I read this and thought i would share it with all of our instinctive and traditional shooters
True Instinctive Shooting Theory
The left side of the brain runs the show, PERIOD.
Explanation:
---------------
The right side of the brain is an informant, reasoner, decision-maker, calculator, and among other things, is a down right nag and problem causer for instinctive shooting. That being: lack of confidence, target panic, target doubt, lack of concentration, and loss of focus to name a few.
The left side of the brain is basically the "ebb and flow" of the thought and movement process. And is the most important factor to shoot “True Instinctive” well. Memory is stored here that you aren't even aware of.
Aiming is an orderly process, pure and simple, which is run by the right side of the brain.
Compound bow analogy:
Right side is speaking, telling you what to do and in what order.
"Draw now, that’s far enough, anchor, level bow, find line of sight through peep, find pin, align pin in center of peep, put pin on correct spot on target, push trigger now”.
True instinctive shooting is more of a rhythm, run by the left side of the brain. Let me explain further, to acquire the use of the left side of the brain while shooting, I would suggest you find a place that has NO distractions to take away the left side, if and when you find it. I mean NONE!
The left side of the brain will not fight with the right side, it will submit immediately, and let the right side take over. It could be a built in safety valve to prevent mental chaos, but I'm not sure. If you focus on the exact spot that you want to hit, DO NOT think about anything else. Here is what happens if you do.
You begin to draw focusing on the "spot", the "spot" should be the only thing on the planet that matters at this very moment. The left side is running the show, then from nowhere, it gets blind sided by the right side: "check your elevation", or "notice you arrow in your secondary vision" or "shoot now!" or "think about your anchor ", or 9 million other thing that you think about. When this happens, the left side simply goes away, and the results are not as desired most of the time. If you bore a hole in that target with your eyes, and let the left side takeover, you wont even notice your arm elevation, arrow position, or the release, you are actually "willing" the arrow to the target, or using, the "FORCE" to make it happen. The left side of the brain is most responsible for this perfect shot, by making the body perform without any outside help, instinctively. The rhythm, the ebb and flow, if you will.
All gifted athletes use the left side more than others. Greg Maddux, pitcher for Atlanta, does not aim, he paints the corners by concentrating and focusing. Once he becomes set, the left side takes over. "Lefty" is very well aware of the surroundings, the distance to the plate, when to let go of the ball, and how hard to throw, but all distractions are totally blocked out, and he leaves the "right side" in the grand stands. He does not have time to have an aiming process run by the right side. He does it instinctively. If you were to ask Mr. Maddux "What do you hear when you are making a pitch?" I bet the answer would be "Nothing". When you make that perfect true instinctive shot, the first thing YOU will hear is your “right side” coming out of the grand stands saying "WOW! You did that without me, Cool!”
The right side can, and will, "FLASH" information to the left side with out taking over. If you were to play basketball and drive in for a lay up, and you went up with the ball in your right hand, and a guy 6'8" was going to block it, your right side would sense disaster, and "flash" tell your left side to switch. If that is all it does then every thing should turn out ok, but if your right side also adds " Hey, your not right handed, you might miss" then it has taken over and so you probably will miss. Just as your right side would also alert you as you draw, of a limb possibly in the way, which would cause you to squat slightly or lean a little, or of another deer in your field of view you may or may not want to check out.
If you practice shooting your bow a lot, the left side will become extremely familiar with the following:
The distances shot, arm elevation, proper release, anchor, and even, arrow position in your secondary vision, but it really doesn't acknowledge it, and, you don't realize it. All this information is re-called when the left side is running the show. It happens instinctively.
As you begin to acquire it, you will gain confidence in it, and be able to obtain it more often, and with less effort. Then try and acquire it with distractions around, shoot with other people, shoot in your front yard when cars are coming by and the neighbors are walking, shoot at a new home construction site, use your imagination.
NOTE: If you are left-handed the opposite is assumed.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Quit THINKING and just SHOOT! Just relax, and try to narrow the world down to a 1-inch dot.
That was my theory after a few days of shooting.
Now, how do we get there?......FORM....Its all about form. Once you get it down, you can take it with you to many crazy hunting positions with consistancy. How do you get form? By practicing it alone, and not aiming. Like when you 1st tried to ride a bike, you where wobbling all over the place, then, after you got your balance and confidence, you could go and do anything on that bike.
I use a DOUBLE anchor. This guarantees the EXACT same tension EVERY(almost he he) time, but close enough to get the job done for sure.
