Post by merc on Nov 23, 2019 10:23:12 GMT
The Draw
This is the other fundamental of good archery technique: if you have a good bow arm and a good draw, you’re well on the way to shooting your best. There are lots of separate issues involved with the draw, so I’ll deal with them differently. I choose to shoot with a certain type of draw, but others may not find this type the best for them. There are lots of different opinions out there: don’t be afraid to ask other people what they think about a particular point, and don’t be afraid to experiment for a session or so.
Grip on the string. There are two ways of doing this, either a deep grip or a fingertip grip. In the first type you place the string into the first joint of the fingers and keep it there for the duration of the shot. The advantage of this is that having your string in the joints allows you to relax your drawing fingers a lot, and they may come off the string more smoothly. In the second type you grip the string with the tips of your fingers: this causes more tension in the fingers, potentially leading to a less smooth release, but there is less finger to get out of the way of the string. Personally speaking, I found the deep grip very useful when I tried it, producing far better grouping than the fingertip grip, but have recently gone back to the fingertip grip for various reasons, and have found this much more consistent than I originally did. The deep grip takes some getting used to, but can certainly yield very good results. Try both, and see which you prefer.
Use of the back muscles. Not a lot of debate over this one really: you should use your back muscles as the main drawing force. What this means is that the arm and shoulder muscles are as relaxed as possible and the back muscles do most of the work: this causes less tension in the drawing arm, especially the forearm, which leads to a smoother release. It also helps enormously with correct line (more of which later), and is less tiring than using the arm muscles. When you’re drawing the bow, try to move one scapula towards the other, feeling the bone and muscle in the back working to bring the arm, hand and string back towards your face: other muscles should be as relaxed as possible. Practising this is absolutely vital, and luckily you can do a lot towards good technique at home. Stand as if on the shooting line, one arm out as if holding the bow, the other as if holding the string. Move the back muscles and shoulder blade to bring the string arm back towards your face and in towards where it would normally anchor on your face. Keep the pressure up on the back muscles, and imagine yourself letting go of the string with a smooth motion so that your drawing arm follows through directly backwards and the hand ends up by your rear shoulder. At all times try to feel the back muscles working, and keep the other muscles relaxed. This exercise is even better when you use a stretch band: the Cliniband is an old favourite, and Win&Win have just brought out a new version which looks good. Do exactly the same exercise: this time it should be more realistic, and you should be able to feel the muscles working better. It’s very important that you carry on doing this exercise at home even when you think you’ve got it right and are shooting well: it’s the best substitute for actually shooting and is an important exercise in its own right. Doing this for 15/20 minutes a day should improve technique dramatically, and is useful if you’re not going to be shooting during the vacations.
The T-draw. Most archers prefer to use this draw: it’s the classic technique which we all get taught as beginners, and it should work for the majority of people. Having settled the fingers on the string properly, turn to face the target and bring the bow up in front of you. The sight should be slightly above the gold (assuming that this is where you are aiming) as the action of the draw will bring the bow arm and bow down, dropping the sight onto the gold. Using the back muscles pull the string towards your face, continuing to use the sight, but concentrating on technique, and then release. Simple! The alternative is to start the draw with the bow pointing at the ground, with the bow arm straight and in position, and to raise the bow as you draw, sighting and aiming at the same time: some people feel that this gives them better back muscle usage, although I can’t say it helped me at all when I tried it. Pointing the bow up in the air at a 45 degree angle and doing the draw like this could produce the same effect, but is sensibly against the rules of shooting, so don’t try that one. Try doing the first part of the draw relatively quickly, perhaps until a couple of inches away from your face, and then slow it down a lot. This gives you a chance to make sure that you will be anchoring in the right place, lets you aim as you draw, and generally helps you do a smooth draw rather than a stop-start one.
Aiming. The main point here is that you should do this at all stages of the draw. Don’t draw and then aim, as the movement will lack smoothness: aim before you draw, and continue to aim while you draw and at full draw. Having said that, the act of aiming should be as unconscious as possible: if you concentrate on keeping the sight in the gold, you can be sure that it’ll wander all over the place, you’ll spend lots of time and effort at full draw trying to get it back into the gold, stay at full draw too long, and the eventual shot will be a poor one. Keep your attention focused on the target, on where you want the sight to be, and focus on good technique: with practice the sight will stay more or less where you want it to be, and aiming won’t be a problem. Bear in mind that the sight is bound to move about on the target: don’t try to overcorrect for this consciously, subconscious aiming will do it for you.
