# trigger punching



## Bowmaddness

i cant stop punching the trigger HELP ME


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## aread

Some band aid solutions:

Get rid of the trigger & learn to shoot a hinge release. 
Get one of the "Can't Punch" releases
Draw with your finger or thumb off of the trigger and don't put it on the trigger until you have your shot lined up.

Unfortunately, you will eventually go back to punching with all of these if you don't get to the root of the problem which is a poor shot sequence.


For a more permanent solution get on a bale and develop a shot sequence that you trust to run on a subconscious level. This can take months, but if you do it right, you will be a much better archer for it. A good coach save you a lot of time. I think that you live close to Larry Wise. He's excellent.

Good luck,
Allen


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## GARY PARISH

Other simple things you could check is proper draw length. Most people are shooting too long of a length and don't realize it. If your shooting a caliper style wrist release, try shortening it to put your index finger in a more deeper finger position and simply squeeze the trigger while doing your absolute best to hold the pin in the center of the target. This is best done at a close range (10ish yards),and like said above, do so till you can calm your subconcious into knowing its ok and comfortable to relaxe with the pin holding on the target. The biggest thing is to just be patient and let the shot happen and suprise the dickens out of you. Mastering this will not happen over nite, but it will calm your panic down to a more manageable level for now. Like said above as well, in the off season, try a back tension release or a pull/squeeze triggerless design. Its going to be frusterating at first, but discipline yourself and stick with it. Your shot will gain alot of positivity and you will feel much more comfortable and enjoy the fun of archery. Good luck


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## Travis Shaw

Try some blank bailing at like 3 yards, not really fun but if you consitrate on the release it can help.


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## rlbreakfield

You have taken the MOST IMPORTANT step already. You realized you have a problem and you want to fix it. Remember your situation is 100% mental. You are subconciously relying on a certain visual stimulus, i.e. "seeing" your aiming device getting close to or approaching what you want to hit and then your brain is signalling your body to activate the shot. You have got to break that mental link between your eyes and your brain. Your brain or attention should be 100% on aiming. You should never "think" about firing the shot. There are actual physical devices and drills of all types that can help you overcome this form of TP. A good coach can shorten your learning curve dramatically. It has already been suggested to contact Larry Wise, that my friend would be the best money you can spend right now. Believe me I've got a drawer full of releases of all types and I can punch every one of them. Your road block is mental, you can beat it on your own but it could take months if not years to do so. Get your self a coach, there are many great coaches in your part of the counrty. You can move past this road block and if you do it correctly, I promise it will introduce you to an archer you never knew existed inside you. Good Luck!


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## darton3d

I recently worked with someone who had the same problem. We tried a release called "The Answer" which locks up if you punch it. It worked for a while then he was just locking it up everytime he tried to shoot. He shot up close with his eyes closed for several weeks and seemed to be making progress. Then shot up close with eyes open but no sight, and made progress. Then up close with a sight and made progress. But as soon as he tried to shoot from any kind of distance the punching returned. He was very frustrated. So I got him a Carter "Squeeze Me" release. He went through the same process while learning to shoot it, up close with eyes closed etc. He is now loving archery, smiles everytime we shoot and is anxious to shoot every day! It helped to teach him to shoot with back tension. We also reprogrammed his focus. Don't focus on putting the arrow in the X, focus on executing a perfect shot each and every time. Too many people focus on the result and not the process of how to get there. I also taught him to let his subconscious do the aiming, put visual focus on the target, your subconscious will center the pin. Put your conscious mind in charge of your form and execution. It works for some, not for others. Everyone is wired differently. By the way, this person is 11 years old. Don't give up, don't get frustrated. Experiment until you find what works for you!


