What do you think about during the shot?

[Cato]

I am talking with a guy over the net who seems pretty knowledgeable about target panic. He suggests that in its simplest form, it boils down to the brain "monkey jumping" from one thought to another, and that the brain will only focus on one thing at a time.

It got me to thinking. What do you guys think about during the shot process? How does it vary from a practice environment to competition?

During your practice, are you mentally going over the numerous parts of your shot process that you have felt the need to work on all during the course of one shot? Or is it one thing at a time?

[Torsten]

Sorry that I did not put this out in a more friendly and encouraging way but that's it.
When you have your unpaid bills and worn rubber, boots missing toilet paper in your mind you will hit the toilet.... but not the target.

The eyes check what the hand does, checks draw length and gives permission to release.

What it comes al up to is to concentrate on your shot for AT LEAST!!! 100%

Period.

When I miss, I eventually come back to my own 'wise guy phrases' and HIT

[Torsten]

Kommas in the wrong place,

thought about toilet paper,

Missed!

[Heathen]

For me when I start thinking about the shot is when I screw up. I need to learn some of that Kung Fu Grasshopper Bhuddist monk stuff. :)

Seriously when I start to concentrate too much on the shot I tense up and that's when the TP strikes.

Jim

[Bob Gordon]

When in competition all my concentration is going into what I am doing and everything else pretty well gets shut off, same with hunting, I can't even hear a conversation going on behind me when at full draw or getting ready to draw, it just seems to all go into the shot. If I pay any attention to outside distractions things seem to go downhill, I just try to put it all together for a few seconds and then go back to normal....warf

[Papabull]

Just like pounding a nail. It's easier to learn how to focus and concentrate when you're pounding a nail, though, because you get immediate feedback about your mistake that's impossible to ignore. Our ranks would be chock full of truly great archers if your thumb turned black and blue and your thumbnail fell off every time you made a sloppy shot.

[steve morley]

I like to shoot by feel. Meaning during practice I build my form to a point where I can feel if it's right or wrong, this allows me to put all my focus downrange where I want my arrow to hit. :shooting:

I Don't even think about the release, it's all done subconciously.

[Viper]

Steve -

Think like every body else, when "shooting" it's the point I'm aiming and the "sight picture". Practice can be any part of the form that needs work that particular day!

Viper out.

[Cato]

Please clarify:

While during practice, as you draw, and as you anchor, are you going over mechanics in your mind? Are you coaching yourself on various mechnics?

And during competition, do you do any analysis of your last shot, or what you should do on your next shot?

In other words, if the last shot (in competition) was not what you wanted, are you coaching yourself about what to do different on the next shot before you draw. And during your draw?

As an accountant, I tend to over analyze I'm sure. Trying to learn what you guys do.

[Bob Gordon]

Cato...In practice I'm shooting groups and trying to correct a little on each arrow shot. I do think about every arrow for a moment after the shot and try to figure why it went where. In competition (3-D) I force myself to quickly forget the last shot as it is history so why dwell on it. I just walk to the next target and do my little range estimation thing and prepare the shot and shut off any outside distractions and repeat the whole thing all over again. When a 40 target match is over I'm mentally tired and if the course is a steep and rugged one the old bod is tired too but my mental attitude is the same from the first target to the last. If you start thinking to much about the last arrow shot or why it was a bummer shot it will drag you down and have some affect on your score, a shot arrow is gone, forget it and keep on going....You will know in a instant why it went where due to bow arm, release, bad yardage guess, etc. so just keep going.....warf

[Stick'em]

I just got back from practicing 10 minutes ago. I cannot tell you exactly what I was specifically thinking about, but when I was hitting the bull I was relaxed and I wished the arrow in. I know that sounds odd, but that is what happened. As I got more tired I relaxed less and thought more about mu shot and aiming and did not hit the bull. Wish it - feel it - hit it!

[Heathen]

I get this mental picture of the Swiss Miss girl in a thong with those pigtails and it's not pretty..!!! :)

Jim

[Desert Archer]

Cato,

In answer to your two questions, yes to both. I think about the elements of the shot in both practice and during competition.

I run through a routine from the time I draw an arrow from the quiver until it gets to the target. I check stance, finger position on the string, hand position on the bow, anchor, bow arm, sight picture, holding the sight picture while I push slightly with bow arm and keep pulling with the back. Then I concentrate on keeping the bow hand/arm up during and after the release. Interestingly the one thing I don't think about is the release. When I do I screw it up.

After the shot I look at where the arrow went (if I can see it) and try to figure out what went right or wrong. In a tourney it isn't to beat myself up over a bad shot but to analyze what I did and either repeat it or correct it.

Dave

[James Wrenn]

When hunting I am thinking how long a drag is it to the truck? When at the 3ds I am thinking about the joke someone just told or the one I am fixing to tell. :)

Really I just think about getting the arrow there and don't think too much on the things it takes to do it.

[Desert Archer]

Isn't it interesting what different approaches we all take to this business of shooting the bow and arrow!

Dave

[Butts]

I like to shoot by feel. Meaning during practice I build my form to a point where I can feel if it's right or wrong, this allows me to put all my focus downrange where I want my arrow to hit. :shooting:

I Don't even think about the release, it's all done subconciously.

Do I observe in your photo (cool picture) that you have aloose bow grip. If so do you use one of those stings around your wrist and bow or as by who you are and what you have accomplished is that not necessary

[steve morley]

BUTTS

No I don't use a sling, thinking back to my Recurve days I had a straight wrist open hand style, never used a sling then. Just one of those things I learnt do without really thinking about it.

The reason my hand is relaxed is so I get good even hand pressure and don't torque the bow.

