Drew,
Thanks for the info as well... though I'm taking it all in... including the advice to get better gear I appreciate also your insights. So you had a similiar first day of practice? How did it go on the third?
An experienced friend of mine suggests 15 minutes a day... I can't always make each day so I try to get 1-4 hours on the days that I can.... I guess I over force myself... truthfully I did start shooting at 15 feet or so the first day as well as attempts to distance shoot...
people would gasp at this point on the board but I was shooting 10 to 20 feet into trees, wooden crates, a cow skull (a COW SKULL!?!), the side of a storage building.... my trailer.... (accidental)... etc....
dad had some bent arse old arrows and I knew I was going into town to buy more at Walmart so I thought why not!?!.... I even shot ones so damaged by my "practice" that they no longer had a tip per say... but rather a jagged end of a shaft... ironically it was one such arrow shaft that went straight through aluminum siding only to jag into the "flesh" of sheet rock...
naturally I've taken a wee bit more care with the shafts and tips that I've bought for "official" practice... okay, a wee bit more....

In a sense I knew the first day I would suck so I demanded to myself that I would exercise on grab, pull, aim..... grab, pull, aim... destroy the old arrows, buy new ones, and work on more of technique the next.... basically I wanted to kill the intimidation of me and the bow....
but today I actually worked on techinque. And saved on arrow life though the fletchings are now looking a bit rough.