There can be no true "generalities" or "universal laws" about people's abilities, since everyone's eyes, brains, reflexes, emotional drawbacks to physical actions, spinal posture, arm length, neck length, self-confidence, visual acuity in both or either eye, and such. Lifelong astigmatism and shortsightedness differing in both eyes plus arthritic anomolies cause my eye Rx to work one day, and can't see out them the next. Started bowhunting with compound/fingers, then compound/release, but Carpal tunnel/tendinitis caused me to lose use of my Right arm at one point, the bowyer/archery range advisor tested me and told me, 'your eyes/brain are left-eye dominant. Gotta switch." Husband and I both got traditional that day, since I had to set aside 10 yrs of equipment anyway. My recurve LH is still no miracle since my other eye is also my worse Rx, 3 X worse than the Right eye's Rx. But, I stopped shooting 2 feet to one side! On the range/club lanes, my shooting suckd, but I enjoyed mostly creating 3D foam Big Game targets for our little club and RI's new United state bowhunter group that we helped found. RI has bow-only island hunts by permit/FCFServed, plus earned Competency/unmarked yardage test shoot. I passed despite being the only female among 175 male observers & state officials, other than one female Enforcement officer (thanks, Ms. Joy!). 3 of 5 was passing and I blew the first 2 shots. A club guy took me aside, encouraged me to see "the deer as my target", plus the energy from getting mad, I aced the last 3 shots. I looked past what my eyes were seeing, to view what I wanted my brain to do, and I then saw what I wanted to happen. That ain't a gap, I think, that is instinctive. For some; they define instinctive as some snap-shot, or point/release thing, but truly instinctive acts DO involve parts of our brain/organs that we are not consciously aware of or in complete control of. We can "ask" ourselves to engage this instinctive potential, and practice "engaging" this potential, until it IS what we do when we shoot, unless we mess it up with adding things onto it, that may interfere with whatever functions it uses our body to perform. The brain has to assess our stance, our form, our hold, bow angle/tilt, our view of the target and it asks itself is the shot ready, will it hit the target rightly...many have agreed with the experience of "feeling" when the brain answers those questions on that instantaneous checklist flashing thru the brain/body and feel the answer as we release the arrow and it hits the target just as we "saw" it would. Either we are seers, seeing the future of that arrow hitting as we want it to, as we "see" it doing before it happens, or we have instinctive shooting from deep in our brain's abilities, like breathing in our sleep, or babies newborn swimming underwater without drawing water into their inexperienced lungs, or like the overwhelming gut-stabbing attractions we have to people who just turn out to be the perfect mate for us. Just because you use a match-making service on top of that attraction to an internet photo, doesn't mean the attraction is voided; and you might use a CPap device to aid breathing, but you are still trusting your instinctive lung activity to deliver breath thru the device. I can walk in the dark and put my hand out onto an object I knew I left somewhere, as if I was looking right at it, thanks to instinctive mental mapping by the brain of our environment. That is what I think is a large part of our instinctive shooting, aided by mental mapping of the environmt.which will include target and whatever we have to do with what we have to reach out and put our arrow onto the vitals. We just let the arrow " do the walking". Somewhere, I think I saw an expert at it suggest some mental exercises to strengthen this ability for the archer to use. Maybe worth a google...good luck with it. Everything gets tougher with age, and I know that eyesight and reflexes, senses, strength and flexibility lose acuity & power, so we have to afford ourselves of naturopathy's herbal remedies for muscles, brain, blood viscosity, nerves, memory, control & vitality, inflammation. Geriatric decline begins by 35 in most of those areas, even earlier in others. The average American is clinically deficient in vital vitamins such as D3, B, E, magnesium & calcium, thyroid factors, has sluggish liver/pancreas and bowel-digestive functions, where our immunities come from by the biotic colonies balance. Eating venison is good, but we need more, and few doctors will test any of these for reasonable, updated levels. Many have all symptoms of Thyroid disease or deficits, but doctors don't understand when tests show borderline or just a little low, that tests don't show how much Thyroid hormone is being used by the body, it only shows what is available...like telling the starving guy that there's plenty of food in California....but he's starving in CT! Bowhunters have an appreciation for venison's great nutritional purity, but we often lack understanding of our own body's same muscle quality & purity; eating junk or traditional "homecooked" foods that boil, fry or soak out all the