Archery Basics

If you're all the way new, first off, with a light bow, there's no prestige in shooting a heavy bow. You'll just mess up your body. Shoulders, joints, fingers, back, everything. So start with a lighter bow and get your technique in place and then move to a higher poundage if you need to. There's no prestige in going for a high poundage bow, especially if you're shooting short distances. Your basic stance can vary depending on the bow you're shooting and the purpose. Target shooting, target basing, 3D shooting, out in the woods, and then hunting. Naturally, your latitude, your 3D shooting and your hunting means that you won't always be able to stand completely plain and completely perpendicular to the target. Nevertheless, your basic stance could either be completely perpendicular to the target or you could open it up a bit depending on your shooting style. This means that you actually give way to a slight bit of draw length. Draw length from the bottom of the grip to where the string is pulled. Now you can see that the drawing can vary quite a lot. Look at the tip of the stance. The key thing is to point your shoulder out in the front. A lot of people, when they start to shoot, want to pull in this way, using the breast muscles to the shoulder. Don't do that. This means you put a huge amount of strain on the wrong muscle groups. Using your entire shoulder and tensioning up your back is much better. So here, up, perpendicular. You need to have a straight line from the tip to your elbow. So when you release, the arm comes back. The reason for this is that if you go down, you pull the arrow down, it does this all the way to the target, not getting where you want it. I prefer the bow arm slightly bent depending on the poundage of the bow, but let's keep this below 50 pounds. Just a bit bent so that when I release, it's a bit forward. This helps the collapse so I don't drop the bow too much. Again, dropping the bow will affect the arrow's path to the target. So bending it slightly, pulling up, pushing it forward, trying to keep as much of a straight line between arrow tip and my elbow. Supposedly can, because this helps keep the plane straight to the target. A little word of advice. When it comes to gripping the bow, I don't advise squeezing it. I use these two fingers. I have a loose grip on it. The bow will not jump out of your hand. It will not jump out of your hand if you hold it like this. It will not jump out of your hand if you do it like this either. But when you do this, you tend to twist it upon release. Again, affecting the arrow's trajectory. You don't want that. So just holding with a light pinch grip and the knuckles at an angle. Not oblique, but a slight angle. Leaving the bow to rest in your palm as such. When it comes to hooking the grip, don't go for the tips. I'll just take off my glove. If you grip out here, beyond the first groove, you twist the string. Now, when you release, the string will twist back. And this can, if the nock is just slightly too tight, the arrow can weave off this way. So get it into the groove. First finger groove. About 60% pressure on this finger and the other one's helping it. This is the same whether you use split or three-under. First finger groove. Now, when you pull the string, don't curl it. Don't curl it. Set your fingers, then pull back. If you do this, you risk pulling the arrow off the shelf as you pull. So hook them, pull straight back. And once again, the bowhand pinch grip is my advice. Take a stance. Bow up. Slightly bend. You curl here. You push here. Push forward. Release the bow. When you release, don't stretch your fingers. Just relax them, if you can. Try to get the fingers to just relax. That way, see, the hand goes back. If you do this, you risk plugging the string, pulling it sideways as you release. This is bad because, once again, every twist you do affects the arrow. Actually, the centre of your body should be right down the centre of your legs. Having a good sense of gravity. So don't lean back. This means you have to pull further to get an arrow. So stay here. Try to think about you standing on the slide. Pull the arrow up to your face. If you lean back, you have to pull the arrow further. Also, if you lean your head back, it's a natural instinct to move your head out of the way of the arrow because you don't want the string of the arrow to touch your nose. It won't. Try to stay here. Pull the arrow up. Don't lean your head back and don't pull your body back. To shoot up or down, you tilt at the hips. You don't just need to go up and down. If you go up, you have a shorter goal and you don't have a longer. This affects the arrow speed and where you're going to hit. So if you just go down here, the arrow will shoot higher than where you're actually aiming. And shorter to do this. Similar because of the change in arrow speed. So, if you have to change elevation, do it at the hips. That way, your draw length is always the same. So, when you pull back, pull your arrow. Your elbow should be pointing in your shoulder. Pull back. So when you release, your arm comes back. You'll probably need to watch this back quite a few times. Work on it. Watch it while you work at it. And make your adjustments. It takes time to become a good archer. A consistent, accurate archer. It's not done over a week or a month. Years. Even if you practice every day. I don't recommend practicing every day. It will strain your body. It will strain your nose. So, take your time. Work a little bit. Two or three times a week. Don't overdo it. And be patient. This will not come overnight. In six months. You'll also reach a point where you make small adjustments. That will throw off your accuracy for a couple of weeks. Then you tune in. You get accurate again. But, keep in mind that every time you do something different to your shooting style, your technique, your accuracy will drop. But it will come back up again once you get used to this new change. Keep that in mind. Tell me what you think in the comments below. See ya.