Inconsistency day to day

[fulldraw71]

it doesn’t matter whether I’m using back tension or command. I am a pretty good shot. I’ve been placing well at local shoots this year. My trouble is I have a great release and follow through one day and the next I’m suffering from panic. The panic is not a regular thing but some days I can’t get a clean release. I swear it’s all mental. But I can’t seem to pick my bow up day to day and start shooting like I want. And when I’m off it seems as if I’m off until I out the bow down and wait a couple hours or the next day. What can a guy do to be consistent every time I grab my bow. Some 3d shoots I can’t stop punching or flinching until halfway through and all of a sudden I calm down and I can’t miss. If I’d shoot like that for most of the shoots maybe I’d finish first instead of 3rd or 5th. Its aggravating

 

[nphunter]

Self talk helps me. Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze, Pull, Pull, Pull. Sometimes I have to almost say it outloud.

 

[fulldraw71]

Self talk helps me. Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze, Pull, Pull, Pull. Sometimes I have to almost say it outloud.

I get it. Maybe I need more discipline. I just get so frustrated how I can shoot so good and the next day shoot like I’m on crack lol.

 

[JK47]

Speaking of crack….have you tried CBD?

 

[fulldraw71]

Speaking of crack….have you tried CBD?

No

 

[CMF]

What about caffeine? I've heard that can have effects on shooting, both gun/bow.

 

[JK47]

No

Neither have I. I honestly don’t know much about it. But I have a couple of buddies that use it and they swear it settles them and helps them focus.

 

[Colobwhntr]

You need to figure out what you’re doing on your good days and repeat it all the time. I wrote my process down and refine it from time to time

 

[Marble]

It's all mental. It's good practice for me to shoot bad, take 5 minutes, decide to clear my mind and focus on what I should be doing, rather than worrying about if I'm doing it correctly or not.

Imagine the shot process with success. Go through an entire round in my mind with success. Pick up my bow and replicate it.

If you think you can, or you can't, you're right.

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[Eleven]

I am also an occasional target panic sufferer. Remember that you are the one who decides when to let the shot loose. Whether firearm or bow, you and only you can decide when to do so. What I realized that I was doing was allowing the target, whatever it was, and the sight picture to tell me when to shoot. This was causing me anxiety even if it was on a very small almost imperceptible level. Now when I approach my target I go through the mental process of remembering and reaffirming that I am the shooter. I am the one who decides if I’m taking a shot or not.
Sometimes I will play a small game with myself, I’ll come to full draw and hold the sight on the target and just hold it there until I consciously decide if I want to take the shot or I not. To say it a slightly different way, I’ll go through about 5-10 shot sequences where before I come to full draw I haven’t actually decided if I will be sending a shot or not. I decide after I have held the sight on target for a moment. Once I decide to take the shot I calmly tell myself that I am going to shoot and then I go through the mechanics (use any mental queues that you have ‘pull to follow through’ etc) and calmly, purposely take the shot. This only works if you are truly deciding if you are going to take the shot in the moment and when you decide that you are not you need to calmly and purposely let the bow down. You need to decide not to shoot almost as much as you decide to shoot, but it needs to be random and decided when you are already at full draw. This puts me back in the pilot’s seat of the shot, I am the decision maker again. I find doing this at the beginning of a practice session does wonders.

 

[fulldraw71]

What about caffeine? I've heard that can have effects on shooting, both gun/bow.

I blamed it on morning coffee once but I can sometimes have issues after work. And I don’t drink pop. I think it has to do with concentration and how much other stuff I got going on in my head

 

[fulldraw71]

It's all mental. It's good practice for me to shoot bad, take 5 minutes, decide to clear my mind and focus on what I should be doing, rather than worrying about if I'm doing it correctly or not.

Imagine the shot process with success. Go through an entire round in my mind with success. Pick up my bow and replicate it.

If you think you can, or you can't, you're right.

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Yes it is trying to figure out how to deal with it. I typically tell myself when this happens to put it up for a while but I can never make myself do it. So I lack discipline listening to myself as well. My mind says do it and my body says up yours I’m going to keep shooting and keep making mistakes.

 

[fulldraw71]

I am also an occasional target panic sufferer. Remember that you are the one who decides when to let the shot loose. Whether firearm or bow, you and only you can decide when to do so. What I realized that I was doing was allowing the target, whatever it was, and the sight picture to tell me when to shoot. This was causing me anxiety even if it was on a very small almost imperceptible level. Now when I approach my target I go through the mental process of remembering and reaffirming that I am the shooter. I am the one who decides if I’m taking a shot or not.
Sometimes I will play a small game with myself, I’ll come to full draw and hold the sight on the target and just hold it there until I consciously decide if I want to take the shot or I not. To say it a slightly different way, I’ll go through about 5-10 shot sequences where before I come to full draw I haven’t actually decided if I will be sending a shot or not. I decide after I have held the sight on target for a moment. Once I decide to take the shot I calmly tell myself that I am going to shoot and then I go through the mechanics (use any mental queues that you have ‘pull to follow through’ etc) and calmly, purposely take the shot. This only works if you are truly deciding if you are going to take the shot in the moment and when you decide that you are not you need to calmly and purposely let the bow down. You need to decide not to shoot almost as much as you decide to shoot, but it needs to be random and decided when you are already at full draw. This puts me back in the pilot’s seat of the shot, I am the decision maker again. I find doing this at the beginning of a practice session does wonders.