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## TargetShooter2

you need to repeat the 8 words you spoken here , take your release and ok ok i wont go there .

you need to post on here where you are looking for a shooting buddy to help you over this 
with what you mention here you can not address the issue it's lacks any detail in you and your equipment
but i will leave you with this :

when you change direction 
you change your mind ::

no you didnt change your mind 
you changed direction 

TS2


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## scottranderson

Bowmaddness he is right punching the trigger is way to broad of a term, We can try to give you some ideas but we need to know the breed of poor shot exercution. like I get to full draw and before I aim I jump on the trigger. or Im aiming and the shot will not go off and I jump on the trigger and force the shot out. or I aim and when the pin starts getting close I jump on the trigger. or I am aiming and I am squizing and when the pins there I have a big increase in trigger pressure. there are many differnt demonds. I have only had 1 breed of this and blank boss does nothing for the type I did over come.


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## mike 66

punching,99% of the time comes from one source FEAR....THEY DONT TRUST THE PROGRAM...MOST PUNCH THEN TORQUE THE GRIP...BECAUSE THEY ANTICIPATED THE PUNCH. SEVERAL OTHER EXAMPLES, HAIR TRIGGERS,RELEASE THAT DONT FIT, CHEAP RELEASES,RELEASE TRIGGERS THAT MOVE AND DONT GO OFF. ALL CAUSE FEAR...MOST OF THE STUDENTS I SEE HAVE THE TRIGGER WAY TO FORWARD WHEN I SEE THE FINGERS REACHING FOR THEM OR PUNCHING, I HAVE THEM ADJUST IT JUST PAST THE FIRST JOINT,AND SHOW THEM HOW TO USE THIER BACK MUSCLE S TO SET IT OFF NOT THE FINGER.


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## goathollow

I had what I think is the same problem. What worked for me was:

1.) I put the release trigger in the first joint (instead of ahead of the first joint like with a rifle) of my trigger finger which helps me squeeze the trigger instead of jerking or punching it (I prefer to call it plucking the trigger).
2.) At full draw I bend my bow arm a little bit more than normal, I then apply about half as much pressure on the trigger as is needed to make it go off. I then push my bow had toward the target thus extending/straightening my bow arm and thus putting additional pressure on the trigger causing a surprise release. 

This technique is obviously difficult to do if your draw length is too long. If you need to you can shorten your draw artificially (without changing cams) with a smaller D-loop (assumes you use one), and/or a shorter release, and/or a release that has the trigger closer to the bow string (eg, Tru-ball short-n-sweet...there are many other examples I'm not advocating that particular release).

Hope that makes sense. It was what I was taught by someone far more knowlegeable than me and it seems to work for me.


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## da white shoe

If you had a deer rifle at the range, benchrested over sandbags and you were trying to hit a 3" spot at 300 yards, my guess is you would never hit it unless the shot took you by surprise. The minute you try to control the trigger on that rifle, that 3" spot is pretty safe.

Bows are different, in that we can't bench them down to shoot. We have to physically hold the weight of the bowstring back at full draw, yet we have to find a way to let the bow shoot the arrow, while at the same time introducing the least amount of influence on that shot with our muscles and minds. The only way to do that is by using back tension and a surprise release.

That's easy to say, but where do you start? For someone, (like me), who learned to shoot a bow using only their eyes, reflexes and a quick trigger finger, it takes a well thoughtout plan of attack to overcome target panic. It can be done though! I did it, all by my lonesome in the back yard... over the coarse of many months and I still do exercises every summer to keep it from coming back.

I'll say right at the start here... you may be better off getting a good coach, but, if that is something you can't or won't do, I can tell you how I did it and the things I learned along the way. You may already know some or all of this... but here goes!

How to shoot with back tension and a surprise release 
If you're useing an index finger triggered release for hunting, you need to touch the trigger with the 2nd pad back from the tip of your finger. (Don't use the tip of your finger. It is too sensitive and easy to move.) To do this, you have to keep your release shortened up. With some releases you will have to keep the strap very tight and with others, not so much. For target panic, you really need a pure back tension release to learn how the shot and your aiming process should feel. For hunting, you can then re-learn how to use an index finger release using back tension.

