shot IQ

[ricky bob]

Has anyone taken joel turner's shot IQ course ? Or read his book Controlled Process Shooting ?

[McDave]

I took his course when he first came out with it, but haven't read his book. I looked at his course again recently, and noticed he has added quite a bit to it since I took it, of which I’ve only viewed one part.  One of the advantages of taking his course is that you can go back to it whenever you want for as long as it exists.

I think his course offers a solid foundation in learning to control the bow, and is almost guaranteed to improve your shooting, whether you have target panic or not.

I do disagree with him on a couple of points.  I think his definition of target panic is overly broad, and includes some conditions that are not target panic.  Target panic is a condition caused by the subconscious.  Similar symptoms can be caused by the conscious mind, and would react better to different treatment. 

My impression is that he believes that using a subconscious trigger inevitably leads to target panic.  I know many accomplished shooters who have used the subconscious release all their lives without any problem.  In fact, the first thing I did on completing his course was to drop my subconscious release and start using a non-anticipatory psychotrigger.  Later, when I finally figured out that my problem was caused by a conscious failure to concentrate rather than my subconscious mind anticipating the shot, I started using my subconscious release again, and have been happy with it ever since.

But these are just my own impressions, which may or may not be valid, and I know Joel's ideas are evolving too.  The bottom line is, he is an excellent teacher and his fundamentals are really solid.

[ricky bob]

thank you for the reply, very interesting, could you define a subconscious release and a non-anticipatory psychotrigger, thanks again

[McDave]

I would guess that the majority of good traditional archers use a subconscious release.  We realize that if we try to open our fingers, we will blow the shot, for two reasons: first because we can’t open our fingers fast enough to get them out of the way of the string, and second because the release would not be a surprise.  If a release is not a surprise, most people will make some movement in anticipation of the shot, similar to flinching if a rifle trigger is jerked rather than squeezed.  So to get a surprise release, we train our fingers to relax without giving any specific command to ourselves to do that, and we call it a subconscious release.  Whether it is subconscious or unconscious is above my pay grade to understand.

Joel’s, and many other people’s theory is that over many hundreds or thousands of shots, the subconscious speeds up this process until we are releasing before we are ready to shoot.  This is the definition of target panic, and the recommended treatment is to take control away from the subconscious and use a non-anticipatory psychotrigger instead.  Of course, not everyone, in fact I would say not most people, succumb to this problem.  Why some people do and others don’t is unknown, AFAIK.

The classic non-anticipatory psychotrigger is a clicker.  You pull the bow until you are almost at your maximum, and then you expand to conclusion.  In the expansion phase, the clicker will click.  It will be non-anticipatory because you don’t jerk it through the expansion phase; expansion is the equivalent of squeezing a rifle trigger, so you don’t know exactly when it will click.  It is a psychotrigger because you train your mind to release the shot the instant you hear the click.  You are in control of expansion, not your subconscious, so there is no tendency to rush the shot.  Joel has come up with several alternatives to the clicker over the years, that accomplish the same thing.