This is a photo taken when I was about 16 years old. My nephew is holding the arrows for me. You can't see it in the photo, but I was shooting a right hand bow left handed... It's all that was around. Oddly enough, I could shoot that bow really quite well. I shot a coon out of the top of a tree with it one time, a partridge sitting on the ground at about 30 yards, a gray squirrel, several woodchucks, and I don't know how many frogs. If it was alive, I was shooting at it. Back then I didn't think about what I was doing... I just pulled up and shot and usually hit pretty close to what I was shooting at. I didn't think about form, release, or anything else.. I just shot. Then when I got older I got the "right bow" for someone lefthanded. I started reading up on the correct way to shoot, etc. and pretty soon I couldn't hit diddly squat!!! Still can't shoot as well as I did 50 years ago... Sometimes I think we think too much about stuff.....

A friend of mine found a mint Bear Tamerlane target bow, left handed, cheap. He bought it and taught himself to shoot it (he is right handed). I tried and could not do it. Hell, I can't even button a shirt left handed!

Yes, you can think too much, but you don't have to. I did a whole lot better after I learned good form and practiced it. And oddly enough it made me a better 'instinctive' shot.

Cool picture and a good post Tatonka. I was just thinking of starting a thread on the same subject. To shoot well, all we really need to do is get a consistent draw length (at release) and maintain proper alignment until the arrow has left the bow. Good form (the basics) helps achieve that consistency.

All too often it seems we do newcomers a disservice by giving advice that is more complicated than they are ready for. Instead of the basics, we preach string walking, face crawling, swing draws, mantras, mental triggers, iron minds etc. etc. Those things may have value if you have already mastered the basics, but for many of us, it just takes the simple beauty out of archery.

I think there is a time for conscious thought and analysis in archery training, but we need to turn off our brains when it's time to actually shoot and let our subconscious do what we just (consciously) practiced.

Our biggest problem is that we want to be in control. We want formulas for success: If I do "A" and "B", I will get "C." The trick is learning to do "A" and "B" subconsciously. If you try too hard, it will elude you. I think that is the "witchery of archery." It's what keeps me coming back anyway. - John

I can relate to your story,,except the Left handed part and yes,,i agree,,that we way over analyze stuff these days..

Thanks for the old B&W.

To keep in perspective just how easy stickbow shooting is, consider this comparison. Swinging a golf club and making good contact with a golf ball is inherently very difficult. That's why the links are loaded with hackers. The basic golf swing is very tough to master.

Shooting a stickbow is an absolute snap in comparison. Shoot regularly and you can get pretty dang good at it, at short range. It's very easy accuracy in comparison to the rock and atlatl it replaced. Bows started eons before books and writing. It's easy at short range, and you don't need perfect tackle to do it.

My first "store bought" recurve was right handed and I tried very hard to shoot it left handed but I couldn't hit even close to the target and it like to beat me to death. Didn't know there was a difference in right/left... My home-made stick bows seemed to work.

Thanks for bringing back an old memory

Chris

Thinking back, the farm kid who lived next to us (who is now my brother-in-law) and I were shooting at some bales one day. He had just eaten a "Candy Kiss" and I bet him a dime he couldn't hit the wrapper if I put it on the bale. He bet he could So, I shoved a twig through it and stuck it in the bale. We stood back a ways...can't recall how far...probably 15 yards or so and he drilled it. We were doing the "Aim small, miss small" practice, but didn't know it at the time.. He used to shoot an old green fiberglass bow...don't recall the make or poundage, but he was deadly with it.

I had a an assortment of different arrows...different sizes, different lengths, etc......whatever I could scrounge up, but I knew were each one shot. All were wooden. If I broke the tip off one, I'd just whittle it down and glue on a new point and then shoot it a few times to see where it shot. Times have changed a bit.....

I am back to shooting a more natural power style with the bow canted like I did back in the 80's except now I am not over bowed and pay a little more attention to my form :) I am already pulling and shooting bows heavier than I have in a long time, but with control (and not much mass weight)

I also had lunch with Jim Ploen in 2016 and really don't pay much attention to what is said here by the experts since. Ploen is a genius.

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