Can a Bow Get Messed Up So It Never Shoots Straight Again

Levi Morgan won his first professional archery tournament in 2007, when he also went on to win the Archery Shooters Association Shooter of the Year and World Champion titles that year.  Since and so, he has won the Shooter of the Year title 11 years in a row.  Levi is the host of Bow Life, airing on Sportsman Aqueduct.

The post-obit topics are from the column, "Changing the Game" in Petersen'south Bowhunting.

past Levi Morgan

In the following article, I volition address:

• How to Overcome Target Panic: The Aiming Drill
• Achieving Perfect Bow Balance
• How to Grip a Bow
• Shooting a Bow: Pushing and Pulling
• Anchoring a Bow: 3 Steps to Success
• Write It Down
• Serving a Bow Cord
• How to Stand up When Shooting a Bow
• Paper Tuning a Bow
• Preparing Your Mind for Success: Mastering the Mental Game of Archery

How to Overcome Target Panic: The Aiming Drill

If y'all've shot a bow long enough, you've probably heard virtually – or experienced for yourself – the demon nosotros call "target panic." The main form of target panic is all-time described every bit the inability to hold your pin on the target and squeeze the release slowly enough to crusade surprise when information technology fires. Substantially, you punch the release prematurely. While there are many forms of target panic and just as many ways to cure it, there are a few things yous can do to prevent or beat this horrible status. Surprisingly, the ane solution I'1000 most fond of doesn't fifty-fifty require you to fire an arrow.

The main grade of target panic derives from what I phone call "anxious aiming." This occurs when the pivot settles in where you lot want information technology to and you lot experience similar y'all have to burn down that release immediately. The trouble with firing a release on command (the way 90 percentage of people trigger their release) is that from the time your mind tells you to burn down that shot to the act of your finger really doing information technology is enough fourth dimension to movement off the spot. Generally, this is the principal cause of inconsistent groups. You may say y'all don't have target panic, just if you can't aim in the eye and slowly burn down that shot, so I've got some bad news: you have target panic. Luckily at that place is a cure for this.

Yous are probably wondering how I can advise solving this problem without even shooting an arrow, but the fact is, the problem lies betwixt your ears, not in the act of shooting. What you need to do is commit two weeks to the cure; every twenty-four hour period or every chance you go, go out in the m with an arrow nocked, but like yous would normally practice. You will simply draw the bow and accost the target, aiming with your finger on the trigger – merely don't pull that release; y'all want to focus simply on aiming. Keep that pin where yous desire to the arrow to hit until your aiming starts to break downwards. And so let downwardly and reset, never firing the pointer. Treat this just as you would any do session, except never really shoot your bow.

This will practice two things that do good you greatly equally an archer. Starting time, it will teach your mind that information technology is OK for that pin to settle on the bulls-eye without firing that arrow. 2nd, information technology will increment the length of time during which y'all can effectively aim before your shot breaks down. Over fourth dimension, yous will be able to add shooting back into your routine, only if you ever feel those anxious or rushed feelings, take a few days and just commit to this unproblematic drill.

Target panic is a horrible thing, and if you lot don't know how to cure information technology, it can actually mess with your confidence, taking the fun out of shooting your bow. Fifty-fifty if you aren't struggling with target panic, this aiming drill can and volition brand y'all a ameliorate archer, regardless of whether you lot are a novice or a top-level competitor.

Achieving Perfect Bow Balance

Peradventure you are new to archery and trying to larn everything you can. Maybe, however, you take been a successful archer for years and are simply reading this considering you are addicted and can't get enough. Either way, we all want to be improve shots, and if you say y'all don't, I'd say you're not a passionate archer/hunter.

There are many things that make upward a great archer, merely no one thing is more of import than having a perfectly balanced bow. The overall goal of finding perfect remainder is to be able to draw the bow with your eyes closed, settle in and open your eyes to a perfectly level bubble. This takes away human influence or torque that is necessary to level your bow otherwise. Proper balance will amend your aim in all areas. Amend aiming then leads to improvements in every aspect of your shot and can even cure most forms of target panic.

To achieve perfect residual, you lot will need a front stabilizer bar (I'd recommend at least ten inches), a Five-bar bracket that will allow you to conform side to side and upwards and downwards, and a rear stabilizer bar that's at least 8 inches. In add-on, you will want a few weights to play around with.

