E: On the inhale turn on the “internal video player”. See the bow drawn smoothly, the finding of the anchor points on the ear, jaw and mouth if you use a kisser button. See the sight housing aligned within the peep sight, the pin resting comfortably next to the spot and then watch the arrow flying in a gentle arc and into the spot. I play this “video” during practice and often on weight training or resting days. The brain is a powerful and strange organ. I believe that if a task is suggested often enough to the mind, the task and outcome becomes acceptable and the results even expected and as such “normal”. Others call this technique visualization. Depending upon my level of fatigue and degree of panting from moving to the next target or from the hike retrieving my arrows, the breathing and video playing can go on for up to three additional breath/counts. For now we will continue on and exhale on the count of 5. F: On the last exhale open the eyes. Find the grip position. My particular riser responds best to pressure just outside and parallel to the “life line” running on the inside of the large pad at the base of the thumb in the palm. Now turn the head to address the target. If some spinal alignment has been lost, at this time again make sure the head is fully erect. Now raise the bow while maintaining focus on the target. The sight window now is on the same horizontal plane as the intended target. During the inhale, the bow arm is extended at the same time the drawing arm moves rearward. The action of squeezing the shoulders blades together facilitates the fluidity of this motion. The bow arm extension should stop just before the elbow moves into the locked position. The inner face of the joint should not protrude beyond straight and into the string path. Typically, the drawing arm elbow is past the 90 degree point in its arc rearward when the bow arm reaches full extension. Now the peep sight and string anchor points are brought to the face/jaw. Under no circumstances should the head duck forward or cant to the side toward the string. The bow, its string and fixtures must be brought to the shooter’s face without moving the position of the shooter’s head. Once the anchor points have been fixed, the bow arm and shoulder may be relaxed. By relaxed, I mean the bone structure should now be aligned such that little or no muscle tension is required to maintain the bow arm’s position at or near the perfect 90 degree angle to the vertical line of the body. Allowing the long bones to rest in their joints and into the shoulder ball socket so kindly supplied by the Creator, combined with the tension of the bow, will provide a very solid and repeatable launching platform. The drawing exhale is released and then a three quarter breath is taken in while finalizing sight alignment. Release the breath and at about half lung capacity, stop releasing the air. Do not “hold” the breath. Just stop breathing. Your body will settle down for a few moments while the autonomic nervous system tries to figure out what to do next. It is during this quiet moment you should begin to depress the trigger. Snipers and long distance marksmen have been using this breath control during trigger application for many years. There is ample reason to use the same technique for archery. The effort, after all, is about marksmanship and bowhunters are, in effect, close range snipers. If done correctly, the release happens on its own. Some refer to this as the surprise release. If you begin shaking you can take another three quarter and then half breath and start the squeeze again. If the shaking movements become too great, let the string down and begin the sequence again wherever you feel comfortable. Time on the practice range is cheap. Spend as much of it as necessary here. The paybacks will come when in the field. I read in many forum folks shooting 100 or more arrows in a single practice session. In my opinion, this serves only to re-enforce bad habits. If one is doing something incorrectly, doing so more frequently does nothing to correct the situation. Some folks will say they need two or three quivers to get “warmed up”. I believe people confuse “warming up” with getting mentally focused or getting “in the zone”. For warming up I highly suggest stretching exercises before shooting practice to avoid pulled muscles. Being prepared to shoot your best on the first shot is a skill every bowhunter needs to hone. When you have just spent three hours on stand, making as little movement as possible and the buck of a lifetime walks into range; you will likely have only one shot. Being in the zone for that shot is more important than broadhead, bow and arrow choice. I have a self imposed limit of two rounds of 12 arrows per practice session. On weekends I sometimes practice both in the morning and evening. This forces me to focus on each and every shot. It promotes concentration knowing I have no shots to waste. I am hesitant to let a poorly executed shot go downrange. When I used to practice before breath control I would stay on range for about an hour shooting countless rounds. I still allow an hour for each practice session but the experience is much more gratifying. Not to mention the vastly improved groups. I hope this helps. As always, I am open to comments and suggestions. Thanks for your patience and I apologize again for the length of the post. Konrad
I disagree Predator. This was an excellent read and I look forward to these type of posts. Thanks Conrad for taking the time to write these up!
