SHOOTING YOUR BEST
by Frank & Becky Pearson

Introduction by Bertil Persson
It is well known that Frank Pearson is an excellent archer with many years experience. His ranking as Number One Pro Male Freestyle archer in three decades, 70's, 80's, 90's, is hard to beat. What is not as well known is that he is perhaps, an even better teacher than an archer. Among others, his wife, who has been ranked Number One Female Freestyle Professional archer 7 out of 11 years, is proof of his teaching abilities. Together, Frank and Becky Pearson make a very hard team to beat. Frank taught Becky to shoot, but it was Becky who taught Frank how to win. She helped Frank see archery in the right perspective, mainly, "It is only a game."

Frank and Becky are more than just husband and wife, they are best friends. They enjoy the game of archery together and shoot for fun. That is the key to their success and to all Frank's teachings. Enjoy the game and have fun. Don't tear yourself up over the last arrow, the last end or the last tournament. If you do, you won't have fun, which is the idea of the game in the first place and your chances of winning the next tournament will not be as good.

Frank is cast from a very special mold. He is honest, very outspoken and a lot of fun to be around. It is a privilege to be one of his friends. 

Bertil Persson

Making the best shot, time after time consists of training and paying attention to the details, even the smallest. Here is some of what I teach those I coach . . . Frank Pearson.

 The Steps to the Shoot

1.  Make eye contact
2.  Take your stance
3.  Nock your arrow
4.  Hook up and get hooked up
5.  Let the bow hang. Flop your hand into the grip
6.  Draw back
7.  Bend the bow arm
8.  Aim
9.  Release
10. Follow through
11. Replay
12. Relax and pick up your arrows
13. Check your equipment
14. Socialize

2. Take your stance
 Make sure you take the stance that you have practiced, the one that you feel most comfortable with. Never mind what it looks like. If you find it comfortable and if it works for you take that exact stance every time.

3. Nock your arrow
 Take out you arrow. Try shooting them in rotation. Nock it carefully on the string with the cock vane in the right direction. Make sure it snaps onto the string with the well-known click you have heard so many times during practice. If it does not, it is an indication that something is wrong. The nock may be cracked. Take another arrow if it doesn't fit right.

4. Hook up and get hooked up
 Hook up your release or take your proper grip with your fingers and hook up your brain as well. You should stay excited during the whole tournament. This is because there is no way you can avoid getting excited at some time or another during the tournament, especially if you are successful and all of a sudden you find yourself in the lead or close to it. When that happens and it comes fast, your bow won't shoot the same as when you are calm and what took you to the lead is no longer there. It is better to stay excited all the time and so that you do not change anything in your style.

 You should not stay hooked up or concentrating throughout the whole tournament. On the contrary, you are at the tournament to be among friends and to enjoy yourself, so in between the ends have fun. There is no way anyone can stay totally concentrated for more than so many seconds at a time. You, therefore, have to have a trigger to when to remove yourself from the surroundings to shoot the shot. The trigger could be something such as a tug on your release rope before you hook it up carefully just under the arrow. You have a job to do now and you should be alone within yourself until it is done. If you are not totally hooked up and prepared to shoot a perfect shot, you should let down.

5. Let the bow hang. Flop your hand into the grip
 Your grip is an important element in your set up. Roll three fingers under, flop your hand into the grip and gently lay it onto the side of the bow. There are thousands of ways to place your hand in the bow and some grips allow you to try them all. The grip described eliminates a whole bunch of them. 

6. Draw back 
 When you draw the bow back you should hold slightly above the target. This allows gravity to help bring the sight into the center. Once the bow is drawn, anchor and line up the scope and peep. 

7. Bend the bow arm
 There is a long row of top archers who bend their bow arm. Some bend it more than others. The theory behind the bent arm is that a bent arm is stronger and more stable especially in the wind. This can be easily verified by stretching your arm out straight and letting a friend move your hand around. Then try it again, with a bent arm. The difference is amazing. There is one more thing with the bent arm. With your bow at full draw your arm is compressed towards your body. When you let go of the string, the arm decompresses and stretches out a little moving your hand towards the target slightly. A straight arm is also compressed, but on release it often seems like there is a tendency for the hand to move sideways rather than towards the target.

