There are some recent papers if you search "Target Panic" on Google Scholar.

It's well known in other sports like golf.

Hsa it helped? My son is dealing with the same issue

You can use any word you want. I use push to remind myself to push towards the target, as my front arm often collapses in. "Go" works - I often use it for my archers once they make the decision to expand ("Go go go" - until they get the shot off). I personally don't like using "release" as it can trigger a sudden pluck rather than the correct expansion.

What is meant by "front arm collapsing" do you mean by it dropping? And when you say expand is that referring to drawing the string back to its max then count? Also do you have a video on the correct way to do an expansion? My son just started last year in competing but not sure if he is doing it correctly since the arrow fishtail

@@darinbaker3205 A collapse is when the bow overpowers the archer, resulting in an inward movement and loss of tension. It isn't necessarily the arm dropping. This can happen when the archer loses concentration and "forgets" to maintain their tension, often because they are distracted by aiming or releasing. Expansion is the final step before the release. It is when you are already at full draw. It is an internal movement that "pushes" (and pulls) the bow to achieve a clean release with consistent back tension. It is not the draw and hold step - that is before expansion. I have several videos in my Target Archery playlist that cover the expansion and release steps.

We really appreciate your help. At the moment we are just trying to get him over the Target panic......one step at a time so not to fill him up with so much info

Before, then proceed to expand through the clicker. You should be training yourself to release on the click, so do not drill a step that causes a break after the click.

Thank you.

Actual target panic is rare - which is why it is over diagnosed or self-diagnosed. You can get the sense from the comments that some viewers might end up thinking that their sloppy shot process might be the result of target panic. It's more likely just being sloppy. I disagree that it has anything to do with being a generational issue or how that is related to how much practice you don't do. If anything, people who train _too_ much are prone to chasing after the score rather than the arrow and let the target override their shot process, but I've see new archers become mentally locked on gold without that experience. While I see many behaviours that look like they could develop into target panic, these are - as you said - incomplete shot processes. I've only seen three cases of actual target panic - a case study of a young girl who spent an entire 4 minutes unable to draw and release and repeated the first half of the shot cycle in a loop (which I demonstrated at the beginning), a teenager at my club who recently started and could never establish a full draw from day one and was on the verge of quitting, and a middle-aged man who is an established bowhunter who had a very smooth shot cycle but _always_ snatched his release an inch from his face. The teenager was someone at my club, so I could work on this case. You could teach him a shot process but he would always let go five inches from his face. Others thought it was a draw weight issue, but he could draw back fine. When asked why he released, he didn't know, but quote. "I just see the arrow in the gold." I developed my target drill specifically for him. The first session was just getting him to anchor. By the second week, he was voluntarily spending his sessions doing the drill and reaching 3-5 holds with eyes open. 3rd session he has all arrows touching at 10m with full control on each shot, and his release has even improved. This isn't the "fake" target panic where someone is nervous. His process was locked on seeing the arrow touch gold. This is like the "worst case" scenario you drill for and when it happened, we dropped everything an addressed the problem right away. Until someone sees target panic like this, it's probably not target panic. In any case, this is a good reminder that a shot process is _essential._

For as long as it lasts. You can perfectly well have target panic triggered by the gold under the pin and shoot right through that clicker. Just saying. Seen it happen.

Im white and I'm proud!

@@kereal2591 so am I but I couldn't help but jump on the bandwagon when he said it it's just so catchy

Not everyone has an alternate target (such as a 3D target) available. The issue can still remain: if you are fixated on trying to hit the target and that is mentally triggering a release, it's might still trigger with a new target, and going back to the old target will still trigger the same reaction. The drill is meant to be tiresome and frustrating. It addresses the problem directly, not pushing it aside.

If you think that simply changing the shape fixes it, then you’re missing the point. In the case of 10 ring faces, the gold is simply the target of highest importance and getting in line with it is short circuiting your mental shot cycle. Simply swapping that out for a 3D target or an animal target face only works briefly before your brain finds the highest importance part of the target and the same short circuit is triggered. The point is to remove the target altogether to stop the short circuit from occurring. That then allows the archer to re-establish conscious control over the release through repetition and training. The test is to then reintroduce the short circuit trigger to see if brain has now de-emphasised the gold, allowing the athlete to hold.

That's like telling someone with clinical depression to 'just go do something fun'.

Or, just go hunting might cure this problem

I can assure you from first-hand experience that the shape of the target does not matter.