Getting Better

[Little John]

I have been browsing thru the fourth edition of the bible and reading the parts I had skipped over, finally read the lessons learned from target archery chapter and think it is already helping. It really does pay to dot the I's and cross the tees.  Hope it helps me shoot better under pressure. I liked the part about holding at full draw for two seconds and and follow thru for two seconds after the arrow is in the target. As I think a lot of us snap shoot and don't realise that it causes a lot of problems. Any way it is well worth reading.      Kenneth

[Sparrow]

 I will find my copy and read it as well.  Frank

[Traxx]

Little John,
I agree.It is my favorite chapter in the book.We can build these things till we're blue in the face,but if we cant shoot em,it doesnt do us much good does it?Leastwise,if we are usein em to shoot game with.

[JW_Halverson]

Hehehe, to add dmy 2 cents...I have been on a quest for lighter and lighter arrows for the last year since I tend to hit low at 20 yds.  Then a few weeks ago I was shooting at a new target, an arrow net, and I was practicing my release instead of working on accuracy.  Turns out I was not following through, was dropping my bow arm.  Now all my arrows hit a little high! 

Go ahead, point and laugh, I'm used to it.

[cowboy]

Makes sense Kenneth - I think my style and form are in a class of thier own . That is something I need to work on.

[GregB]

So much of shooting a bow is mental. I think I know what I'm supposed to do, but struggle actually carrying it out sometimes. As for the arrow, I've been tending to lean more and more toward a heavier arrow combination because of better penetration on the animal. When 20 yards is about the maximum shot, the heavier arrow doesn't drop all the bad within that distance.

[Kegan]

I really liked that chapter, as well as the article in PA that it came from. One note though. On the top they show "proper follow through", where Reed Hamm pulls his drawing hand far back past his shoulder. That's not really a good idea, as any excessive movement of the drawing hand past anchor/release causes the string to be pulled elsewhere. I didn't realize this until I saw "Archery" by Howard Hill, the old 1940's short film, where he says to keep the drawing hand "...close to the face". It's cleaned up alot of my 'erratics', well,  at least I know why they're doing that now .

[JW_Halverson]

GregB's comment reminds me of Yogi Berra's "Ninety-five percent of the game is half mental". 

[Traxx]

Kegan,
That is not the case when done correctly.the drawing hand comes straight back as a result of ,proper back tension,after the release,has happened.It is a subconscious part of follow through,when opposeing forces are released.If you are push pulling and useing proper back tension to hold those opposeing forces,the result is the hand and or arm flying back,to some degree.Howard did it too,although not as dramatically as others.His elbow,did make a move to the rear,if you watch it real closely,and in slow motion.If the hand flying back,is used as a direct part of a conscious release,then you are correct,that it can and will result in string torque.

[Traxx]

As well as a serious pluck.It also can create a inconsistent anchor point,causeing inconsistant draw length,with resulting spine issues.

[Kegan]

What I was mainly concerning was the fact that his hand was past his right shoulder. I laned my book to a buddy of mine so he'd get an idea how to shoot. He was pulling his hand all the way back, which fudged his release up (so his final draw was about 2 1/2" longer than his acutal draw- more than the bow I built could handle). Besides that, Asbell's "follow through" got me into the idea of making sure the hand goes back, even if it isn't a straight path. Whcih lead to sloppy shooting .