Winfield native Frankie Addington Jr. travels the country making a living with his bow. Addington is a life-long instinctive shooter. He’s able to put on a performance with his bow that can leave a crowd in awe.
Addington, whose mentor is the late Stacy Grosscup, admits there’s a lot of God given ability to what he does. He possesses 20/08 vision. According to optometrists, that’s as good as the human eye can get for visual acuity. Things that look the size of a grapefruit to you and me look the size of a basketball to Addington.
Speaking in a recent appearance on West Virginia Outdoors, Addington recommended for hunting purposes it’s wise to rely on technology unless your instinctive skills are finely tuned.
"There’s the wounding factor," explained Addington. "You want to be sure you have the ability and confidence to make the first shot count."
The average hunter will gain that confidence using pin-sights, a hand-held release, and lots of practice.
"I like 3-d objects," said Addington. "I’m not talking about 3-d targets, I’m talking about balloons, tennis balls, and things like that."
Addington suggests taking the approach he took with former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise several years ago. Set up three baseball size balloons and pop them in succession.
"That’s a confidence builder," he said. "Those balloons represent an animal’s lungs and if you can pop that balloon pretty regular, that’s a good sign."
Once you’re able to pop balloons with regularity, Addington advises you advance yourself to a new level. He drives and arrow into the top of hay bale and suspends a tennis ball on a string over the edge tied to the arrow.
"That tennis ball is drawing your eye to that smaller object and you randomly shoot at different yardages at that tennis ball," said Addington. "That really lets you hone in."
Once you’ve mastered the tennis ball, Addington says it’s time for the fine tuning. He suggests replacing the tennis ball with a piece of Lifesaver candy. The target becomes roughly the size of a nickel.
"What you’re doing with that Lifesaver is teaching yourself to pick a spot," said Addington. "All of us have done it, you see a big buck and your eyes immediately go to that rack, that Lifesaver deal is to teach you to pick a spot and then when you’re shooting, you’ll look for that spot."
Addington says while 3-d targets are popular and helpful, the balloon, tennis ball, Lifesaver progression is effective in teaching you concentration and at the same time building confidence in archery shooting.