What Technique Is Best for Recurve Archery?

What is the best shot cycle for recurve archery? That's what I want to talk about today because this has all started a long time ago in truth but recently I got an email from someone that said do you teach more linear, more angular, do you kind of recommend more of a KSL or NTS or best shot cycle or more of a Korean type shot cycle or more what World Archery teaches or all these kind of different things and this got me thinking I've been wanting to make this video for a while and never got round to it but I want to start today I want to kind of talk about these different shot cycles and give my kind of thoughts on how you would then pick how to shoot essentially but I want to start the video today with a little story. So in 2017 I moved to America and I trained and and lived there for a couple of years and in that time it was quite bizarre if I'm honest because when I first arrived there I started getting asked the question that I'd never been asked before everyone seemed to ask me do you do you shoot linear or angular do you shoot do you shoot Korean style or angular do you try and shoot NTS or not and everything was put into these buckets of this technique or this technique is either one or the other you have to choose you can't you can't shoot this way without choosing that oh okay I'm going to prescribe to every single thing in this technique or you can't shoot a different you can't shoot Korean style unless you have a square stance or all these things and it was really interesting to me because when I first asked about this the first time I kind of looked at the person and said what do you mean and they had to explain a bit more what what they were I was like what do you mean linear or angular I didn't really understand the the fascination with it being such a black and white thing because this is where this is leading to me there this is not how you should look at it there isn't a black and white linear versus angular in my opinion there isn't a this technique versus this technique and even the the way of asking that or the way of assuming that there's this way of doing it versus this way of doing it one of them must be correct and the other one therefore is wrong is really going to lead a lot of people down the wrong path so this is why I think this is an important video to make today and I wanted to kind of give my thoughts on it so to start with my opinion is that every technique shot cycle or name or whatever you want to call it whoever's made it whoever's branded it whoever's come up with it remember that all of them are completely arbitrary and made up someone just made them up so let's start with that they're not a real thing let's start with that the second thing is a lot of the reasons why these things exist is it's a lot more easy to kind of understand so I understand why people have done this because when you're trying to teach something if you've got a framework and a name for it it's a lot easier to make you know it understandable and people for them to apply it the same thing goes for my website I've deliberately not tried to create any sort of shot system or cycle or anything like that and this is why on my website you'll see maybe I can I can bring it up here but you'll see on my website that it's just in sections of the shot cycle and this was a deliberate choice because I didn't want to create the Ash Morgan technique or whatever it is because that's not how I do technique and I think that actually leads a lot of people astray thinking oh I can't shoot well if I don't do everything in this technique because it's not going to work together so like I said I don't prescribe to there being a singular technique or one thing and even the idea for example of linear versus angular I find that let's take that example linear versus angular versus Korean technique because this is one I got asked a lot when I was in America um so let's let's take that example when you say Korean technique are you talking about this Korean technique? Park Sung-hyun this is from 2004 one of the best archers of all time definitely at the time and I mean probably the the greatest I guess with the mixed team medals it's hard to say that now but probably one of the greatest female Olympic archers of all time is it this Korean technique you're talking about or maybe is it this Korean technique of Kim Woo-jin that you're talking about or maybe it's not Kim Woo-jin's technique maybe it's a different Korean technique of Lee Woo-seok's technique so you can see where I'm going with this or or maybe Im Dong-hyun's technique so to me this is where generalizations and putting things into and notice by the way open stance here a lot of people seem to think that you can only shoot a square stance if you're shooting Korean technique again not true and what is Korean technique anyway but this is where generalizations and stuff like that don't help so my take-home message from this video and my opinion on this is hey there is no shot cycle that is best let's just start with that anyone who says that there is only one way to shoot is deluded or naive at best or is just trying to prescribe you down my way or the highway because everyone with any sense can look at everyone shooting and see there isn't one way to shoot is there there's clearly not one way to shoot because even when you look at the top five in the world or even the top three archers in the world you've got vastly different techniques I mean look let's look at the Paris Olympic match you had Kim Woo-jin and Brady Ellison I mean massively different