RE: 20 yard mental barrier
 

Quit shooting so much at even yardages. Go stump shooting and concentrate more on having a good time than on grouping arrows. Never shoot more than one arrow at a target when stumping. See how close you can makeone arrow hit at whatever you choose to shoot. Play around a lot with your distances, really close, really far and everything in between. You'll soon convince yourself it's not so hard after all to hit something beyond 20, or even 30 yards.

RE: 20 yard mental barrier
 

Even I can understand it;)

At closer distances, you can hit pretty good with less then perfect arrow flight.
As you start getting back, it makes a bigger differences. If you can verify your setup is well tuned, then you know the Indian needs the work.

Steve

RE: 20 yard mental barrier
 

Actually accurate shots can be made even with very poorly tuned arrows. When I shot the Howard Hill in 2006, I'd only had my selfbow for a short time, and hadn't had a chance to make any arrows for it. I shot my longbow arrows, just for the heck of it. If I did everything just right, they flew ok--but most of the time they were putting on moves that would make a Russian gymnast jealous. I won with those arrows......

The arrows I shot are 75-80# spine. My selfbow "likes" 45-50# spine.

Not to say that better tuned arrows aren't easier to shoot--just that poorly tuned arrows won't always cause poor shooting. Poor form and poor focus pretty much guarantees it most of the time.

I like Art's advice.

Chad

RE: 20 yard mental barrier
 

As with all sports, you have to push yourself in order to improve....

Move your base line practice distance to 25 yds.... By that I mean, shoot 80% of your arrow from 25+..... Try it for a couple weeks.....

Its all about perspective and focus, assuming you have decent form.

RE: 20 yard mental barrier
 

Okay.... I know this is gonna sound ignorant, but exactly what is "stump shooting"? Surely you're not talking about actually shooting "stumps".:D Seems like you'd ruin quite a few arrows that way. Besides, there's a real lack of "stumps" where I live.:D:D

RE: 20 yard mental barrier
 

Steve,
Believe me, I already know that it's the "Indian" that needs the work.:D

RE: 20 yard mental barrier
 

"Stump" shooting is basically roving in the woods and taking random shots at random distances--targets can be pine cones, clumps of grass, a leaf, a flower--anything you can focus on as a target (and doesn't have a back-stop that will destroy your arrow). I wouldn't do it with field points though, as they can snake up under grass and leaves too easily (lost arrow). Good points for this are the Judo, Ace Hex blunt, rubber blunts, etc.

This way you aren't fixated on a particular distance--you learn to judge it subconciously.

Chad

RE: 20 yard mental barrier
 

LBR,
Ahhh, I get it. I've gotta wonder where the name "stumping" actually came from. Was there a time when they actually used to shoot stumps? Doesn'tsound like a veryequipment friendly training method.

RE: 20 yard mental barrier
 

The term came from shooting old rottenstumps that were soft enough to shoot without damaging your arrows. Must have come from an area where it's wet all the time because stumps around here just don't get soft. Shoot stumps around here and you've screwed up an arrow. Might as well shoot at blocks of concrete. ;)

RE: 20 yard mental barrier
 

Try some near dark practice.It seems to help with focus issues(spot /not hole deer).The yardage blockkind of goes away,atleast for me.