At one point I was struggling with a form of target panic in which I could not get my aim point where I wanted it on the target—somewhere near the center of yellow. My aim point always ended up coming in below the yellow and then it felt like my bow weighed 1,000 pounds—and getting my aim up to yellow was seemingly impossible.
As a result, I created two targets: One that is a single-spot and one that is a four-spot. These targets are printable on standard paper, mostly in gray (light and dark) to avoid colored toner/ink usage, and are the same size as the 9 and 10 rings on a 40 cm target. I also included very light outlines of the standard red areas on a 40 cm target (the inner red on the four-spot target and the inner and outer red on the single-spot target). The purpose of these lighter lines is to be invisible when aiming from 18 meters away, but to see them if you are interested when collecting arrows and assessing your performance.
Here is what they look like:
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Use the single spot if you aren’t grouping so tight as to destroy vanes with too many arrows landing so close to each other, and use the four spot if you are tight enough in your groups that the four spot helps save arrows.
The goal of using these targets is to:
- First and foremost: to help quiet one’s entire shot. Silence is a virtue. The less noise entering into your system, the better off you are. By focusing on the spot it helps quiet your system down.
- Get one’s focus on a spot the size of yellow with no other visual noise. The hope is that it allows the archer to focus on the essential and nothing else; the less visual noise should lead to less noise in one’s own archery system.
- As one gets accustomed to less visual noise with these targets it’ll help weed out the noise on standard targets.
- Help in regards to paying attention to the finer nuances of one’s shooting. As one grows in archery and scores increase, eventually one has to pay attention to finer and finer details of each shot in order to consistently hit yellow. These targets help you to avoid making excuses and to start paying attention to finer details, knowing that you are either in the yellow or out—with no in-between.
Using them immediately helped my aim and my overall game. The first time I used them I then shot at a standard 40 cm target and my ability to aim where my mind desired, with stability, was improved significantly.