Is it target panic, bad form, or am I crazy?

[CO_Redneck]

Hey guys,
I've been shootin my bow (58" 50# Bear Grizzly) alot and haven't had any real slapping problems until just this last week. I DID fix the brace height, it was off by about an inch!  

But now that it's back where it should be, it seems like I've just moved the spot where my string punishes me. Do I now have a case of "recoil jump" or do I just need to work on gettin my form back? I shoot right handed three under with PO Cedar arrows. When I get bit, my arrows ends up about 4 inches right.    

[mrpenguin]

Hello!  I would check a few things...

First your bow arm position.  You may be straightening your arm too much at some point in your shot sequence.  Sometimes archers with extend the bow arm to get to full draw without even realizing it... or you may not have good bone alignment and are locking your elbow.  check these first.  

Next, check your bow hand position and tension on your grip.  Check out this target archery video on proper technique:

  http://www.performance-archery.tv/?q=node/2  

If all of those things are OK, then you are likely putting some kind of torque on the bow in your shot sequence.  Try breaking the shot sequence down into its parts (pre-draw, pick a spot, draw, release, follow through) and see if the problem is in there.  Try dedicating one day each week to each part of your sequence and practice only that.  This helped me tremendously!!

If you have a shooting buddy, it helps to have them observe you as well to see if you are doing anything peculiar in your shot.

OH and target panic is more about poor groups and psychological shooting issues than physically getting string slap on the arm... Really, target panic is where worrying about how the shot will turn out impedes the ability to shoot well.  I don't think you have that problem from your description... That said, you could develop a target panic issue b/c you want to avoid the pain of shooting if you don't correct your problem.

Hope this helps!

[Bill Skinner]

An arrow hitting right is usually a sign of a pluck when you release.  If your form is pretty good, it will usually cause the string to hit your arm.  Bill

[sweet old bill]

can be all the above.

One other item is it may be a mind set and you are overdrawing your bow. When you are locked into your ancor you should look at your bow arm is there streaignt out and or a slight bend at the elbo. If straing out you may be over drawing. This will cause your arm to turn in and that when you get the slap.

Bill