How to Shoot a Bow the Right Way
Posted By
Bill Winke
at
4/11/2011 12:00:00 AM
Filed under:
journal
“Target panic" is a nervous condition that many archers get when they command the release to occur at a conscious and specific time. It shows up in the form of an inability to hold the pin on the intended target while aiming. You may find the pin sticking on the low side. That is very common. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t raise the bow that last inch required to put the pin on the spot you’re trying to hit. So, instead you try to flip it up there with your wrist at the moment of release. You won’t find that technique in any archery manuals.
Learning to trigger the shot by surprise is the key to long-term accuracy.
Or, you may experience slightly different symptoms, such as trying to punch the trigger as the pin zips across the spot. It is not good form and soon turns into a downward spiral that leaves you wondering if you will ever enjoy shooting a bow again – and if you will ever hit the animals you are aiming at come fall. You have to avoid it, and if you have it, you need to break it right now. In this blog, I offer the methods for doing just that.
HOW IT STARTS
Typically, target panic gets started because you try too hard to control the exact timing of the shot. Your brain screams “NOW” as soon as the pin pauses on the spot. Soon you’re so paralyzed by the moment and the timing required that you can’t even get your pin on the target and if it there when you pull the trigger, it invariably jumps off before the arrow leaves the bow. 
Target panic starts with trying to time the moment of the release.
I’ve fought target panic to varying degrees at least once per year since I started seriously bowhunting. Here is what I have learned.
Most people don’t have the ability to cure target panic by simply focusing harder. It’s time for a little brute force therapy. If you saw the movie “What About Bob” you remember the time Richard Dreyfuss’s character strapped dynamite to Bill Murray’s neurotic, paranoid character. It had the affect of shocking at least a partial cure. That’s what you need. You need serious medicine for a serious disease.
HOW TO CURE IT
I can almost guarantee that if you’ll give it a fair trial, this approach will completely cure your target panic and make you a much better archer in the process. This method calls for a release that takes you completely by surprise. Without any way to know when the bow is going to fire, you can’t anticipate the shot. All you do is aim and ZAP the arrow is gone.
There are two ways to perform a surprise release. You can try to make it happen with your existing release (all release aids can be shot this way if you know the technique). Or, you can buy a specially designed back tension release that doesn’t have a trigger. I recommend the back tension release. In fact, our sponsor, Scott Archery, has a great training aid for bowhunters (and a great competitive release for 3-D and target shooters) called the Longhorn Hex. The Lonhorn Hex pivots and as long as you keep your fingers off the release aid, relying 100% on the wrist strap to get the string back, you won’t have any problems with pre-maturely triggering the shot. 
If you will make a commitment to this release aid for the off-season, you know that you will be amazed by how effortlessly and accurately you can shoot a bow – and how much fun it is. Not to mention the confidence you gain from taking fully control of the shot – rather than leaving it to your spastic nervous system to sort out. I know it sounds like I am over-pitching this concept, but seriously, this is the key to shooting a compound bow correctly. If you take nothing else from this website this year, at least take away this information on beating target panic. I have even covered the subject in the most recent MW-Offseason episode to further reinforce its importance.
You can always go back to your hunting release during the final week or two before the season to get a feel for triggering that release style by surprise too.
You fire pure back tension releases by a pivoting motion of your hand in conjunction with pulling against the back wall at full draw. The Longhorn Hex has an adjustable mechanism that automatically fires when your hand turns a certain amount. Eventually, after weeks of shooting, you may be able to anticipate the release, but then you can simply change the timing of the release and that will have your guessing again.
Stay relaxed and let the release arm fly back and the bow fly forward. This may be the first time that you’ve actually needed a bow sling. Shoot for several days until the release no longer startles you, but instead is simply a comfortable surprise. Once this feeling is ingrained into your nervous system you’ll know the true joy of archery. And you’ll know that your old enemy, target panic, is finally beaten.
THE PAYOFF
To retrain your senses to accept this new release style you will have to start from scratch. Move up close to the backstop. Allow the explosion to be a normal, expected part of the shot. Don’t fight it. Before you can hope to execute this type of release while actually trying to hit something, you will have to ingrain the feel. In my experience, this will take about a week of shooting 30 to 40 arrows per day. Then you can start aiming.
There are other methods to learn to produce a surprise release
including the spring trigger releases from Scott Archery, but
none is as effective as using a pure back tension release.
Even if you never plan to shoot a back-tension release during competition (they aren’t normally suited for hunting), you owe it to yourself to use one as a training aid during the off-season. Nothing I've found cures target panic faster than a couple of months with a back-tension release. Soon you’ll be floating the pin around the spot as you let the release take you by surprise. Your nerves will be calm and archery will be a blast. You will want to shoot all day long!
