by Jackson | Jun 9, 2014 | Archery Education
I love going to shoot my bow. I love spending time outside and relaxing. I have a lot of reasons that I like going to shoot my bow.
What about you? What are your reasons for shooting?
What about all the times that you’re not feeling like doing anything for months? What’s with that? I don’t care who you are, the longer you spend away from shooting your bow, the worse you’ll get. So how do you get motivated to spend time practicing?
He’s having fun now, let’s keep that motivation going!
My steps on how to get motivated
Step 1.
I never practice. My whole life, practice has been something negative. I HAVE to practice so I can be good at something and most of the time that means it sucks and is no fun. Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to get kids to practice? It’s because it’s no fun.
Instead, I just go shoot my bow. I don’t attach any sense of practice to it. I might decide to do something that looks like practice out at the range, but I just go out to have fun. I have no intention of forcing some kind of practice that ends up creating a negative view of going to the range, backyard, or wherever.
Step 2.
I change the amount of time I shoot. In fact, it probably is over an hour at a time, but that’s just how long it takes me to go through the 3d target course. If things just don’t feel right, or I lose more than 3 arrows, I quit and go home. I don’t want to have to deal with a bad day when I go shoot my bow to relax and feel better. Whether it’s 5 minutes or 2 hours. If things start going downhill a lot, then I take a break. If they continue to go downhill, then I stop for the day.
Step 3.
I joined an archery club and we had a weekly meetup to go shoot the 3D course. It was a fun time to hang out and go shoot. It helped me shoot more often and that made me shoot better. I wasn’t going to practice, I was going to hang out with friends. If I had a day where I just wanted to go by myself, then it’s no problem. It was a lot of fun to go with all the other people. I learned the most during that weekly meetup. More than anywhere else.
Step 4.
Reward yourself for your efforts. Hit your first bulls-eye? Go get some ice cream. There’s no point in trying to be stoic and pretend that you shouldn’t be happy or excited with your progress. If you are trying to get your child interested in the sport, you could make it a ritual of going to the range and shooting and then having some special parent child time while getting a coke or ice cream.
Step 5.
What makes you feel good? Is it shooting, being outside, alone or with friends. Take the things that you’ve found to enjoy the most and repeat it. Most people don’t even consider of creating a happy environment. You can do the same with your hobbies and interests. If shooting with a group is what makes you happiest, then find that and keep going. Eventually you’ll just be going to hang out with friends.
Those are my 5 steps on how to get motivated to practice.
I know that there are days were you just feel like you need to shoot, but you really don’t want to. That happens to everyone for almost everything.
Find what part of archery makes you happy and focus on that. I love it and I love many of the benefits I’ve found out of the sport. If you take a bit of time and find out what part you like, then you can shoot more often and have more fun and you’ll never even think you were practicing to begin with.
photo credit
by Jackson | May 19, 2014 | Archery Education
There’s something really special about shooting your bow and making the arrow go where you want it to. When you’re shooting a traditional setup, there’s a very special connection and fun feeling that always draws you back to shooting again.
All that fun stuff being said, it’s also the absolute picture of disgust at the beginning when things are all awkward. You try shooting with those things called hands and the arrows fly, hopefully, in the direction of the target. Getting over this beginning phase and feeling more confident will make you enjoy things so much more and that’s where you want to get to.
Archery statue
My traditional archery tips
Stand close to the target – Your pride has no place in the beginning, or ever really, so get closer to your target. When I started shooting traditional, I stood about 5 yards from the target, even when I was shooting 3D targets at the archery club with a bunch of experienced shooters. You know what I didn’t have to do? I didn’t have to spend a lot of time looking for arrows and pretending that I was as good as everyone else. They also respected my honesty a lot and that helped in making friends.
Practice proper form shooting – Form shooting is where you go stand in front of a target and don’t worry about hitting the same point on the target. You focus entirely on your actions and movements being the same each time. What you are trying to do is get your arrows to group in one spot. This helps to tell you that you are doing the same movements the same way each time. Getting the same results to happen over and over will help you develop better accuracy in the long run.
Five shots a day – If you want to shoot instinctive, there is no shortcut other than practice. You don’t have to make it a big deal though. Most of the time, you feel like you need to shoot for an hour each time you get your bow out. This is simply not true. Try shooting only 5 arrows per day at your house. You can do this in about 15 minutes or less and it will work wonders on your instinctive shooting skills. Shoot from a different place each shot to work on your instinctive skills.
