Question?
 

A guy at work came to me today to help him cure a problem that his wife is having. She has the proper poundage bow for her and the draw length is correct. She has no trouble with shooting until it comes time to move her finger in front of the trigger of the release and thats when her hand starts shaking. I believe that she has some wierd symptom of target panic. I gave my suggestions for her to try however I was wondering if anyone had any good suggestions as to a thumb type release. This is a new one on me. I have seen quite a few other problems but this is strange to me. Any ideas to pass along.

RE: Question?
 

BUY BIG BOX AND HAVE HER SHOOT AT IT NOT EVEIN HAVE A TARGIT JEST SHOOT AT THE BOX

RE: Question?
 

Have her stand about ten feet in front of a large target like in a pro shop and have her close her eyes and shoot. She won't have the distraction of aiming and she can concentrate on just shooting.

RE: Question?
 

Is she a coffee drinker? Could be just a simple caffeine symptom, if she is, have her drink a cup and then try to shoot. I have a neighbor that gets the shakes all the time, but he has to drink whiskey to make himself steady. :)

RE: Question?
 

RobinHood, I had a buddy when I was in the Navy that would get the shakes real bad until he had a couple of beers. Funny as heck.:D

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Blank bale. There's no pressure to hit the bullseye, just execute a good shot and release. Shooting with eyes closed is also very helpful. You can "feel" the shot without the distraction of visual input. Just get anchored and aim, close your eyes for 4 or 5 secs, and shoot. I do this (blank bale and eyes closed) at 8 yds.

RE: Question?
 

Fit her with a good tab or glove, put a flipper rest on the bow and have her try shooting the bow with her fingers. There is a lot more feeling of being in control of the bow when the fingers are actually ON THE STRING. I'd bet she's experiencing a bit of fear, or intimidation at least, and shooting fingers just might give her more confidence. It might not work, but there's very little expense in trying it. A heckuva lot cheaper than trying different releases at $50-100 a pop.

Believe it or not, folks, not exactly everybody should be shooting a release. I hate seeing newbies forced into a single shooting style when there are SO MANY different options that might probably work better for them.

RE: Question?
 

Art has a very good point about trying out finger shooting. When I first started shooting bows, I was shooting a recurve with my fingers. After that, I stepped up to a compound with fingers. After awhile, I got entirely comfortable shooting bows and I threw on a cheap $10 release with the thumb button. I shot that for a long time. Heck, last year I used a caliper release and it took some time getting use to.

RE: Question?
 

The league I am shooting in has a woman with a similar problem. It helps her when she draws the bow with her eyes closed and hits her ancor while they are shut. She than gets her finger in position to shoot then opens her eyes once she is at ancor and her finger resting on the release.

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For what it's worth, I was going to say have her shoot fingers, so I'll just concur with the previous post. Good luck.

RE: Question?
 

Thanks for the replies. I will pass the information on.