I bought Joel Turner's dvd several years ago. Going to a psycho trigger (feather touching my chin) helped me more than anything. Also, jay kidwell has some good drills and information in his book "Instinctive Archery Insights" on how to retrain your brain.

I'd beaten target panic perhaps twice in my lifetime of shooting that goes back to the mid 1950s. 

There was a time, a few years ago, when I just could not overcome TP.

I searched around the 'Net for help and found Joel Turner's website, signed up, and literally in less than an hour my TP was gone ... for good ... hasn't returned ... doubt it ever will.

So these are big words, but they're my words and my experience with learning to employ a "mechanoreceptive trigger" in my shot sequence that was the distraction that disconnected my brain thinking and allowed a push/pull release to naturally happen, whilst my actual aim remained the same as it always had been - focused solely on a pinpoint of the object I wanted my arrow to penetrate (aka "instinctive aiming").

I like the idea of distractions brought up in the last two posts.  Sometimes when I have been distracted by something while nearing full draw, it has worked for me too.  One time I was teaching a class and mentioned Terry's idea that "archery happens from the waist up."  To demonstrate how people can shoot the bow effectively from a wheel chair, I braced my back on a nearby wall and squatted down to simulate being in a wheel chair.  I had only intended to draw the bow and let it down, but I felt so relaxed when I drew the bow that I went ahead and shot a good shot into the target.  I tried it again in another class and it didn't work as well, so I guess it wasn't enough of a distraction the second time around.  However! I do plan to try the blinking idea and partial let down ideas mentioned above.

I always struggled with getting the length right, so as Rob mentioned, I would remove the existing twists, and use the bowyers knot at the other end.

I eventually found Clay Hayes video showing his method and never looked back. For those who haven't seen it, he removes all of the twists after making the first loop, basically making the string straight again. Then goes to the other end to and add twists there, measuring the string length and weave it back into the main line to make and secure the second loop. It solved my issues works great for me.   Check out the video on YouTube.

Nice bows! I especially like the looks of that George bow.

Quote from: EHK on Today at 05:50:43 AM.... I also recently saw a video by Trevor of TTT strings.  He says a lot of competition bare bow guys will blink as they get to anchor.  By losing the site picture for that fraction of a second, the urge to fling the arrow goes away.  Crazy as it sounds, that also works for me.

That's blocking the negative thought process via distraction and is one positive method of overcoming TP.

Another is to come to full draw, then *slightly* let down - the act of coming back to full draw and anchor is the distraction that blocks the negative TP thought.

Like McDave, I would say that I've fought it for years, but have not completely overcome it.  Through much hard, deliberate work, I now hit anchor 100% of the time.  My struggle is releasing before I've gone through my entire shot sequence.  I incorporate a lot of let down drills into my daily shooting to battle it.  Anchor, aim, expand, let down.  You need to break that mental connection between anchor and release.  I will say that when I implement some kind of "trigger" like a limb mounted clicker, or my preference, the solid grip trigger by Tom Clum at Rocky Mountain Specialty Gear, TP is a non-factor.  Any time the TP starts to creep back in consistently, I put that solid grip trigger on and while it's hard to be consistent with it, the TP goes away almost instantly. 

I also recently saw a video by Trevor of TTT strings.  He says a lot of competition bare bow guys will blink as they get to anchor.  By losing the site picture for that fraction of a second, the urge to fling the arrow goes away.  Crazy as it sounds, that also works for me.

Kinda glad to see this board is still floating around
Finally retired from the Millitary and had time to shoot more, got caught up in all the games of recurves and ILF... kept the Hills around but all the heavy ones.
Had some crazy heart surgery and can't pull back the 80-90s anymore
So I'm kind of excited, just jumped on a Craig built Bigfive that should be closer to 60 for me.
70" 50@28.  I'm not sure what direction I'm going though, I've shot the last 7yrs trying to forget the swing draw that I used to limit myself to more of a 30" snap shoot, and have been shooting a pretty deliberate 3under recurve held almost vertically... with a full 32" draw

I'm interested to see how going back to an ASL now, if I will maintain a 32" draw and semi vertical hold, or venture back to more of a can't, or go full circle and back to snap shooting.

I just really missed my Hills, and the lightest one in the quiver was 58@27, so this should be fun

Glad TradGang is still alive and well.
Cheers all!

Quote from: TaterHill Archer on December 10, 2025, 08:40:40 PM

Quote from: BrushWolf on December 10, 2025, 11:39:53 AM

Quote from: Kirkll on December 09, 2025, 08:43:12 PM

Quote from: BrushWolf on December 07, 2025, 04:06:45 PMMy boy started shooting a trad bow last summer. He shoots it with a fixed crawl and shoots it very well. He has killed 4 deer now with that style. I built his current bow and tillered it for shooting with a fixed crawl. I have recently dabbled into it myself and built a couple sets of limbs just for shooting that way. So far it seems to be working fine and something to play around with.we set are bows up at 15 yards and don't see an issue shooting to 20 yards

I'm curious how much positive tiller you are using for a fixed crawl?

His bow is 1/8" positive.

I'm confused. I've always read that you want negative tiller for a fixed crawl.

You are correct his bow is 1/8" negative
My bad sorry for the confusion.

Sitting here remembering my best friend and reading this thread brought his voice back to life. This weekend I visited his widow and daughter in Texas. Both of us being in dangerous professions made a promise to each other to watch over the others family should the Lord decide it was time one of us should go. I had posted back when Russ left this world about his journey in Traditional Archery and the friends he found here. Since that time his Dave Johnson Longbow has been in my care with the intent to sell it for his widow. Just haven't had the heart and even though I will never be able to draw this bow I have pulled it out every now and then. As I handle it I contemplate whether it should sit or be sold and have it do what it was intended to do. I know what Russ would say. I just can't see letting it go unless I know it will go on many adventures.