Before you draw, position your hand on the grip and start pulling back to put pressure on the string. You are trying to find the exact spot for your bowhand to be in. On your bow hand, you want to feel all the pressure from the bow at full draw, at one point on your palm. Pretend there is a steel rod running parallel and exactly between the two bones in your forearm. Where that rod would exit your palm is where this point is. If you find this spot, it will help keep you from torqueing the bow handle. It will help to negate torque if you will rotate the bottom of your bowhand away from the bow a few degrees. Once you start your draw, do not move your bow hand AT ALL.

At full draw, your release hand, as well as your bow hand, should be completely relaxed. That means that you don't want to be grasping or squeezeing the barrel of the release with that hand, or the grip of your bow handle with the other. Also, do not force either of your hands open. Your fingers should be hanging limp. I lightly touch my first finger and my thumb together around the handle, but some people use a wrist sling.

Use the bones in your arms and your back muscles to hold as much of the weight of the bow at full draw as you can. Relax every muscle in your arms that you don't need to use to stay at full draw. That goes for the muscles in your torso and legs, too. Remember; tension in your muscles is what causes your sights to wobble and jump around. If you can learn to relax everything that isn't needed to hold at full draw, your sights will barely even move. It is very important that your draw length is not too long. If it is, you will have a very hard time relaxing fully. 

Next thing to work on is getting a surprise release. With your BT release, learn to do it by squeezeing the muscles of your back so that your shoulder blades are trying to touch. To find these muscles, have someone stand facing you while you pretend to hold a bow at full draw. Have them gasp your elbows and try to force you to give them a hug while you resist, all while keeping your arms relaxed. The muscles you feel in your back are the ones you need to flex to make the BT release fire. 

For the switch to an index finger... after you have learned to relax at full draw and your sight pins are fairly still, teach yourself to aim while slowly squeezeing your back muscles until the bow goes off. Put as much pressure on the trigger as you can without making it fire and then squeeze just your back muscles until it goes off. You can also slowly squeeze your trigger finger as a quicker way to fire, but I would stay away from that technique until you have completely mastered your IFR using BT.

To aim, reach full draw, line up your bubble level, (yes, you need one!), pick the right pin and center it or the sight housing, (which ever you do), in the peep. Next, move your whole upper body to get on target. You don't want to just move your arm up and down or side to side. At full draw, your upper body and arms should at all times form a perfect T shape. When the pin is on the spot, concentrate on relaxing and then start your squeeze. The pin will still seem to float around the spot, but you need to forget about the pin. You will naturally try to keep it on the spot without even thinking about it. You should be focusing on the spot and nothing else. Keep your concentration while slowly squeezing off the shot, making sure to follow through after the release. The first few times the bow goes off, it will scare the heck out of you. Keep at it! You will get used to it and it is important to do it right every time. No cheating! Focus on the spot you want to hit and concentrate on just the squeeze. You will know you are doing it right when your arrows keep going dead center even when you think the pin was not on the spot at the time your bow went off. Kind of like some kind of Zen-master ninja... no kidding!

When you "follow through" after the bow goes off, people say you should try to keep the pin on the target or keep aiming until the arrow hits. I've always felt that that was a bad way to describe it. You can't keep aiming or even see the pin once you shoot. What I would say is... keep your T form until you hear the arrow hit, do not drop your bow arm or move your head, stay relaxed and let the bow go where it wants to with out grabbing it. Good follow through takes practice.

When you start trying all of this for the first time, it will speed up the process if you do it with your eyes closed at first. Your target needs to be at the same height as your arrow. I hang my target from a rafter and stand close, so that the tip of my arrow is about 3 feet away from the target at full draw. After you reach full draw and have lined everything up, close your eyes and think through every step of the shot. 

When that feels VERY comfortable, move to a blank target that is 3 yards away and start shooting with your eyes open, but use no spot and try not to aim for a spot on the target... in fact, it would be better to just take the sight off your bow for this step. When you are so sick of this that you are ready to hang yourself, (like 3 weeks later), move to 5 yards with a spot and try it all while aiming. When you can do this, every time, without loosing your concentration, work your way out to longer and longer distances, but if you feel yourself slipping back to doing something wrong, don't be afraid to get close again. Don't cheat here! You are building a foundation and any shortcuts you take now will come back to haunt you!