First, you will need to put the stabilizers on and level the bow from side to side. I would recommend trying 4-5 ounces of weight on the front bar and 10-fifteen ounces on the back bar. You tin fine-tune the weights from here, but this is a adept ratio to commencement with.

Next, draw the bow with your eyes airtight, anchor with a relaxed grip and open your optics. If the chimera on your sight is not level, so adjust the rear stabilizer accordingly until you lot can repeat this process and your bow is perfectly level from side to side.

Leveling your bow front to back is a little unlike because you will arrange past adding or removing weights rather than adjusting the bars from side to side. To level your bow front to back, come to total draw aiming at a horizontal line. If your pivot wants to dip or bounce below the line then add together weight to the back bar or have the weight off the front. If your pivot bounces above the line, do the reverse. Subsequently this step is complete, your bow should be very close to balanced. While y'all probably won't be aiming perfectly still, your aiming pattern should be centered on that horizontal line, not bobbing upward or downwards.

Obviously, we all want to be the best archer we can be. Balancing your bow properly volition assistance you tremendously. Some people say balancing your bow makes it as well heavy, but I'd rather comport a few more than ounces and hitting where I aim.

How to Grip a Bow

The grip is the just part of your bow you really affect during the shot process, meaning the style y'all handle information technology is disquisitional. Despite that, I believe grip remains one of the almost overlooked aspects of skillful shooting form.

Over the years, I've seen many variations of how people grip their bows, and gauge what? None of them are necessarily wrong. Just like any other attribute of archery, the proper grip is simply one that can be repeated consistently shot afterward shot. However, in that location are several things that can make that task much easier. One is to keep the entire grip on the thumb side of your lifeline. Then you want to point your thumb at about ii o'clock (ten o'clock for left-handed shooters), making sure it isn't riding up against the shelf of the riser. Lastly, you want to accept a loose hand, non squeezing the grip and not with your fingers stuck straight out; just permit your hand relax.

There are two chief muscles in your hand, one on each side of your lifeline. If your grip crosses over onto both, then information technology'due south a lot easier for yous to torque the bow simply past tensing your hand slightly. It's very of import to go along the bow on the thumb side of that lifeline simply, making it well-nigh impossible to torque with the muscles in your palm.

The best way to do this is to make a thumbs upwardly sign, plough your pollex to 2 o'clock (or ten o'clock for lefties), open up your manus and place it on the grip. This will assist prevent your thumb from pressing too difficult against the shelf, which can create sideways torque and cause inconsistencies in your remainder while aiming.

At present, your bow isn't going anywhere. So, stop belongings onto information technology for dear life at full draw. Only relax your bow hand. Now, squeeze the grip again and see what it does to the bow and level. That'south called torque, and information technology's bad. You want a completely relaxed manus. Merely allow your fingers to lie softly on the dorsum of the grip. Don't stick your fingers way out trying to avoid torque, because when you practise that you lot tin't help but tense upward those muscles, which defeats the unabridged purpose. Information technology's OK if your fingers are touching the riser, as long as they aren't influencing it.

Again, there is no right or wrong fashion to grip the bow if you can practise it the aforementioned every time, and the method I just described will help you achieve consistency. Go on the grip on 1 side of the lifeline in your manus, keep your thumb from pressing too hard up into the shelf and relax your entire hand. A consequent grip is admittedly crucial to authentic shooting.

Shooting a Bow: Pushing and Pulling

We all realize that to shoot a bow, some form of pushing and pulling has to accept place – but probably not as much as you've been told. My unabridged life, I was preached to on how I needed to push button my bow arm at the target and pull on my release arm firing the shot using my back muscles. I quickly realized that doing that the same way each time was adjacent to impossible. Archery, every bit I've e'er said, is a game of repetition, and trying to rip the bow in half but wasn't something I could repeat. Ane day I'd practice great, the side by side I'd exist pulling harder and hit to the correct or pushing shots out to the left. The inconsistency was really frustrating.