This is the other fundamental of good archery technique: if you have a good bow arm and a good draw, you’re well on the way to shooting your best. There are lots of separate issues involved with the draw, so I’ll deal with them differently. I choose to shoot with a certain type of draw, but others may not find this type the best for them. There are lots of different opinions out there: don’t be afraid to ask other people what they think about a particular point, and don’t be afraid to experiment for a session or so.
Grip on the string. There are two ways of doing this, either a deep grip or a fingertip grip. In the first type you place the string into the first joint of the fingers and keep it there for the duration of the shot. The advantage of this is that having your string in the joints allows you to relax your drawing fingers a lot, and they may come off the string more smoothly. In the second type you grip the string with the tips of your fingers: this causes more tension in the fingers, potentially leading to a less smooth release, but there is less finger to get out of the way of the string. Personally speaking, I found the deep grip very useful when I tried it, producing far better grouping than the fingertip grip, but have recently gone back to the fingertip grip for various reasons, and have found this much more consistent than I originally did. The deep grip takes some getting used to, but can certainly yield very good results. Try both, and see which you prefer.
Use of the back muscles. Not a lot of debate over this one really: you should use your back muscles as the main drawing force. What this means is that the arm and shoulder muscles are as relaxed as possible and the back muscles do most of the work: this causes less tension in the drawing arm, especially the forearm, which leads to a smoother release. It also helps enormously with correct line (more of which later), and is less tiring than using the arm muscles. When you’re drawing the bow, try to move one scapula towards the other, feeling the bone and muscle in the back working to bring the arm, hand and string back towards your face: other muscles should be as relaxed as possible. Practising this is absolutely vital, and luckily you can do a lot towards good technique at home. Stand as if on the shooting line, one arm out as if holding the bow, the other as if holding the string. Move the back muscles and shoulder blade to bring the string arm back towards your face and in towards where it would normally anchor on your face. Keep the pressure up on the back muscles, and imagine yourself letting go of the string with a smooth motion so that your drawing arm follows through directly backwards and the hand ends up by your rear shoulder. At all times try to feel the back muscles working, and keep the other muscles relaxed. This exercise is even better when you use a stretch band: the Cliniband is an old favourite, and Win&Win have just brought out a new version which looks good. Do exactly the same exercise: this time it should be more realistic, and you should be able to feel the muscles working better. It’s very important that you carry on doing this exercise at home even when you think you’ve got it right and are shooting well: it’s the best substitute for actually shooting and is an important exercise in its own right. Doing this for 15/20 minutes a day should improve technique dramatically, and is useful if you’re not going to be shooting during the vacations.
The T-draw. Most archers prefer to use this draw: it’s the classic technique which we all get taught as beginners, and it should work for the majority of people. Having settled the fingers on the string properly, turn to face the target and bring the bow up in front of you. The sight should be slightly above the gold (assuming that this is where you are aiming) as the action of the draw will bring the bow arm and bow down, dropping the sight onto the gold. Using the back muscles pull the string towards your face, continuing to use the sight, but concentrating on technique, and then release. Simple! The alternative is to start the draw with the bow pointing at the ground, with the bow arm straight and in position, and to raise the bow as you draw, sighting and aiming at the same time: some people feel that this gives them better back muscle usage, although I can’t say it helped me at all when I tried it. Pointing the bow up in the air at a 45 degree angle and doing the draw like this could produce the same effect, but is sensibly against the rules of shooting, so don’t try that one. Try doing the first part of the draw relatively quickly, perhaps until a couple of inches away from your face, and then slow it down a lot. This gives you a chance to make sure that you will be anchoring in the right place, lets you aim as you draw, and generally helps you do a smooth draw rather than a stop-start one.
Aiming. The main point here is that you should do this at all stages of the draw. Don’t draw and then aim, as the movement will lack smoothness: aim before you draw, and continue to aim while you draw and at full draw. Having said that, the act of aiming should be as unconscious as possible: if you concentrate on keeping the sight in the gold, you can be sure that it’ll wander all over the place, you’ll spend lots of time and effort at full draw trying to get it back into the gold, stay at full draw too long, and the eventual shot will be a poor one. Keep your attention focused on the target, on where you want the sight to be, and focus on good technique: with practice the sight will stay more or less where you want it to be, and aiming won’t be a problem. Bear in mind that the sight is bound to move about on the target: don’t try to overcorrect for this consciously, subconscious aiming will do it for you.
