# Releasing the trigger hard?



## BadCo55 (May 29, 2013)

I read on the forum somewhere that when people release the trigger hard it throws the arrow off, i think i do this but im not sure how i would go about changing it, thanks


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## da white shoe (Mar 10, 2009)

Yes, it is called punching the trigger and it is, shall I say... less than desirable! 
Most people that first pick up a bow will usually try to aim by going back and forth between focusing on the sight pin and the target. 
Then, they try to time the release of the arrow to the moment the pin is on the target. 
They will have every muscle tense... really trying to hold that string back. 
What tense muscles end up doing though is.... making the sight pins move and dance around a lot.
It also is very hard to consistently tense a muscle to the exact same degree from shot to shot. 
However, it is relatively easy to *relax *a muscle to the same degree from shot to shot. 
In archery, being consistent in every facet of your shot is what everyone should be striving for.
But, you have to change how you approach archery to begin with and realize that you do not need to "shoot the bow." 
The attitude that you want is.... let the bow shoot itself.

Here's is how you make the change.....

..........................................LEARNING BACK TENSION AND THE SURPRISE RELEASE..................................................................................

Your muscles have to be relaxed at full draw... and remain relaxed... in order for your sight pins to be steady. At full draw, your release hand as well as your bow hand, should be completely relaxed. You don't want to be grasping or squeezing the barrel of the release or the grip of your bow handle. Also, do not force either of your hands open. Your fingers should be hanging limp and relaxed. I lightly touch my first finger and my thumb together around the bow handle, but some like to use a wrist sling. Use the bones in your arms and the muscles in your back to draw the bow. Use the same bones and back-muscles to hold as much of the weight of the bow at full draw as you can and I would recommend drawing the string straight back to your anchor point. Hold the bow out, pointed at the target, draw it straight back using your back muscles and without lifting it any higher. Once at full draw, 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 shoulders, torso and legs, too. Always remember; it's the tension in your muscles that 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 sight pins will barely even move. Almost like a bench rested rifle! It is very important that your peep is the correct height and your bow is set at the correct draw length... right down to the nats rear end... 1/8" can make a difference. If it is too long... or too short, you will have a very hard time relaxing fully.

There is a lot more to shooting a bow than relaxing muscles however. You can bet that someone shooting a bench rested rifle at 300 yards won't pull the trigger... he will just keep putting more and more pressure on that trigger until the rifle goes off. There is a way to shoot a bow using that same concept. It is highly accurate and, really, it's the best way to shoot a compound bow with sights... whether for targets or hunting. If you want to learn it, I've outlined the process below. If you don't want to shoot this way... if nothing else, these are some good tips for a new archer to know.

.............................. .........THE GRIP.......................... ........................
Before drawing the bow, position your hand on the grip and start pulling with your release hand to put pressure on the string. You are trying to find the exact position for your bow hand to be in. You want to feel all of the pressure from the bow handle on one point of your palm... right from the start of your draw. I have always remembered Randy Ulmer’s description of it. He said to pretend that there is a steel rod running parallel and exactly between the two bones inside 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. 
Your bow arm should be straight, but not completely locked. The crease in your skin on the inside of your elbow should be facing the bowstring at full draw. Also, if you will rotate the bottom of your bow hand away from the bow a few degrees for your grip, you will clear a path for the bowstring even more and negate torque at the same time. Remember to keep the muscle on the palm relaxed too. Learn to find your grip before you draw the bow on every shot, but once you start your draw, do not move your bow hand AT ALL.

.............................. .............................. ...............ANCHOR......... .............................. ..............
There is no universal anchor point that will work for everyone, but there are some things that make a great anchor point. Having at least two solid, easy-to-repeat points of contact with your face is recommended. For instance, the string just touching the end of the nose.. with a knuckle of the release hand dug in behind the jaw bone. The perfect one would have your head held straight with the rest of your spine, shoulders level, release-side forearm in a straight line with the arrow at full draw and no part of the string in heavy contact with any part of the face.

As long as these things are kept in mind, whatever feels comfortable will be OK, but remember that the higher your anchor is, the lower the peep is in the string. The closer you have the peep to your nock on the string, the lower your sights will have to be. At some point that can make it impossible to shoot at a decent distance... what that distance ends up being depends on the bow and the arrow used.
The main thing to remember is, your anchor is like the rear sight on a rifle... if it's not the same every time... you're probably going to miss a lot. 

.............................. .............................. ............BACK TENSION....................... .....................
Using a conscious movement of a finger to trigger the shot is what we’re trying to get away from here. Your finger is loaded with nerve endings. It is much too sensitive and closely tied to your brain. Your mind recognizes a certain sight picture and screams, “NOW!” Your brain is always faster than your reflexes and this method of shooting can be inconsistent... and your entire shot can go down the tubes in a very big way!

Flexing a large muscle group to trigger the shot is the answer. In order to use back tension to achieve a surprise release, you must trust the bow, your form and the arrow. In order to become that trusting, your form, concentration and execution have to be very consistent. That takes a lot of work... and enough time and repetition to make it stick! You have to be able to completely focus on the spot you want to hit and let go of control... control of the bow, the sight pin and the moment of release. You’re brain isn’t going to be able to do that without a lot of re-programming! You have to do it in steps and you can’t take any shortcuts.

