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Practice

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Allyn T:
I've been shooting every night in my basement trying to get good enough to hunt. Even though I was shooting I wasn't getting any better. I watched some clay hayes shooting videos and the last two nights I've incorporated some of the form pointers he made and instantly got better. I can also feel a soreness in the muscle behind my shoulder blade so that means I'm actually using back tension for once. Just wanted to say that practice doesn't make perfect. If you practice improperly you are only reinforcing your mistakes.

Black Moshannon:
Great point, I “practiced” stuff I had no idea for years cause no one taught me anything right and I didn’t seek out the right information. I love that sore muscle behind shoulder, that lower trap getting sore

TimBo:
Yup - I prefer "PERFECT practice makes perfect", and have also heard "practice makes permanent"...definitely it takes forever to get rid of bad habits if you have practiced them that way for a while (like ten times as long as it took to learn them wrong in the first place). 

Allyn T:
It's difficult to work on one aspect at a time to develop muscle memory. Right now I'm trying to make sure I bring my elbow all the way around every time and as a result my release is suffering. My mind really cannot do two things at once.

Black Moshannon:
I also have trouble with that. At first I couldn’t deal with going through all the steps of a good shot and making them all come together. I heard the conscious mind can only focus and direct one activity at a time. Broke down my shooting into segments. For me, setup (getting grip, hook, stance set, raising bow to target). Load (draw to full scapular engagement) lock (lifting into anchor and locking into transfer to holding) Point (aiming arrow at target) here we go (shot finish by increasing back tension while simultaneously moving my anchored thumb towards trigger).

I was unsure of how to incorporate a tension finish shot (the only good way to finish a shot) while at the same time focusing on my psychological trigger. Then I heard a podcast on The Push where they talked about exactly this, that you can link two motor programs (back tension plus movement towards trigger, in this instance). Two movements with one goal. So now some of the first steps in my shot cycle (setup, load, lock) are becoming habit and I let them go to muscle memory. Except lock, I keep that in my internal verbal commands because it’s likely to let slip. My main focus now is a good tension finish to the shot, so there’s a lot of focus on that last part after aiming (here we go) because my release is the most difficult part of the shot. It’s totally a subconscious release.  When I feel my thumb hit the tab leather the release just occurs, and occurs well when I am focused on increasing tension until the shot breaks.

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