Originally posted by The-Talon:
I have a hard time identifying that I am indeed using my back muscles to their fullest potential shooting trad. For those of you guys that use back tension and implement these muscles as well
HOW DO YOU DO IT?! What are your ways of making sure you are indeed using back tension and what are some techniques that you find helpful.
It starts with an understanding of the difference between awareness and knowledge, and how to increase your level of awareness. Then you have to actually do it, because while understanding the nature of awareness may set you on the path, actually increasing your awareness doesn't happen through understanding, but by doing.
Awareness is what you experience of the world through your physical senses. Knowledge, or cognitive thinking, is translating that awareness into words, which are then analyzed in your brain. Awareness and thinking are mutually exclusive: you can be aware of the smell of a flower, but as soon as you begin to think about it (in words) you can no longer smell it. You have a memory of the smell, but that is not the smell itself. Since we humans exist so much in our brains, we often confuse the thought of something with the awareness of it, particularly when the two things happen in close proximity to each other, but they are not the same thing. Thoughts exist in the past, the future, or some imaginary place out of time; awareness exists in the here and now.
So what you need to do is to increase your awareness of your back muscles, and many other subtle feelings associated with shooting the bow that are currently beyond your ability to perceive. The first step to expanding your awareness is to quit thinking while you are doing it. Blind bale shooting may help, because you are blocking off all inputs to your brain, even your eyes, except for the muscles you choose to concentrate on. As you begin to become aware of certain muscles, it will become easier to remain aware of them later, when you are receiving many more inputs into your brain.
Quit "trying," which is a type of cognitive thinking that measures your performance against some arbitrary standard, and creates pressure and doubt in your mind. Instead, simply observe what is happening, which will expand your awareness. It is fine to have a desire to succeed, which is different from trying to succeed. To actually succeed, stop trying, practice hard, and increase your powers of observation.
Think of your current level of awareness as a circle. You want your awareness to expand into a larger circle encompassing the smaller circle. Then you want to be able to take a slice, like a piece of pie, out of the expanded circle, which is your concentration on just a small segment of your expanded awareness. Your level of awareness within the slice will extend even further than the boundaries of your overall expanded awareness, since you are excluding things from your awareness that are distracting rather than helpful.
Awareness and concentration are not easily or quickly attained. They are lifetime goals, and I have barely scratched the surface here of how to achieve them.
Topic: I AM STARTING TO UNDERSTAND BACK TENSION! (Read 1056 times)
