Focus + Trust = Good Arrow Flight

        "What's your arrow doing at 30 yards?"

      Thought-provoking words by Howard Hill and echoed by John Schulz.

      A further step on the road to good wood arrow making is making sure that we approach our shooting the Hill style longbow with the right attitude.  A great part of the Hill method of shooting a longbow, discussed in these pages has to do with the proper fluid, casual, "ingrained" shooting style.  The reminders to keep things relaxed and fun, to swing the bow on target and release with a fluidly dynamic pull through release...and then keeping everything stationary until the arrow hits the target.  These key features have to be ingrained into the shooter's subconscious and muscle memory by shooting untold numbers of arrows into the close, blank backstop. Once this form is ingrained, consistency of draw length and arrow flight can occur.  We have a consistent anchor reference point, and we're hitting the targets pretty good at close range.  We know what our draw length is and the weight of the bow at that draw.  Ready to start building arrows right?

     Hold on just a bit.  We've been working so hard on learning the Hill style of shooting, our focus has been on so much "form" thinking, and the necessary close target.  Our mindset has been from the bow backward. "Behind the bow".   What's going on ahead of the bow?  "What's your arrow doing at 30 yards?"

     When John Schulz asked me that question,  I looked at him, trying to decipher any hidden meaning in his words.   I turned and looked at some brush around thirty yards and said..."it's going right there" as I held my bow arm up and on target.  "that's right", he said and also held up his bowarm, pointing his bow at another similar target. "my arrow is going right there".  Meaning that he knew the flight of the arrow and where to hold his bow arm to hit the spot. He was confident his well-flying arrows would fly right where he pointed them.

     I've witnessed many times, by many archers over the years, wonderful shooting form at a close target, whether it be the blank bale, or a spot on a safely large-enough backstop.  Get them back a few yards beyond their comfort level, or make them shoot at a target that isn't protecting an errant arrow from loss or damage, and the shooting form falls apart.  It psyches them out big time and with the loss of proper Hill style form, there goes good arrow flight out the window.  The usual recourse these days is to turn to the target shooting methods of static long-hold shooting.  To delve deeper into more thinking "behind the bow" instead of "beyond the bow"...or to simply limit the shooting to ultra-close range shooting distances and then excuse their shooting with "I'm a hunter and shooting further ranges isn't ethical".

       The Hill style of shooting is all about Hunting accuracy at unmarked distances, close and not so close.  This method and its inherent accuracy can be transferred over to the target arena, but it'll never produce the pinpoint accuracy needed to score high on fixed targets. Period.  The entire approach of the Hill style is to shoot a hunting arrow into an animal and take its life.  Now, granted, we don't all hunt.  I understand that.  But we can still approach our shooting practice and have the mental attitude that is used for hunting, and that will transfer very well to great shooting while roving or stump shooting and having fun. This method is meant to be relaxed and casual, and to be enjoyed in a stress-free way.  

     Modern target shooting-based teaching is dogmatic about close range shooting, whether it be for form at the close bale or for shooting nice, tight groups on a target face.  Tuning the arrow for proper flight by either shooting through paper, or shooting unfletched arrows into a blank bale relies on consistent form and a precise shot distance. Once that arrow is putting bullet holes in paper at mere feet, the idea is that the arrow will then fly beautifully downrange.  That's where the system falls apart and the shooter is "forced" to induce a static shooting form.  Concentrating on a very close target and thinking about form, proper release, steady bow arm and all, keeps all the focused attention "behind the bow". Once the close target and safe backstop is removed and the focus shifts to "beyond the bow", it is very hard to mentally keep it together and bad things happen, like target panic in various forms. Without the consistent form that was practiced at the close bale, the arrow is not correctly tuned anymore.  Shooting form falls apart with the stress of the shot at hand.  Well-flying arrows go by the wayside.