vitamin & nutrition. The degradation to eyes starts after age 25, heats up at 35, while our bones set by age 21 and that can settle onto nerves and tendons that attach muscles to bones. Your shooting will improve after you do a dietary overhaul on your eating habits, your vitamin supplementation and get your General Physician to do a complete fasting blood panel on you. Follow instructions on supplements for when/how to take them, look for contraindictions, such as not taking Calcium/magnesium or digestive enzymes at the same time as dosing a Rx med. Did you know heart attack deaths will show on autopsy a deficit or total lack of CoQ10? That is Ubiquinol in our body; used for muscles among other things, and our foods lack enough of it. Supplement with a high quality Ubiquinol, body ready form, not a Coq10 Ubiquinone that needs to be converted by the body. I am not expert, just study to stay alive, to reverse chronic, acute conditions that kept me from bowhunting for years, weak, crippled, racked with pain out of my mind and could not stand and walk, never mind pull back a bow! Vision was so doubled, foggy, I could not read or focus. Was totally lacking Vits D, B, Thyroid low, probiotics messed up from years of antibiotics and surgeries, unaided recuperations due to bad insurance, no money, bad doctors who know nothing about nutrition & health, only drugs, surgeries, copays. It took 4 yrs before I could go buy my hunting license, or stand unaided to walk and carry my bow. I don't yet string/unstring it myself, but soon, I hope. Doctors left me for agonizingly crippled death with big bills...naturopathy, vitamins & natural compounds like Alpha Lipoic Acid, enzymes, probiotics, amino acids, choline & inositol, herbal supplements like Astragalus, Malic acid, Red Raspberry leaf, Eucommia bark for liver/kidney, Turkeytail, Reishi, Lions Mane, ****ake,& ABM mushrooms, Ashwaganda rejuvenator. Bromelain, from pineapple; a natural diuretic that helps digest food while strengthening dig. tract tissues while letting patients STOP taking deadly HCTZ, a common heart or Hi blood pressure patient drug that may have killed more people than normal heart attacks by themselves! Alpha Lipo can also be diuretic while easing muscle spasms (as magnesium/calcium does too)which is why I take it for decades old thigh dysfunction that hardens up at the tendon on the knee, feels like a spike is being pounded into my leg. Anyone taking L-Carnitine for muscle building regimen, may know that it helps burn off body fat, and fat mixed into/around muscle tissue. The L-Arginine amino acid is also vital for heart function/strength, and it opens up blood vessels, which is how many drugs work that lower BP, softening or opening up vessels. That may give men erections, so they may not want to take it during AM, but at night, when it will ease leg spasms/restless leg by letting pressure out of veins, which is why I take it. You can take a derivative of milk, Ameal peptide, that softens blood vessels, lowering BP, and has no penile erection side effects. Doctors won't tell you about these lifesavers because no drug company makes billion$ off them. Getting healthy will add years, perhaps decades to your bowhunting time on earth. Don't want anyone to suffer as I did with several entire YEARS not hunting, my bow hanging on a wall getting dusty. So sickening! If you are having trouble hitting the target or vitals, or the broadside of a barn....have a bowyer test for your dominant eye, examine your shooting form. You have to pay some for these examinations/advisements, but it is worth it when they are experienced and skilled. It may mean re-equipping, retraining as I had to, but within that year, my other years of archery/bowhunting added to some months of shopping LH traditional stuff, shooting lanes,3D, stumps and paper before I went out to bowhunt lefthanded. The results were immediate in both brain-relief (no more wierd distress when aiming which was my eyes telling brain they were not seeing the same thing) and in venison. From Day1, we both were in love with our traditional bows; his stick, my recurve from Leon stewart in PA. We did not force our lifestyle on our only child; and she wouldn't let us anyway. But now on her own, she has turned to the bow, joining in with some Air Force peers. We are buying her first recurve, a takedown with hardside case, as her job will ship her anywhere anytime and it has to be portable. I joined Trad Gang hoping to locate a cool side quiver for her to practice at an indoor range with, or if they go stumpshooting. I would prefer handmade, and would have done this myself but as I said, I lost years to disabling pain, crippling and mental fog, bedridden, and stil have trouble getting things done. Someone out there must have a lefthand shooter's leather/handmade quiver that will hold more than 6 arrows for her, that I can buy/trade for this weekend, when her bow kit gets to her in MD. I appreciate anyone taking time to read my contribution to the experiences with instinctive shooting's vast subject matter, and who may have that quiver.
Topic: How'd you guys go about learning instinctive (Read 3927 times)