:thankyou: for the comment on the photo, amazing who special effects can make an ugly bloke look good. lol

[Viper]

Butts -

The sling thing (finger or wrist) on a longbow, usually doesn't work, as the "shelf" is big enough to stop the bow from falling through the open hand! A sling attached to the bow would work, but not sure if that's legal in longbow.

BTW - glad you made it over!

Funny story, last week, I was working with a longbow shooter on relaxing his grip, really had a death grip on the thing, and a FITA guys comes by and trys to get him to use a finger sling. I'm trying to signal him to cease and desist, and he's not getting the mesage. He puts the sling on longbow guy's fingers, and I finally asked him to open his hand, the bow slipped right through!

D'oh !!!

Steve -

:thankyou: for the comment on the photo, amazing how special effects can make an ugly bloke look good.

"Looking good" might be pushing it a little :p, but that is really is a great picture!

Viper out.

[swampy]

Hank,Heathen perhaps ya should think about aunt Jamima LOL

When Im shootin for score I seem to do better if I don,t think to much,I do have a check list before drawing...check stance, bow grip,finger grip,and that my thumb is against my pinky.Once the draw starts I just try to see the line all the way thru the X

Pickin dandalions with judo,s I just try to pop their heads off without much though at all

[van_fl]

When training anyone including me. It’s a step by step procedure.
1. locate the target.
2. nock arrow
3. bow hand grip(or lack of)
4. draw on target
5. hit anchor point
6. adjust arrow point on target
7. release
If you do this when practicing it will become second nature when hunting and doesn’t take any more time then snap shooting. BUT you will find that, target panic or buck fever doesn’t come home to haunt you. Your mind can have parallel thoughts. however the body with out training can only react in a one by one instructions (but very quickly) With training the reaction to one step commends well seem to be mutable reactions. :2cents:

[Phil]

Sorry to get all nerdy and geeky on y'all (colonial phrase there :D )but this is an area I know a little about and this may help.
In archery, as in all shooting sports, we use the two main centres of locomotion and movent regulation of the brain, The Pyramidal system and the Extra pyramidal system. Now , the Pyramidal system (P.S.) is connected to the Extra Pyramidal System (E.P.S.) via the pyramidal Tract ( mostly consisting of the basal ganglia and the sub cortical neucli). The PS is the part of the brain that initiates movement, it doesn't control or regulate any voluntary movements it just send the message to start a known (neurologicaly speaking) sequence of events. Then, the EPS takes over and becomes the part of the brain that recieves the feedback information from the tens of thousands of sensory neurons located all around you body. Are you still with me ....good ....now... when a shot goes well it's because the sequence of events initiated by the PS is not recognised by the EPs. In other words there were no compensations to be made. When a shot goes wrong it's because the EPS has attempted to modify an action that the PS has requested. In other words, you (yes you) the archer has interfeered with what the brain wants to do.
So.. how do you stop the neural modification of the original PS sequence initiation,.... easy... sensory neuronal actvity complies with a very strict "pecking order" ie the most important signals get delt with first. Usually the area with the highest concentration of sensory neurons are the most important as far as the brain is concerned. So, if you can stimulate a non reactive sensory field saturation then you will not interfeer with the shot. A good example would be to put a small stone in your shoe and concentrate on the feeling of the stone . To put it all in simple terms Divert the priorities of the locomotor centres of the brain

Y'know sometimes it's rearly hard being me........ :shooting:

[van_fl]

wish that i had said that. :lol:

[CarolinaBob]

SEX my wife says that all I ever think of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jhinaz]

I wish I could block out everything the way that Bob Gordon does when making the shot . When I'm shooting A/B line and C/D shooters are speaking within ear-shot behind the shooting line I have a very hard time blocking it out ..... I'm usually thinking about strangling them but sometimes there's an interesting topic and I get drawn into thinking about what they're saying. :sbrug:

[Bob Gordon]

JHINAZ...I learned to shut off outside noise many years ago so I wouldn't have to listen to my wife when she was yelling at me! Works every time....Bob

[swampy]

JHINAZ,I sometimes have a hard time with that also.

My wife thinks I do a good job of blocking things out but then shes not at the line shootin either LOL


CarolinaBob "SEX my wife says that all I ever think of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yesterday 11:09 PM" LOL My wife is goin to watch me shoot in my first big comp next weekend she said she would @*R(%R@((*!(#$(*@($@$)$% @$)@ for each bull I got ;) :D

[George Tsoukalas]

When I can empty my mind that's when I shoot well. Thankfully, there's not much there so emptying my mind is pretty easy. :) Jawge

[Torsten]

I refer to George: nothing! Well said.

That exactly describes the fun, enjoyment and increased determination I get out of instictive/interactive/in situ archery

[Lane Puckett]

Someone once said (I can't remember who my mind was wandering at the time) that anyone that can concentrate on one problem for greater than 4 minutes could control the world.

That quote has stuck with me. Anytime I have a critical issue it comes back to me and changes my approach.

My very best shot ever was on a small buck years ago. I remember seeing his chest/lung area bracketed by the limbs of a small pine between me and the deer. At his spine was a bough and at the bottom of his chest was another one. I recall vividly thinking all I had to do was get my arrow exactly between those two boughs and it would be a perfect shot. I think they were about 8 inches apart. I had a perfect shot. To this day I can remember that shot and that arrow flight but not a multitude of others that were equally well placed.

Empty the mind of anything other than the work at hand.

[Cato]

So here is a conclusion:

In practice, as Dave said, you think about your technique. Probably, because the brain only wants to focus on one thing at a time, you pick one element of your form, stand close to the target, and work on that one thing.

But at some point, you shoot for results. At that time, you try to empty your head, block out distractions, and focus on the spot, in whatever way you do that.

Make sense?