Been struggling lately..

[DanielB89]

I am not sure what has gotten into me or what, but I have been shooting absolutely HORRIBLE as of lately. I have noticed that all of my arrows are showing weak, which doesn't make much sense to me.  

I am shooting a centaur elite that is #52@29 and I draw 29.  I have tried every combination of .400 spine arrow I could think of and try and no matter what, I get a weak reading.  

I then swap to a .340 and it is also flying weak.  I usually bareshaft tune to get my arrows to tune and that is how I have ALWAYS done it in the past, but I just can't get these arrows to fly.  Every 400 i shoot kicks out horribly, even with feathers on.  

I think it has something to do with my release(obvious answer), but I just can't seem to fix it.  

Not even sure the purpose of this post.. lol.  Maybe someone out there can relate..??


What form error causes your arrow to fly weak?

[Sam McMichael]

If your arrows were flying well but now are showing weak, it is not the arrows causing the problem. Is your form, especially release, good? Have you changed string, brace height, or added (or taken away) string silencers, etc.?

The reason for this post? Sometimes it helps to just bitch a little. Once I get it out of my system, I can settle down and pay close attention to improving my shooting. Good luck.

[BMorv]

Most of my release problems happen when I don't follow through with back tension and "pull" through the release.  After a bad left/right miss I make sure that I'm using back tension, and tell myself to pull through the shot, and it normally solves the problem for me.

[McDave]

Anyone seriously involved in sports goes through slumps from time to time.  My impression is that you're usually a good shot, and are competitive in archery at a higher level than I am.  There are two approaches I would suggest:

1.  Take it easy on yourself.  Shoot non-judgementally for a period of time, with a goal of increasing your self-awareness.  Simply notice everything you can about what's going on when you shoot, without evaluating whether what you notice is good or bad.  As ideas occur to you for changes, go ahead and make the changes and observe what happens, but without passing judgement on what's happening.  If, after a while, you feel like discarding a change, then discard it.  It should be obvious to you that something (or some things) you are doing is causing problems, and whatever you're doing is outside your current level of awareness.  What may not be obvious to you is that you can increase your level of awareness, the same as you can increase your strength, by working on it.

2.  Get a coach.  No matter what level you have attained, a coach can see things you can't. Jack Nicklaus had a coach he visited every year to work on his swing.  I have no idea what level of golf the coach could play, but I'm sure it was far below Jack's.  Nevertheless, he could teach things to Jack that Jack couldn't teach himself.

[DanielB89]

Thank you for all your replies.

McDave,
not to boast, but TYPICALLY I am a very  consistent shot.  Last year finger pain in my index finger got so bad that I couldn't even shoot anymore.  I explored options and swapped to 2u, then eventually lead to 3u.  When I swapped to 3u(this summer), i won a few more tourneys, but it wasn't anything to write home about.

I have not had the mind set of I can hit what i'm aiming at though.  It's like I miss everytime, its just not by much.  I'd bet my mind is playing a huge roll is my failure. lol.

I think I am at the largest part of the "snow ball".  My release has gone to pooh, confidence has gone to pooh.  Add all that together and you get some horrible shooting.  

I have really been trying to work on my release, tried following through, static, forget it, let it slip, etc.  

If I had to come up with a word for my shooting, both form and results, I would say 'inconsistent'.

[McDave]

I venture to say that with your experience, once you've identified a problem, whether it's your release or something else, you're capable of solving it on your own.  What is more difficult to solve are problems of which we are unaware.  Compounding this is our tendency to change things that don't need changing in our blind search for a cure.

Your description of your inconsistent small misses rang a bell with similar issues I have been dealing with in my continuing battle with target panic.  By not focusing on the target until after I come to full draw and relax, I am able to hold the worst symptoms of my target panic in check.  However, in an example of overdoing a good thing, I have fallen into the habit of never really concentrating on the target at all.  Shooting at a target with good form without concentrating on the spot you want to hit will always get you pretty close, but rarely exactly where you want to hit.  It is difficult to concentrate on the target if you're thinking about something else (for example, your release) at the moment of release.  I have incorporated this as an element of my followthrough, by continuing to concentrate on the spot for a moment or so after the arrow is released.  I found it helpful to review the articles on aiming by Jim Ploen referenced in    firstlight\\'s  response to one of my earlier posts, and my reference in my last post in the same string.

While the problem I reference above may not be YOUR problem, I don't think it is ever a bad idea to review the fundamentals of aiming and concentration.  Or any of the other fundamentals of archery form, for that matter, since your problem probably lies somewhere therein.

[DanielB89]

Dave,

you definitely hit it on the head!  

" I have fallen into the habit of never really concentrating on the target at all. Shooting at a target with good form without concentrating on the spot you want to hit will always get you pretty close, but rarely exactly where you want to hit."

That is EXACTLY what I have been doing!  


I did manage to muster up a little consistency today and it was relaxing.. lol..

[forestdweller]

Do you have a lighter bow to work on form with? Form can go out of the window really quickly without you even realizing it I've come to notice in my own shooting.

Generally for me at least it's due to being fatigued.

I'd imagine for me at least, shooting a 52# bow my form would probably be out of the window after about 20 or so shots and my shooting would start to scatter and gradually get worse.

[DanielB89]

That is what I have ALWAYS shot.  It is VERY manageable.  I can shoot 100's of shots a day without feeling much, if any, fatigue.  I typically hold for 2-3 seconds on each shot.  Some times more.

[Bladepeek]

I've found that when I reach a point where I can no longer spot my own mistakes, it's time to bring in an unbiased 3rd party to take a look. Slightly plucking the string; slightly lifting my head from the shotgun stock; etc. etc. Very difficult to diagnose yourself when you are involved in the shot. Often obvious to someone who is not involved.

[Draven]

Make a video of yourself and you will see your mistakes.

[Arctic Hunter]

I am far from an expert, but I did listen to an expert once when I started getting weak arrow flight with shafts that were previously flying like darts.

Turns out, I started canting my bow but not my string hand. It caused some really bad arrow flight. I didn't realize I was doing it until I started paying attention to it.

Might be something to look at. Now back to my target panic issue.....

[bear bowman]

Daniel,

I too was have trouble late last week and this week. My arrows were flying poorly and I felt like I couldn't hit a beach ball. I do a lot of my practice at 20 and beyond. Instead of beating my head against the wall, which is what I did for a few days, I went through the motions in front of a mirror both with and without my bow. I figured out that I wasn't expanding my chest which was preventing me from engaging my back thus never attaining full draw. I went out yesterday with a renewed sense of confidence and was shooting great from 15-40.

[mgf]

I should be an expert on this because I've had arrows fly super stiff when they should have been weak. I could pile the weight on the tip and it made NO difference at all.

But, those are the same arrows that fly like darts sometimes...or even show weak and/or nock low!

There is probably a multitude of ways to make arrows fly poorly but, with me, the big thing seems to be tension in the string arm. Once you start putting all kinds of side or torquing loads on that string, anything can happen.