Having trouble with anchor.

[ymountainman]

Hey guys I have trouble stopping at anchor. I have always had a problem with tp. It's not bad since I went all traditional. I shoot 3under. I put the top finger in the corner of my mouth. I read on here that i should'nt aim while im drawing the bow? Well i do i line the arrow up where i want it to go before i draw. I guess this  is wrong? As soon as my finger gets close to my mouth it is gone. I can't be consistent at all. If i really slow down and tell myself to anchor and count to 3 i can hit alot better. I guess I need to not aim till i come to anchor? What do yall do, not look at the target? I need help staying at anchor. I read all the post on this forum and they are helpfull Thanks. Cliff

[damascusdave]

I am not an aimer but rather what I call an intuitive shooter...for me the process of shooting is all about feel and consequently I need to be completely in the shot from the moment I focus on where I want the arrow to end up...on my best shots I simply know where the arrow is going to strike and everything follows from that confidence...I am fortunate to be in a situation where I can shoot every day and I do that both right and left handed

DDave

[McDave]

I have had trouble with this myself over the years, and have read many different perspectives on the causes and cures.  There is a current series of posts a few posts down, "Target panic reality check," by Joel Turner that has helped a lot of people.  The book, "Instinctive Archery Insights," by Jay Kidwell has also helped a lot of people.  I think there can be more than one cause, so you just have to try different things until something works.  Clearly, if you're not overbowed, and you're physically capable of holding at full draw without undue stress, then it must be a mental issue if you can't do the same thing when you want to shoot an arrow.

I had a bad case of target panic for a while, and then seem to have licked it, but find myself backsliding from time to time.  These are the things that I do to keep myself on the straight and narrow:

1.  Every day, when I'm by myself, I draw the bow and hold for 5 seconds before I shoot, timing myself with a metronome.  I repeat this five times, both left and right handed.  This helps because it makes a normal 2 second hold seem short by comparison.

2.  If I find myself rushing the shot, on the next shot I will draw and hold for a count of three and then let down.  Then I will draw and shoot my normal shot. This normally gets me back in the right rhythm, but if it doesn't, I will draw, hold, and let down again, and keep repeating with alternate shots until my natural rhythm is reestablished.  I'll do this in the middle of a tournament if I need to.

3.  During every shot, in addition to focusing my visual attention on the target, I open my awareness to what I'm feeling in my body as I draw the bow.  This focuses my attention in the here and now while I'm making the shot, rather than worrying about something in the future, like whether it's going to be a good or bad shot.  It also shuts up the little voice in my head trying to give me useless instructions on how to shoot the bow.  The more I can feel all the little movements my body is making during the shot, the better the shot turns out. The more I think about what I should be doing, or try to do any particular thing during the shot, the worse the shot turns out. It's hard to just "not think," but if I have something to substitute for thinking, like feeling, then that can occupy my mind with something useful.

These things have kept me from slipping back into target panic, but if I had a full blown case, I might need stronger medicine.

[moebow]

Cliff,

If you have been reading the forum, you know that I feel that the shot sequence is the most important thing to concentrate on during the shot and aiming takes a back seat.  Aiming becomes just one step in the sequence that is addressed AFTER reaching anchor (holding).  Then you mentally move on to the rest of the shot.

When the only thing you are concentrating on is aiming, it is too easy for the mind/body to "shortcut" the steps of the shot which makes one or more of the steps either disappear or become a problem due to lack of control.

I DO know that there are many that shoot well and only concentrate on aiming but what I just described works well for my students.

Arne

[ymountainman]

Thanks Guys! Im drawing and holding at anchor and counting to one thousand and three before I release. If i go slow and concentrate it's not a problem. I sure can hit better when i do. Thanks for the advice!!

[Gregg S]

Just another suggestion that you can try. You said that you draw to anchor and then count 1001, 1002, 1003 and then shoot. When I feel like I'm not in control of the shot, I draw to anchor, without aiming, and just give myself a few seconds to let everything settle into place. At this point I'm not even remotely considering letting the arrow go. When your all settled  in, you will feel more relaxed and you won't feel the stress of "shoot, no hold, no shoot!!!!". Then if you want to count to 1003 you can. This helps me to calm down. The setteling in can take anywhere from 2 to 5 seconds but it is important that you convince yourself that during that step, you have no intention of letting the string go. If I draw back and just start counting, by the time I would get to 1001 and 1/2 my brain wants to shoot. It's really pretty simple. Give it a try.

[solobowhunter]

Wow, talk about a well timed post!!!!Having the same trouble myself. Just three days ago I was nailing a 3" spot at 20 yds and all was well with the world.  Shot the next day at it looked like I had never shot in my life...

[twistedlim]

I find it help me to put the target about 3 yards from my bow and concentrate on hitting the anchor point and getting a full draw with my back.  You do not have to worry about "aiming" but rather the mechanics of the shot.