I've already been quite successfull on the competition front,with multipule local 3D wins and 1 major international win in the recurve barebow division.
For a couple of years I was also giving the NZ multipule times longbow champion a run for his money,but returned to shooting recurve full time before I really did achieve my aim of at lest matching the man in competition.
Well,that was then and as they say,this is now,,,,and somewhere along the road I sort of lost my way.
It's been a funny old journey for sure,I was self taught in archery,,,for the first two years I shot alone and I drew and released my arrow with a pinch grip on the nock,had no idea of what I was ment to be doing but really enjoyed myself anyway.
Then in about 74 I joined a club and learnt the basics of form,,,,,including how to draw the string with a split finger grip
For the next 30 odd years all I did was hunt,,the year I was with that club,the Sunday shoot was for form practice,a way to measuring my shooting skill,and a way to meet and talk to other archers and bowhunters.
Then in 06 I joined another club and for some reason I got serious about competition and did very well with the high point being my winning the South Pacific 3D championships Recurve class,and both the 07 and 08 Kiwi 3D series,the 08 with a clean sweap of all 6 rounds,,again in the recurve class.
It was shortly after that time that things started to unravel,for the first time in my life I started to really look at how I shot,not just basic form,but indepth.
And the more I learnt,the worse I became until I was out hunting one day and I experienced a big flinch while at full draw on a feral billy goat I was close enough to that I could of hit him with a thrown rock.
That flinch saw me shooting him through the hams and I never did find him,but I was told by another hunter that he'd been seen alive and well a couple of months later,,,,,,,not that that really made me feel any better about what I'd done to him.
From there on I had this flinch that would pop up from time to time,and because I was starting to dwell on it,it became worse and my shooting started to go down hill.
Mid last year I stopped shooting competitions and left the club because I simply wasn't enjoying shooting anymore.
But ast home I did begin working on controling my newly found dose of target panic.
I now have it more or less under control after learning a breathing method that helps reduce tension,but I'm still not happy about it because I feel I'm controling something that simply shouldn't be there anyway.
So my main aim is to simply return to what I had before I taught myself how to lose it.
And that's where Ricky Welches shooting method comes into things.
You see,I bought one of Rick's DVD's some time last year,,,more for entertainment than anything else.
I then changed a few things in my form,like trying 3 under,,,yeah great that works good,,,feather on the nose,,,hey that's pretty good stuff to,,,but instinctive shooting,,,nope,I've shot splitvision for over 30 years and "everybody" knows Split vision and gap shooting are better in competition than instinctive.
But,,,and it's been a very big but,,,here's this guy that shoots lights out,say's he shoots instinctive but doesn't claim not to see the arrow,doesn't claim to be more pure that you,doesn't claim to be more in touch with his inner mojo or more inteligent than the average bear,,,,he just shoots,and shoots better than anyone I've ever seen before,,,instinctively.
So you ask questions about this guy on the net,,,,,and you watch the storm blow through.
So then you find there's a forum,so you join it.
And on the second day you find a key answer to a question on the ask Rick part of the forum.
And there's your answer,,,,there are only two ways to aim a bare bow,,,,conciously or subconciously,,,closely followed by almost the exact steps that I used to introduce myself to target panic.
So,my aim is to get back what I had before I lost it,,but I do have this feeling I may be getting more than I was expecting.
John.