8. Aim
 Bring the sight into the center of the target. Once you are in the middle stop looking at the target and concentrate on the scope and the projected view of the target on the scope. When the picture in the scope is clear you should be ready to shoot. 

9. Release
 There are several ways to release a perfect shot. As long as it is smooth and done while aiming, it should work. To hit the trigger or let go of the string with a bang when you are in the center or just passing through it will not work, because that decision sends signals to all parts of your body that something is going to happen and the body will respond before you have a chance to execute a good shot.
 If you use a clicker, when the clicker goes try to execute the shot as smoothly as possible. Some people squeeze or pull until the shot goes off almost accidentally. What all these people have in common is that they all keep a slight pressure on the release trigger through the aiming process. Getting the release off is just a question of increasing the pressure as unconsciously as possible.
 Try to keep the dot still in the target or minimize the movement as much as you can during the whole process. Never mind where the dot is when the shot goes off, don't try to fix it. Just stand there like a mannequin trying to look like an archer that just shot a smooth shot. If you start trying to fix the location of your sight at the end, you are learning bad habits and most likely the time for them to manifest are when you least want it to. For example in the final shots, you are really excited, blood is pumping and you have to rely on what you have practiced to be able to shoot a few more good shots, if you practice bad habits they will get you here.

10. Follow through
 After the shot goes off stay like a mannequin with a really long follow through. The object of this long follow through is to not obstruct the bow as it shoots the arrow all by itself. No matter where the sight was when the shot went off, no matter how badly you executed the shot, just stay like a mannequin. Don't blink, don't look to see how bad it hit and certainly don't curse or slam down your bow, because no matter how bad the shot was it would have been worse if you did any of those things and it would upset your peace of mind and probably affect the next few shots. 

11. Replay
 While you are holding your follow through and looking like a mannequin, run an instant replay of the shot. This should tell you what to expect when you take out your binoculars and look down at the target. This way if the arrow hit badly you know if it was a poorly executed shot and to just go ahead and shoot the next arrow or if you should move your sight before the next shot.

12. Relax and pick up your arrows
 After the replay, become a part of the crowd again. If you talk to some one try to make the conversation not archery related. This will help you last through a long tough tournament. If you hide in the corner with your head down you are not having fun.

13. Check your equipment
 While walking back from the target, check your arrows for damage, especially if there were several shots made into one spot. This also helps you get back to where you were before you got hooked up.

14. Socialize
 Between the ends, try to enjoy yourself by talking with friends and looking around. You are at the tournament because you want to be so enjoy it until it is time to approach the line again. 
Remember to shoot for the excitement and the fun. It is only a game. This is what works for me and it should help you.

KEY PHRASES

1.  Get Excited and Stay Excited
2.  Let the Bow Shoot The Arrow
3.  Shoot Smooth
4.  Stay Like A Mannequin
5.  Replay
6.  Help Each Other
7.  Be a Worthy Winner
8.  Be a Good Loser
9.  Remember it is Only a Game
10. Lessons
11. Practice

2. Let the Bow Shoot The Arrow
 Visualize a bow and arrow all by itself floating in the air. That is the ideal set up, that's what all shooting machines try to achieve. A shooting machine will shoot the same arrow into the same hole all the time if no external forces are present. What you as an archer are expected to do is judge the external forces such as the wind, the distance, the angle and side slope into consideration. You are also expected to draw the bowstring back, aim the bow in the right direction and release the string as smoothly as you can. After that you are suppose to do nothing. Nothing at all before the arrow has stuck into the target, because anything you do can only obstruct the perfect way the bow shoots the arrow all by itself. You can not add anything positive to the action of the bow.