Now, many of my struggles were from the equipment I was using combined with this button/pull method. Just mainly, information technology was

because this entire method is flawed, in my opinion. Back when this "back tension" method was introduced, bows had hardly any let-off and spongy dorsum walls. Pushing and pulling really hard probably was the most consistent way to shoot that setup. These days, even so, bows are congenital with solid back walls and loftier let-off, and when you start pushing and pulling on something that doesn't give, information technology just doesn't work. Recall about it; yous're shooting a bow with a solid wall, and when you pull, something has to requite. In this case, that would be your bow arm. And when you button and the bow tin't requite, and then the movement is transferred to your release arm. I truly believe this is the reason so many people struggle with this technique. It's not that they're doing it incorrect. Information technology's that the entire process is no longer necessary.

I understand that to continue the bow at full draw, some course of "dorsum tension," or pushing and pulling, has to take place. I also believe that's nearly all you need, just enough to keep the bow at full describe. You have to look at your cam system, property weight, bow weight and type of draw terminate to come up with a consistent button/pull method that suits yous. However, if you're shooting a bow made in the last decade, more pushing and pulling probably isn't the answer to making you a better shot.

If y'all are struggling with aiming or consistent groups and you take been taught to push and pull on the bow, allow's try a different arroyo. Try to relax a piddling more in your shot. Pull just difficult enough to keep the string against the stop and let the bow do the balance. Afterward a while, y'all should find a really comfortable, less stressful way to burn down the shot. This will exist way more repeatable for you, and you volition be engaging fewer muscles than before. Aye, the fewer muscles during the shot the amend. When you're nervous, that's what causes tension and shaking, and that's what gets us tired. And so, the fewer muscles used the better. The days of ripping the bow apart are over. Information technology's time to relax and allow these bows shoot themselves.

Anchoring a Bow: 3 Steps to Success

If you know archery, y'all know how of import a consistent ballast is. Most people just think of anchor as a being simply ane matter. But the truth is, having a repeatable ballast position involves three major components. Anybody's anchor involves – or at least should involve – the following: release-to-hand contact, hand-to-face up contact, and cord-to-face contact. If yous have these three components down, you will have a solid ballast position.

Release-to-hand contact is very crucial in all parts of your shot, simply none more and so than your ballast. If yous are shooting a handheld release, that importance doubles. You can literally change your draw length and entire form but by positioning the release differently in your hand from one shot to the next. It is critically of import to find a comfortable spot in your hand where the release just seems to fit. It's not a bad idea to even marking that on your hand with a marker or record while you practice. Make a conscious effort each shot to identify that release in your hand exactly the same. Soon, that will exist the just place you lot can comfortably place the release, and any slight modify will be noticed immediately. At this point, the marking and/or tape is no longer needed.

A consistent mitt-to-face contact bespeak can be a little trickier. I've seen guys and girls mash their hands into their faces, and I've seen them completely avoid whatever contact with their face at all (both are disasters). You want to find a comfortable force per unit area point somewhere along your jawbone. I like to slide my jawbone between my starting time knuckle and middle knuckle. I don't mash my hand to my confront. I just very lightly impact my hand to that spot on my jaw so I can execute my release properly. I've found that the more force per unit area I put on my face, the harder it is to execute the shot. On the other hand, no contact or a floating anchor even worse, in my opinion. How tin can y'all ever know when y'all are anchored if you tin can't experience whatever contact with your hand?

The final piece of the anchor is the contact between your face and the string. While you lot need this contact, you lot absolutely can't press on the string with your face up, as this volition cause nightmares with shooting consistency. The accented best and most repeatable cord-to-confront contact point I've constitute is to very lightly touch the string to the tip of your nose. If you use your cheek or the side of your nose, it's difficult to put the string in the exact same spot every time. The tip of your nose is ever in the same place.

But like every other aspect of archery, in that location is no right or wrong anchor – if yous tin repeat information technology from shot to shot. Having the correct describe length is very crucial in comfortably anchoring with the method I've only described. Assuming your equipment fits you perfectly, this iii-function anchor method is, in my stance, the best way to go about fine-tuning your archery game. Ever remember your release-to-hand, hand-to-face, and string-to-confront contact points. Stay consistent with all three and your ballast position will never neglect.

