Target Panic Reality Check

[CLICKERMAN]

Hello All,    Thanks for reading,

Joel Turner
Masters of the Barebow 4
2x World Elk Calling Champion / Pro Division

[moebow]

Joel,

OUTSTANDING post AND OFFER!!!!!!!!!

Folks, listen to the man and take him up on his offer if you need too.  Try the "conscious shot process and subconscious aiming".  It takes discipline and desire to learn but IT WORKS!!!

Arne

[Avid Archer]

[Flingblade]

Joel,
Thanks for this post.  I have had target panic for the last 15 years.  Last august I bought the MBB series including 4 after a bad round on a 3d course with a friend.  I was already using Dr. Kidwell's drills from his book and went to work using your shot activation process.  I can honestly say it has made the biggest difference in my shooting of anything I have tried in the last fifteen years.  Distance seems to be a trigger for me.  The tp really flares up when I shoot at 20 yards or farther.  I was quickly shooting with control at 35 in my backyard.  I thought I had it licked until I started shooting an in-door 3d league this year.  My first time shooting a league.  My shooting fell apart.  After reading your post I went back and watched MBB4 again today and sure enough I was thinking about and anticipating the feather (psychotrigger) and not thinking about pulling.  In my shooting today I was able to get it back under control.  My last arrow was a bullseye at 28 yards.  Sometimes I do release before the psychotrigger.  Is this detrimental or is it ok if that occasionally happens?  I am eager to try this approach at the league shoot this week.
Thanks,
Gary

[A.S.]

Great stuff Joel! I have watched your segment on MBB IV many times. I have been a clicker user for 20 years now, and thought I would never get rid of it.

I have to say that your system is the only thing I have seen that sounds "doable" for me!  I am planning on giving it a go as soon as I can get someone to help me with my feather location.

Thanks again for some great info. I may program your # into my phone just in case!    


Allen

[CLICKERMAN]

Flingblade,

If you are letting go before the feather, you are still thinking about the feather!!!!  You need to really analyze what you are thinking about during the shot.  Especially those shots that do not go as planned.  When you are in tune with what is going through your head, you are well on your way to controlling your thoughts and concentration.  If you let go before the feather, you are reinforcing the natural habit of getting rid of the bowstring too early.  Your goal is to be able to realize the thoughts in your head are not where they should be and LET DOWN!!!!!!!  Do not shoot bad arrows!!!!!!  You are in a mental battle everytime you shoot your bow.  You are fighting the subconscious gremlin that wants to get rid of the tension in the body.  The mantra, "Keep Pulling, Keep Pulling, Keep Pulling..." is your weapon against the gremlin.

If you shoot a bad shot, ask yourself these two questions:  What was I thinking about during that shot?  Was I saying the mantra?  Your honest answers will get you back on track.  The mantra will trap the conscious mind in the muscle group that your are activating, but it only works if you SAY IT!!!!  Only shoot the shot if it is going to be perfect, not perfect in result, but perfect in concentration.  When you go to the range, if you want to get better, don't practice just shooting, practice concentration.  Practice getting your mind right during your shot.  It is not, how well did I shoot today, it is, how well did I concentrate today????  If you concentrated well, your shots will fall in the middle.

Please keep the questions coming,

Joel Turner

[Yohon]

As good as your segment on MBB4 was your phones gonna be busy LOL!!! I'd like to learn more about this "tab sear" if I could  

[CLICKERMAN]

Yohon,

PM or call me for an explanation of the Tab Sear, and yes, the phone has been busy!!!!  Keep the questions coming everyone.

JT

[tj69]

Thanks a lot for that thread Mr. Clickerman!
Your first post is like a description of my problems.
When shooting with clicker, everything is fine.
Without clicker the gremlins are back after a while.
So I have a lot of work to do. I´ll get that DVD soon.

[dragonheart]

Joel,

Thank you so much for sharing the information and for helping me to identify the metal script for my shot activation.

Jeff

I have worked hard for nearly two years following the Cadinale/Jenkins method of building a shot sequence. I’m doing great too—almost there. The theory is (or so I thought) to get the form down until “it” becomes a subconscious act, with the conscious mind immersing, or completely engulfed in aiming.

Your method seems to be the polar opposite—subconscious aiming with the conscious mind dedicated to form.  

So…. my question is, how do you aim at the subconscious level?

[dragonheart]

Joel can explain it, but when he told me about it last night on the phone, I had the same reaction.  This is the opposite of what I have been told.    

It is flip from the current philosophy that aiming is a highly conscious act and the subconsious controls the mechanics of the shot.

The idea is to give you something in your thoughts that leads you to a surprise/unconsious shot execution and a mental focus on those thoughts everytime for every shot.

Joel I am sure will be along to explain.  It is interesting.

[Ed Q]

Thanks for the excellent post.  I saw your segment on MBB IV, which was also excellent by the way, and your post adds a complementary addition to it that explains the concept even better.

I've been struggling with TP for awhile myself, able to keep it in check from time to time during backyard practice, but I fell apart towards the end of a 3D shoot session this past weekend and my poor score sure reflected it.  

Anyway, I switched to LH shooting a few months ago when I injured my right hand.  My hand is fine now, but I've kept up with LH shooting just for fun and noticed I have no TP shooting lefty.  I can hold and aim forever if I want to and actually shoot better LH because of the target panic that tends to pop up shooting RH.  Is this some kind of right brain hemisphere vs. left brain hemisphere psychology going on?  Or is it that in time, the subconscious will also learn to shortcut the aiming process shooting lefty like it did when shooting RH?  I'm hoping it's not the latter.