techniques so you've got Brady Ellison here who at the start here I think this angle shows it probably best massively drawing from the side so when he raises the bow here massively drawing from the side coming around much more obviously this is KSL slash NTS slash best whatever you want to call it but this technique works for Brady incredibly different to the other archer in that gold medal match in Paris Kim Woo-jin who has a completely different technique so even amongst the top two in the world and the gold and silver olympic medalists you can see there's this variation so I don't prescribe to this I would suggest you don't either and I would also suggest that you don't think of technique as oh I need to follow this thing this whole technique and I need to follow this thing this whole technique and this is something I've tried to do like I said deliberately on my website with the technique guide so you can have a read through these but with the technique guides for example I always try and mention about try and understand what you're trying to achieve with this part of your technique so let's take the draw this kind of whole linear versus angular debate which always I find interesting because to me there's not a clear differentiation to me it's what are you trying to achieve so let's start with that we're trying to basically draw the bow and get to a full draw position that's consistent maybe good alignment if that's something hopefully that you want and also having your shoulder blade move in the way that you want if those are your goals some people can do that by raising up and drawing more linear if you like with their hand closer to the bow shoulder not linear because you're still you're still rotating around with the shoulder so that whole terminology to me of kind of linear versus angular I don't I don't kind of uh subscribe to that if you like some people can do that with the hand closer whereas some people might need to or they feel it works best for them to draw way out and around like brady for example again the thing is if one technique was better than the other that means that everyone that shot drawing way out around would have huge benefits from it but that's not the case some people have huge benefits from it and some people don't for me if I try drawing way out and I've tried this just with a theraband and just with a light bow which is what I suggest you do if you're trying a new technique when you try it you can feel like oh that doesn't work for my body I'm not as flexible as brady a lot of people aren't and that doesn't work for me also drawing like this I haven't got the video up now but more Kim Jae Deok style where he draws very in and manages to get his if I go to the full screen he draws very close in here and somehow even though his hand is close in by the time he gets to full draw he still gets this draw elbow around I can't do that way either so for me it's about finding the middle ground of what is the goal I don't want a shoulder injury that's one goal I want my shoulder to feel smooth and like I'm able to move it around I want the scapula to move around I want it to feel like I'm solid at full draw I want it to be I want to be able to expand by squeezing the draw scapula towards the spine these are the things that you want to look at rather than I must shoot this way I must shoot this way it's about the result so blindly following a system of something is not what I'd suggest it's always about looking at what you're trying to get out of it and this is again something that I've tried to highlight in all of the content I put out as well don't just follow what I say try it and see what you're trying to get from it and then try and see make up your own mind as to what works as well hopefully you're the coach maybe an experienced archer as well that will obviously help you find the correct thing quicker but this is the thing it's individual on that note this is this is a perfect kind of segue if you like to the sponsor of today's video which is myself as normal if you've not checked my courses out yet this is exactly the kind of thing that I talk about in my courses I don't prescribe you must do this or you must do this there are certain things that I suggest okay for example with the draw side it's a lot easier if you don't kink your wrist as an example but I try and encourage you to say what am I trying to achieve from this and more importantly how can I gauge if this part of the technique is working or because that's what it's all about for example the anchor I talk about the anchor what are we trying to achieve here when we get to the anchor so how can you measure that for yourself because everyone's hand shape is different everyone's face shape is different so I can't tell you in a course where you should check them out I can't tell you your perfect anchor it's for you to experiment and work out and go from principles so this is where I differ maybe from a lot of other coaches that might say you have to shoot this way or this way I look at it more from a principles standpoint and try and encourage you to learn what those principles are and then apply them to your shot so for example in the courses one of the principles I mentioned about is having as I've mentioned many many times is having a stable body and a stable posture and if you've got that it makes everything else easier because you can feel what's happening within your shoulders that's one example so yeah I definitely recommend thinking about this thinking about your shot in this way and try and remove the idea that you must do one way or