Be Careful What You Put in Your Face!

About ten years ago, I started shooting a release aid, and won a few state tournaments. Even though I felt I was shooting pretty good, I wasn't fooling myself. I was shooting the Freestyle division (I liked the magnification and movable sight), but I knew the really good shooters were all in the Bowhunter Freestyle division.

So, when I showed up at the annual state field tournament, I expected to win again. After all, I was last year's champion and the rumors were that all the really good shooters were still shooting the Bowhunter Freestyle division. So it came as quite a surprise when Tom Crowe started on the same target that I did.

Tom Crowe had won the big Las Vegas tournament shooting in the Bowhunter Freestyle division. I asked him "Why did you switch to shooting Freestyle when you have been doing so well in Bowhunter Freestyle." He replied, "There is more money and sponsors available to the Freestyle division."

So now the pressure was on. Tom Crowe truly was the best freestyle shooter in the state (probably still is). But I was shooting pretty good and if Tom was going to win, he was going to have to earn it.

For the first ten targets of the field round Tom and I stayed even. Then on the eleventh target Tom dropped an arrow completely off the target. I knew I had him. I was going to kick his butt. I finished the eleventh target a little shaky, but all I had to do was be careful and not make any bad mistakes. After all, I was shooting very good.

But on the very next target I started shooting erratic. By the end of the two-day tournament, I was having trouble just getting all my arrows to score. I would make a good shot and miss by a foot. Tom took first place. I wasn't even close. Tom Crowe went on to earn a living shooting arrows (still does).

I went into a shooting slump that seemed to have no end. I just couldn't figure out why sometimes I would execute a good shot and the arrow would miss by a wide margin. Other times good shot execution would put the arrow exactly where it was suppose to be. I tried everything I could think of. I tried everything that was suggested by others or printed in magazines. I tried it all, but to no avail. I could not figure out why I was shooting so erratic. But, I did discover a pattern.

I could shoot very well when there wasn't any pressure, but, as soon as there was pressure of any kind, I fell apart. This happened when I was shooting targets and while I was hunting. Every time I would try a little extra hard to get a good shot, I would miss by a lot.

So when I got a shooting machine, I really didn't get too concerned that the machine using my equipment shot my arrows about 18 to 20 inches to the left (at 20 yards) of where I did. After all, "Nobody can shoot like a machine". Although, I did wonder why the difference was so great.

The only real big difference I could see was how the bow was held in the machine. Maybe that was causing the bow to move differently than it did in my hand. So I got down next to the machine and decided to see if I could see what was going on. I wanted to watch the bow move as it delivered the arrow. I decided that to compare how the bow moved in the machine to how the bow moved in my hand, I would need to view it from basically the same place. I needed to be right behind and looking through the peep sight. So that is what I did.

The bow movement looked pretty much the same. At least, I couldn't see a difference. So thinking that I must have missed seeing something. I started alternating between me shooting an arrow and the machine shooting an arrow. I just couldn't see that there was that much of a difference.

Once, when I was looking through the peep sight with the bow on the machine, I accidentally pressed my face against the bowstring causing the sight to move off the target. I decided to aim the shooting machine with my face against the string and see what happened. (I have always shot with the string pressed against my face).

Surprise! Surprise! The arrow went very close to where it went when I was holding the bow.

So I tried several more shots on the machine with my face pressing on the string. I discovered that the arrow would hit in different places depending on how much pressure I put on the string with my cheek.

Ah ha! I had finally found what was causing me to shoot so erratic! As long as I didn't think about it, I was able to pull the string with my cheek very consistently. But as soon as I tried just a little bit harder, I would change the string pressure on my cheek and the arrow wouldn't go where it was suppose to go. It didn't matter how good I executed the shoot, if I varied how hard I pulled the bowstring into my face, the arrow would not hit with any accuracy. So I figured the less contact with my face the better.

Without the string touching my face, I have a lot more accuracy in a high-pressure situation. When I execute a good shot, my arrows hit a lot more consistent and only an inch different than the shooting machine.

Since discovering this we have found that any variation of pressure on the bowstring, whether it be from the cheek, nose, chin or chest will change where the arrow hits (group size). We try very hard not to touch the bowstring at all.

P.S.
Just last week while I was working on holding steady on the target I caught myself pulling hard into my face with the bowstring again. I thought I had stopped doing that years ago!

Good Shooting!