INSTINCTS OF THE TRADITIONAL ARCHER

Comparison of the Flight of the Ball and the Arrow

EDITOR'S NOTE: As a big 8-point whitetail moved into bow range, Travis Fryman of Cantonment, Florida, stood in his tree stand and waited for the shot. Fryman, the former shortstop and third baseman for the Detroit Tigers, who now plays for the Cleveland Indians, recalled later that as soon as he saw the buck, his heart seemed to jump up in his throat. "My adrenaline was pumping, and I could hardly swallow I was so excited. To get off the shot, I knew I'd have to collect myself and calm down." To prepare for the shot, Fryman, who had a .275 batting average in the majors, went through the same mental processes he always had gone through before he stepped to the plate to take a pitch that could win the game for his major-league baseball team.

As Fryman explains, "When you throw a baseball, you learn through practice and visual reinforcement how much force you have to apply to the ball to make it reach a certain point across an unknown distance at a specific time. The ball's flight has an arc to it. Even though you may throw the ball in a straight line, it still will go through some type of arc.

"And the same is true of shooting an arrow instinctively. To hit the target consistently, you have to subconsciously visualize how the ball or the arrow will fly as it goes up, over and drops into the spot you're trying to hit. That's why I think the traditional archer should use bright colored fletchings to learn to shoot the traditional bow quicker. These fletchings will enable him to see the arc of the arrow and determine how much force he needs to use and where he should aim to hit the target. For a long shot, the archer will have to shoot the arrow higher to hit the target than he will if he's making a short shot." For instance, compare what a center fielder does to throw a ball from the outfield to home plate and what a shortstop must do to throw the ball to home plate. The shortstop must throw the ball with less arc than the outfielder does to hit the same target at a different distance. The traditional archer must know how to adjust his bow to provide just the arc required to hit the target regardless of the distance."

TOMORROW: SLUMPS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM