This tip is to help anyone that is struggling with a definite anchor point in shooting the fluid, no hold anchor style depicted by Hill and Schulz. It also helps those who are wanting to overcome target panic if that variety is where full draw is hard to accomplish before turning loose of the string.
I discussed in an earlier blog about the Hill style stiff insert glove. How it keeps the fingers from curling around the string too much. This tip takes that a bit further as a shooting aid.
When I was struggling with TP back in the day, I realized that I was going to have to relearn my anchor point to kickstart the process to rid myself of the bad shooting form I was using. My anchor had been the standard middle finger at the corner of my mouth. I realized this was too vague for my new form. I saw a photo of Hill at anchor and it appeared that his index and middle finger were touching the top and bottom gum/toothlines. I tried this as an anchor a few times and realized that with the Hill style glove I was using, the fingerstalls had a hard leather nub caused by the stitching that really dug into those gumlines... making it very easy to feel a new, definitive anchor point. The nubs can be seen on this glove...
The stitches come around the end of the finger stalls, better shown in this photo...
Not every type of Hill style stiff glove is sewn this way, and some guys may not need the little nub to help them feel anchor more definitively, but this is what helped me.
The face feels the anchor, or rather, the touch of the fingers on the gumline before the string can be released. Every time, without fail. This is practiced at the blank bale up close where nothing else is thought about during the shot except the feel of the anchor being touched. If the shooter switches the anchor slightly, from corner of the mouth to two nubs of leather touching two spots on the upper and lower gumlines, the brain will relearn a new anchor pathway. This is practiced for thousands of shots until it becomes ingrained and a fluid part of the shooting sequence. At first, the shooter has to slow the anchoring process a little to make sure those little nubs are digging into the gumlines before release and the shot will be a little static. But with time, it will all flow if it is allowed to.
But what if your glove doesn't have the little stitching nubs? Well, some gloves can be modified by some thread as this photo shows with the two stalls on the right. Other stalls like the open end variety are difficult to modify and may never give that feel.
Another view overhead to show the effect of the thread on the end of a standard stall, and how it mimicks the sewn end of the Hill style glove. And also how the open end glove lacks that nub for the precise feel on the gumlines.
Anyway, this small tip (no pun intended) digging into the face, causing a more precise feel at anchor, can really help someone struggling with that part of shooting. I taught myself that the fingers don't release unless I feel those nubs on the gumlines. Over time it becomes automatic, but I still, when doing my blank bale form shooting, concentrate on that nubby feel to make sure my brain recognizes a full draw and reference point at the first place as the hand moves back to a solid anchor at the second reference point of thumb under the jaw. (This has been discussed previously.)
Small things can indeed make a difference, and now after learning what this anchor feels like, I can also shoot with a soft tip shooting glove like the Crossover... But it took lots of practice with the stiff glove nubs to get out of TP. I hope this little tip can help some of you to...
Shoot Straight.
I try to keep an open mind and learn something new every day. I picked up two learning points today—glove related anchor point and flat filing the nock side for potentially faster nocking. They are both in the grey matter computer now, if I can remember where I put it. To aid in a fast
ReplyDeletearrow placement on the string, for years I have used dental floss to build the area under a brass nocking point to fit the Mercury nocks and then tapered the wraps down the string for three or four inches. It makes it easier for me to slip the arrow anywhere below the nock and smoothly slide it up the taper to the nock without ever taking my eyes off the animal or target. Yeah, I know, serve the string properly and I wouldn’t need the floss to begin with. But then what would I fiddle around with on these long winter evenings? Keep your comments coming, Nate. I (and we) really enjoy them.
Interesting!
ReplyDeletePersonaly, i like to focused on my thumb in contact with my lower jaw.
So i continue to draw without thinking about the anchor .
When my index figer touches the corner of my mouche, i release , then i continue to draw to put my thumb on the back of my jaw.
It works well.
Jean-christophe Blanc- Thats about what I do- I never suffered the target panic thing though -I don't do enough thinking to get the mind involved second guessing
DeleteIts just the target the rest is just there?
Often , target panic come s when you are little bit expert and when you do lot of championships.
DeleteYou want always more and the doubt come s quicqly...
A good thing to prevent that , is also to think at one thing only.
First push pull with breath , second you have to anchor your hand in the target and don t change. And now you finish your draw as the process said above.
All that as fluidly as possible.
These words "The face feels the anchor, or rather, the touch of the fingers on the gumline before the string can be released. Every time, without fail. This is practiced at the blank bale up close where nothing else is thought about during the shot except the feel of the anchor being touched" have inspired me once again to set about curing my TP. I think this is finally broken down to a single element of focus. Having started this afternoon, I can honestly say that once I began to achieve anchor as my only goal.....the arrows stared to drop into the exact spot I was focusing on and the bow remained rock steady on target and my hand at my face. Now....to do this several thousand more times and finally put this 13 year nightmare behind me. Thanks Nate....just goes to show that you never know exactly what words you write will provide the inspiration for satisfying change.
ReplyDeleteRob, always remember... When shooting for form at the close, blank bale... You absolutely never ever worry about or care about where your arrows are going. You look where you want them to go, but every conscience thought is on the aspect of the form you are ingraining. In this case the gumlines feeling the gloved fingertips firmly digging into them. Wherever the arrows hit is of no importance whatsoever.
DeleteYou must train your mind, as you're training it to understand and remember the proper form through repetition, that you do not ever care where the arrow goes or if it hits or misses. Once you stop caring if you hit or miss, or how far off your spot the arrow goes, then You're on your way to beating TP.
Once the mind is freed from caring where the arrow hits, then you will not fear the miss and TP is gone.
After all these years (and previously blank baling for a year after a Rod Jenkins course), I can abs olutely NOT pick a spot. No one will ever convince me that blank baling without picking a spot, then transitioning many months later to aiming isn't what gave me TP in the first place. A shooting sequence heavy in mental steps (as was taught in that class) is a detriment to a simple fella like myself. After 2 years of trying to cure the resulting TP I went back to shooting as HH/JS outlined. I was never cured of TP though and always released early. If I can shoot at the bale, focused on the anchor, having previously picked my spot, I feel I can conquer this thing. It is, in all honesty, my last hope as I've tried every method ever written including a guy here in Texas who has a solution involving hypnosis. This is why I haven't picked up a bow in the past two years. Your words and suggestion hit the nail on the head. Onward to cure this malady!
DeleteThe anchor work s like a trigger . When you touch it you release.
DeleteLike a clicker in olympic bow shooting.
Well said Nate !
DeleteIt s the same idea in the " pétanque french game " . When you shoot a bowl on the other bowl, you focus on the aim . If you miss you do the same again , but you try to focus also on your form , to find the good swing.
One of the great misconceptions about shooting a bow instinctively is that we have to adjust our aim when we miss. When we see the arrow miss the spot, we try to adjust our aim, whether consciously or not. The goal is to allow the mind to control the needed adjustments subconsciously. Just like if you throw a ball to a target, and miss, you just throw again and the ball gets closer to the target. This is a "learned by doing" motion. We all do something like this every day. The body and mind is capable of incredible accuracy with a bow and arrow under all kind of shot conditions if we learn to use this system and trust it. The trust begins by shooting without worrying about where the arrow is hitting at the blank bale practice. Allowing the mind to see, recognize and adjust for our misses subconsciously is the way it works.
ReplyDelete