The philosophy you want, is to think of yourself as a bow shooting machine. You have to stay out of the way to allow the arrow to leave the bow with no outside influences working against it... namely, YOU! Most people can get away with using muscles and mind to control their shot... for a while. Most people that have shot that way for a number of years are heading for some kind of target panic... mild or severe... and usually they have had some form of it for quite some time before they even admit that there's a problem.

Now, after learning this technique, do I kill every buck and bull shooting my bow exactly like this? No. Sometimes you have to time the shot or shoot quickly. But I will tell you, the basics of aiming like this are always there. Anymore, I do not punch the trigger even when I'm in a hurry. I just use a quicker squeeze!

Learn this and I promise you, you won't be sorry. It will absolutly cure target panic if done properly and it is the right way to shoot a compound with sights anyway. I just wish I had known all this when I was starting out. As it turned out, I had to go through 5 years of target panic-hell before I found all this out for myself!

Good luck and let me know how it goes! 
Zane


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## goathollow

Wow, good stuff! I'm not the one who asked the question but I appreciate you taking the time to write that up!!



da white shoe said:


> If you had a deer rifle at the range, benchrested over sandbags and you were trying to hit a 3" spot at 300 yards, my guess is you would never hit it unless the shot took you by surprise. The minute you try to control the trigger on that rifle, that 3" spot is pretty safe.
> 
> Bows are different, in that we can't bench them down to shoot. We have to physically hold the weight of the bowstring back at full draw, yet we have to find a way to let the bow shoot the arrow, while at the same time introducing the least amount of influence on that shot with our muscles and minds. The only way to do that is by using back tension and a surprise release.
> 
> That's easy to say, but where do you start? For someone, (like me), who learned to shoot a bow using only their eyes, reflexes and a quick trigger finger, it takes a well thoughtout plan of attack to overcome target panic. It can be done though! I did it, all by my lonesome in the back yard... over the coarse of many months and I still do exercises every summer to keep it from coming back.
> 
> I'll say right at the start here... you may be better off getting a good coach, but, if that is something you can't or won't do, I can tell you how I did it and the things I learned along the way. You may already know some or all of this... but here goes!
> 
> How to shoot with back tension and a surprise release
> If you're useing an index finger triggered release for hunting, you need to touch the trigger with the 2nd pad back from the tip of your finger. (Don't use the tip of your finger. It is too sensitive and easy to move.) To do this, you have to keep your release shortened up. With some releases you will have to keep the strap very tight and with others, not so much. For target panic, you really need a pure back tension release to learn how the shot and your aiming process should feel. For hunting, you can then re-learn how to use an index finger release using back tension.
> 
> Before you draw, position your hand on the grip and start pulling back to put pressure on the string. You are trying to find the exact spot for your bowhand to be in. On your bow hand, you want to feel all the pressure from the bow at full draw, at one point on your palm. Pretend there is a steel rod running parallel and exactly between the two bones in your forearm. Where that rod would exit your palm is where this point is. If you find this spot, it will help keep you from torqueing the bow handle. It will help to negate torque if you will rotate the bottom of your bowhand away from the bow a few degrees. Once you start your draw, do not move your bow hand AT ALL.
> 
> At full draw, your release hand, as well as your bow hand, should be completely relaxed. That means that you don't want to be grasping or squeezeing the barrel of the release with that hand, or the grip of your bow handle with the other. Also, do not force either of your hands open. Your fingers should be hanging limp. I lightly touch my first finger and my thumb together around the handle, but some people use a wrist sling.
> 
> Use the bones in your arms and your back muscles to hold as much of the weight of the bow at full draw as you can. Relax every muscle in your arms that you don't need to use to stay at full draw. That goes for the muscles in your torso and legs, too. Remember; tension in your muscles is what causes your sights to wobble and jump around. If you can learn to relax everything that isn't needed to hold at full draw, your sights will barely even move. It is very important that your draw length is not too long. If it is, you will have a very hard time relaxing fully.
> 
