# Need help shooting



## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

Obviously you have the skill to shoot 60x, now you need the mental game. Unfortunately, this is the hard part for many of us.

First step is to realize that you are not shooting a 60 arrow tournament. You are shooting 60 separate one arrow tournaments. Each arrow is a new opportunity to win another tournament. It doesn't matter what you did on the last arrow, the only thing that counts is this arrow. Shoot your form and let the bow shoot itself.

Suggest that you go to the General Archery Information section and find the thread on GRIV's 10 yard game.

IMO, you can't shoot a 300 or a 60X unless you've already done it. Use the shorter yardages to build this confidence. Len Cardinale told me that accuracy comes from confidence. You build your confidence at shorter ranges and gradually work out to the full distance. 

There were a lot of threads on the mental game in the early years of Archery Talk. Use the search to find them. Especially read the posts by George Ryals - AT username GRIV. There is some great reading on the subject.

Hope this helps,
Allen


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## dchan (Jun 29, 2004)

my other question would be, How many arrows do you shoot for each session and how often do you shoot? Do you shoot to warm up, then the 60 arrows and pack it up? or do you practice for an all day type event. 

I tell people they should be shooting 2-3x the number of arrows that they expect to shoot in an archery event.

If you are very consistently shooting 3-4 good arrows and then a flyer on the last, it could be you are just running out of steam. Time to walk up, rest your arms and brain, relax, etc the reset may be enough to get your next round. How fast are you shooting? are you giving yourself enough time between shots to recover?.. These are all part of that mental game Allen is talking about as well.

DC


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## Stubby'smom (Mar 20, 2010)

Are you making sure that you are putting the same effort and concentration into every single arrow? For me, I'll shoot a 5x, get complacient so my form won't be as good and the next end I might shoot 1x or even a 4. It sounds like you are at a point where you are a decent archer, but it's still not 2nd nature so you have to make sure and put some thought into the way your form feels and not just shoot.


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## mike 66 (Jan 21, 2010)

hi there crooked pinky, lets take a close look ill start with your set up. do you weigh your arrows? is the bow tuned?do you spine check your arrows? are all you nocks set the same way ? or do you put your set up in a shooter and fine tune them so your sure it not the set up?ok lets say all is PERFECT.then look at the shooter, a video of you shooting will show just whats going on.is the anchor perfect every time? do you have equal weight on both feet? is the bow hand the exact same?is your follow through dead?is the sight pic perfect?when you miss do you know why?are you pulling to much weight? is your shot sequence the exact same way each time?DID YOU ANTICIPATE THE SHOT AT THE AIMING MOMENT? the video wiil show just whats going on with that. now the mental this only works if your conscious mind has the trust of your release and your shot sequence. this can only happen if your mind is 100% on your aiming.. ok now are you running out of steam? are you over holding? is the mind 100% on the X? DO YOU HOLD AND GO OUTTA YOUR COMFORT ZONE? do you release at the same time every shot? i forgot which coach told me , but your subconscious mind will just let you shoot in a certain comfort zone. like allen said as soon as you reach the top score you had you get outta that zone, and its very hard to trick you mind to believe you better. this stops a lot of shooters cold and MOST never improve.....mental imagery will help...ok now tournament nerves , how do you do under pressure????? and like dchan said, are you running out of steam?? are you over controlling. are you canting the bow or dropping your arm??? or punching? or trying to see where it went? collapsing?NOT LETTING DOWN???? record everything on paper , videos... work on one weakness at at time .. set a goal, a simple one that you can reach like 2 points in 4 mo. analyze your shots, when you do something right too... compare, targets,shots, good ones and bad ones, if its nerves......... keep going to more shoots, shoot more so your mind gets use to the pressure.....this will take a while to get in a comfort zone too. hope this helps you............... coach mike farmer


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## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

Great post Mike!!!


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## Garceau (Sep 3, 2010)

mike 66 said:


> hi there crooked pinky, lets take a close look ill start with your set up. do you weigh your arrows? is the bow tuned?do you spine check your arrows? are all you nocks set the same way ? or do you put your set up in a shooter and fine tune them so your sure it not the set up?ok lets say all is PERFECT.then look at the shooter, a video of you shooting will show just whats going on.is the anchor perfect every time? do you have equal weight on both feet? is the bow hand the exact same?is your follow through dead?is the sight pic perfect?when you miss do you know why?are you pulling to much weight? is your shot sequence the exact same way each time?DID YOU ANTICIPATE THE SHOT AT THE AIMING MOMENT? the video wiil show just whats going on with that. now the mental this only works if your conscious mind has the trust of your release and your shot sequence. this can only happen if your mind is 100% on your aiming.. ok now are you running out of steam? are you over holding? is the mind 100% on the X? DO YOU HOLD AND GO OUTTA YOUR COMFORT ZONE? do you release at the same time every shot? i forgot which coach told me , but your subconscious mind will just let you shoot in a certain comfort zone. like allen said as soon as you reach the top score you had you get outta that zone, and its very hard to trick you mind to believe you better. this stops a lot of shooters cold and MOST never improve.....mental imagery will help...ok now tournament nerves , how do you do under pressure????? and like dchan said, are you running out of steam?? are you over controlling. are you canting the bow or dropping your arm??? or punching? or trying to see where it went? collapsing?NOT LETTING DOWN???? record everything on paper , videos... work on one weakness at at time .. set a goal, a simple one that you can reach like 2 points in 4 mo. analyze your shots, when you do something right too... compare, targets,shots, good ones and bad ones, if its nerves......... keep going to more shoots, shoot more so your mind gets use to the pressure.....this will take a while to get in a comfort zone too. hope this helps you............... coach mike farmer


Good God.....people pay good money for less than half that info!

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## crookedpinky (Mar 26, 2012)

Thanks to everybody. Great posts.I'll keep working on it. Really good advice

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