millerhunter13

what kind of bow are you shooting?
i am shooting a pse nova @ 48#
with a biscuit rest. it isnt really you arm muscles that take the beating it is your back muscles, like i have a friend who probaly has more mucsles in his arms, but he cant pull my bow back, but i can, and he is a little twig, i actully meat on me, but if you can lower you poundage i would do it. it will help alot.

Mikey S.

shooting a bow is sub-conscious. the more you do it, the more your mind will take over. it's almost more mental than it is physical. if you are tiring, as someone else suggested, lower your draw weight. shooting a bow uses a completely different set of muscles on different angles. you can't match it in the weight room. practice holding your bow back at full draw with your shoulder blade muscles. imagine trying to hold a pencil between your shoulder blades while at full draw, then gradually tighten them and pull the release off the string. your back is stronger than your arms, so use it!

repetition, repetition, repetition !! this is one of the most mentally challenging sports on the planet, your head is just as important as your body.

and one more thing....when you start to shoot really well in a session, stop! because it may fall apart like it did you in your long session, and you'll start to question your confidence again. if things start to fall apart, walk away, come back the next day.

ArrowMike

Like others have mentioned, 4-5 hours of bad form is not good. When you are shooting and your form starts to go put it away. Part of shooting is mussel memory, so if you teach your self bad form your body will remember this. This will be tougher to fix later.

Things to remember: anchor- make sure your hand is not floating around your face, you need a solid anchor. Aim- aim before, during and after the shoot, don’t stop until the arrow hits its mark. Trigger- its best if you use back tension to set off release, but if you don’t then make sure that you squeeze your trigger and not punch it. Also don’t use the tip of you finger to set it off, use the 1st to 2nd joint in finger and hook around the trigger. These are a few of the most common things I see at the range. Hope this helps.

JeramyK

Lots of good advice so far. A couple things that I like to do are to shoot from longer yardage. Practice shooting at 40 yards and when you step down to 20-25 it feels much easier. Also, instead of trying to group your arrows get a target with 5 spots on it and just shoot 1 arrow at each spot. Practice more with hitting your mark rather than trying to get 3-5 arrows in a group. When you step into the woods that first shot is going to be the most important.