My hands were trembling as I addressed the string. The shot was well within my comfort zone. I had executed this shot hundreds of times before; slightly downhill, 25 yards away. My heart rate was elevated and I could feel heaviness in my chest as I came to full draw. Then, the blackout came… This was not a shot on a Pope and Young animal as you might think. This was at the 2016 IBO World Championship back in August. I had met my goal for the second year in a row; making the final day of the tournament.
The standard IBO format for a major tournament is 20 targets on Friday with another 20 targets on Saturday. The top five scores in each class make the cut and move on to shoot Sunday’s championship course. This is the furthest that my mental weaknesses have allowed me to progress. That 25 yard shot described earlier was a turning point for me as an archer. That was the first target on the championship course and I watched in horror as my arrow careened 30 yards past the target into the dark timber beyond…
So why am I telling you about this embarrassing experience? For far too long I’ve masked the weaknesses of my mental game by relying heavily on the strengths of my physical side of the shot. At that humbling moment, I knew a change was in order. I needed to become mentally strong in my shot process to ensure I could keep the lights on during a high pressure situation to prevent the black-out condition.
Fast forward to today, Tim Nebel and I have recently launched a new podcast; “The Push – A Traditional Archery Podcast”. (You can find it on iTunes, Podbean or Stitcher; or you can listen directly on our show page at: http://thepushpodcast.libsyn.com)
The podcast’s format is to have in depth discussions with major icons of our sport to really get in the weeds about how they approach the single string bow. (Episode 6 – Part 1 and Episode 6 – Part 2 we interview Mr. Clay Hayes… I thought you all would appreciate those two episodes!)
In reaching out to some of these icons, we got to Joel Turner of Ironmind Hunting. If you’re a podcast junky like Tim and I, then it’s no secret that Joel Turner has made his rounds as a guest on some of the major hunting related podcasts. However, we wanted to do this a little differently… We didn’t want to simply have a discussion about his teachings and research on mentally controlled shooting. We wanted to experience it first hand…
The film above is a 7 day video journal of my struggles and successes following Joel’s Ironmind Shooting Program. This was a fun project knowing that on the 7th day of the program, we would have Joel Turner as a guest on our Podcast. In the podcast interview (Episode 11 – Joel Turner) we reviewed my 7 day progression on the program and received detailed analysis from Joel on the specifics of my experiences.
To get the most out of these two pieces of media content, review the film “The Push 1.4 – Becoming an Ironmind” then head on over to the podcast and have a listen to get further details of the program and process.
Shoot Straight and Get Primal,
Will fixed crawl and the Ironmind method work with a canted longbow?
Awesome!!! Have a blessed week!!!
I watched Ironmind and picked up Some good information. Could you expound on your bow set up and shooting style. I noticed the three fingers under but you have a nock set two or so inches below your nock point. Why so low? Almost like string walking but the position is fixed. Are you gap shooting. I guess I’m just curious about your aiming method. I shoot split finger and gap shoot. I’d like to try your technique. Thanks, Paul in Arizona
Rick,
Yes a fixed crawl will work with a canted bow. Due to the dynamic expansion I had to implement for the feather to nose psycho-trigger I started scrubbing my bow arm slightly more than normal. I had to implement a slight cant to relieve that condition.
Paul,
Head on over to our youtube channel “The Push Archery” and watch our original film “The Push – A Traditional Archery Film”. Its a little over 2 hours. Around the 40 minute mark we discuss aiming methods and then move into a detailed explanation of that shooting method. Its called a Fixed Crawl. It is a blend between Gap shooting and string walking where you are basically gap shooting from a fixed point down the string, essentially reducing your point on distance and shrinking your gaps. I will also be covering some other aiming tricks for hunting in a future blog post coming up.
Take Care,
Matt