A day with Archery Target Troubles

I made a observation at the last Archery competition I competed at last weekend.
I witnessed Target panic and trigger punching. And I was listening to a guy explain to the trigger puncher he had a case of target panic and proceeded to explain how to cure him,
Well what he was saying was half right; it was just the right cure for the wrong diagnosis what he was experiencing was trigger punching.
Punching is ... literally ... PUNCHING, stabbing or very very quickly getting the release aid to fire - regardless of where you're aiming.
Don't laugh - I have seen a few archers indiscriminately punching their triggers even though they were miles away from the X.

But generally, archers who suffer from anxiety from not being able to hold the aim on the X long enough, or just plain fear the entire X region will punch when they are over, or close to the X in the hope that their arrow will hit the X.

There are a lot of different maladies, symptoms and signs of struggling to aim steadily and for long enough while holding over the X (notice I said 'over' and not 'on) for most folks to cry 'TARGET PANIC', but it could be a case of many different things - from too long a draw length, or not learning how to focus and concentrate on different parts of the entire sequence that makes up the shot.

I can tell for certain that often, at the end of an entire day of shooting out to 100 yards repeatedly, walking up collecting arrows and coming back to start shooting immediately without a break (competition format), I sometimes get tired, and I can’t hold on the X and shake. Do I have TP? No. I am just fatigued.

What to do? You could try to draw your bow (with an arrow) and aim at the target. BUT do not fire. You just want to aim for about 3 - 4 seconds, then let down.

Do this 5-10 times, and see if you can hold on the center area of the target moderately steadily.

If you can, you're NOT center shy.

Next, walk up to about 5 yards from the target.

Put up a piece of paper the SAME color as the enter of your target.

Load an arrow, draw and aim.

DON’T FIRE.

Just do that a few times, and feel how easy it is to just look at the color that's the same as the center of your target.

Next, and after a few minutes rest, from the same 5 yards, load an arrow, draw, anchor and aim for 3-4 seconds. Gently feel the trigger of your release. Don’t think of anything except LOOKING at the color of the target. Gently squeeze the trigger like you would shoot a rifle at a coyote 100 yards away - SLOOOOOW and SMOOOOTH.

Feel the recoil. See the arrow hitting the paper.

Do that till you get dead bored.

Now move back another 2-3 yards and repeat the entire exercise.

What I have just described is a 10 yard game to cure Target panic. the exercises builds confidence in holding on the GENERAL center area of the target, and to sloooowly squeeze the shot off.

Just start off with this first and see how comfortable you feel with the aiming exercises (no shooting) and a little later, with the simple 5 yard aiming and sloooowly squeezing exercise.

 

Let me say now, I only hunt at 40yds and less 90% are 20yd shots.
But I do love to shoot long range with a bow at targets.
Try it its not as hard as you think, no more than shooting a rifle 400 yds and beyond.
Some day might be interesting if someone with a rifle thinks their safe from me at 100yds when i have my bow in my hands and they are trying to do me wrong.