Your energy MUST be going in two different directions directly opposing each other. Your bow arm must me pointing the bow straight to the intended target, and your drawing arm must be pulling in the exact opposite direction that you are wanting the arrow to go. This will make your windage a constant....What?...windage a constant? Yep, that's what I said.
Here are 3 things you need to work on.
1....DO NOT death grip the bow, it aint going anywhere, so just let it settle naturaly in the "V" or your hand. I lightly wrap my 1st 2 fingers around the bow, and the other 2 are relaxed.
2....Try to find a comfortable place behind your jaw and under your ear for your thumb joint to "lock" into. I slide my thumb base knuckle along my face, and as my middle finger makes contact with the corner of my mouth, I continue to pull until my thumb base knuckle "locks" in behind my jaw under my ear lobe. When everything feels right, just let go. Don't think about it, just let go. You will see, with perfect back tension, it is HARD to pluck the string. Why? because your energy is going backwards 50% and forward 50%, and you have no choice but to have a near perfect, if not perfect release. DO NOT drop your bow arm, you MUST be frozen on the execution of the release. Just look at the arrow all the way to the target, and then let down your arm.
3....Shoot the vertical line. Forget dots & #3D targets for 2 weeks. Get yourself a big piece of cardboard and paint a black line on it the entire length, or stick a broom handle in the ground in front of your back stop. Concentrait on hitting the line. Don't worry about elevation, just hit the line.
The first two above need to be worked on for 2 weeks for EACH. 2 weeks thinking only about the grip, and 2 weeks thinking about the double anchor.
That sound hard? No, it aint, but it takes will power to do it. If you really want your shooting to improve greatly, you must work on the bale with no aiming. Just think about your form. You CANNOT fix form while aiming. If you work on form only for a month and your subconcious will run the shot when you start to aim.
Once you get your form down, and are constant on the "vertical line". Then start shooting only one shot from a given distance.
You can take 6 practice arrows and mark one, two and three slashes on them. When you pull one out of your quiver, check the number. "One is a close range shot, two is a medium range shot, and 3 is a long range shot. Just pull em out and shoot what ever distance at random, and make sure you shoot from different angles.
If something in your form goes astray, go back to the bale for 2 weeks. Befor you know it, you will be hitting coke cans at 35 yards.
True Instinctive Shooting Theory
The left side of the brain runs the show, PERIOD.
Explanation:
---------------
The right side of the brain is an informant, reasoner, decision-maker, calculator, and among other things, is a down right nag and problem causer for instinctive shooting. That being: lack of confidence, target panic, target doubt, lack of concentration, and loss of focus to name a few.
The left side of the brain is basically the "ebb and flow" of the thought and movement process. And is the most important factor to shoot “True Instinctive” well. Memory is stored here that you aren't even aware of.
Aiming is an orderly process, pure and simple, which is run by the right side of the brain.
Compound bow analogy:
Right side is speaking, telling you what to do and in what order.
"Draw now, that’s far enough, anchor, level bow, find line of sight through peep, find pin, align pin in center of peep, put pin on correct spot on target, push trigger now”.
True instinctive shooting is more of a rhythm, run by the left side of the brain. Let me explain further, to acquire the use of the left side of the brain while shooting, I would suggest you find a place that has NO distractions to take away the left side, if and when you find it. I mean NONE!
The left side of the brain will not fight with the right side, it will submit immediately, and let the right side take over. It could be a built in safety valve to prevent mental chaos, but I'm not sure. If you focus on the exact spot that you want to hit, DO NOT think about anything else. Here is what happens if you do.
You begin to draw focusing on the "spot", the "spot" should be the only thing on the planet that matters at this very moment. The left side is running the show, then from nowhere, it gets blind sided by the right side: "check your elevation", or "notice you arrow in your secondary vision" or "shoot now!" or "think about your anchor ", or 9 million other thing that you think about. When this happens, the left side simply goes away, and the results are not as desired most of the time. If you bore a hole in that target with your eyes, and let the left side takeover, you wont even notice your arm elevation, arrow position, or the release, you are actually "willing" the arrow to the target, or using, the "FORCE" to make it happen. The left side of the brain is most responsible for this perfect shot, by making the body perform without any outside help, instinctively. The rhythm, the ebb and flow, if you will.