> Next thing to work on is getting a surprise release. With your BT release, learn to do it by squeezeing the muscles of your back so that your shoulder blades are trying to touch. To find these muscles, have someone stand facing you while you pretend to hold a bow at full draw. Have them gasp your elbows and try to force you to give them a hug while you resist, all while keeping your arms relaxed. The muscles you feel in your back are the ones you need to flex to make the BT release fire.
> 
> For the switch to an index finger... after you have learned to relax at full draw and your sight pins are fairly still, teach yourself to aim while slowly squeezeing your back muscles until the bow goes off. Put as much pressure on the trigger as you can without making it fire and then squeeze just your back muscles until it goes off. You can also slowly squeeze your trigger finger as a quicker way to fire, but I would stay away from that technique until you have completely mastered your IFR using BT.
> 
> To aim, reach full draw, line up your bubble level, (yes, you need one!), pick the right pin and center it or the sight housing, (which ever you do), in the peep. Next, move your whole upper body to get on target. You don't want to just move your arm up and down or side to side. At full draw, your upper body and arms should at all times form a perfect T shape. When the pin is on the spot, concentrate on relaxing and then start your squeeze. The pin will still seem to float around the spot, but you need to forget about the pin. You will naturally try to keep it on the spot without even thinking about it. You should be focusing on the spot and nothing else. Keep your concentration while slowly squeezing off the shot, making sure to follow through after the release. The first few times the bow goes off, it will scare the heck out of you. Keep at it! You will get used to it and it is important to do it right every time. No cheating! Focus on the spot you want to hit and concentrate on just the squeeze. You will know you are doing it right when your arrows keep going dead center even when you think the pin was not on the spot at the time your bow went off. Kind of like some kind of Zen-master ninja... no kidding!
> 
> When you "follow through" after the bow goes off, people say you should try to keep the pin on the target or keep aiming until the arrow hits. I've always felt that that was a bad way to describe it. You can't keep aiming or even see the pin once you shoot. What I would say is... keep your T form until you hear the arrow hit, do not drop your bow arm or move your head, stay relaxed and let the bow go where it wants to with out grabbing it. Good follow through takes practice.
> 
> When you start trying all of this for the first time, it will speed up the process if you do it with your eyes closed at first. Your target needs to be at the same height as your arrow. I hang my target from a rafter and stand close, so that the tip of my arrow is about 3 feet away from the target at full draw. After you reach full draw and have lined everything up, close your eyes and think through every step of the shot.
> 
> When that feels VERY comfortable, move to a blank target that is 3 yards away and start shooting with your eyes open, but use no spot and try not to aim for a spot on the target... in fact, it would be better to just take the sight off your bow for this step. When you are so sick of this that you are ready to hang yourself, (like 3 weeks later), move to 5 yards with a spot and try it all while aiming. When you can do this, every time, without loosing your concentration, work your way out to longer and longer distances, but if you feel yourself slipping back to doing something wrong, don't be afraid to get close again. Don't cheat here! You are building a foundation and any shortcuts you take now will come back to haunt you!
> 
> The philosophy you want, is to think of yourself as a bow shooting machine. You have to stay out of the way to allow the arrow to leave the bow with no outside influences working against it... namely, YOU! Most people can get away with using muscles and mind to control their shot... for a while. Most people that have shot that way for a number of years are heading for some kind of target panic... mild or severe... and usually they have had some form of it for quite some time before they even admit that there's a problem.
> 
> Now, after learning this technique, do I kill every buck and bull shooting my bow exactly like this? No. Sometimes you have to time the shot or shoot quickly. But I will tell you, the basics of aiming like this are always there. Anymore, I do not punch the trigger even when I'm in a hurry. I just use a quicker squeeze!
> 
> Learn this and I promise you, you won't be sorry. It will absolutly cure target panic if done properly and it is the right way to shoot a compound with sights anyway. I just wish I had known all this when I was starting out. As it turned out, I had to go through 5 years of target panic-hell before I found all this out for myself!
> 
> Good luck and let me know how it goes!
> Zane


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## Travis Shaw

goathollow said:


> Wow, good stuff! I'm not the one who asked the question but I appreciate you taking the time to write that up!!


 dANG THAT IS SOME GOOD COACHING TIPS RIGHT THERE THANKS


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## da white shoe

Thank you guys!