[Flingblade]

Thanks Joel!  I shot about 40 arrows today and only two were released before the feather.  Much better for me and I will be 100% tomorrow.  
My shot sequence; draw to anchor, aim (set up sight picture) start the mantra and keep pulling until the feather touches the nose and release.  My question is what should I be thinking about during the draw and aim portions?  Once I start the mantra I think about pulling but what about before that?  In a pressure situation I think this is where I am having trouble as there is a moment at anchor when I am setting up the sight picture before the mantra is started and the gremlin says release as soon as the sight picture is there.  My gremlin is a quick little devil and it only takes a few shots like this before I can't get to anchor.  Should I be thinking about pulling at this time as well?

[2Blade]

One thing that help me in curing the TP along with a clicker was learning to shoot in my head. When I had TP bad I always invisioned myself short drawing and releasing before I was ready. Now that ive got my shot down I can draw and hold in my head. Ive never been so confident in my shooting as I am now. I always read Joel and Dennys stuff. Its great to be able to shoot totally TP free! Now if I could kill something  :(

[CLICKERMAN]

First to Jim Casto Jr.

Aiming is much more simple than people would have you think.  Your subconsious is always looking for symmetry.  This is why your eye will always be drawn to center of whatever object you are looking at.  Your mind has seen your sight picture thousands of times and it knows whether it is right or not.  It doesn't matter what aiming system you choose, when your mind gets the proper sight picture for that distance, all you have to do to keep that sight picture is "WATCH IT".  Just like on the dvd, if you hold an arrow out in front of you and place the tip on a spot, it will move in a very erratic and minute pattern.  No matter which way it moves, its next movement is ALWAYS back to the center.  How did you do that?  All you did was watch it to keep it.  The movement is too minute and unpredicatable to see which way it is going next.  Concentration (conscious mind) put towards aiming, does not make the aim better or make it move any less.  It moves for everyone and it doesn't get better with time at full draw.  When I draw back, my aim is done in less than a second.  Once the aim is done, I turn my concentration to my shot activation through the use of my mantra.  The subconscious is running many systems at once, balance, breathing, bow grip, and especially aiming.  If allowed to also run the shot activation, enter the gremlin, and the shot activation will begin to be shortcut.  So to answer your question, and I realize it is against some mainstream coaching, to aim with your subconsious, get your sight picture and then just LET IT DANCE!!!!  Thinking about aiming will not make it better or move any less.  I applaud you for sticking with that system for two years, but in my opinion, if you apply what you have learned those two fine instructors in regards to form, and then employ the mental mechanics of subconsious aiming and conscious shot activation, your improvement will be instantaneous and forever.  I am afraid that your are working against your mind and that is a tough road my friend.  Please call me so I can solidify some concepts for you.

JT

[CLICKERMAN]

Ed Q,

Switching to the other side has changed what you think about in your shot.  You need to analyze what you are thinking about when you shoot left hand vs. right hand.  If you are thinking about the right thing during your shot, target panic will not creep in.  However, if you are running left handed on auto pilot (subconsious shot activation), the gremlin will show up again once he learns the shot.  If you talk your way through each and every shot and say the right things to yourself, target panic will never happen.  But remember, the mind does not like to have the body in tension and it employs the gremlin to get rid of that tension.  If you are shooting well left handed, you need to understand WHY that is.  To understand the WHY, you need to know what is going through your head at full draw.  You could shoot with either hand if your mind is right.  If this is too vague, I can speak a whole lot faster than I type, so please call when you can.

[CLICKERMAN]

Flingblade,

When drawing the bow, think about drawing to anchor, by saying "Draw".  Once that is complete, think about the aim by saying "Aim".  Once the initial sight picture has been completed, watch it to keep it.  Let it DANCE!!!  Then switch the concentration to pulling by saying "Keep Pulling, Keep Pulling..."  Remember, whatever you say is where your conscious mind will go.  Under little stress, you will probably find that you don't have to say "DRAW" and "AIM", but under stress, saying those words will put your conscious mind into those actions.  Just don't forget to switch to the pulling mantra when you want to activate your shot.  It is talking yourself through a shot, one task at a time, if the stress is high.  It is like a mental checklist, switching the conscious mind from one task to the next through the use of speech. It always baffles me how connected the conscious mind is to speech.  Talk yourself through each and every shot, and know what thought is in your head so intimately that you can let down if the concentration is not right.

JT

[cch]

I think I have finally figured out the Tab Sear. I have been shooting with Joel for many years now. He is an amazing shot. He is usually the only guy to beat me at shoots so I strive to better myself using his methods. I tried the clicker first but was using very heavy bows up around 60# and they would kick my butt. I have since dropped down to the low 50's. My problem with the clicker and pulling the feather to my nose was that I would come to anchor and when I would start to pull I felt that I couldn't. I seemed to be locked in place.

So I changed a few things the other day. I have been having problems with my ring finger on my string hand. It has been locking up on me when it got cold out and all I could bend was the very tip. I got a new Bateman tab and then I tried a deeper hook past the first joint. I then had to lower my anchor down a little lower so it would fit on my face better. I feel much stronger now and with the tab sear I can hold anchor and don't have to feel like I am pulling as much and just keep pressing the sear until it goes off. I just need to adjust my gaps but think it will help. Maybe I can finally beat Joel in a couple of shoots.

[Rossco7002]

What's a 'tab sear'?