ORIGINAL: Rob/PA Bowyer

Time to go back to the basics even though your a seasoned shooter.

Get up close to the target so you know you won't miss it with your eyes closed. It's time to work on precise drawing, anchoring and releasing fluently. Regardless of the release type, index finger, thumb, pinky whatever, when target shooting you should only be triggering the release using back tension. It's time to work on that with your eyes shut without concern of what mark your hitting. Once you have that fluent in muscle memory, you can move back and aim.

Now take everything you've learned with your eyes closed and set it in motion with your pin on a mark.

In Zen archery, archers learn to draw their bows for a year or more without being allowed to release an arrow.....once the drawing is mastered only then are they allowed to release an arrow and this is only in the complete darkness at a huge wall...that way they are not aiming the bow strictly working on release....only after they have mastered the drawing and releasing of the bow are they allowed to actually aim at anything.

I try to take that same practice (in a short version) whenever I develope any bad habits and it can happen to anyone. Go back to the basics and you'll break your bad habits.

Just like a golfer takes a practice swing to develope muscle/mind rememberance, so should we as archers, the body knows what to do, the mind is what makes or breaks a archer, shooting a bow is 90% mental.