I actually wrote most of that a long time ago... got to love copy and paste.


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## logansdad

one thing that i teach to help people not punch the trigger is to take them about 5 yards away from a bag and shoot with there eyes closed. By doing this you can concentrate on your proper form and you can make sure that you are squeezing that trigger or using your back muscles correctly. If you do this for around 30 to 40 shots and focus on what you are doing on each shot you can head back to the range with some muscle memory built up.


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## rdneckhillbilly

da white shoe said:


> If you had a deer rifle at the range, benchrested over sandbags and you were trying to hit a 3" spot at 300 yards, my guess is you would never hit it unless the shot took you by surprise. The minute you try to control the trigger on that rifle, that 3" spot is pretty safe.
> 
> Bows are different, in that we can't bench them down to shoot. We have to physically hold the weight of the bowstring back at full draw, yet we have to find a way to let the bow shoot the arrow, while at the same time introducing the least amount of influence on that shot with our muscles and minds. The only way to do that is by using back tension and a surprise release.
> 
> That's easy to say, but where do you start? For someone, (like me), who learned to shoot a bow using only their eyes, reflexes and a quick trigger finger, it takes a well thoughtout plan of attack to overcome target panic. It can be done though! I did it, all by my lonesome in the back yard... over the coarse of many months and I still do exercises every summer to keep it from coming back.
> 
> I'll say right at the start here... you may be better off getting a good coach, but, if that is something you can't or won't do, I can tell you how I did it and the things I learned along the way. You may already know some or all of this... but here goes!
> 
> How to shoot with back tension and a surprise release
> If you're useing an index finger triggered release for hunting, you need to touch the trigger with the 2nd pad back from the tip of your finger. (Don't use the tip of your finger. It is too sensitive and easy to move.) To do this, you have to keep your release shortened up. With some releases you will have to keep the strap very tight and with others, not so much. For target panic, you really need a pure back tension release to learn how the shot and your aiming process should feel. For hunting, you can then re-learn how to use an index finger release using back tension.
> 
> Before you draw, position your hand on the grip and start pulling back to put pressure on the string. You are trying to find the exact spot for your bowhand to be in. On your bow hand, you want to feel all the pressure from the bow at full draw, at one point on your palm. Pretend there is a steel rod running parallel and exactly between the two bones in your forearm. Where that rod would exit your palm is where this point is. If you find this spot, it will help keep you from torqueing the bow handle. It will help to negate torque if you will rotate the bottom of your bowhand away from the bow a few degrees. Once you start your draw, do not move your bow hand AT ALL.
> 
> At full draw, your release hand, as well as your bow hand, should be completely relaxed. That means that you don't want to be grasping or squeezeing the barrel of the release with that hand, or the grip of your bow handle with the other. Also, do not force either of your hands open. Your fingers should be hanging limp. I lightly touch my first finger and my thumb together around the handle, but some people use a wrist sling.
> 
> Use the bones in your arms and your back muscles to hold as much of the weight of the bow at full draw as you can. Relax every muscle in your arms that you don't need to use to stay at full draw. That goes for the muscles in your torso and legs, too. Remember; tension in your muscles is what causes your sights to wobble and jump around. If you can learn to relax everything that isn't needed to hold at full draw, your sights will barely even move. It is very important that your draw length is not too long. If it is, you will have a very hard time relaxing fully.
> 
> Next thing to work on is getting a surprise release. With your BT release, learn to do it by squeezeing the muscles of your back so that your shoulder blades are trying to touch. To find these muscles, have someone stand facing you while you pretend to hold a bow at full draw. Have them gasp your elbows and try to force you to give them a hug while you resist, all while keeping your arms relaxed. The muscles you feel in your back are the ones you need to flex to make the BT release fire.
