Problems with drawing bow

[AlanT]

I've seen this with a novice who tried to draw too much weight too early on. They struggled to draw using the back muscles, couldn't handle the weight and released as the 'shakes' started to affect the aim.

The solution in that case was to practice with a lighter bow until the 'feeling' of the draw 'on the back' was understood (if you see what I mean), and a repeatable anchor was achieved.

The use of a clicker might help, but the basics/form should be sorted first (my opinion only).

Alan

[Jerry Tee]

Originally Posted by BeardedBowman

Rather than the knee-jerk 'mechanical' fix of fitting the clicker, why not address the real problem of what is going on inside your head causing you to 'panic'??? ( 'panic' is a hateful word to describe this problem).

Tell yourself that you are NOT going to release the arrow until you have established the correct anchor position. Then draw the arrow back until you get to a stage where you feel that if you pull back any further you will loose.

At this stage, let the pressure off the arrow and relax. You have now pulled the arrow back to and not released it. Try again and again, getting closer and closer to the correct anchor position, but never letting go. I also find having a fellow archer or Coach with you to give words of encouragement to you, and to monitor how close you get to the correct anchor position, is very helpful.

Eventually, with practise and encouragement, you will establish the correct full draw position AND be able to control the release without 'panic' (ugh).

This will take several sessions at your club to resolve, but overcoming it will enchance your enjoyment of archery no end.

I can further assure you that simply adding a clicker is just masking the problem, and that at some stage in the future I GUARANTEE the problem WILL RE-O

Hope this helps....

Some times a fix is needed, rather like using crutches when you have broken your leg. The trick is to know when to stop using them.
Yes by all means use a clicker, and develope a proper shot routine, anchor aim and expand through the clicker then loose. Stick to your shot routine even if you do not end up using a clicker.

[GeoffT]

Originally Posted by Yorker

Wrong answer.
Every archer I have ever known to get this form of target fright (quoted as the 'worst and most serious form' by the archers reference) has had to spend months working with practice and encouragement etc etc. to just about sort it out.

OR.
Spend a fiver, put a clicker on, the rest of your productive archery career just began. With a clicker if it does not go clicker before you loose you loose a fletch, maybe an arrow, most likely into the grass or a tree if you are shooting field. There is NO other option bar to get through the clicker and loose. Thusly if you maintain your posture a clicker instantly blackmails you into shooting properly.

If you *must* go with the non clicker route, drop off 5lb of draw weight and go from there.

Agree almost completely with Yorker on this one. Except for the last sentence; when you have this problem you have it regardless of the bow weight. I have/had this problem with longbow and halving the bow weight did not help! Why are so many people anti-clicker?

[not dead yet]

i had this in a major way in 1973.

pull my dads nishiawa back without an arrow and could hold it forever. as soon as you put an arrow in the bow. could only draw half way back. before letting loose.



i would be shooting at a blank boss at short distance. to start.

[not dead yet]

yorker its not the poundage. and a clicker is a quick fix.... i use a clicker. but first you need to understand how bad each persons target panic or gold shyness is

you dont just stick a plaster on an infected wound.

my brother also had this issue, he changed hands, no issues anymore.

pete

[paulhuk]

Looking at some of the other options tried here the theme appears to be that fixing something so fundamental sometimes needs a 'quick jolt' type fix. Put on a clicker, change hands, shoot standing on your head, whatever. The problem seems to be that the sub-concious mind is taking over control and telling the fingers to release before the concious mind doing the aiming is ready. Inserting something into the process that kills the subconcious part stone dead for a while can get you out of the loop. It may be that after a period you can go back to shooting without the clicker or on the original hand or back on your feet because you have retrained the subconcious.

I know that some time after I'd 'cured' my problem I had my clicker fail on me in a competition and I was able to continue shooting, albeit not as well but at least I didn't crash out because the 'panic' set back in again.

[GeoffT]

Originally Posted by not dead yet

my brother also had this issue, he changed hands, no issues anymore.

pete

Who did you sell him to?

[not dead yet]

geoff,,,you think i'm mad........

he knocks spots off me

[sheiladrums]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I feel so pleased to know that there are other people out there with the same problem! I thought it was just me.
I also tried shooting with my eyes closed at a close boss which I found helpful, but also am now having difficulty opening my eyes - the very sight of the sights waving somewhere in the vicinity of the target is enough to trigger a loose, seemingly automatically. It's really buggered up my shooting (4yrs, 1st class).
So I've made a training aid: piece of dowel about 10" long, suitably notched at either end, and made a proper 14" bowstring witih loop servings, centre servings, nocking points, the whole kit and caboodle - so that it felt real on my lips/chin/nose - the authenticity of the feeling was important. Got a broken arrow with nock, cut 3" off the nock end (to make a very small arrow), fitted it to the string, cut a one-sided depression in the dowel to accept the other end of the "arrow", securing it with a rubber band. I can swing the arrow out, unhook the string and slide on a loop of rubber shock cord/bungee cord. I have two weights/thicknesses of this, so can adjust the weight I am pulling against. Then the cord passes through a plastic grip (the sort you get from Wilkinsons for carrying shopping bags so they don't cut into your fingers) and I stand on the end of the cord - if I change the place I stand on and the knots either side of the handle I can further adjust the weight. I can come up to full draw with this contraption, looking my hall mirror and it feels like I've got a string and arrow against my anchor point - and just hoooollllldddd it there. As I'm still struggling a bit, my next refinement is to fix (somehow) a sight pin on the plastic handle, so I can aim at the small target I've got sellotaped to my mirror, so I can practice putting the sights on the target and wwwaaaiiitttiiiinnnggg, rather than the sight picture of the pin-on-target being the signal to loose. I really feel this has helped. If I could post an attachment here, I would, hope this description has been of help. It was a very, very difficult job making a 14" bowstring - it kept twisting and I had to do it about 8 times before I got the angle right - oh, I forgot, I had a picture taken of me at full draw and I measured the angle of the string on my face - 135 degrees , so I got that right to increase the authenticity of the feel. I might investigate getting some proper wooden grips to similate holding my bow.
regards

[sheiladrums]

Forgot to say, I think "panic" is a good description - it felt like stage fright. although I'd struggled with a too-quick release for quite a while anyway, I then had a string break on me (my own stupid fault, I loosed without an arrow on the string, how dumb is that?) and I got scared that the string would break if I held it too long at full draw. I had a lot of "tension" in my life at the time too - I think the advice about working out what's going on in your head is very important.