Write It Down

Everyone has had that one setup that was money – that 1 bow they always shot meliorate than any other. The trouble is once you lot replace the strings, cables or limbs, information technology'south never the aforementioned. You can become to the same model, poundage and describe length, but it notwithstanding doesn't feel correct. If only you had taken notes on everything. There are some primal things y'all always should write down one time yous accept that dream setup you are in love with. Offset, write down all the measurements on the bow. Then accept notes on how your arrows are built. Lastly, take notes on other things in your shot more along the lines of feel and execution.

When we have the best set up of our lives, we need to realize that bows change with use, and before information technology's too late, nosotros need to write down everything about the setup.  Some of these things are describe length measured from the throat of the grip, d-loop length, peep height from the loop, nock height from axles, draw weight, belongings weight, axle to axle, brace height and allow-off. And then, motility on to things similar stabilizer lengths and weights, sight choice, fiber size, lens magnification, peep aperture size, rest location from burger pigsty and, if you shoot a blade rest, what size launcher. Nothing is too small or unimportant to write down well-nigh this setup.

Next up are your arrows. Nada is more critical to a forgiving and accurate setup than your arrows. You demand to log all of this info also. How long are your arrows carbon to carbon? What model arrow are you shooting, including spine? Vane selection and the helical or showtime on those vanes are very of import. Write downwards what nock, what grain bespeak and and then overall arrow weight. Arrows come in so many sizes and spines these days that if you can't remember what arrow you had, all the other info isn't nigh every bit important.

Lastly, you need to log every role of how you are executing your shot. Are y'all relaxed at full depict or are you lot pulling hard on the wall? What is your bow arm positioning? Straight arm or slightly aptitude? Same goes for release arm and even how y'all hold your release. Write down how you lot are anchoring in and what release you're shooting. Bow grip is some other crucial slice, but it's very hard to write downwards specific details almost some things, and then I would besides suggest taking pictures and keeping those with your notes.

If you are shooting the best you've ever shot and have finally establish the setup you've been looking for, accept some advice now that may salve you lot a headache later. Write downwards everything you can about your setup. Log all the measurements on your bow, all of the brands and models of equipment you are using, what arrows and how you have them built and your electric current shot process and grade. I know at this moment everything is slap-up and you may think this is unnecessary, but i twenty-four hours you will exist glad you lot did it.

Serving a Bow String

Few bowhunters spend much time worrying nearly the serving thread on their bowstring and/or cables. Yet, poor servings tin can cause major inconsistencies in how your bow performs. Whenever you are working with servings, there are several keys to brand sure it will agree up and perform well.

The well-nigh important difference between how I serve and how I encounter most others serve is that I weave the lead line in and out of the main serving. This holds the unabridged run together and keeps the serving from separating or "crawling" up and down the string. I'grand certain you've seen information technology. You lot take the D-loop off your cord and at that place'due south a big gap in the serving where the loop material was tied onto the bowstring. Unfortunately, when this happens the serving has to movement. More than importantly, the serving where your nock goes has to move. You also tin can probably look at your cams right now and see where the serving is separating because of force per unit area and stress from the cams. Now, to fix or prevent these things from happening, you have to tie the entire run together. I take the serving tag end and make it at least as long equally the run I'1000 near to serve. I go near 10-20 wraps over that tag or lead line then I pull it out, wrap in one case and lay it back down for 10-20 more than wraps. I exercise this for the entire process. When I become about half an inch from where I need to end, I only pull that tag out and finish the serve without it. The tighter you serve the run, the better and more than effective this will be. Information technology should prevent any type of itch you would encounter otherwise.

Y'all also want to keep even force per unit area while serving a run. The more loosely you serve, the bigger the serving diameter and the weaker it volition be. Every bit you increase the tightness (tension) of your serving, its bore volition compress and its strength will increase. The only real way to necktie a tight serving is to use a serving tool yous tin can adjust. Keep that tool firm confronting the string, and once you have your desired force per unit area (tension), endeavour not to influence the serving pressure level otherwise. The beginning and finish may exist a picayune off because you have to manually serve them without a tool, so requite yourself plenty room on each end and so that's a non-issue.