> 
> For the switch to an index finger... after you have learned to relax at full draw and your sight pins are fairly still, teach yourself to aim while slowly squeezeing your back muscles until the bow goes off. Put as much pressure on the trigger as you can without making it fire and then squeeze just your back muscles until it goes off. You can also slowly squeeze your trigger finger as a quicker way to fire, but I would stay away from that technique until you have completely mastered your IFR using BT.
> 
> To aim, reach full draw, line up your bubble level, (yes, you need one!), pick the right pin and center it or the sight housing, (which ever you do), in the peep. Next, move your whole upper body to get on target. You don't want to just move your arm up and down or side to side. At full draw, your upper body and arms should at all times form a perfect T shape. When the pin is on the spot, concentrate on relaxing and then start your squeeze. The pin will still seem to float around the spot, but you need to forget about the pin. You will naturally try to keep it on the spot without even thinking about it. You should be focusing on the spot and nothing else. Keep your concentration while slowly squeezing off the shot, making sure to follow through after the release. The first few times the bow goes off, it will scare the heck out of you. Keep at it! You will get used to it and it is important to do it right every time. No cheating! Focus on the spot you want to hit and concentrate on just the squeeze. You will know you are doing it right when your arrows keep going dead center even when you think the pin was not on the spot at the time your bow went off. Kind of like some kind of Zen-master ninja... no kidding!
> 
> When you "follow through" after the bow goes off, people say you should try to keep the pin on the target or keep aiming until the arrow hits. I've always felt that that was a bad way to describe it. You can't keep aiming or even see the pin once you shoot. What I would say is... keep your T form until you hear the arrow hit, do not drop your bow arm or move your head, stay relaxed and let the bow go where it wants to with out grabbing it. Good follow through takes practice.
> 
> When you start trying all of this for the first time, it will speed up the process if you do it with your eyes closed at first. Your target needs to be at the same height as your arrow. I hang my target from a rafter and stand close, so that the tip of my arrow is about 3 feet away from the target at full draw. After you reach full draw and have lined everything up, close your eyes and think through every step of the shot.
> 
> When that feels VERY comfortable, move to a blank target that is 3 yards away and start shooting with your eyes open, but use no spot and try not to aim for a spot on the target... in fact, it would be better to just take the sight off your bow for this step. When you are so sick of this that you are ready to hang yourself, (like 3 weeks later), move to 5 yards with a spot and try it all while aiming. When you can do this, every time, without loosing your concentration, work your way out to longer and longer distances, but if you feel yourself slipping back to doing something wrong, don't be afraid to get close again. Don't cheat here! You are building a foundation and any shortcuts you take now will come back to haunt you!
> 
> The philosophy you want, is to think of yourself as a bow shooting machine. You have to stay out of the way to allow the arrow to leave the bow with no outside influences working against it... namely, YOU! Most people can get away with using muscles and mind to control their shot... for a while. Most people that have shot that way for a number of years are heading for some kind of target panic... mild or severe... and usually they have had some form of it for quite some time before they even admit that there's a problem.
> 
> Now, after learning this technique, do I kill every buck and bull shooting my bow exactly like this? No. Sometimes you have to time the shot or shoot quickly. But I will tell you, the basics of aiming like this are always there. Anymore, I do not punch the trigger even when I'm in a hurry. I just use a quicker squeeze!
> 
> Learn this and I promise you, you won't be sorry. It will absolutly cure target panic if done properly and it is the right way to shoot a compound with sights anyway. I just wish I had known all this when I was starting out. As it turned out, I had to go through 5 years of target panic-hell before I found all this out for myself!
> 
> Good luck and let me know how it goes!
> Zane


This should be a sticky! Thanks Zane.


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