I like all this advice. One thing I struggle with is letting down and I know I need to work on that. For example, I’ll be shooting on a windy day where the wind comes and goes. I’ll get a few shots off then I will draw back and all of a sudden, the wind will pick up and it will start blowing me all over the place. Instead of letting down, I stand there and hold the bow and keep fighting it until the wind lets up for a second then I put the pin on the target and I let it go. I believe what happens is you have one mental blunder in a session, your mind gets anxious and then you draw back to correct that blunder and you have another one and it just keeps compounding. And then before you know, the whole session has turned into garbage because it’s one crappy jerk shot after another.

Isn’t it weird? I seem to know what’s going on but I’m here asking for advice lol? This is such a mental game and it’s trying to figure out that game that can make or break your day.

 

[fulldraw71]

You need to figure out what you’re doing on your good days and repeat it all the time. I wrote my process down and refine it from time to time

Won’t argue with this

 

[fulldraw71]

Neither have I. I honestly don’t know much about it. But I have a couple of buddies that use it and they swear it settles them and helps them focus.

So will a stiff drink but I quit drinking last October

 

[fatlander]

The first step is admitting you’ve got a problem.

The second step is getting rid of the drug. Your drug is a release you can command.

The third step is committing to a process. Get a hinge, blank bale, and add your sight then slowly work your way back over time. If you’re able to execute a button with back tension after significant time with the hinge, go for it. But I don’t know a single person who’s needed a hinge to fix target panic that doesn’t need to pick it up from time to time because they fall back in their old ways.

Doing anything in the immediate other than getting rid of the release you can command is you telling yourself that a little bit of crack is ok as long as you still get to work on time.


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[ddowning]

I have been at the archery game for a long time. When I was a teenager I took it very seriously. My parents took me all over to 3d shoots. I won the ibo Heartland triple crown twice as a youth, but I could never do well at the world's, so I hung it up and only bowhunted when I went to college. I haven't shot a 3d tournament since I was 18. This last year my kids wanted to get into archery, so they could bowhunt with me. They are young and we have been shooting almost daily for a year now. Of course, I wanted to see what is new in archery, so I could coach them the best I knew how.

Joel Turner, whether he figured it out or parroted someone, has a subtle change that makes a huge difference. When I was competing as a kid, the method was to blank bale and the shot was to be a surprise, with the movement to release being completely subconscious. All the focus was to be placed on aiming. The problem is two fold. When you aim that hard, your movement to create the release will freeze when your pin moves slightly off target. Secondly, your mind wants the shot to go when the sight picture looks perfect. This is what you are suffering from.

The new school of though is to aim, and give yourself a command to start the shot. Once you say "here I go" or whatever, you let your subconscious aim and focus on the movement to fire your release. It should be slow and controlled. You should be able to stop at any time. If you have to stop, you restart your release with the same command again. This is the only way to shoot a command shot and have success, but many are better off using "back tension" to fire the release.

To boil it down, you need to stop aiming so hard, trust the float, and activate your release aggressively, but slowly. My personal advice would be to stop command shooting. Period. A few historical archery greats could do it, and even some of the current greats. If you watch them shoot in shoot-offs, they still get the yips. Given your current struggle, it sounds like you are destined to a lifetime of it if you do not stop shooting a command shot.

Also, one thing many fail to acknowledge, there is a secondary movement as a result of "pulling through" or "using back tension" to fire a release. With a thumb button, you have to let the release slide slightly or squeeze your hand together as you pull to get it to activate. You also can't let tension loosen on your thumb or you can pull forever and nothing will happen. With a wrist strap, you have to lock your finger, relax your wrist, and let the strap slide forward on your wrist as you pull through the shot to get it to activate. With a hinge, you have to let the release rotate. You can squeeze with your ring finger or relax your index finger as you pull through, or both.

The only true pull through release is a tension activated release. It is where I would start learning to pull through a shot. You dont have to worry about all the subtle hand movements to get them to work. I prefer to have a hinge, a thumb button, and a tension release that all have the same head length to work with. I can then isolate things I am struggling with. When everything is clicking, the thumb button is the most accurate, but if something is off, it is not even close. Lastly, I find I shoot better, and the releases fire more consistently, with a 2 finger over a 3 or 4 finger.

Good luck!

 

[MallardSX2]

"Be the arrow" I say it every time I squeeze the trigger.

I don't get hung up on things if I pull a shot 4" at 40 yards. Its archery, I shake it off and shoot again. Been consistently a decent shot at shooting a bow for 35 years but I will never win ribbons.

 

[Zac]

This is a classic what were you thinking example.

 

[Marble]

Yes it is trying to figure out how to deal with it. I typically tell myself when this happens to put it up for a while but I can never make myself do it. So I lack discipline listening to myself as well. My mind says do it and my body says up yours I’m going to keep shooting and keep making mistakes.

It's a practice that takes time. Prior to being in archery, my profession taught me how to block out distractions and focus on the task at hand. So it isn't your body taking over, it's your mind, conscious or subconscious.

You do not want your subconscious controlling your shot. That is when everything will fall apart. It needs to be a conscious decision-making process.

Someone what shot IQ teaches is helpful. Some of it is a bit much for me.

You can do it!!

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