Well much to my surprise he watched me shoot a number of arrows and said the general my form and routine looked very good. I was surprised because I was expecting to told I needed to completely change the way I shoot. After I shot maybe 30 arrows he walked to the target with me to look at the hole pattern on my targets. He then said he thought my bow was out of timing. The last thing I expected was him to say that part of my problem was my bow. So he made a target with a horizontal line across it and had me shoot at the line, left and right did not matter in fact he wanted me to walk down the line. First time I was to aim but pull as hard as I could on the bows against the back stop and shoot then next two arrows I was to shoot with just enough draw to not drop below the let off of the bow, this was harder to do than the first set of arrows. The first set of arrows were a couple of inches above the line and I was holding the line in my sight when I shot, the second set were just a little bit below the line but touching the line. George said this indicated the my lower cam needed adjustment. He put my bow on his press which was literally right behind the range, convenient. He then removed the control cable from the lower cam and twisted it tighter one full turn and then had me repeat the shoot. The first two arrows moved down a lot right to the line but the second two move slighting above the line so he put my bow back on the press and removed one half twist from the lower cam control cable and I shot again every thing hit the line. This all seemed like magic and I had never heard of this before but it worked. Almost every arrow I shot at the regular target hit the 10 ring after this adjustment. I have always taken a bit of pride because I have not blamed my bow and alway blame myself poor shots. I still believe it is mostly me but this was enlightens. Next he took the target and mounted it with the line vertically and had me shoot first with me applying pressure to the riser with my thumb of my bow arm then with the index finger of my hand on my bow arm to the rise. I shot 4 arrows and this produced shots about one inch to the left with thumb pressure, opposite of what I was expecting, and to the right about a half inch with finger pressure. He then moved my sight back from the 11 mark, where I have always shot it, to the 8 mark. He said he choose that mark from his experience with this sight. He had me repeat the shots with the pressure shots and this time all arrows were within a quarter inch of the center of the line. George explain that setting the sight this was put it closer to the period of rotation for the bow which does make sense to me. I had always had my sight way out to 11 because I had read the farther out the more critically it would be accurate but his change has improved my accuracy. Once again I was surprised and a bit amazed.
George did also give me a few things that will either help me hold center more easily or more efficiently. He recommended I hold my release with my fingers hooked arround the release as I draw the bow instead of wrapping them tightly arround. A relatively easy change to make it just feel different. Next he taught me to grip the bow by pinching the handle between my thumb and index finger then settling the bow handle into my palm. This grip feels very natural and much like I was doing. George says this technique will help me always grip the bow the same way. When he looked and my hand after I had shot three arrows he saw and showed me where the handle had been in almost the same place each time but there was some variations to it actual placement. The third thing he wants me to work on is one of the things John from First Flight Archery had been telling me to do and that was to get my shoulder back more. George had videoed me shooting to show me what I was doing and explained how to get my shoulder back and that what I was doing now while it was working I was depending too much on my biceps to hold the bow on target. With his instruction I was able to get my elbow back as far as he wanted me to which I have never been able to do. The difference is that he had me start the rotation with my left shoulder and to rotate my hold upper body. Also I am to do this before I go to anchor and as I rotate from my left shoulder and my right shoulder goes back my elbow bends and I then go to anchor. I shot five arrows after all these changes mostly to see if I could still shoot while trying to do everything he advised me to do and I could easily do so but it does feel different and I guess it should. Four of those five arrows were 10s. Happy Happy Joy Joy.