This is the other fundamental of good archery technique: if you have a good bow arm and a good draw, you’re well on the way to shooting your best. There are lots of separate issues involved with the draw, so I’ll deal with them differently. I choose to shoot with a certain type of draw, but others may not find this type the best for them. There are lots of different opinions out there: don’t be afraid to ask other people what they think about a particular point, and don’t be afraid to experiment for a session or so.
Grip on the string. There are two ways of doing this, either a deep grip or a fingertip grip. In the first type you place the string into the first joint of the fingers and keep it there for the duration of the shot. The advantage of this is that having your string in the joints allows you to relax your drawing fingers a lot, and they may come off the string more smoothly. In the second type you grip the string with the tips of your fingers: this causes more tension in the fingers, potentially leading to a less smooth release, but there is less finger to get out of the way of the string. Personally speaking, I found the deep grip very useful when I tried it, producing far better grouping than the fingertip grip, but have recently gone back to the fingertip grip for various reasons, and have found this much more consistent than I originally did. The deep grip takes some getting used to, but can certainly yield very good results. Try both, and see which you prefer.
Use of the back muscles. Not a lot of debate over this one really: you should use your back muscles as the main drawing force. What this means is that the arm and shoulder muscles are as relaxed as possible and the back muscles do most of the work: this causes less tension in the drawing arm, especially the forearm, which leads to a smoother release. It also helps enormously with correct line (more of which later), and is less tiring than using the arm muscles. When you’re drawing the bow, try to move one scapula towards the other, feeling the bone and muscle in the back working to bring the arm, hand and string back towards your face: other muscles should be as relaxed as possible. Practising this is absolutely vital, and luckily you can do a lot towards good technique at home. Stand as if on the shooting line, one arm out as if holding the bow, the other as if holding the string. Move the back muscles and shoulder blade to bring the string arm back towards your face and in towards where it would normally anchor on your face. Keep the pressure up on the back muscles, and imagine yourself letting go of the string with a smooth motion so that your drawing arm follows through directly backwards and the hand ends up by your rear shoulder. At all times try to feel the back muscles working, and keep the other muscles relaxed. This exercise is even better when you use a stretch band: the Cliniband is an old favourite, and Win&Win have just brought out a new version which looks good. Do exactly the same exercise: this time it should be more realistic, and you should be able to feel the muscles working better. It’s very important that you carry on doing this exercise at home even when you think you’ve got it right and are shooting well: it’s the best substitute for actually shooting and is an important exercise in its own right. Doing this for 15/20 minutes a day should improve technique dramatically, and is useful if you’re not going to be shooting during the vacations.
The T-draw. Most archers prefer to use this draw: it’s the classic technique which we all get taught as beginners, and it should work for the majority of people. Having settled the fingers on the string properly, turn to face the target and bring the bow up in front of you. The sight should be slightly above the gold (assuming that this is where you are aiming) as the action of the draw will bring the bow arm and bow down, dropping the sight onto the gold. Using the back muscles pull the string towards your face, continuing to use the sight, but concentrating on technique, and then release. Simple! The alternative is to start the draw with the bow pointing at the ground, with the bow arm straight and in position, and to raise the bow as you draw, sighting and aiming at the same time: some people feel that this gives them better back muscle usage, although I can’t say it helped me at all when I tried it. Pointing the bow up in the air at a 45 degree angle and doing the draw like this could produce the same effect, but is sensibly against the rules of shooting, so don’t try that one. Try doing the first part of the draw relatively quickly, perhaps until a couple of inches away from your face, and then slow it down a lot. This gives you a chance to make sure that you will be anchoring in the right place, lets you aim as you draw, and generally helps you do a smooth draw rather than a stop-start one.
Aiming. The main point here is that you should do this at all stages of the draw. Don’t draw and then aim, as the movement will lack smoothness: aim before you draw, and continue to aim while you draw and at full draw. Having said that, the act of aiming should be as unconscious as possible: if you concentrate on keeping the sight in the gold, you can be sure that it’ll wander all over the place, you’ll spend lots of time and effort at full draw trying to get it back into the gold, stay at full draw too long, and the eventual shot will be a poor one. Keep your attention focused on the target, on where you want the sight to be, and focus on good technique: with practice the sight will stay more or less where you want it to be, and aiming won’t be a problem. Bear in mind that the sight is bound to move about on the target: don’t try to overcorrect for this consciously, subconscious aiming will do it for you.
