Book review request - Instinctive Archery by Henry Bodnik

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MSR

Member
AIUK Saviour
Has anyone read Instinctive Archery by Henry Bodnik? Any good?

Cheers
 

Berny

Active member
It's ok - despite the dubious English & is actually about "instinctive" shooting - not POA or GAP or split vision....

Worth a read if your try to put "instinctive" into perspective versus all the other "aiming/non-aiming" techniques,
but should also read:
Byron Ferguson - Become The Arrow, G. Fred Asbell - Instinctive Shooting, Jay Kidwell - ?
 

Alun

Member
Pretty cheap as an ebook from the kindle store. I read it, and liked what he wrote about target panic. He is a professor of psychology in the States, and what he wrote certainly makes sense. My wife is a barebow archer and she improved quite a bit after reading this book. It is all about instinctive shooting, so if you are in to that, worth a read.
 

Alun

Member
Because it isn't, of course. There is no such thing as an 'instinct' for archery. I'm a behavioural ecologist, this is my field. It is subconscious aiming, but the subconscious can be trained, whether efficiently or inefficiently. A psychologist is well placed to write about that, I think.
 

highlander66

New member
my tuppence worth...(and some of you dudes may get offended) but rather than read about it ya might be better of watching the masters of the barebow dvd's .....then you will see many different styles and approaches ...by guys who actually kinda are very good. (before I get thumped for posting this ...I shoot instinctive (or whatever ya call it) and I'll string walk, face walk and gap shoot (all depends how the day going lol....some days It goes well and some days I couldn't hit the barn door from 10' ...so ....when that happens I change approaches to see if that works...sometimes it does sometimes not lol)....to me the key is ....practice ....practice....and more practice and good repeatable form....

As far as becoming the arrow is concerned ....buy the book the dvd is well I'll refrain ....I've seen himself and he is good infact very very good but remember he is a salesman trying to sell his wares .....oh and for the record HH ....him was a good bowman to but again beware of some of the vids of his feats as they were set up ....big time ....esp the william tell bit lol.....the best of the old timers in my opinion was FB and his bows are good too .....I posted here a while back asking for advice and got one reply (from a fellow countryman who yup his bows are real good)...so I gave up and got my bows shipped over cost me a fortune (but we won't go into that as it get censored lol)

anyways honestly books etc are good but nothing beats practice patience and well some one actually there to point out minor errors ...

Don't over think and try and keep changing it will only confuse .....I been there lol....

- - - Updated - - -

my tuppence worth...(and some of you dudes may get offended) but rather than read about it ya might be better of watching the masters of the barebow dvd's .....then you will see many different styles and approaches ...by guys who actually kinda are very good. (before I get thumped for posting this ...I shoot instinctive (or whatever ya call it) and I'll string walk, face walk and gap shoot (all depends how the day going lol....some days It goes well and some days I couldn't hit the barn door from 10' ...so ....when that happens I change approaches to see if that works...sometimes it does sometimes not lol)....to me the key is ....practice ....practice....and more practice and good repeatable form....

As far as becoming the arrow is concerned ....buy the book the dvd is well I'll refrain ....I've seen himself and he is good infact very very good but remember he is a salesman trying to sell his wares .....oh and for the record HH ....him was a good bowman to but again beware of some of the vids of his feats as they were set up ....big time ....esp the william tell bit lol.....the best of the old timers in my opinion was FB and his bows are good too .....I posted here a while back asking for advice and got one reply (from a fellow countryman who yup his bows are real good)...so I gave up and got my bows shipped over cost me a fortune (but we won't go into that as it get censored lol)

anyways honestly books etc are good but nothing beats practice patience and well some one actually there to point out minor errors ...

Don't over think and try and keep changing it will only confuse .....I been there lol....
 

Simon Banks

Active member
Because it isn't, of course. There is no such thing as an 'instinct' for archery. I'm a behavioural ecologist, this is my field. It is subconscious aiming, but the subconscious can be trained, whether efficiently or inefficiently. A psychologist is well placed to write about that, I think.
Your correct we don't shoot by instinct.. We shoot 'Instinctively' which oddly enough is a related word with a subtlety different meaning. ;-)
Look it up!


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alex321

New member
I have the book and from a beginner's perspective the English is very poor, which makes things unclear in places...

Alex

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I have the book and from a beginner's perspective the English is very poor, which makes things unclear in places...

Alex
 

KidCurry

Well-known member
AIUK Saviour
When I was a child I shot as a child. By the time I became a man I had learned to shoot.

... book okay... bows awesome :)
 

Simon Banks

Active member
No we don't ... look it up
I have 'instinctive' means practiced to the point where it looks so natural it looks like it's by instinct. So 'instinct' means skill you where born with and 'instinctive' means 'practiced to the point it looks effortless. That's why you can say that a cook is instinctive.

In field archery instinctive covers any archer shooting a bow without a sight. It just instinctive aiming but also gap. Pick a point etc.

Target archery mostly uses sights so they describe instinctive archers as 'unsighted' which makes me laugh.




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KidCurry

Well-known member
AIUK Saviour

Simon Banks

Active member
Nahhh... I think this is wrong. Cambridge Free Dictionary states 'instinctive' as...

... 'or developed by training'. But everyone knows what 'instinctive archery' is. It's just subconcious aiming :)
"The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprise. "

I am constantly surprised. ;-)


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