thank you.
I took his seminar with another BS regular a couple years ago. My take is as follows:
Joel is a cool guy and wants to help everyone be better. I’m kinda old and been shooting a bow a long time. I’m a decent shot, but have lots of room for improvement. I have no illusions of becoming a great target/tournament shooter. But I would like to become a better shooting bowhunter.
I also believe it’s hard to teach old dogs new tricks. And I’m about as stubborn as they come in the old dog department. I personally didn’t get a lot out of the seminar, and really nothing you can’t get via his online content. I understood the principles he preaches, and the techniques he uses. But like most things you will get out what you put in. If you have a very disciplined and detailed personality I think you can gain significant improvement with his course. But that isn’t how my brain works and I really didn’t get much of a gain, and that is certainly no fault of Joel’s.
That is my 2 cents for what it’s worth, but obviously there are lots of guys who have greatly benefitted from Joel’s material.
—Jim
I bought the online class a few years ago. It's good and it's yours forever. He just recently redid the whole course but I haven't gone through the new version, yet.
The top male and female archers in the world, Levi Morgan and Page Pearce, both use Joel for instruction and his son, Bodie, is an archery phenom. That speaks volumes.
Joel is not going to teach you anything about proper form or setting up a bow; it is strictly about shot control. Especially shot control under high pressure situations regardless of what type of release you use or fingers with a trad bow. You can get a lot of free info just by listening to the dozens of podcasts he's done.
PS: If you want to save the course cost you can learn a lot from YouTube videos and podcasts Joel has done. I recently bought a release that cost more than his course. In the end it’s peanuts to what I spend on hunting every year.
I now own a Carter “Nock 2 it” and a Stan “Click”.
I developed TP years ago. A difficulty for me is my shooting style. Compound bare bow fingers. Switching release’s isn’t an option.
Picking up nuggets from his podcast appearances etc, I have been able to rebuild the mental process of my aiming/shooting sequence. I am now in control vs dumping it. Am I a dead eye killer like some Bowsiters? No. But when I release an arrow on animal I have recaptured the joy of a controlled shot vs an uncontrollable explosion and totally losing your cr@p like I sometimes experienced.
Almost every shooter I have coached had no idea what their bad habits were. You can't fix what you don't know is broken. Physically or mentally.
I've seen shooter try to fix something that wasn't broken, and I've pointed out things that they argued were not broken.
I once had a college girl come to me. She wanted to be like the girl from The Hunger Games. I borrowed her a Genesis bow, gave her a 30 minute tutorial on proper form and technique, and her second ever shot arrow robbinhooded her first. She came every week for an hour shooting lesson until she graduated. I still wonder where she's at now and if she still shoots. Her cocky boyfriend had frisbee sized groups and eventually stopped coming with. He thought he could "control" the bow and arrow.
My wife is really good at finding my faults. I don’t need someone else piling on. Lol!
I never got instruction from Joel but I think his philosophy is sound. I don't think it's life-changing for many - but I do think for guys struggling with a well-executed release, it can be tremendously helpful.
I recently went through a complete tear-down and rebuild with my bow, release, arrows, and form this year. Like Charlie, it's been a game-changer. I waded through a lot of different YT videos and settled on bits and pieces of expertise from many excellent shooters, including Levi, Joel, and Randy. I don't think there's one-size-fits-all in the shooting game - everyone has their own style. Anyone that tells you otherwise is likely trying to sell clicks or products.
I'm sure Joel would tear my release apart, and he may be right. But I am happy with my shooting and it works for me. That's good enough - for now.
