Dr. Kidwell,
First and foremost, thanks for the reply. Let me explain that I suspected target panic slipping up on me for the last 3 or 4 months. At first it was as if I simply couldn't control what was going on. I could still reach anchor and sort of aim, and then the flyers would begin. At the time I wasn't sure that's what it was, but it surely surfaced when I got to the Tn. Classic. I simply could not reach a solid anchor and my shots were everywhere. This, along with having people that you have never met watching you shoot, made for an intense and embarrassing situation. I may have got a bit of performance anxiety along with the TP.
As for the TP, what baffled me was that I could draw-anchor-aim just fine on something I did not intend to shoot, but start to draw on something that I was planning (I suppose fully committed) to shoot and then I would lose all control of that simple sequence. After experiencing this I started reading these shooting forums and found this is quite common.
Now to the meat and taters! Since I am a relatively new shooter, just about a year and a half, its hard to determine what level of control I have. So, without knowing I have decided that I am going to begin as if I have none whatsoever. I'm going to mimic my training with Olympic Weightlifting that I learned from Dr. David Pursley in Lexington. I was an extremely strong individual when I went to him, but I started with a broom stick, and worked with it for several weeks before graduating to a bar. I had to learn to put the bar in the proper position every time, because if you can't put a broomstick in the right spot you sure as heck can't put a 140kg barbel in the right position. So, with all that I think for me starting at the bottom and working up from there will serve me much better. I don't want Target Panic or Performance Anxiety when shooting 3-d competitions or when getting ready to kill and animal.
I found the majority of the information about your drills right here and then you posted the links the other day. As for the shooting at the tape, I read that somewhere on the internet long ago. Can't remember, who or where. It may have been someone who read your book and was talking about it, just can't remember. Why I started doing it you may ask? Well, I tried changing my anchor(to possibly help with the premature anchor problem)a few weeks ago by anchoring with my thumb knuckle at my ear, instead of the normal finger to the corner of the mouth. Since that time I have been struggling with alignment issues. I couldn't stop shooting to the right. I guess my arrow was not in alignment with my eye and it was causing the problems. I figured it was another form or target panic issue and I remembered reading about shooting at a line of tape on a target face. After reading about your drills this week, I went back to my normal anchor and it helped tremendously. I'm still going to shoot at the tape though because I think it will simply help regardless of what level I am at. I had already devised a plan with the tape. I had it the full length of the target. I was going to trim a bit of it off weekly making a tad short as I went along and got better control. Eventually working down to basically a tiny square in the center. This may or may not be the best idea, but it was something I was thinking about trying.
So, with all my babbling here let me ask you a question? If you had someone you was starting from ground zero that had lost all control of their shot where, when and how much would you start them with? If this is answered in the book just say and I'll read it this coming week to save your time and effort.
Once again thanks. And if you are ever down around the London, Ky area, shoot me a PM and we may can get together. I'd sure like to talk some shooting with you.
Jeff
Topic: Jay Kidwells Drills (Read 877 times)
