It feels good to finally be able to shoot my longbow in front of others. For the longest time I was too embarrassed to do so. I was a target panic sufferer and at times my symptoms were so bad and so obvious that shooting with friends was just too humiliating. Shaking, flinching, releasing early, and looking for wayward arrows in front of your buddies or family members is no way to spend a perfectly good morning. So I just avoided it. I shot alone for more than two years during my search for a permanent solution.

The other problem, as you well know if you have symptoms of target panic, is that shooting in front of others can cause your target panic problems to worsen. Some people even have situational target panic where they only have problems at tournaments or at their local range with friends. This causes a dilemma. Do you shoot with friends for the fun and camaraderie and risk exacerbating your target panic problem? Or do decide to hole up in your garage trying to cure your problem in private?

I chose the latter and would emerge from my exile at rare intervals to test my latest "cure". Most of the time I would disappear again for a couple of more months testing yet another new theory. This went on for more than two years until one day in August of 2002 I witnessed something that forever changed my thinking about shooting a traditional bow. That led to a complete and permanent cure for target panic using a technique called the Push Release. Now I shoot my bow completely free of target panic and without the fear of shooting in front of others.