Practice meditation or focusing – It might sound funny at first, but the mental aspect of archery is huge so it would be a bad idea to ignore it. You’ll find that learning to control your mind and what you’re thinking about will significantly affect every shot. You need to do this for every single shot and you’ll find that the more distracted you are, the worse you’ll shoot.
Create a pre shot routine – Before every shot you take, you’ll find yourself doing the same things. This is the pre shot routine. It’s what you do to get your mind and body in the right state to make the best shot possible. It’s actually very important to make this consistent and something that you always do. All professionals have a routine that they go through to prepare for their sport and you should do the same.
There are a lot more traditional archery tips out there and in fact there have been many books written with several of them. I just want to point out some good things to be aware of. You can also read my 5 tips for increasing archery accuracy to get some more information.
Shoot straight
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by Jackson | May 12, 2014 | Archery Education
Getting better with a bow is more than just going out and shooting a lot of arrows. That does help, but these archery accuracy tips will help you take your game up a notch. Sometimes the basic things will do the most good, and that goes just the same for your archery skills. We all know it’s important to do things the same way for each shot, but there’s more that you can do to increase your skills.
Match your equipment
It’s important to take the time at the beginning to match your equipment so that everything fits and meshes just right. This involves having a good arrow rest, properly matched arrows, correctly working peep sight, and more. For example, you don’t want to shoot off the arrow shelf with rigid plastic vanes. Instead, you would get an arrow rest made to accommodate rigid plastic vanes.
Group your arrows.
Just because you bought a dozen arrows that look the same does not mean that they will shoot the same. It’s also a bad idea to shoot a bunch of completely different arrows all together. When you shoot your arrows, you’ll find that they all fly just a bit differently. I’ve found this is much less of a problem with the best carbon arrows and new arrows. Take all the arrows that shoot the same and keep them. Don’t use the other arrows that fly differently.
Focus on the smallest thing possible
There is a huge mental aspect of archery. Focus is one of the main elements of any shot. You have to clear your mind of all other distractions and focus all of your mental energy on the target. You can’t just focus on a big spot though, you need to focus on the smallest spot that you can find. A tiny imperfection or the hole from a previously removed arrow. By focusing on the smallest point possible, you increase your amount of focus and that really helps your shooting.
Develop a pre shot routine
Creating a routine that you do before every single shot helps you to shoot more accurate. You’ll see this a lot with golfers and most sports. It could be something as short as three deep breaths or as long as a couple of minutes. Whatever it is, it helps you to focus your mind and body to prepare for the shot. You’ll find that it helps you to know when it’s time to shoot and when you can relax.
Multiple anchor points
A lot of people will see others use the corner of their mouth as an anchor point to which they draw each time. This doesn’t work for me. I find that I will change my face up as I get more tired or just because. This means that the corner of my mouth is in a different spot. So I use two anchor points to make sure that I draw the bow back each time to the same place. For me, my knuckle on my thumb goes to my ear and the bowstring touches my eyebrow. Using two or more points helps to make sure you line things up the same each time.
Try using these archery accuracy tips to make your shooting better. I’d love to hear how using these tips has helped you our or if you have any other tips that you’d like to share.
photo credit
by Jackson | Apr 28, 2014 | Hunting Tips
I was sitting on the side of a hill waiting for the chance at my first deer. I was concealed by nothing but 4-5 shrub brushes pulled around my cousin and I. We sat there through the morning watching the brightening of the sky slowly spread its warmth across the ravine.
I slowly started seeing the light brown and gray colors moving in the distance. They are like ghosts appearing from nothing and acting as if they had never been anywhere else. I felt like they could hear the slightest sound and was even leery to blink at the thought of them hearing me. I didn’t know how I would act, but the adrenaline, focus, and intensity of all my senses seemed to be on edge.
The crosswind kept all of our smells away and I was good at moving silent. The only thing different was the shooting position. It was awkward, but I was determined and I had my cousin to make sure things went right so I wasn’t too worried. My shot was excellent and there would be no need for tracking. At the end after much of the emotion had faded was a resoluteness and sense of accomplishment and confidence that would last forever.
Perhaps your first hunting experience was like mine, perhaps not, but the tips and advice on how to go about it made a huge difference in my success. I’ve read lots of bow hunting tips throughout my life and many of them are very helpful, but I want to focus on some of the basic ones that will make you more successful a majority of the time. I love to focus on the basics, because the basics work and they work for almost everyone.
So without further squawking on the topic and in no particular order.
My 5 bow hunting tips to be successful
Practice shooting from a hunting position – The only time most people will ever shoot sitting down or leaning over is from the shooting stand. If you want to harvest an animal for months on end, then why would you only spend at most a week or two practicing shooting that very specific shot?