Finally, when you finish your serve, in that location should exist 2 ends sticking out – the tag end and the main line you lot used to wrap. Cutting those down and exit at least a quarter inch sticking up. Fray the ends before burning them with a lighter, and as the burn gets close to the string, mash it downwards flat around the serving that's wrapped. This keeps those tag ends from working dorsum through and unraveling the unabridged run. Most of the time, I also apply a tiny dot of glue to those burns, just equally an actress measure to hold them in place.

Serving isn't an heady part of being a not bad archer, but it is a disquisitional component and something you must know how to do properly when working on your ain bow. As I explained, there are a few things you can do to have the strongest, most effective serve. Most importantly, weave the tag line in and out of the main wrap throughout the length of the serve. Second, keep tight and even pressure on the thread throughout the serving process. And lastly, flare and fire both tag ends against the serving when finished to prevent them from slipping through. These 3 things will brand your serving more than durable and consistent.

How to Stand up When Shooting a Bow

Archery at a glance seems uncomplicated. You pull back a string and let it go, right? How difficult could information technology be? Well, the answer is pretty dang difficult if you're looking to be the best archer possible. Archery is fabricated up of and then many steps y'all must be able to repeat to shoot consistently. One of those many steps is your stance.

Stance is the foundation on which your shot rests, and if it is different from ane shot to the next, chances are your arrows will hit in different places likewise. Some of the key components of a proper stance include keeping your anxiety shoulder width autonomously, pointing your toes slightly outward and opening your hips to the target.

Information technology is important to exist steady while shooting a bow. Then, naturally, your body needs to be planted solidly on the basis. Y'all don't run across tall buildings that are smaller at the base of operations than at the acme. And then, why would your stance exist more narrow than the rest of your body? Information technology shouldn't. Yous want to keep your feet near shoulder width apart. I see a lot of people shooting with their anxiety close together. Just put, that can and will cause aiming nightmares.

After a lot of trial and error, I've found that if I betoken my toes out only barely, it helps with my overall balance. I used to shoot with my toes straight and I struggled with swaying forward and backward if the basis wasn't perfectly level. I started pointing my toes out and information technology immediately got rid of the swaying and gave me a great awareness of my overall balance.

I run across likewise many people endmost themselves off to the target. Y'all need to open your hips upwards. Not drastically, simply enough to where you're not having to turn your head ninety degrees to your body. When yous are forced to plow your head that hard to address the target, it gets uncomfortable and you volition find yourself drifting out of your peep. Archery is all about repetition, and when yous are comfortable things are much easier to repeat.

Now, accept all this information and when y'all have a comfortable stance you are happy with, address the target equally if you are getting ready to shoot and have someone trace your feet. Don't move the target or the trace marks for a few days, or equally long as possible. Every time yous go practice, stand in those prints. Before long, it will become natural for your anxiety to find that position and alignment on their own. You will have a solid and repeatable opinion.

Your stance is one of many things that need to be repeated to be a consistent archer. It's something that is ofttimes overlooked, only information technology can really help your game. You want a solid base, so start with your feet shoulder width apart, indicate your toes slightly out for all-around residuum, open your hips upward so that information technology's piece of cake for yous to accost your peep, and finally – after all those are correct – trace your stance out on the ground and shoot from that position until you tin do it without trying.

Paper Tuning a Bow

The idea of "paper tuning" bows has grown over the last few years. There is more than and more information out in that location nigh tuning bows, which is a skilful thing. When I was growing upward, newspaper tuning was pretty much nonexistent. For those who don't know what this is, it'due south but shooting an arrow through a piece of newspaper to come across if it is traveling straight or kicking 1 manner or the other coming out of the bow. The just problem with this is that sometimes the vanes could be contacting the riser or rest and you could never get a perfect tear (bullet hole), no thing what you did. On height of that, the vanes can deed every bit a Band-assist, covering upwards or slightly correcting the actual tune of the bow. I take paper tuning a pace further now. I shoot an arrow through paper that is the same length and weight as my others, just this one will have no vanes. In the archery world, it'due south called blank-shaft tuning.

Y'all can either leave 1 united nations-fletched when building your arrows, or you tin take a razor blade and scrape off the vanes on your current arrows. The principal thing is to make sure they have the same specs (length, weight, and spine). Obviously, when you take the vanes off, it will weigh less, then I like to accept electric tape and wrap the arrow exactly where the vanes were until I get them to the weight of my other arrows. Don't wrap the tape anywhere else on the shaft because information technology's of import that the spine reacts correctly.