Learning to give up control is far easier using a back tension release aid. I'm not saying you can't use a trigger release to get a surprise release, but it is a lot easier to cheat with a finger-triggered release. After you have mastered this technique, it will be fairly easy to learn to do the same thing with your hunting release. 

With an index-finger triggered release, you will contact the trigger with the pad between the first and second knuckle. Hooking the finger deep over the trigger will keep the sensitive fingertip from taking over. You put as much pressure on the trigger as it will take, then you freeze the finger and just use your back tension to put the final amount of pressure until it goes off.

To shoot using back tension, you flex or squeeze the release-side muscles of your back... sort of like you are trying to make one shoulder blade touch the other one. To find these muscles, have someone stand facing you while you pretend to hold a bow at full draw. Have them grasp your elbows and try to gently force you to give them a hug while you resist, all the while keeping your arms relaxed. The back muscles you feel resisting are the ones you need to flex to trigger the shot.

............................ ..............THE FOLLOW THROUGH....................... ...............
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 go without grabbing for it. Good follow through takes practice.


.............................. ..............THE FIRST STEP.......................... ...................
It's tempting to just go right out and try all of this on a target at 20 yards, but DON'T DO IT! When you start trying all of this for the first time, it is very important, and it will speed up the learning process... if you completely eliminate the aiming part of shooting the bow. Work on relaxation and a surprise release before you ever have to worry about aiming. You need to ingrain the feel of the shot process so that it becomes automatic... as in the term, "muscle memory." You do this with your eyes closed at first. 

To get a feel for this, your target needs to be at the same height as your arrow at first. I hang my target from a rafter and stand close, so that the tip of my arrow is about 3 1/2 feet away from the target at full draw. After you reach full draw and have lined everything up, close your eyes, relax and think through every step of the shot. 

.............................. ...............THE FOUNDATION.................... .....................
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 tired of doing this drill every day that you are ready to die of boredom, (something like 3 weeks later... at least 1000 arrows), only then is it time to learn to do it while aiming.

.............................. ..............AIMING.......... .............................. ..............
To aim, reach full draw with a perfect T form, line up your bubble level, pick the right pin and center it all 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. That introduces torque. Your upper body and arms should at all times form a perfect T shape at full draw.
When everything is lined up, start consciously relaxing muscles. Hold the bow back with your back muscles. Start with relaxing your hands and work your way up your arms and through the shoulders. When you've shot this way long enough, you won't have to even think about this step. 
Then go into aiming mode. Your full concentration switches to the spot and only the spot. The pin is blurry and it 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 through 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 at the point that you start breaking arrows because they're hitting each other at 30 yards... you'll begin to crave that feeling! Just remember that it's important to never be able to anticipate exactly when the shot will break. You need the surprise... just like a benched down rifle shooter does. No cheating! Focus... concentrate on the spot you want to hit and just squeeze through until the shot breaks.
It defies logic, really, but at some point in all of this learning process you will definitely know you are doing it right. Arrow after arrow will keep going dead center of the bull's-eye... even when you know the pin was not on the spot at the time your release triggered. 
Like some kind of Zen-master ninja jedi... no kidding!


.............................. ....................THE BRIDGE........................ .............................. ..........
At this point, you’ve learned how to trigger the shot with back tension and a surprise release.

Only now, with this last step... will you tie your new shooting process in with the aiming process. Move to 5 yards with a shoulder height target that has one big spot to shoot at. A six inch square of duct tape or even a paper plate will work nicely. 

Begin shooting. Let the shooting process you've instilled run on auto-pilot... all you should have in your head is that spot. Nothing else matters. Trust the bow to do it’s job. Shoot one arrow with all the concentration you can muster, walk up and pull it and repeat. Keep in mind that at this stage, where the arrow ends up in the target isn't important. What you are trying to do is capture the feeling of the perfect execution of the shot... while aiming at the same time. 

At some point, all of your arrows will start to find the center of the spots. When that happens... and you feel like you are consistent in your form, aiming, release and follow through... move back to 10 yards and do it all again with the big spot. When it all comes together at 10 yards, use a smaller spot to aim at. 

Repeat the process out to a good distance, but don't be in a hurry to get there! Take your time and make sure it is all working before you move back. If it isn't, move closer again. It is a good idea to begin each practice session at the hanging target with your eyes closed. As always, it is very important to quit shooting when you start to loose your focus... that's when bad things happen. 

Good luck and I hope this helps you in some way.
Zane


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## mike 66 (Jan 21, 2010)

:shade: yes thats called punching............. good info from the white shoe above.. i see this almost every day..here is how i deal with it. first i get the release to fit i like the release aids that have a strap so it can be adjusted to your hand no ones the same i get the trigger so its right behind the 2 joint of the finger at full draw... then without moving the finger you tighten up the back muscles nice and slow till it goes off. i also take all travel from the trigger out not a hair trigger but crisp one . hope this helps mike


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