This is the other fundamental of good archery technique: if you have a good bow arm and a good draw, you’re well on the way to shooting your best. There are lots of separate issues involved with the draw, so I’ll deal with them differently. I choose to shoot with a certain type of draw, but others may not find this type the best for them. There are lots of different opinions out there: don’t be afraid to ask other people what they think about a particular point, and don’t be afraid to experiment for a session or so.
Grip on the string. There are two ways of doing this, either a deep grip or a fingertip grip. In the first type you place the string into the first joint of the fingers and keep it there for the duration of the shot. The advantage of this is that having your string in the joints allows you to relax your drawing fingers a lot, and they may come off the string more smoothly. In the second type you grip the string with the tips of your fingers: this causes more tension in the fingers, potentially leading to a less smooth release, but there is less finger to get out of the way of the string. Personally speaking, I found the deep grip very useful when I tried it, producing far better grouping than the fingertip grip, but have recently gone back to the fingertip grip for various reasons, and have found this much more consistent than I originally did. The deep grip takes some getting used to, but can certainly yield very good results. Try both, and see which you prefer.
Use of the back muscles. Not a lot of debate over this one really: you should use your back muscles as the main drawing force. What this means is that the arm and shoulder muscles are as relaxed as possible and the back muscles do most of the work: this causes less tension in the drawing arm, especially the forearm, which leads to a smoother release. It also helps enormously with correct line (more of which later), and is less tiring than using the arm muscles. When you’re drawing the bow, try to move one scapula towards the other, feeling the bone and muscle in the back working to bring the arm, hand and string back towards your face: other muscles should be as relaxed as possible. Practising this is absolutely vital, and luckily you can do a lot towards good technique at home. Stand as if on the shooting line, one arm out as if holding the bow, the other as if holding the string. Move the back muscles and shoulder blade to bring the string arm back towards your face and in towards where it would normally anchor on your face. Keep the pressure up on the back muscles, and imagine yourself letting go of the string with a smooth motion so that your drawing arm follows through directly backwards and the hand ends up by your rear shoulder. At all times try to feel the back muscles working, and keep the other muscles relaxed. This exercise is even better when you use a stretch band: the Cliniband is an old favourite, and Win&Win have just brought out a new version which looks good. Do exactly the same exercise: this time it should be more realistic, and you should be able to feel the muscles working better. It’s very important that you carry on doing this exercise at home even when you think you’ve got it right and are shooting well: it’s the best substitute for actually shooting and is an important exercise in its own right. Doing this for 15/20 minutes a day should improve technique dramatically, and is useful if you’re not going to be shooting during the vacations.
The T-draw. Most archers prefer to use this draw: it’s the classic technique which we all get taught as beginners, and it should work for the majority of people. Having settled the fingers on the string properly, turn to face the target and bring the bow up in front of you. The sight should be slightly above the gold (assuming that this is where you are aiming) as the action of the draw will bring the bow arm and bow down, dropping the sight onto the gold. Using the back muscles pull the string towards your face, continuing to use the sight, but concentrating on technique, and then release. Simple! The alternative is to start the draw with the bow pointing at the ground, with the bow arm straight and in position, and to raise the bow as you draw, sighting and aiming at the same time: some people feel that this gives them better back muscle usage, although I can’t say it helped me at all when I tried it. Pointing the bow up in the air at a 45 degree angle and doing the draw like this could produce the same effect, but is sensibly against the rules of shooting, so don’t try that one. Try doing the first part of the draw relatively quickly, perhaps until a couple of inches away from your face, and then slow it down a lot. This gives you a chance to make sure that you will be anchoring in the right place, lets you aim as you draw, and generally helps you do a smooth draw rather than a stop-start one.
Aiming. The main point here is that you should do this at all stages of the draw. Don’t draw and then aim, as the movement will lack smoothness: aim before you draw, and continue to aim while you draw and at full draw. Having said that, the act of aiming should be as unconscious as possible: if you concentrate on keeping the sight in the gold, you can be sure that it’ll wander all over the place, you’ll spend lots of time and effort at full draw trying to get it back into the gold, stay at full draw too long, and the eventual shot will be a poor one. Keep your attention focused on the target, on where you want the sight to be, and focus on good technique: with practice the sight will stay more or less where you want it to be, and aiming won’t be a problem. Bear in mind that the sight is bound to move about on the target: don’t try to overcorrect for this consciously, subconscious aiming will do it for you.