And then, walk up to about 2 yards from the paper and shoot through. I like to shoot very shut because I want the initial reaction correct out of the bow. Depending on the tear, you can adapt your balance slightly. Sometimes tears that are high can mean the spine is too weak and low tears would exist the opposite. If you get a bullet hole at two yards, and then yous know from the start the arrow is coming out perfectly. When you shoot a fletched arrow through, it should also be a bullet hole. If non, and so you have a clearance issue. Your vanes must be contacting either the riser, cables or remainder, causing them to fly off plane. I won't go into that here, merely spray some powder spray similar athlete'due south pes spray all over that area, and it volition show yous exactly where the vanes are striking.

Bare-shaft tuning is the best style to see if, when uninfluenced past the vanes, your bow is properly tuned. Ideally, when a bow is properly tuned, I tin can take an arrow with vanes and shoot an 10 at 20 yards and and then have an pointer with no vanes and do the same. Information technology will bear witness you if your setup is perfect or if you lot still have some work to do. I'thou not saying you tin can't shoot well with a bow that doesn't shoot a bullet pigsty, because that's simulated. I've won national championships with bows that weren't tuned perfectly. That being said, as a right-hander, the simply tear I'm ok with is slightly loftier left, which means the back end of the arrow is getting away from the riser so there will be no clearance effect. The opposite would apply to left-handers. Having a paper-tuned setup isn't the magical answer to making you a cracking archer, but it will most certainly be a pace in the correct direction.

Preparing Your Listen for Success: Mastering the Mental Game of Archery

I've used almost all the principles that made me a champion archer to make myself a better bowhunter. It'south all about complete training. For me, the near important part of that is prepping my mind. All serious hunters spend so much time and coin preparing for the fall. We accept the best bows, accessories, and camo that money can purchase. We set up stands, constitute nutrient plots and shoot all summertime long. We are set! Or are we? The truth is, most probably aren't, even if they've done everything I but mentioned. See, no matter how physically prepared, or how prepped your spots are, or how patterned that large buck is, if you're not mentally capable of holding yourself together in the moment of truth, all that difficult work is for nothing. I may have never stumbled across the importance of mental visualization had I non grown up in the competition world, just nevertheless, I now use it every fourth dimension I pick up my bow.

In the realm of competitive archery, confidence is everything. Of course, my equipment must be flawless and then must my form. But that won't mean anything if I tin't keep myself together on that final pointer. How do I prepare for that moment? I visualize every shot – every possible scenario; I shoot every arrow in my listen before I shoot it in real life. And every time, the outcome in my mind is the same; I win! I practice this over and over waiting on the finals or at night in my hotel room. And so when I'm at that place, in that moment, instead of feeling uncomfortable and nervous, I already know the issue, because I've won 100 times in my head over the last 24 hours. Obviously, I don't always really win, but that conviction has carried me through more times than not. The trouble is, sometimes the other guy has won 100 times in his head too.

If you dearest bowhunting like I practise, then y'all already do some form of mental training and you don't fifty-fifty know it. I involuntarily daydream about shooting giant bucks all the fourth dimension, but and so I have information technology a step further – and you should too. Every time I climb into the tree, I instantly go into "what if" style. I think the deer is going to come from that patch of timber, only "what if" he comes from behind me. Most failure is prompted by surprise, which causes us to panic and then blitz the moment. I effort to go over every scenario, every way that big cadet could come up. I want to imagine it and know exactly what to exercise when information technology happens, because nine times out of 10, things don't get the fashion they are supposed to when you're hunting a mature animal. Then, when that 180-inch buck steps out in the one spot you never figured he would, you're absurd, calm, and collected considering you just shot him there a few minutes ago in your listen.

Mental grooming has been ane of my most important edges in contest for my entire career- if not the most important – and I've used the aforementioned method in bowhunting with like success. Nosotros all put in and so much work preparing for our favorite time of the year, merely for most the mental training goes untouched, causing a lot of heartbreak in the moments that should be our biggest victories. Don't allow those opportunities skid away because you didn't set your well-nigh valuable piece of equipment – your mind.

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