A hard comeback

[longbowman]

After reading E. Donnell Thomas in Trad. Bhntr. I thought I'd post on the same subject and maybe help out somebody else who may be experiencing this.  As E. Donnell stated he seemed to had lost his shooting accuracy for no reason and was having a hard time getting it back.  I found myself about a year ago totally falling apart just before hitting full draw.
     Anybody who has read any of my post knows that I shoot moderately weight equipment (70-80#) but my problem wasn't with the weight it was with any bow of any weight.  My daughter-in-laws little 47# bow came up short and I was a mess!
     After a massive amount of shooting and pondering I ended up with my cure through a "compound" shooter!  A neighbor kid was shooting with me and asked me to check his arrow flight.  The easiest way for me to do this is to shoot the bow and watch the arrow for anything obvious and then watch his release etc..  I shot the bow and watched the arrow not really caring about hitting a spot.  Thats when it hit me.
     I gave him his bow back, drew mine watching the arrow as I drew and settled into full anchor and "then" looked at my spot and released.  BINGO!  I always knew my mental "trigger" was when I locked on to "the" spot and I had quit paying attention to my draw/anchor for some unknown reason.
     I've been doing this since befroe the compound was invented and yet I fell apart.  Hope this helps somebody else and good shooting!

[straitera]

Thanks for the good tip.

[Mudd]

Thank you!

I don't have the problem but I know the information is now "in the books" here and if it happens to me the answer or at least a "maybe answer" is just a search away.

Thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!

God bless,Mudd

[Bjorn]

Going to try that-just in case.    

[Jock Whisky]

Had the same or similar problem lbman and I think you hit the nail on the head. I found over the last couple of years that I have to tell myself to "pull thru" as I'm drawing in order to set back tension and then I have to tell myself "keep pulling, keep pulling, keep pulling ". This seems to allow me to keep back tension. When I do this my string hand comes straight back on release and the arrows fly true.

I think with all this "burn a hole in the target" stuff we set ourselves up to forget about our form and to trigger the release on or just before target acquisition. Just my opinion but it works for me. Hope it helps someone

JW

[Night Wing]

Seems like this could cure what I call "short drawing".

[moebow]

You have "discovered" a fact that most instructors try to get across to their students but it doesn't "take" until the student is ready.

When you practice on form -- practice on form!!!  NO TARGET!!!  

Once the form is automatic and the same every time, or almost every time then and only then start with a target.  Shoot concentrating on the target and FORGET FORM.  When or if you become inconsistent on the target, take it down and go back to form work.

This is really well pointed out by Rod Jenkins in MBB3.  And this doesn't apply to just archery.  All the really good performers in any sports discipline work on their form, but in competition rely on subconscious form programming and only concentrate on the "target".