TARGET PANIC

WHAT IS IT?

Target panic, target shyness, gold shyness, freezing or whatever else you like to call it describes what happens when an experienced archer who, at some time in the past, has been able to shoot reasonably well, becomes unable to control his/her shot.  It comes in many forms, but most can be divided into freezing and panicking.

        The Jar-licker            The Hidden Magnet            The Wild One

Hidden symptoms - The three characteristc patterns of borderline Target panic.  If you have the full-blown thing, you will know!

Probably the commonest form of freezing is where the archer just cannot get the sight to go into the spot, however hard they try.  It can feel as if there is a physical barrier, and no matter what strategies you try - pushing up into the spot, coming down onto the spot using gravity, sneaking up on it from the side, deliberately aiming off - none will work for long.  A variant for clicker shooters (oh yes, they get it too!) is when sighting is no problem, but it becomes 'impossible' to draw the arrow that last fraction of an inch to get it through the clicker.

Most sufferers get a mixture of freezing and panicking which, if both strike in the same shot, can be really impressive!  Most of you will have seen archers, particularly release aid shooters, collapse their shot completely (been there!), and will know what I mean.