something eventually will work.  A lot of times I've picked up on some hint from this or another archery forum that has helped, because it's something I've forgotten or not thought of before.

[sdpeb1]

Great post McDave and leatherneck. It's good to let archers new to the sport that most archers go through this. Being a golfer before getting into archery has helped me be patient during my slump. I know when I come out of it I will have learned something and will be a better shooter when I come out of it.

I wish I had a archery pro to look at my form. I can walk up to my golf instructor and ask him to look at my swing and he will give me one swing thought and I'm back on my game. Some times I don't think it's a " real "  correction. All he has really done is get my mind focused one aspect of the swing instead of me trying to focus on 3-4 at one time.

  McDave also mentioned equip. This is were my problems began I believe. I shoot tapered carbons and I was shooting 4 arrows a set. Every set I'd shoot I'd get one arrow that would fly a foot or better of my bullseye. Finally after about 2 weeks of this I figured out it wass the same arrow each time. I actually developed a slight case of TP because of this.

Keep us up to date how things are going sputterman-- Steve