Target Panic

[kyler1945]

I guess you could just have the yips. But the yawning gap in pressure to perform between you shooting in back yard and most professional performers and athletes who gets them makes me doubt it.

I gonna posit a guess you’re just unfocused and have gotten loose with archery as a whole. Buying building tuning equipment and practicing with it, and then actually “shooting” are all part of the game. Lose 10% of confidence in each little step because you’re distracted with kids and work and wife= crap performance.

I’ve experienced a similar lull where I lost and busted a dozen arrows. But it was during the tuning and building process when I didn’t have a lot of confidence in the finished product. I got in my head and ahead of myself. Once I dedicated the focus, and got process back to perfect, all is fine.

If you’ve shot 10k shots through a compound bow, and can’t pick one up cold after days or months and keep an archers minute of angle(2”@20, 3”@30,etc) after 10 shots or so, you’ve got problems with your equipment or your focus.


Or it’s the yips. I think they make gurus for that…

 

[Madgrad02]

edit: in fact, practicing a lot with a punch-able release can make you a worse shot (messes my head up) and people don't usually get target panic until after they get pretty good (while you are new and have more physical things to focus on with the bow, then for me at least it kept the mental target panic demon at bay.....it only crept out once i had shot for years and wanted to keep getting better and better)

^this is what seems to be my case... almost afraid to hit target/stack break arrows (if that makes sense or is plausible)...

 

[Madgrad02]

I guess you could just have the yips. But the yawning gap in pressure to perform between you shooting in back yard and most professional performers and athletes who gets them makes me doubt it.

I gonna posit a guess you’re just unfocused and have gotten loose with archery as a whole. Buying building tuning equipment and practicing with it, and then actually “shooting” are all part of the game. Lose 10% of confidence in each little step because you’re distracted with kids and work and wife= crap performance.

I’ve experienced a similar lull where I lost and busted a dozen arrows. But it was during the tuning and building process when I didn’t have a lot of confidence in the finished product. I got in my head and ahead of myself. Once I dedicated the focus, and got process back to perfect, all is fine.

If you’ve shot 10k shots through a compound bow, and can’t pick one up cold after days or months and keep an archers minute of angle(2”@20, 3”@30,etc) after 10 shots or so, you’ve got problems with your equipment or your focus.


Or it’s the yips. I think they make gurus for that…

Haha... like you've seen me shoot... like hit 3 decent shots, send 4th arrow over the target under the mental "pressure" of needing 4 stick all 4

 

[Madgrad02]

I'll be the first to admit, most likely issue is that clump of soft tissue at the top of my head...

 

[cedar paul]

Archery when brokdown down to its simplest terms is 1. Solid bow arm 2. Consistent anchor ( established by draw stops with compounds)3. Constant back tension 4. Acceptable sight picture 5. This is where the magic begins - the arrow is released! 6. If all things are working together you hit your mark! We have a tendency to let the gray matter between our ears to complicate the whole process. Modern archery( compounds) which I enjoy also have removed some of the simple joy of shooting a bow in my opinion.

 

[Bowtie747]

Havent had time to read through this so if someone already said this I apologize.

Something that helps me with target panic is doing a “draw fire” type of shooting. Use an arrow of course, never actually dry fire you bow.

Draw, aim, hold. Stare at where you want the arrow to go. Let the pin float as it will because no one can hold it perfectly still. Then don’t shoot your arrow. Let the bow down. Repeat

Try this mixed in with your regular shooting. Or have a day set aside to not release an arrow.

I feel like it becomes a thing to when you draw back to have to shot the arrow. Doing this makes it more of your choice. What I’m trying to say is I feel like theirs some sort of “pressure” to shoot when you naturally want to shoot an arrow every time you draw back. This “pressure” can lead to some sort of target panic.

Always remember their are many types of target panic so this doesn’t help all of them

 

[Bowtie747]

Another tip which leads to spending money sadly is shooting a bigger housing on your sight. This helps that exact form of target panic tremendously. I’ve recently learned this like the last month. Was a tip from my local archery shop and it seriously helps.

 

[raisins]

^this is what seems to be my case... almost afraid to hit target/stack break arrows (if that makes sense or is plausible)...

another thing i do is only shoot 1 arrow rounds

every arrow is important, let the bow down before you allow yourself to shoot a bad arrow

1 arrow rounds slows you down and makes you focus on each arrow

it also prevents arrows from damaging each other and makes accidental dry fires less likely (you aren't in a mindless rhythm and if you draw and see an arrow in the target then you know to let down because you aren't loaded)

 

[Bowmanmike]

There are no short-cuts really. One thing that helped me to not anticipate the release is using my back tension to shoot, and not using command for it. I have an index release and curl my finger around the trigger and put some pressure on it when I am ready and then I focus on more backtension and the arrow release is a surprise. You keep your finger in the same position and just use your back muscles to shoot. It takes a little getting used to but not much compared to blind baling and the other exercises.

 

[cedar paul]

I concur and had many a good archer including Rick Welch tell me that shooting groups is actually detrimental to achieving accuracy and more about ingraining bad habits. Shooting a single arrow at unknown distances is better in learning trajectory than pouring a bunch at a known distance. Remember shoot good arrows meaning it's not about quantity but quality.

 

[Dcomer55]

edit: in fact, practicing a lot with a punch-able release can make you a worse shot (messes my head up)

Every type of release can be punched. Some are harder to punch, but if you aren't using a good shot process you'll eventually punch/anticipate them all.

I've shot them all - Resistance, hinge, thumb, and index. Didn't start to get over TP until I figured out the mental side.

 

[raisins]

Every type of release can be punched. Some are harder to punch, but if you aren't using a good shot process you'll eventually punch/anticipate them all.

I've shot them all - Resistance, hinge, thumb, and index. Didn't start to get over TP until I figured out the mental side.

true....but some just beg to be punched (index finger)

 

[Dcomer55]

true....but some just beg to be punched (index finger)

I agree. Kinda what I was getting at when I said some are harder to punch, just from the opposite direction.

It has been my experience that it is actually harmful to stay with a tension activated release on a permanent basis. I also think a tension activated release has some major negatives for hunting applications. They are a great tool and have their place, but should be a permanent solution.

The permanent solution is fixing the core problem of target panic - the mentality. Once you fix that you can shoot whatever release you want.

 

[hauscaliber]

EZ V sight is much more comfortable for me to shoot. I don't like staring at a pin it creates anxiety. I was still shooting good with a pin, but the EZ V sight made it much more easier and intuitive.

I would take some of the other recommendations offered here and if they don't work out, try the EZ V sight.