Collapsing problem

[Jock Whisky]

Every few shots my bow arm collapses and I shoot low and left. (I'm right handed). It usually happens when I get to full draw and try to bring the bow on target. I know what goes wrong, I stop pushing with my bow arm. Can someone give me some hints on how to get past this connundrum and keep the push in play? What am I missing.

When I manage to keep positive forward pressure on the bow I can actually shoot reasonably well.

JW

[reddogge]

I'm now working with a 15 year old girl who has a severe arm dropping and collapsing problem. What we are doing as suggested by Tony Camera and moebow is:

1. Drop her bow weight.
2. Move up and do blank bale and blind bale exercises.
3. Her bow arm shoulder is too high so lower it.
4. Tony suggested the "watch the arrow drill".

It is a serious problem and you just can't tell her to not do it. It is that ingrained in her.

[McDave]

You say it usually happens "when I get to full draw and try to bring the bow on target."

If you mean by that that you first come to full draw, and then try to bring the bow on target, then maybe that's something you might want to change.

If I come to full draw and have to make anything other than very minor, almost imperceptible adjustments to bring the arrow on target, then my form starts to fall apart and I would be better off letting the arrow down and starting over.  My best shots are when the arrow is pointing exactly where I want it to point at the same time I reach full draw.

At one time, I was going through some target panic, and one symptom was that as I drew the bow, the arrow would creep above the target, and I would try to move it back down where it should be after coming to full draw.  It never worked, and I should have never shot an arrow that way.

[Jock Whisky]

McDave that is what happens. AS soon as I try to bring my bow arm down a fraction of an inch, I collapse

JW

[McDave]

I think you've made the first step in solving the problem, in that you realize you can't shoot well if you make significant aiming adjustments after you reach full draw.  Minor adjustments to correct the unavoidable movements that happen when coming to full draw, yes, but not major movements.  For a long time, I didn't see anything wrong with my arrow ending up 8" high at full draw; I thought that was something I could correct after I came to full draw.  But in my case, I couldn't.

The next step is to learn to come to full draw with your arrow on target.  The best way for me was to draw the arrow and then let it down; it took the target panic aspect out of the equation and gave me confidence that I could draw the arrow without it floating off target too much.  Next, learn to do it while shooting close in front of a blank bale, where there is no pressure to hit anything.  Finally, transition to a real target.

I think what initially led me astray was the thought that to avoid target panic, I should focus on the mechanics of the shot during draw, and not worry about aiming.  This is still true, and I try to focus on the mechanics of the draw with every shot.  However, just by making a controlled draw without focusing on aiming, your arrow should pretty much be on target when you come to full draw.  If your arrow floats 8" above the target during your draw, then something else is going on.

I think the best technique is to be aware of the target, so your arrow ends up where it should at full draw, even though you are focusing on the mechanics of the draw, and then actually focus your attention on your mark after you reach full draw to make any fine-tuning adjustments that are needed, which are ordinarily so small that I couldn't tell you how much, if any, I moved the arrow to make them.