Anticpating the Shot

[Micky]

I was wondering if anyone can help me with a small problem?

No matter how hard I concentrate, or try to focus "through" the gold, I know when my bow is going to go off and I either flinch (I dry fired my compound a couple of years back and made a mess of my arm with the cables) which is a disaster and makes me miss completely, or I jerk the bow out of the gold (left, right, down - doesn't matter, just out of the gold).

I have tried practising on a blank boss - that doesn't work. I don't jerk the bow on a blank boss. Put the pretty coloured circles back in front of me, and off it goes again.

I have tried working on the release - squeezing the shot instead of triggering the release aid - that helps slightly, but not much, but I soon go back to my old way of shooting and I guess I manage about 20 good shots a round.

The best solution so far has been a Cascade release aid, but I can even anticipate that if I start thinking about it.

So - with the combined wisdom of AIUK - what do I do? Back tension release aid? Practise more? Mental coaching? Go recurve?

Any (and I mean ANY) advice would be very welcome.

Mx

[greydog]

Geofretired and timujin have done quite a bit or work in this area......check out their journals.

[GeoffT]

Try a back tension release such as the HHA one. If you don't know when its going off, you can't anticipate it.

Originally Posted by Micky

I was wondering if anyone can help me with a small problem?

No matter how hard I concentrate, or try to focus "through" the gold, I know when my bow is going to go off and I either flinch (I dry fired my compound a couple of years back and made a mess of my arm with the cables) which is a disaster and makes me miss completely, or I jerk the bow out of the gold (left, right, down - doesn't matter, just out of the gold).

I have tried practising on a blank boss - that doesn't work. I don't jerk the bow on a blank boss. Put the pretty coloured circles back in front of me, and off it goes again.

I have tried working on the release - squeezing the shot instead of triggering the release aid - that helps slightly, but not much, but I soon go back to my old way of shooting and I guess I manage about 20 good shots a round.

The best solution so far has been a Cascade release aid, but I can even anticipate that if I start thinking about it.

So - with the combined wisdom of AIUK - what do I do? Back tension release aid? Practise more? Mental coaching? Go recurve?

Any (and I mean ANY) advice would be very welcome.

Mx

Try a back tension release, no need to go too expensive. the true ball range go for as little as £30 +

[geoffretired]

I know how you feel.
My serious TP started out with the odd flinch that you describe. I managed to reduce the number of flinches to almost zero but I didn't realise at the time what was happening instead. The anticipation or flinch became an anticipation with no flinch(none that I could see that is)
I think the flinch is an unplanned relaxing of the back muscles just before the release is activated. You get pulled by the bow as you release and all hell breaks loose. When I thought I was controlling this, I was actually getting the collapse to coincide with the release. It was still anticipation and it was bad for my groups, but it felt so smooth that I thought the problem was somewhere else in my form.
The people on this forum helped me out of the problem and I am so grateful to them. My journal is long winded to say the least, but in summary of the early pages, the first stage is to admit what you have. Once you have done that you KNOW that the treatment WILL WORK. It is designed to solve that problem.
If, after reading this, you think we are both talking about the same thing, let me know and I will gladly go through some of the other details. My rehab has been the best thing I've done to improve my archery in 14 years!
All the best
Geoff

[Micky]

Thanks all..

Geoffretired - I've just read your journal back to front and back again. You are describing JUST what I think I'm doing. So I guess the only thing I can do is begin to work on the "surprise" of the shot.

I've thought that it's been an aiming problem for ages - people look at my shooting and they can't see what I'm doing wrong, but the arrows on the target just don't match the form on the line. The missing link has got to be the release..

Friday is the next time I can shoot. So instead of getting my recurve out I think I'll be putting a boss at close distance and really training on my release for the first time ever.

[geoffretired]

Hi Micky,
I'm sorry you are suffering from something like TP. I think it has been caught earlier than mine so you should take less time to get out of it.There is a cure and it is aiming in a way.
I will PM you a summary of the main details, as reading the journal is too long. I wrote that to detail how I was getting out of the problem. What you need first is some ideas to think about and get your head round. There is no room for slight misunderstandings, I feel.

[Shirt]

Yeah, it's target panic.

Get a cheapo BT release and teach yourself how fun a surprise can be, then buy a quality trigger (Carters are nice) and exercise that willpower!

[Max]

Micky - Take Geoff's advice. You have exactly the same problem as I did. It is NOT target panic. I worked through this with Geoff and he gave me loads of advice through PM's. The release aid that feels most comfortable for me is either a Carter Insatiable 3, or the Just-B-Cuz (essentially the same release, but one has the finger hole). I make my thumb into a hook just resting on the button, then pull on with back tension - it goes off as a surprise every time and there is no conscious squeeze at all. Part of my problem was not keeping enough tension on the bow, so it occasionally snatched.

The result? Well, before Geoff helped me, I was flinching every dozen and it was getting worse. Now? Well I just shot my first York competition - no hint of a flinch and scored 1090 - good solid Bowman score - fantastic!

My technique needs a little more practice in the wind (as do all surprise shots) but that will come with time.