# out of the zone............



## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

Mike,
Good thread! You are totally correct! :thumbs_up
I've heard several top pro archers say "Don't let yourself shoot a bad shot." 
Allen


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## Supermag1 (Jun 11, 2009)

I do agree with you but the problem is that it's a 1,000,000x easier said than done. A person has to train themselves to be able to let down when it doesn't feel right just like they have to train to find the same anchor or follow through every time. The compounding factor is that as we learn archery, letting down when something doesn't feel right is one of the last things we learn and rightly so because if one doesn't know what right is, how do they know when it feels wrong.


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## mike 66 (Jan 21, 2010)

good question, letting down in my opinion should NOT be the last thing you learn. i teach this to all even beginners. after i go through the form issues i then hammer the shot seq. i want this in stone ..after a few ends i tell them if you dont follow the seq. NOW i will stop you. and make you start over and do it right...[i dont allow them to shoot] it dont take long for them to realize if they dont do it perfect they cant shoot. after a while a few perfect ends. then i tell them a few things that they should not be doing..like you were holding way to long you should of noticed the float going bad . or shot seq was good but you had that good looking gal on your mind and you couldn't take your eyes off her and you shot a 4 when something does not feel right like a sweaty hand slipping . peep out of alignment or ANYTHING that crosses the mind other than the x you let down. start over do it right so you dont miss. i dont think i can ever remember seeing someone getting help from a buddy and hear the person say anything about letting down because it dont feel right.but a coach on the other hand will...or in my opinion should. :cool2:


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## Supermag1 (Jun 11, 2009)

mike 66 said:


> good question, letting down in my opinion should NOT be the last thing you learn. i teach this to all even beginners. after i go through the form issues i then hammer the shot seq. i want this in stone ..after a few ends i tell them if you dont follow the seq. NOW i will stop you. and make you start over and do it right...[i dont allow them to shoot] it dont take long for them to realize if they dont do it perfect they cant shoot. after a while a few perfect ends. then i tell them a few things that they should not be doing..like you were holding way to long you should of noticed the float going bad . or shot seq was good but you had that good looking gal on your mind and you couldn't take your eyes off her and you shot a 4 when something does not feel right like a sweaty hand slipping . peep out of alignment or ANYTHING that crosses the mind other than the x you let down. start over do it right so you dont miss. i dont think i can ever remember seeing someone getting help from a buddy and hear the person say anything about letting down because it dont feel right.but a coach on the other hand will...or in my opinion should. :cool2:


Oh, don't get me wrong, I agree that letting down should be taught fairly early on and do it with my students but most of people don't have the advantage of learning from a coach and we learn on our own.

BTW, you might never have seen it but when I notice one of the guys I regularly shoot with fighting something while at full draw (obviously something doesn't feel right), I will tell them to let down. It usually takes saying it 3 times before they actually do and it usually ends up with at least a 10 (3d scoring) instead of who knows what. You usually want to say it calmly so they don't flinch and let one fly or do a emergency let down that might hurt themselves (or they look for the problem and not seeing it ignore letting down and shoot an even worse shot).


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## JLighty (Jul 25, 2016)

This is something I need to practice. I can draw the bow slow and smooth but I tend to struggle letting down slowly and smoothly. Good tip. Something I probably wouldn't have practiced without a little nudge.


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## Atascaderobow (Nov 4, 2014)

Devil's Advocate here: So you are on the clock and its running down you can 1) shoot a bad shot or 2) don't shoot and take a zero, how disciplined are you? 

We were shooting the Cal State games and one of my buddies target mate was a Cadet compounder. The kid took a zero instead of letting go with a bad shot.... that's discipline. I imagine if was a shoot where the stakes were higher it might be a different story. In this case the kid may have cost himself a podium position, but I tip my hat to him and his discipline.

And yes you do need to practice letting down. Seen several arrows launched down range due to folks trying to let down when they were under pressure. Trigger thumb or back tension seen it happen with each type of release. Letting down is something out of our ordinary shoot process.

Sometimes in a let down situation, with my Oly bow, I will go ahead and pull thru the clicker just to see where my shot would have gone. The visual image isn't very pretty. Usually my sight picture ends up well into the blue / black.


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## Bowgren2 (Jul 13, 2016)

Some equipment is easier to let down than others. My old bow about pulled your hand forward in letting down. Thanks for good advice, we often just take the shoot even if it does not feel right. I need to practice this more myself. Without practice it is easy to let arrow fail in front of the line. In some cases when a cease fire is called due to range conditions, several arrows are launched instead of letting down.
Pressure is part of the mental game in competition. Convincing yourself that any score is better than none, is a part of the game. Perfect practice makes perfect. I have seen more people standing around waiting for the top shooters to finish then timing out.


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