# Follow through and the surprise release



## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

Just thought I’d drop a little nugget of info that has helped me over the years. First of all, I tend to think and do things less conventional than the majority of things you read in these forums, but what I do, I do well, and if by some chance it’s helps at least one other person, I feel it is worth sharing. 

I’ve naturally had a very good bow arm from the beginning. What that means, is I hold reasonably well with very little movement. I’ve refined it through practice and in depth study of my sight picture. But there is another element often discussed, but not fully understood by many. Follow through. 

Follow through is simply stated, but often very difficult to obtain consistently. The simple version is just watching the arrow hit the target after the shot, but it goes much deeper. It goes into the muscle reactions before and during the shot, and even further into the bow set up. 

If you pay close attention to what your bow does after the shot, every shot, you may notice that sometimes it kicks to the side, back, or forward, and sometimes it feels like it doesn’t move at all. None of those are necessarily bad. I know the first thing you are thinking is grip issues and torquing the bow, but again, not necessarily bad. A well tuned bow (including torque tuned) will still pound the X with a little funky grip action. What is important is that you are noticing what it’s doing. At least when you are building your shot process. Don’t focus on it, just pay attention. 

Anticipating the shot is a major inhibitor of good follow through. It’s also why most believe a surprise release is so important. Myself, I believe it’s just a band aid for poor muscle reaction at the bow arm. After thousands of shots, there isn’t much of a surprise release anymore. To a degree, you will know when it is going to fire. I believe that’s why I always shoot a little better with a button than I do with a hinge. I make it go off when I want it to. That’s not a great idea if you are still struggling with holding it in the middle, but very, very effective if you can. 

Have you ever noticed that you can spend days on the blank bale and as soon as you look at a target, you struggle to get it to fire when you think it should? What I am suggesting is to stop doing that. Think more about holding better, follow through, and commanding the shot. 

I’ll get into more detail and how bow set up affects follow through as the arguments come in. 

Fire away.


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

No argument here. More years back than what I want say I started with a recurve, a Fred Bear 60", 40 lb at 28". R.R. got me going right there in his shop. I didn't know what he was getting at, but keeping aim right through the shot and until see or hear the arrow hit. So fast cars took my attention and then racing motorcycles. Years forward I got into Trap shooting, definitely a follow through game. Yep, swing through the target and keep swinging. Pistol shooting was/is a little different. I was taught to focus on the sights and let the target blur. Basically, I follow the sights all the way through recoil. This would be a 32 year absence from any bow; 20 years ago I picked up my first compound bow and follow through was right there with me.


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## Scottspot50 (Nov 21, 2017)

Timely post for me. I’m working hard on my follow through now because I found that I was getting tired my shots moved to the right of center. A little self analysis showed my follow through was moving out to the right and creating a corresponding movement in my bow. I’ve corrected that and now I’m carefully patterning a consistent follow through.


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## enderson (Apr 21, 2015)

Very well said, and I'm also at a similar conclusion. Been shooting a hinge for most of the past 7+ years and spent endless hours training the mind to accept the 'surprise' release and it just breaks wherever the float is. Been at the 300- 25x level for awhile now but never totally at peace with the method. Since I shoot the fulcrum flex started spending a lot of time with the abyss thumb lately and feeling shots I've never felt before. Not mashing the thumb, using parts of how I work through the hinge but definitely more in control of the shot with the thumb and also with less movement. Like you mentioned, the disconnect of holding/execution and the bow arm and follow through seems tremendously important. It's interesting how much of it seems just conscious choice and strength of mind. Choosing to maintain a strong but relaxed hold and soft bow hand several beats through the break. Aiming through the shot like Sonny said, that's always been really helpful as well.

I would often use a very slow no click to further expand the window of acceptance of non control over the shot and break. On the positive side I can hold in the middle without issue but on the other hand maybe it is just a crutch like you said. 



Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


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## LMacD (Mar 16, 2015)

Cool timing: I haven't been on AT for well over a year and thought I'd check in. First thing I see is an interesting topic with some ideas to chew on. And no argument here.


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

Anticipation-

It’s nearly impossible not to anticipate the shot going off. It’s the main cause of target panic. We all suffer from it to a certain degree. Waiting for the surprise release is very difficult. I personally feel like it is impossible to focus on both ends at the same time, so you have to pick one. 

You hear many folks say they aim subconsciously and focus on the release, but I’ve found it more beneficial to do just the opposite and focus on aiming while letting the release happen on its own. In doing so, I’ve found it much easier to see what is happening through the shot process. But it starts with learning how to hold it in the middle very well, and refining the release set up to go on command without throwing off the shot. It’s actually very easy to do once you accept it can be done. The best way to describe it is “heavy”. A heavy trigger on the edge of the sear, or a “cold” hinge has always given me the best results. I know with either I can get into the shot and focus on holding without an accidental fire. The rest is just getting comfortable holding it there and training the release end to happen when my brain trigger says “GO”.

That leaves nothing to anticipate. No waiting. No surprise. You just have to make sure the follow through is working, or it becomes “punching”. There is a difference. Punching introduces flinching of several muscles that should be relaxed throughout the process, or at least unwanted tension that influences the action of the shot. Those little actions, however slight, produce movement at the shot you may not even notice. Similar to the guy you see closing his bow hand to catch his bow, when those movements occur before the release goes off, they absolutely affect the shot, and the shooter often doesn’t even know it’s happening. 

The command shot with a relaxed bow arm and good follow through on both ends leaves only the location of the pin as the excuse. It will hit where the pin is, every time.


