So I figured that this forum has been empty for way too long. I might as well be the one who kicks off the first thread here. I was reading on the other forum about how a few of you at the GTG picked up on some advice that I had given to Buckeye. It's advice that I recieved from my coach about 3 years ago, and part of what I worked on to improve my shooting. It's one of the most important things in my opinion to shooting better scores. Trust your float. What seperates top level shooters, from the middle of the pack? When looking at the groups of those top level pro's, and the middle of the pack shooters that are fairly proficient, we honestly all have similar sized best groups. The main difference between top level shooters and the middle level shooters is the flyers. Remove the flyers from most of your 30 arrow groups, and now you have a world class group. This would indicate that the overall floating pattern of the pin on the target between the top level shooters, and mid level shooters is very similar.......with the exception being that it is more consistent for the top level shooters. So one of the steps to get to that next level of shooting ability (not the first step), you need to find a way to make that pin float more consistent and to build trust in it. There are ways to reduce the size of the float, however consistency is so much more important. You need to build the trust and consistency first, then work on reducing the float. The first step to make this float consistent is build yourself a solid repeatable form and shot execution. Once this has been done, you then need to accept and realize that a normal amount of movement of that pin on the target is going to happen, trust your float and not focus on it (your subconsious will keep things aligned once your on the spot). When you can trust the float, you can then focus on whats truly important, staring and focusing your conscious thoughts on the spot you want to hit (not the pin), and allowing your shot execution to happen..........subconsiously. Again, the trust in your pin float is best learned after one has obtained repeatable form and shot execution, and has built that shot execution into their subconsious. So assuming you now have repeatable form and shot execution, how do you train yourself to trust that float? Like anything else in this game, it's an attribute that very few just happen to grasp naturally (there are some but I'm certainly not one of them :d ). It's something you usually have to train yourself for specifically. I cringe when I hear people give the advice of aiming at smaller dots to improve their shooting. There is a time and a place for that, but that is only effective after one has obtained solid form, execution (subconcious), and trust in their float. There are ways and a proper time in your process of becoming a better shooter but it's so much more important to obtain these other things first, they will make much more noticable improvements in your shooting abilities. During this period of teaching yourself to trust the float, I feel it's much more important to instead focus on shooting at larger spots, so that you can easily hold on them and trust your float, so that you can build that trust into your execution that you are well within that spot. Gradually (over a period of several weeks and 1000 shots) work yourself down to a smaller spot. When I was working on this drill with my coach, I started with a 4" spot at 20 yards, and eventually worked myself down to a roughly 1" spot (vegas 10 ring). During this time I focused on setting up the perfect shot, trusting my float, and the rhythm and timing of my optimum shot window........that period of time that if the shot breaks within, you are most likely to hit what your aiming at. Hope this helps some of you.
Very informative. I've really been trying hard to improve my shooting lately over the past 6 months. Thanks for sharing.:d
I love these kind of posts. These are the kind i really learn from. Kudos to you Matt for taking the time to put that together.
Yep, this is the kind of info I've been privy to for almost a decade with this group of guys. Posts like Matt's here is what's responsible in large part for making me the archer I am today. Thanks Matt!
