Tag Archives: tips

Apr 3 2020

Setting up a target boss – revisited

With recent worldwide developments concerning COVID-19 seeing more and people self isolating, working from home or simply having a lot more spare time on their hands, there has been quite a lot of posts on Facebook and other sites about home ranges, or practising at home.

I am going to highlight a few things you might need to consider. I am no expert and this is by no means a definitive list, but more of a starting point of things for you to consider.

  • What are you going to shoot at? What type of target or target boss? Will it be sturdy enough to stop your arrows at close range? Check out What target is best for me?
  • Can you safely shoot in your garden without endangering yourself or others? Think of pets, child, wildlife or even surrounding livestock? Consider also garden sheds, greenhouse and garages.
  • What of overshoots into neighbouring gardens, farmers fields etc?
  • Do you have insurance if anything goes wrong? Chances are your house insurance won’t cover you and you may have to take out some form of specific insurance.

Location, location, location

No I’m not talking about the TV property program commonly seen in the UK, but the physical location of your target boss. Look at the space surrounding the boss in the image below. What do you see?

Target Boss

Firstly there appears to be a stile behind and to the right of the boss. Does this mean there is a footpath behind the gate and we are likely to see people walking past?

What about the space behind the boss with regards to overshoot? Do you need to have something that will catch and stop a stray arrow? A safe over shoot area is vital for any target positioning. The metal gate seen behind this boss is also a risk. If an arrow misses the boss and hits the gate it is likely to deflect in any direction.

Did you spot the wall of the building to the left side of the target? You wouldn’t be able to see people approaching from that direction.

Securing the boss to the stakes is vital to ensure it doesn’t topple over when arrows are removed. It is worth considering whether the stakes need to be proud of the boss, unlike the image below. Also try to put them to the side or rear of the boss frame so as to avoid or limit the number of arrows hitting them.

One quick cautionary tale of a friend who set up a target boss in his garden. Unfortunately it was quite an old target boss and the arrow went through it, through the wooden shed wall behind and straight into his lawnmower! He wasn’t allowed to practise at home anymore.

Those are a few thoughts and topics to consider when positioning practise bosses. Have you got any further advice? If so why not add a comment below. Lets look at the orientation and securing of the target boss now.

Securing the boss

Setting up a boss is a common activity, but does require some thought and care to ensure it is done both correctly and safely, whether this be on an archery course or as in this example in the garden for a home practice range. Here you can see a boss having been erected ready for practise. Looks good? Can you spot any issues?closeup

Well one commonly made mistake when setting up a boss of this nature is forgetting to check where the metal binding for the plastic strapping is located. These should always be on the back of the boss and never facing the direction of the shot.

Why? The binding clips used for banding can damage arrow tips if they are hit. I have also seen arrows shot from a compound bow hit one of these metal fastenings and bounce straight back some 15 yards, landing at the archers feet.

You should also ensure the wood frame of the boss is always to the side and not on top or bottom.

Why? If the arrow falls low, it will run the risk of hitting and embedding itself in the wooden frame, which is likely to  result in some work to extract. If the arrow impacts at the top of the boss it runs the risk of deflecting off in any direction . So rotate the boss to ensure the wood frames are on the side of the boss.

Target Boss

Insurance

Give some serious consideration when it comes to insurance. Some people believe that being members of a national archery society or club gives them cover to shoot at home, which isn’t necessarily true. I know this is something that has come up on the National Field Archery Society Facebook group and I expect it the subject has been raised on other sites too.

We have our own personal insurance that covers Sharon and myself when shooting on our home range, which we got through Gunplan (https://www.gunplan.co.uk/) . The field is also registered as one of the clubs sites as we use it for training sessions.

N.B. The target boss doesn’t normally sit there, it was simply positioned there for the photos for this post. It’s normally in the field beyond the gate. We are fortunate in owning the field at the rear of the property and know there is no public access or routes to it other than via our boundary. We have set up a 40 yard pegged range, with a 60ft over shoot before a backstop of old carpets at the fence line and then  30ft high earth embankment beyond.

I hope you find this article of interest and if you have any comments let me know. I’m putting a brief one together on the use of backstop nets too, when I get the chance. Thanks for reading and stay safe everyone.

A few from the bookshelf
Mar 24 2020

Home isolation opportunities

With the general public becoming increasingly concerned about COVID-19 and most if not all archery clubs suspending there open shoots or club activities its leaving many wondering what to do.

This time does offer us the opportunity to catch up on some reading or YouTube videos, so I’ve put this list together of books ive found useful. I’ll be posting a list specifically on target panic in the next couple of days.

By the way these aren’t in any order

Literature review – Shooting the Stickbow I think the best all round book for archers.

Literature Review – Idiot Proof Archery-How to Shoot Like a Pro

Literature review – Beginner’s guide to traditional archery great book and one of my favourites.

Not archery related but a great couple of books to read.

Literature Review – My Outdoor Life by Ray Mears

Literature review – How to survive by John Hudson

 

 

Thanks for reading and stay safe.

