FIVE COMMON ARCHERY MISTAKES

That recurve archers face – and some ways to correct them

INCONSISTENT STANCE
Do your feet change position slightly from shot to shot? Your stance – where you place your feet when shooting – is the foundation for your shot. Your stance must be solid and consistent arrow to arrow.
To ensure a consistent stance, apply painter’s tape on the floor where you practice. If you use an open stance, for example, place the tape so your foot alignment and toe position will be identical for each shot.
Remember, your stance not only affects foot position, but also your balance and centre of gravity. By making your foundation solid, you ensure a more stable platform for strong shots.

ELBOW ROTATION
Correct elbow rotation is one of archery’s simplest, but most important, skills. This means keeping your bow arm’s elbow rotated straight up and down while drawing the bow and releasing the arrow.
If your bow arm’s elbow doesn’t rotate straight, many problems can result, including a bruised inner elbow and arrows veering to one side of the target. To prevent problems, rotate your elbow straight before raising or drawing your bow.

By setting the bow arm elbow correctly from the start, and maintaining its position during the shot, your upper body will be properly aligned, which results in a stronger shot and better arrow groups in the target.

HOOK (FINGER POSITION ON THE BOWSTRING)
When you place your fingers on the bowstring, do you actually look where you’re placing them? Or do you simply grasp the bowstring and start drawing? Rushing to place your fingers on the string is one of the most common archery mistakes. Taking a second look at your finger placement can pay big dividends for your shot.

Hooking the bowstring with too much finger tension – or in the wrong place on the fingers – can cause many issues. The problems range from missing the target entirely to developing painful finger blisters.
Therefore, make sure you place your fingers on the string for each shot exactly as you were taught, and be sure your hand position relative to the bowstring is consistent. Hooking properly and consistently creates tighter groups!

ANCHOR POINT
For beginning archers, anchoring consistently can be a challenge. The anchor point is a spot on your face – usually the corner of your mouth or just below your chin – where you pull the bowstring every time.

To understand the importance of a consistent anchor point, consider what an anchor does for a boat: It keeps the boat from moving. Likewise, an anchor point prevents archers from placing their draw-hand in different spots each time they shoot, which would send your arrows flying in different directions.

You can determine your anchor point with your instructor’s guidance. The most important part is drawing the bowstring to the same anchor point every single arrow. If you feel it changing, work with your coach on techniques to become more consistent.

STRONG SHOTS
A common mistake made by many archers is failing to finish the shot with strength. Aiming too soon often causes weak shots. Another culprit is focusing so much on aiming that you forget to focus on the proper muscle movements.

Weak shots can cause low shots and side-to-side groupings, depending on whether the archer is right- or left-handed. Fortunately, weak shots are easily fixed: Just change your focus.

When you’re at full draw and ready to aim, stay focused on the muscle movements your coach taught you. Aiming is important, but it’s equally important to use your muscles to create a strong release and follow-through. By focusing on the right technique at the right time, your shots will be stronger and your groups tighter and more consistent.

Recurve Archery Team Finals

Hey FC Archers,

Just finished watching the recurve archery team finals in Antalya ,Turkey. You can really get a good look at some of the technical forms I have been talking about. Have a watch when you have a free moment.

See you on the range,
Emmanuel

Is Your Stance Poor?

Hey FC Archers,

Is Your Stance Poor?

I feel compelled to put this piece of advice out there. Make sure that your stance was correct, there is terrible results when it wasn’t.

You should stand side-on to the target, with your feet about shoulder-width apart pointing along the shooting line. You should not point your feet or your knees towards the target.

Once you have the feet sorted out, you must pay attention to your upper body. The only parts of your body that should move when you shoot are your arms and your head. You should not rotate your torso towards the target, nor tilt your neck at all. I’m told that a good way to make sure you don’t move to meet the string is to put 80% of your weight on your back foot. Until a good stance becomes a habit, you might like to try this routine:

1.Stand on the shooting line as described above.
2.Facing directly along the shooting line, stand up straight with your head level, as if you were about to have your height measured.
3.Keeping your neck still, turn your head until you are looking down the range to the target.
4.Moving only your left arm, lift up your bow and hold it out towards the target.
5.Moving only your right arm, not twisting your torso at all, reach up and grip the string as usual.
6.Again moving only your right arm, draw the string back to your face. Do not bring your head down to meet the string.

Better would be to study experienced archers (like me) and try to copy their stance. Unfortunately it’s difficult to know what you look like when you draw, although practising in front of a mirror can help. Best of all is to get an experienced archer to examine your stance and offer advice.

Hope this helps,
Emmanuel

Holding Steady

Training Exercises for Improving Draw Strength

If you want to reach your full potential as an archer, you will need to improve your conditioning. Several physical factors are involved in holding the bow steady: strength, endurance, proper shooting form, back tension, breathing technique and relaxation.

In order to hold the bow steady, your muscles must be in good condition.They must be strong and they must have endurance.

One way to build strength and endurance is to pull your bow to full draw and let down 20 times in a row and then hold at full draw as long as possible before releasing the arrow on the final repetition.

For overall stability, it’s important to strengthen the muscles of your core. This means you must do sit ups or crunches as well as back extensions or planks. One thing to remember is to always work both sides of the body evenly.

When I’m using my bow, my goal is to hold the bow back for a full two minutes. This workout will take a maximum of six minutes. I do this every other day to make sure my muscles fully recover between sessions.

No matter which program you choose, you’ll soon find yourself holding the bow steadier, especially on shots that require a little more time at full draw.

See you on the range at FC,
Emmanuel

Archery Progress Reports

Hello FC Archery Parents,

Progress reports will be emailed out shortly and contain specific details on your child’s individual efforts. Overall, all kids are doing well and transitioning from beginner to intermediate level archers.

The archery program is focused on building mindfulness, patience and confidence through practice. As a teacher, my focus is on keeping things fun while growing each student’s abilities. I believe in practice based learning – ‘learn while doing’. As kids are practicing their shooting, I walk around and provide them on the spot guidance and correction.

Thank you for your dedication to this program. If you know of other parents looking for something special to get their kids involved please feel free to forward them this email.

Thank you in advance,

Emmanuel

PS – I will be going to the Bow Shop this month and can pick up arrows if you need them for your child. The cost for 6 arrows is about $50 dollars. Please email archery@fight-club.ca this week if you are interested.