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## *SWITCH (Nov 27, 2007)

> cbrunson - but I’ve found it more beneficial to do just the opposite and focus on aiming while letting the release happen on its own. But it starts with learning how to hold it in the middle very well, and refining the release set up to go on command without throwing off the shot. It’s actually very easy to do once you accept it can be done. The best way to describe it is “heavy”. A heavy trigger on the edge of the sear, or a “cold” hinge has always given me the best results.


This is how I have shot for last decade, ever since I saw Dietmar Trillus shoot and his subsequent article on command shooting, which sadly I can't find, but he stated very similar things as above also pre -loading the trigger etc. The article was a response to people saying he punched the trigger. Which of course he wasn't.

have also always been of similar opinion that you will get to know when a back tension release is going to fire after a certain amount of shots anyway, goodbye surprise release.

I see sooo many archers with a light trigger just punching away....some do ok....most not. of course there are a lucky few who punch to a high level.


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

"The article was a response to people saying he punched the trigger."

No, wasn't punching. It was in reference of the type of release he used.....I believe shortly after he won Vegas....And Tim Gillingham's; "Glad to see a Puncher win it."


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

Balancing the bow vs stabilizer performance. -

Most people seem to believe that stabilizers are for balancing the bow. While it certainly makes sense to have it sit neutral in your hand, the most important thing is to get the bow to do what it needs to do at the shot. 

With most of the bows I’ve shot, the set up wasn’t very critical, so getting it to hold well was my main objective. At 20 yards, that seemed to work well for the most part. But holding well, and hitting well are substantially different products. Especially when you start reaching out to safari shoot distances. I know stabilizer tuning is not often discussed, but it certainly is a factor once all other aspects of the shot are refined. I found with one certain manufacturer’s bow, even as little as 1/3 of an ounce on the back bar brought average group size at 80 yards down to less than half what it was prior. That little amount appeared to have no affect on visible movement. 

So what does that tell me? Is the bow holding better? Or is the bow performing better?

I’ll leave that for you to decide, but with that bow I had to move away from the balanced feel and post shot action to achieve better results down range. It actually kicked back a little, which seems counterintuitive. The results were the goal though. Not the feeling. 

Something to think about when you get a little stuck.


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## reddogjack (Dec 7, 2016)

ttt


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## dmedd (Sep 15, 2015)

Over the past thirty years, I’ve tried every release type and every style of shooting imaginable. I have found the subconscious release yields tighter groups for me than straight back tension where the bow and release explode apart. I have too many inconsistencies, that I can’t explain, when I wait for the release to fire. I’m not a puncher by any means, but I do like having a little more control when shooting at longer distances.


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## Steven Bressan (May 6, 2009)

For finger shooting a clicker is the best way to go. Once you are on target you start your back tension to pull that silly millimeter longer for the clicker to go off and your fingers will open. With proper back tension your bow arm should shoot to the side, Right Hand archers bow goes to the left, etc.

Your finger will go straight back. I practiced keeping my finger to rub against my face after release until they hit my right shoulder. 

For compound shooting I always used a back tension release. Stanislowski were the best. I wonder if he is still in business. You could set one up with a click so that you knew you were close to releasing the shot.


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## lees (Feb 10, 2017)

Looks years old, but some of the info here is still not quite right today. For example:

"It’s nearly impossible not to anticipate the shot going off. It’s the main cause of target panic. We all suffer from it to a certain degree. Waiting for the surprise release is very difficult."

No, it's perfectly possible. If the shooter is actually utilizing the surprise release and doing it properly, the precise timing of the shot* can't* be anticipated - that's both by definition and the practical reality of what the surprise release accomplishes. Waiting for the release shouldn't be difficult. If it is, that means the shooter can still anticipate the instant of the release. That's not a surprise release. The instant of the release is still being controlled if the shooter is still able to anticipate it with any real precision.

That's perfectly ok, but this just happens to be a description of simple command-shooting by another name. Not the surprise release.

As for the clicker, on a side note, check out Jake Kaminsky's Youtube channel. He's currently working with the "grip sear" technique for externally timing the release with barebow. I've tried it on my recurve and it's very promising for TP sufferers like myself for finger shooting. I use a clicker on recurve, but if I shot barebow, I'd definitely pursue the grip sear....

lee.


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

"Surprise release" seems to have different meaning. For me, there is no surprise release. I know the release going to fire, just not to the precise moment. I hold, I employ back tension and whenever the release breaks it fires.


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## lees (Feb 10, 2017)

SonnyThomas said:


> "Surprise release" seems to have different meaning. For me, there is no surprise release. I know the release going to fire, *just not to the precise moment*. I hold, I employ back tension and whenever the release breaks* it fires*.


You're describing the surprise release - if you "don't know *when* the *release aid* is going to fire", that's pretty much the encapsulation of the surprise shot. There are two elements to it: a) you aren't in control of the instant of the release (AkA you're not "timing the shot", something else is) and b) you can't determine the timing of that instant precisely enough to be capable of anticipating it.

That's pretty much the sum total of the surprise shot. The mechanism can vary - a release aid can take over the control of the instant of the release altogether, or a clicker or grip sear technique can time the release for you for finger shooting - but the essence is "you don't know *when *it's going to fire".

If you don't know when the release (or the command to release) is going to happen, you are executing with a surprise release. The key is that you can't anticipate it. That's why it puts TP in full remission, where the other methods consistently fail. It's the only method that actually eliminates the underlying cause of it.

lee.


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## 1tiger (Jan 24, 2005)

due to target panic[ shot antisipation] i switch to a hinge over a year ago and while i still on occasion force the hinge once its close[ no click] i am shooting much better. but one thing i dont understand is when i here people say they shoot with a relaxed bow arm,for me the only way to slow my float is to add more and more pressure to both the bow arm and the release arm till she breaks. although i am still working on getting more consistant i am at a 300 50+ x count and that was never going to happen till the hinge came along once target panic set in.


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