A Bad Case of the Yips

Tuesday night is archery night.

Not every Tuesday - but most Tuesdays. Braumeister, me and sometimes Technology Man get together and shoot arrows. This is followed by dinner and talking smack. At about $20 bucks a guy it's a cheap date. Besides it keeps us sharp. Like any shooting sport the more you do it the more instinctive and fluid it becomes. With all the basics on autopilot - concentration can focus on arrow placement within the target. More accurate shots are the result.

That is until last week.

Last Tuesday a very serious problem manifested itself.

Upon coming to a full draw my arrow would inexplicably fall from the string and I would have to slowly bring the string to a rest. A couple of times the arrow would fall from the string precisely as I released the shot resulting in a very unnerving dry-fire and seriously running the risk of damaging my bow.














If you examine the picture above you will note that the length of the prongs on the arrow's nock are rather short.

When coming to full draw the severe angle of the short-limbed bow was pinching the nock just right and causing those short prongs to lose their grip - allowing the arrow to detach. Other factors could play a role - a worn serving, a stretching of the string or a slight change in the mechanical dynamics of a fast compound bow and so on.

So what. Replace it with a nock that has longer prongs.

That nock is hard to find because those arrows are no longer manufactured.

Get new arrows that have nocks with longer prongs.

Not going to happen. I think I have a lifetime supply of these arrows because I bought-up every one's inventory when Beman stopped manufacturing them.

Get a new bow.

Yeah. That's what the wiseguy owner of the archery shop suggested.

We tried a string loop upon which I could attach my release. Cheaper than new arrows.

Nothing but problems. My anchor point changed, the sighting changed, the bow needed to be re-tuned and one of four arrows still fell from the string.

Things were not better and the yips got worse.

The yips?

Yep. The yips. The yips are a condition - also known as target panic - are the result of an archer's preoccupation with something other than the instinctive nature of shooting. The yips result in bad shots.

Every time I drew my bow I was so concerned with the possibility of the arrow becoming detached that my concentration and instincts all went to hell.

Last night the archery man removed the string loop and replaced the serving on the bow string.

For you non-archers - serving is the braided string wound tightly around main string above and below the nocking point. It is a durable surface upon which to nock (attach) your arrow.

Back to shooting.

Thirty consecutive shots with no detached arrows.

Problem solved - and cheaper than new arrows.

Well not entirely. The accuracy sucks because the yips are still there.

Practice, practice, practice...