Hill style shooting, it's all in the approach, pt. 1

    "The Hill style of shooting is quite simple, but it is exacting...Observing different students I've had, I see variations of proper Hill form, and that is where the whole style will go amiss."   John Schulz,  "Straight Shooting" pg 172

     Hill style shooting form...the elephant in the room for sure.  Everyone wants to shoot like Howard Hill did, control a longbow like he did, be as accurate and as casual looking as he was while making a shot...yet no one wants to listen to his words of teaching that he penned or taught his student John Schulz. Or maybe his words aren't understood fully.  I don't know, but what I'm writing now is what I was taught personally by Schulz and how it dovetails with Hill's writings.  This is I believe, the essence of the Hill style shooting form.  The heart of it all.

     "It is extremely worth-while to learn to draw, nock, aim and loose an arrow fast, as one often gets two shots at an animal by shooting fast, whereas the fellow who is too deliberate and in no hurry may get only one shot.  Many archers think that if they hurry a shot they lose accuracy, and in some cases they are right, because to hurry a shot means to shoot an arrow faster than one's normal rate of speed.  However, it is just as easy to learn to shoot fast as it is to shoot slow.  In fact, I believe it is possible to shoot more accurately by shooting quickly, once the archer becomes accustomed to it.  There is less time to think, and the less thinking about how and why one shoots a bow, while he is actually shooting, the better.  Too much thinking is bad for concentration on any given operation which one is trying to do, provided of course that the archer already knows what he is doing.  A man does not worry about where he is going to place his feet when he walks or runs, yet he places them perfectly.

     Every now and then I will deliberately practice shooting the bow for a while, doing each movement slowly and checking the different points in the process of drawing, aiming, and loosing, to see if I am doing them correctly or have gotten into some bad habit.  If I find I am flinching with my right hand on the loose, I will shoot several ends of arrows and definitely check the right hand on every shot to make sure I do not flinch.  As soon as I correct that bad habit, I forget the loose and check some other factor that may cause poor marksmanship; but at no time while making a shot in the bush do I ever allow myself to think about the mechanics of shooting.  All my thoughts as such a time are concentrated on the game and on aiming the arrow."   Howard Hill,  "Hunting the Hard Way" ppg. 75-76

      "The fundamental reason for this problem (archers who can't hit 'em moving) is in their form.  Most archers in the field today shoot the same form they do on the target range.  When Howard was first instructing my brother and me, he said, "Boys, make up your minds what you want to do, hunt or shoot target, because the two just don't go together."  John Schulz,  "Hitting 'em Like Howard Hill" pg. 13

    "I like to use the word fluid in describing Howard's style.  Webster defines the adjective as, "Flowing, able to flow."  This conveys a smooth continuous motion.  One of uninterrupted rhythmic continuity. "When completing this straight back motion it should move only about 6-8 inches.  Drawing straight back more than that will destroy the fluid movement of this whole style.  Most of today's archers, in their shooting, extend the left arm first to target line and then do all the drawing straight back.  Doing this has two distinct disadvantages.  First, it restricts the amount of bow weight that an archer can draw; secondly, it severely restricts the mobility of the archer which is so essential to successful bowhunting."  John Schulz, "Hitting 'em Like Howard Hill" ppg 7, 13

    "Having shot the bow (as taught to me by Hill), for over forty years, I'm satisfied with my own term for "aiming". I'm also convinced his later years method, and mine, are the same.  I call it  Conditioned Instinct.  I do make a distinction between natural instinct and conditioned instinct. When you shoot the same bow (design) and the same form, basically the same arrows, day after day, month after month, year after year, you develop a keen hand to eye coordination.  By doing this repeatedly, you will program your mind to such a fine point, that it will be a natural and immediate flow and the precisioned response - from Conditioned Instinct - will put you right on target."  John Schulz  "Straight Shooting" ppg 159 - 161.

     So....lengthy reading and a refresher course for those who've got the books and haven't read these passages for a while, and possibly new reading for those who've wondered about the Hill shooting method and don't have the books.  How does it all fit together?   When I was shooting with Schulz, there was a little time spent in front of a stack of hay bales.  Shooting for form and form critique.  His main emphasis during this time was on being fluid and having a smooth rhythm to the swing draw.  There was no mention of accuracy, of shooting groups, of anything except slowly performing the swing draw as he showed in his video, which consisted of a short, straight back motion to complete the draw and both hands being stationary and the release hand staying beside the face and not moving rearward.  There was no mention of proper back tension, of rotational draw, or bone on bone alignment.  There was no discussion of how long to hold on target except for "when you're on target, you're ready to release".  No talking about aiming, except to just "concentrate on the spot, bore a hole through it".  I asked him if he ever saw his arrow tip.  "I know it's there" he said, "but I choose not to look at it."

     Was he a negligent teacher?  Hardly.  But he was teaching the Hill shooting fundamentals as he was taught by Hill.  As quoted above,  Hill wrote that the less time one thinks, while actually shooting, the better, (Provided the person already knows what they are doing).  Schulz taught proper Hill form (as he showed in his video) and he determined that a student copy that form with no target on the bales until the shooting form was ingrained into muscle memory.  It might take 3 weeks, it might take 3 months, depending on how much the shooter invested his/her time.  But once the person knew what they were doing, i.e. had the form committed to muscle memory, then there's no more thinking about it and it's time to start just concentrating on shooting away from the blank bales.   My...how this differs from the approach of most archers today, especially those who want to shoot the Hill style with their longbow.  This bit of instruction is thrown to the winds, discarded by the thinking that a person has to shoot over and over at a target on a backstop at the range or in the backyard, trying to get the size of the arrow group smaller and smaller.  The archer deems it necessary to think about all aspects of his shooting form before, during and after the shot.  Hill taught that thinking about the shot only happened when he was specifically working on a particular aspect of his form.  He said that "At no time in the bush is his thinking on his form (the mechanics) but All his concentration is on the animal and aiming (boring a hole).  Wow.  Compare that to the mental checklist of archers today, who have to get completely set up, set up their arm, their body, come to full draw, check off the list of things to accomplish all the while watching an animal come into the shot window and then try to concentrate on the spot.  With all those thoughts running through their minds?  Seriously?  Hill's words are completely 180* opposite thinking and coaching compared to the Youtube longbow shooting coaches.  It seems perfectly plausible to deduce that the vast majority of the longbow shooting coaches of today are steeped in the sport of target archery (with a longbow) as compared to Hill's ( and Schulz's) approach to hunting game with the longbow.  Completely different lessons.  

      I challenge all those who read the above words from Hill and Schulz, go over and over them.  Decide for yourself what your goals with the Hill style/ASL bows are....do you want to be the best game shot you can be, under the varied conditions that you can find yourself in when hunting all kinds of game in all kinds of situations (not just shooting deer from a tree)......or do you want to be a shooter that just pounds targets in the back yard or on the range, (even if you're shooting a longbow), always trying to get better and smaller arrow groups for that high score.  They are different goals and Hill asked of his boys, John and Dan Schulz..."make up your mind whether you want to hunt or shoot target, because the two just don't go together"   I ask the same of you, reader....what do you want to do?  This blog is for those who want to hunt with the Hill style / ASL and be recipients of all that it has to offer.  There is some spill over of the Hill style into being a good target shot...but the emphasis is never on the target shooting, or scores, or on perfect shooting form.  The emphasis is on Conditioned Instinct and how that is obtained.  As Hill instructed, so do I...."make up your mind...."  As we go further into their teachings, Hill and Schulz will help you to,

Shoot Straight