All gifted athletes use the left side more than others. Greg Maddux, pitcher for Atlanta, does not aim, he paints the corners by concentrating and focusing. Once he becomes set, the left side takes over. "Lefty" is very well aware of the surroundings, the distance to the plate, when to let go of the ball, and how hard to throw, but all distractions are totally blocked out, and he leaves the "right side" in the grand stands. He does not have time to have an aiming process run by the right side. He does it instinctively. If you were to ask Mr. Maddux "What do you hear when you are making a pitch?" I bet the answer would be "Nothing". When you make that perfect true instinctive shot, the first thing YOU will hear is your “right side” coming out of the grand stands saying "WOW! You did that without me, Cool!”
The right side can, and will, "FLASH" information to the left side with out taking over. If you were to play basketball and drive in for a lay up, and you went up with the ball in your right hand, and a guy 6'8" was going to block it, your right side would sense disaster, and "flash" tell your left side to switch. If that is all it does then every thing should turn out ok, but if your right side also adds " Hey, your not right handed, you might miss" then it has taken over and so you probably will miss. Just as your right side would also alert you as you draw, of a limb possibly in the way, which would cause you to squat slightly or lean a little, or of another deer in your field of view you may or may not want to check out.
If you practice shooting your bow a lot, the left side will become extremely familiar with the following:
The distances shot, arm elevation, proper release, anchor, and even, arrow position in your secondary vision, but it really doesn't acknowledge it, and, you don't realize it. All this information is re-called when the left side is running the show. It happens instinctively.
As you begin to acquire it, you will gain confidence in it, and be able to obtain it more often, and with less effort. Then try and acquire it with distractions around, shoot with other people, shoot in your front yard when cars are coming by and the neighbors are walking, shoot at a new home construction site, use your imagination.
NOTE: If you are left-handed the opposite is assumed.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Quit THINKING and just SHOOT! Just relax, and try to narrow the world down to a 1-inch dot.
That was my theory after a few days of shooting.
Now, how do we get there?......FORM....Its all about form. Once you get it down, you can take it with you to many crazy hunting positions with consistancy. How do you get form? By practicing it alone, and not aiming. Like when you 1st tried to ride a bike, you where wobbling all over the place, then, after you got your balance and confidence, you could go and do anything on that bike.
I use a DOUBLE anchor. This guarantees the EXACT same tension EVERY(almost he he) time, but close enough to get the job done for sure.
Your energy MUST be going in two different directions directly opposing each other. Your bow arm must me pointing the bow straight to the intended target, and your drawing arm must be pulling in the exact opposite direction that you are wanting the arrow to go. This will make your windage a constant....What?...windage a constant? Yep, that's what I said.
Here are 3 things you need to work on.
1....DO NOT death grip the bow, it aint going anywhere, so just let it settle naturaly in the "V" or your hand. I lightly wrap my 1st 2 fingers around the bow, and the other 2 are relaxed.
2....Try to find a comfortable place behind your jaw and under your ear for your thumb joint to "lock" into. I slide my thumb base knuckle along my face, and as my middle finger makes contact with the corner of my mouth, I continue to pull until my thumb base knuckle "locks" in behind my jaw under my ear lobe. When everything feels right, just let go. Don't think about it, just let go. You will see, with perfect back tension, it is HARD to pluck the string. Why? because your energy is going backwards 50% and forward 50%, and you have no choice but to have a near perfect, if not perfect release. DO NOT drop your bow arm, you MUST be frozen on the execution of the release. Just look at the arrow all the way to the target, and then let down your arm.
3....Shoot the vertical line. Forget dots & #3D targets for 2 weeks. Get yourself a big piece of cardboard and paint a black line on it the entire length, or stick a broom handle in the ground in front of your back stop. Concentrait on hitting the line. Don't worry about elevation, just hit the line.
The first two above need to be worked on for 2 weeks for EACH. 2 weeks thinking only about the grip, and 2 weeks thinking about the double anchor.
That sound hard? No, it aint, but it takes will power to do it. If you really want your shooting to improve greatly, you must work on the bale with no aiming. Just think about your form. You CANNOT fix form while aiming. If you work on form only for a month and your subconcious will run the shot when you start to aim.
Once you get your form down, and are constant on the "vertical line". Then start shooting only one shot from a given distance.
You can take 6 practice arrows and mark one, two and three slashes on them. When you pull one out of your quiver, check the number. "One is a close range shot, two is a medium range shot, and 3 is a long range shot. Just pull em out and shoot what ever distance at random, and make sure you shoot from different angles.
If something in your form goes astray, go back to the bale for 2 weeks. Befor you know it, you will be hitting coke cans at 35 yards.