What makes more sense is to practice shooting that shot at least once or more per month, I recommend much more, so that you feel very comfortable with that shooting position. Having some new element thrown at you when you are out is not a good surprise most of the time.
Smells matter (most of the time)– A much debated topic and one that is truly valid. Bad and wrong smells can break your best hunting efforts. At the same time, I’m sure you’ll notice that there are lots of factors that go into smells, most important being wind. I recommend studying how the wind works in your hunting area.
On the opposite side of the fence is that smells don’t matter than much. Depending on where you are and what the deer are accustomed to can make a huge impact on how they react. They deer are more likely to react and leave the further away you get from any type of civilization. That being said, I’ve also seen deer stare at unnatural things for about 20 minutes and decide it’s harmless. They are fickle and tricky. I prefer the conservative side of removing as much unnatural smells as possible.
Noise makes a difference – Deer have big ears don’t they. I have made a noise with a deer call, a doe bleat to be exact, and had a buck walk to within 15 feet of where the sound came from. Their hearing is amazing and they are very good at figuring out the direction it came from. Having silent clothes and equipment will make a huge difference in a successful venture.
Safety saves – It’s basic and simple, but some common sense things can save you in most situations.
- Tell someone when and where your going hunting. Cell phones can get broken easily or have no reception.
- Make sure that all your equipment is in working condition and that you have at least a basic set of field tools with you.
- Have water and anything else you might want or need such as food, a hat, a compass, etc.
One good shot is better than a million bad shots – When it comes down to it. The most important part of the entire experience is making a good clean shot that is placed correctly. If there is any doubt that it is a bad shot or that something is behind the target, then don’t take the shot. You must make the decision and know what you are capable of as well as what you can not do. I’d love to hear your success story instead of how a poor decision made your hunt go wrong.
Hunting is a very complex skill that can take a long time to master, but if you’ll practice some of these bow hunting tips starting now, then you’ll be improving your chances of a wonderful hunting season in the future.
photo credit
by Jackson | Apr 23, 2014 | Archery Education
When you’re first learning about archery, it can get a little confusing, especially if you only have a book. Don’t get me wrong, I love books, but sometimes you learn better by watching a video. I know instructional videos might not be the most exciting thing, but if you want to learn faster and easier, then watching archery videos is a great way to go.
I remember watching one such video that was of Rick Welch on shooting. It was extremely helpful, but it’s hard to make an instructional video that doesn’t get slow and that goes for every instructional video I’ve ever watched. All the important things I’ve learned from them more than make up for any type of video quality. A slick video doesn’t make you shoot better, it’s the quality so keep that in mind.
My take on all instruction videos below. People will show you the best way they know how. It does not mean it will be the best for you. However, these people are very good at what they do so pay attention and you’ll find bits and pieces that make you a better archer.
Helpful Archery Videos
Archery Mechanics ~ Instinctive Shooting ~ Instructional DVD
– This 2 DVD set is very helpful on learning about archery completely. Compound bows and what all the parts are covered on the first DVD. You’ll also learn about choosing a bow and shooting it correctly. The second DVD is focused on Traditional shooters and covers a lot more in-depth on instinctive shooting. If you’re interested in both types of archery, this is the video set for you. Priced around $17 and 170 minutes long on Amazon.
Olympic Archery Beginner Videos – The Archery Great Britain site has this short set of videos that covers Olympic style archery beginner information. It’s short and very helpful to watch. You’ll learn about stance, holding the bow, and follow through. These videos aren’t to help you know which kind or type of bow to choose, but I found them very good.
Archery Pinboard – I found this group of archery videos that covers a lot of information. If you’re looking for more helpful tips, I’d check them out. I can’t vouch for all the videos, but I checked out several to make sure that it was good quality and it is. You’ll also be able to find some ideas to help you come up with things to shoot.
Setting up a compound bow video – This is a video about setting up your compound bow. It’s short, but it covers all the basics that most anyone can do on their own. This is really good if you’re a beginner and don’t have all the equipment yet.
Basic shooting instruction video – Here’s a short video that will help you get the basics of holding the bow and shooting it well. It doesn’t cover how to set up the bow. It’s only 24 minutes, but it’ll cover a lot and does stress the point at the beginning that if you start just shooting without any instruction, you’ll pick up plenty of bad habits and ideas. You don’t want this so learn the right instruction from the beginning.
I hope that these videos will help you to increase your accuracy and have more fun shooting. If you run out of things to shoot at, then I’d love for you to check out the printable targets that I offer. Every bit helps me to bring you more information and make your archery experience better.