     At this point, fluid dynamic anchor and release and steady bow arm suffer and along with them, proper consistent draw length.  Following this collapse, the "perfect" arrow tune that happened at 10 feet is not perfect anymore.  If you don't think this happens, you haven't read enough traditional archery hunting stories wherein the hunter with the ultra-tuned, heavy efoc carbon arrows and centershot bow only gets about 1/2 an arrow of penetration on a normal-sized whitetail at 15 yards.  And that same archer will decry the old-time longbowman shooting a moderate weight cedar arrow with a Zwickey, Ace or Hill head out of a 50# bow completely through a large buck at 35 yards. What was the difference?  Proper Hill style shooting form in the case of the old-time longbowman being allowed to happen, giving wonderful results

     Proper arrow tune is to me, "what the arrow is doing at 30 yards".   This doesn't require bare shafting or shooting through paper.  As I said previously, a properly tuned arrow will fly the line between the dominant eye and anchor point, along the aligned, drawn arrow, to the target at any distance.  An arrow that flies left of the line (for a RH shooter) is overly stiff.  An arrow that flies right of the line (for a RH shooter) is overly weak.  However, between those two extremes, a properly made wood arrow can vary up to 15# of dynamic arrow spine and it will still fly the line.  Archer's paradox has almost become a taboo subject these last many years.  People don't want to see an arrow flexing as it makes its way downrange and they get all concerned if it does.  Well, if the arrow is too weak or stiff, it will flex an inordinate amount for its complete flight and will hit to the side of the target.  An extremely weak or stiff arrow will kick hard and fly almost sideways as it goes downrange.  But we're not talking about those extremes here.

      Once proper form has been ingrained, it's time to take that form to the open fields and woods and just enjoy shooting arrows downrange.  Don't get too worked up about hitting a target at first.  Just look at something out there beyond your normal backyard or archery shop shooting range and shoot as fluidly as possible.  And here we have just brought to the forefront... Focus and Trust.

      We must continue to focus on the target on any shooting done away from the close form bales.  Once we're away from those teaching aid bales, we need to shift focus from "behind the bow" to "beyond the bow".  We have to learn to just shoot and allow all the practice shots to be trusted to perform now.  Trust.  That is such a hard thing for archers to do.  To trust their form.  To trust the shooting system that they ingrained.  But it must be done.  When you learned to drive an auto, there was a point of time when you had to trust that you knew what to do.  That point of time was usually during a period of stress.  Accelerating across an intersection, merging with highway traffic at high speeds, or something.  But if you never trusted your learned driving skills, you'd never have been able to drive in the real world.  So to with shooting your longbow in the Hill method.  You have to get away from the safety net of the large blank bale backstop, or away from the big hill or grassy yard behind your cube target.  You have to learn to Trust your shot.  This takes practice.  It takes shooting at longer distances without worrying about missing.  It means you will miss and you will lose or damage arrows.  You must get over that worry, get over the fear of missing and trust your shot.  The more you shoot arrows with good and proper form at longer ranges like fun shooting at 50 yards for that clump of grass...or shooting at the pinecone dangling from the end of branch at 30 yards...or maybe shooting at the tops of the stray cattail or sunflower at 40 yards, the better and better and more trusting of your shot you will become.  Learning to Focus on the target ahead of you while Trusting your form is a very vital part of shooting a Hill style longbow and something that a very large number of longbow archers never attain.

      But you can do it.  That's what we've been discussing through the pages of this Blog.  Steps and secrets that allow you to relax, to put the brain in neutral and ALLOW the shot to happen.  You can do this, because you're born with hand and eye coordination that is controlled by a mind superbly fitted to the task.  You've got to make up your mind that you will allow yourself to miss and it's ok.  You will just get out another arrow and shoot again.  With each arrow that you shoot in the casual, fluid Hill method, relying on the muscle memory learned by countless arrows shot into the close blank bale, you will get better and better.

      When you can shoot the proper Hill form at targets "out there" or at a target away from the safety net and not collapse or falter, then your arrows will find themselves flying true to the target as never before.  You will find that suddenly you are needing stiffer arrows than you did previously, or you will find that all those slightly mismatched arrows find themselves grouping together along the line to the target.  The odd flyer arrow will get less and less noticeable.  Your shooting form will get more and more fluid and relaxed and "easy".  

     And then, at that point, when you "know what your arrow is doing at 30 yards", in other words, you know that it will fly straight to the target because you are Focused and Trusting your form, you are ready to build a proper wood arrow, one that is made in the Hill style and which helps you to...

     Shoot Straight.