Me trying to remember to shoot
Feb 29 2020

Target Panic techniques – drawing down

As promised we are going to start on the shooting techniques that can help with you overcoming target panic or anxiety when shooting.
So let’s look at one technique, which I feel is the best to start with and is a good one for any archer to develop whether suffering from target panic or not. Ironically it is something you probably did lots when you started but have maybe forgotten and thought is no longer needed. What am I talking about? The ability to draw down from a shot.
A while back I wrote a series of articles on what I thought were the “Hardest lessons to learn in Archery“. In those articles, I shared some coaching tips and ideas. One of these was on the skill of drawing down, sometimes called coming down from a shot. I’m going to revisit it here as it is a good technique to master when on the road to overcoming target panic. If you take nothing from this post, other than the thought of the importance of drawing down from a shot, fine believe me it’s going to help you.
First a quick definition -So drawing down is when you have drawn up your bow on your target, ready to release, and then lower it back down, without releasing the arrow and taking the shot.
Chances are you do it as a beginner when you first start, as it’s not uncommon for us to flick the arrow off the rest, normally because we are twisting the string, but as time progresses chances are you do it less and less often.
I would go as far as saying that learning to draw down your bow is probably my top tip for all archers, whether they suffer from anxiety, target panic or not. I firmly believe it is as equally important whether you shoot a trad bow or a compound. You have to be able to stop and come down from your shot safely.
I would like to share an example, which I feel ideal demonstrates the importance of practising this technique and how vital it can be.
When I was at a national tournament in a country park. This was a little over 4 years ago and I was about to shoot a 3D target about 15 yards away when a dog ran out in front of me!
I was at full draw, focusing on the target and about to release. In that split second, I reacted and followed my training and came down but it could have ended very differently.
The dog had been let off its lead by its owner on a public footpath running through the wood, after ignoring the warning signs to keep dogs on the lead due to the tournament. It was a close call and I was pretty shaken up and yes I did report the incident to the marshalling team.
It is quite common for those suffering from target panic to be unable to reach or hold at full draw, with many being unable to draw down. So building a training program that encourages it, developing it in such a way as it becomes a natural process is a good plan.
Think of it from this perspective, taking a shot is part physical, part mental. Over time your muscles develop in strength and flexibility, but your head is different. You think you may have learnt what to do. You’ve got yourself psyched up to take that shot and then at the last stage, you have to admit something is wrong or doesn’t feel right. That can feel like a big hit to your confidence, especially if people are watching. So the anxiety hits and you either release the string too early, as you can’t get to anchor or maybe do something else. If this behaviour persists then it becomes a habit and part of your shot sequence.

Train the brain

Okay now think of your brain as a computer and we train our brain through actions we undertake. If your brain believes every time you draw up on a target you have to shoot then it becomes very hard to stop this chain of events, even when you want or have to. If I hadn’t been able to stop when that dog ran out in front of me, well things could have been much worse.
Developing the ability of drawing down helps to program our brain, training it to know that just because we draw up onto a target doesn’t mean we have to shoot.
When drawing up to take your shot, there is the programming in your head or maybe I should say the expectation to release the arrow. In the back of your mind, you don’t want to admit that something is wrong or that you may have done something wrong.
One way you can overcome this problem is to condition yourself to draw down, or rather condition your head to accept that each time you draw up you don’t have to shoot.
An analogy – When you are driving a car and approaching a roundabout or junction, we might be able to arrive at said junction, observe no traffic and go. This is similar to us drawing up and encountering no problems, so we shoot. However, those of us who drive know we often have to stop at junctions due to the traffic we observe. Those observations provide information to us and are similar to drawing up and it feels wrong or uncomfortable.
Through repeated practise and experience of driving, we know we have to stop to avoid a collision. If we can do this when driving a car, which is far more complicated than shooting a bow, then we should be able to come down from a shot. Well, that’s the theory.

So what can you do?

One way of trying to overcome this mental block is to start programming your brain that
  1. The action of drawing up does not mean you have to shoot.
  2. The action of drawing down is normal.
There are a couple of effective ways of doing this. One method sees you using your normal bow, the other has you using a lighter draw weight. The techniques goal is to train yourself i.e. your brain during practising learns to not take each shot, i.e. removing the expectation that every time you draw up you have to shoot.

Step 1

So when you are shooting your normal bow and on the practise bosses, try this addition to your normal program. It’s really simple. Don’t shot your 3rd arrow immediately.
When you get to your 3rd arrow draw up as normal, anchor, settle aim and at the point, you would normally release the string, stop.
Instead of releasing, drawdown, go back to your ready position. Take you hand off the string, leave the arrow on the string and relax. Take a couple of breaths and then draw up and if it feels right take the shot.
So why do this?
Well it starts to condition your mind into that mindset we are wanting i.e when you draw up it does not mean you will have to always take the shot. Effectively you are retraining your brain to be more flexible.
This may sound strange but it helps build your muscle memory and gives you confidence, it helps to make you realise that you don’t always have to take the shot. This, in turn, goes a long way to improve your shot control. Don’t get me wrong, it won’t be easy. There are times you draw up and feel perfect, but if it is your third arrow come down and do it again. You might draw up and down 3 or 4 times but over time you will get used to the feel and not let it affect you.

Step 2

The other technique has you doing a similar exercise using a lighter weight bow, I have an 18lb recurve I use. With this method, you draw up, anchor and come down, then draw up anchor and shoot. Because you are effectively drawing up twice for each shot you need to use a lower draw weight bow, otherwise, you are going to get tired and fatigued very quickly. I find doing this for a couple of sets of 4 arrows works best.
The key point of this technique is for you to learn that just because you draw back your nocked arrow, it doesn’t mean you have to take the shot. It can be a hard lesson to learn, but when it works and it will with practise, it feels great. It feels like you have retaken control of the shot and your archery.
Try the technique and let me know if it works for you or if you have something else that works. I sincerely hope this has helped, please let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading and as I have said previously feel free to drop me a line with any questions or thoughts you might have.