3. Shoot Smooth
Try to visualize a straight line between the arm you draw the bow with, your bow arm ant the target. You must make sure you keep both of your arms on the line all through the shot. If you wave left or right it is not going to improve the shot, but it will most probably make it worse unless the arrow has already left the bow. You will never know if the arrow has already left the bow unless you are filming the shot on very high-speed film which is most unlikely.

4. Stay Like A Mannequin 
Stay like a mannequin at least until the arrow has hit the target and you have replayed the shot in your head. If you try to stay like a mannequin during the whole follow through so that people at a distance have a hard time telling if you have released the arrow or not, you stand a better chance of not obstructing the bow shooting the arrow all by itself. During this time make an instant replay of the shoot. With some training you will be able to remember not only where your sight was when the shot went off or what direction the bow went, but also any unwanted movement in your body or anything else that will give you an idea of where the arrow hit. This is important information for you to improve as an archer. It is also of immediate importance for you if the arrow did not stick in the middle and you have to decide if you are going to move the sight or just show better form on the next shot.

 As good example of a long follow through is the Korean women. They keep the bow arm straight at the target during the shot. They then let the bow fall straight down so that it will hit their leg. It hits their leg three times. This gives them the right pace, but it also keeps them in a straight line. If the limb does not hit them on the leg at the exact same place after each shot they know that they are not doing a good job. They know that their bow arm moved and that they are not letting the bow shoot the arrow.

5. Replay
 After executing a shot, while still holding your follow through, replay the shot in your mind. Were you in the middle, did you try to help the bow shoot the arrow, were you in the right frame of mind. Keeping track of this information will help you decide if you should move your sight or what you should work on next.

6. Help Each Other
 When you are at a tournament, try to help the people that need help. If you can help someone in trouble or if you can help someone to be a better archer you will feel a little bit like a winner yourself and you will always be among friends. You will enjoy the game more and have more fun.

7. Be a Worthy Winner
If you help people, if you enjoy their success, they will be happy for you when you win and will make winning worth while for you. You will be a double winner.
 I you ignore people on your way up, if you cheat or lie, people will dislike you for it and will not be happy for you when you win. If you get to the top, there is only one way to go, down. On your way down, you will meet all the people that you stepped on the way up and they are not likely to be real receptive to you. They are more likely to laugh at your back or even dig a hole for you to fall in to.

If you win by using drugs or alcohol you may not realize what you did until you are home and you have missed all the fun. On the other hand, if you win a friend, you will always be a winner. 

8. Be a Good Loser
When you lose, though it is natural to be disappointed, don't give in to your impulse to sneak out and go home. This is not the end of the world, there will be more tournaments. Stay around and enjoy the happiness around the winner. This will provide you with a better end to the tournament and you will be able to handle the next one better. You will get more out your winning if you enjoy the winning of the others.

9. Remember it is Only a Game

10. Lessons 
Lessons are meant to find your flaws, to tell you what to practice, and to give you a chance to try out new ideas. Lessons should not be confused with practice.

11. Practice
Practice is meant to imprint and cement the good habits and proper shooting form so that not only your mind, but your whole body knows how to execute good shots so that during a tournament the shots will come naturally. 
 What you practice is what you learn. You need to be hooked up when you practice. If you are not 100 percent hooked up and you are just flinging arrows for two hours, you will learn bad habits. It is better to shoot good shots for 20 minutes and quit than to practice bad habits for two hours. If you shoot good shots the next time you shoot you will remember the good shots and the results.

When you practice be sure to set your sight. It is important to see the arrows in the middle. It is very hard to concentrate and shoot good shots when you are hitting in the eight or nine ring even if you group well.

Get excited and stay excited while you practice. Try to beat your personal best. Don't think you know your limits. There are no limits.

Frank Pearson

Shooting Your Best,
Frank & Becky Pearson

And if Shooting Your Best is really important to you, find out how Frank Pearson can get you SHOOTING YOUR BEST at Frank Pearson's School Of Archery