Ozbow

As the title states i have developed a habit of gap shooting due to shooting the same distance night after night.
I only noticed this when i went to the range the other day and shot at longer distanes.

What is the best way to break this habbit?

I have never shot this way before and i am can only put it down to the new range i my garage being a short distance.
Any suggestions? ??
Or am i just being over analyzing this
Thanks
Stuart

Hi, IMO it is all about muscle memory. You need to shoot at differing distances regularly for your brain to register those distances and enter muscle memory into you bow arm.
This may be explained better by others""

My understanding is that you would always pick a spot on the target and focus completely at that spot irrespective of distance, and over time as long as you shoot those differing distances it will come together.

Hope this makes sense, and helps.

Ronster

LOL. I'm trying to stop from shooting instinctive.

As soon as I draw the bow back the instinctive shot cycle takes over and away it goes.

I pay attention for the first couple of shots but then it is auto pilot again.

So I'm feeling your pain....in reverse.

Cheers
Troy

The brain is a wonderous thing, If only we knew how it works.

Ronster

Hey Stu i seem to do a mix of both: tend to shoot instinctive for closerr targets say 15m or so and then start to gap for the longer ones and i dont think i think which mode i am in i think i just go into auto mode!! if that makes any sense.
Cheers
IAN

Instinctive is the way to go, you just have to get the brain trained. "Not Easy"
The best archers seem to have it mastered. I have not as yet and not likely to as I get older.

Ronster

Hi there,after seeing the above I had a relook at "Hunting the hard way" by Howard Hill again-chapter 5 "How I shoot a bow".Midway thru he says "I believe the Question I am most often asked is -how do you aim when you are shooting at game....I use the same method of aiming all the time,and I call it split-vision or secondary aiming" He then describes this method which para-phrasing seems to be a cross of instinctive and gap in that he focusses primarily on the place he wants to hit but in peripheral vision is also aiming his arrow at a point which will then enable the arrow to hit where he is primarily focussed.Sounds confusing so I can only refer you to the book and chapter.Just before this bit he does state "Taking the eye off the object to be hit and looking at the arrow point is the worst mistake an archer can make"...!!!
With his discussion on his aiming method,he says that with pure instinctive aiming if one misses then there is no reference "points" to adjust with a second or subsequent shots _ and I found this very interesting as originally being pure instinctive I always struggled with consistency and how to adjust after a missed shot.Anyway the whole book is a great read and I found things of note and interest having a flick thru it again.Hope this may be of some help as in where to get thoughts on how to improve our accuracy and enjoyment of this forever enjoyable though often perplexing pursuit...though I think that in archery as in life we can listen,read ,research all the advise and methods in the world but in the end we each have to work out what suits and works for us individually and this also evolves over time.cheers