the other and and even if you are an avid supporter of one technique and it really really works for you don't let this bias you and not have the benefit of maybe cherry picking things from other techniques just because you have an open stance doesn't mean you need to draw exactly a certain way or just because you draw a certain way doesn't mean you need to anchor a certain way or it doesn't mean you need to expand a certain way so this is what I'd encourage you to kind of think how you how I'd encourage you to think about it essentially so on that note I forgot to talk about that kind of segue if you like check out my courses if you haven't already there's a special discount if you go to online archery academy.com click on explore the courses and you can have a look at them there but if you just want some free email tips that I send out every week as well people love this but I send this out every week pop your email address in at onlinearcheryacademy.com I'll send you those tips completely free or if you want to join my membership you can go to become a member and join my membership where we do q a's people send in their questions sometimes I analyze someone's technique and I'm going to record a couple of videos on stuff like that after this one as well so those are my thoughts on these different shot cycles I want to finish this video and give you some kind of tips to take away because you're probably thinking now that's great okay so ignore the fact that there's different shot cycles how do I shoot them how do I decide what to follow or what advice to take the number one thing I'd suggest is I implore you please to practice your draw your whole shot cycle with a band and a light bow and you will very very quickly find out what works for you it will teach you so much because you can slow it down you can close your eyes you can feel what's happening this is exactly this is literally exactly how I spent years and years and probably half a million arrows shooting where I had my hand too close to my bow shoulder I didn't realize it was a problem I thought that's just how I shot it becomes such a habit I never even thought about it I assumed that when we were looking from above I assumed maybe if I can get a video up here that I couldn't get my draw elbow into line so if we go to here again I'll bring a I'll bring a video up here so if we go and bring it up which video do I want I want the overhead so I assumed for years and years I could not for the life of me get my draw elbow in line like you see is here this is after working on it and I finally got it in line for years I convinced myself that it was just my body proportions people said oh your forearm length versus your upper arm length is wrong you'll never be able to get it round and it's just biomechanically impossible some people just can't do it and I assumed that they were right I kind of just thought that's how it was but then when I did these these light bow draw ups and I actually really went through my technique and thought what is working for me here I actually properly went through it that is when I found out if I move back slightly that's when I found out I was drawing too close here and I was never going to get my elbow around doing that for me and then when I focused on keeping this straight for example not bending the wrist leading from the elbow when I then practiced that with a shot trainer with a light bow and then was able to draw around when I was then able to do that with a light bow and here's the key thing it might sound obvious but I was able to repeat it every single shot when I was able to do that that was the magic moment because I was like okay I can do it with the light bow it's 20 pounds I then can do it with a light bow that's 25 pounds I can do it with a bow that's 30 pounds can I now do it with my bow and it turns out as you can see in this video I can and directly after this so I spent three or four months in the winter working on this and then in the February after I worked on that that was the best essentially one of the best seasons I had starting with the Vega shoot I was in the flights division at the time won the Vega shoot by miles shooting I think 296 or 297 for one of the rounds at Vegas by far one of my best indoor competition performances essentially it's half of a theta 18 so that's like a 594 level and this was because of my elbow coming around made my whole shot so much better something that I assumed I could never do because I was following other techniques and this is just how I did it and I wasn't using a light bow so I'd encourage you go back to the full screen to use a light bow and draw up to maybe you read about a certain technique maybe you read about it on my website or from someone else or from someone else's video then try it with a light bow and see what works for you with it if you don't like a certain part of it maybe ask a coach their opinion maybe try a different thing but really listen to your body and see what works if you're trying to do a technique where you're drawing way out and coming in but every single time you feel like you're drawing a different amount and you can never get your shoulder feeling nice don't do that technique this is a really good example of when when I did that video on Florian Onru's technique three four weeks ago he was saying that for a long time when he was raising up he had a shorter pre-draw and he didn't have his bow arm bent but when he was doing that he was having problems with his draw shoulder this is a perfect example of this because basically everyone else shoots pretty much 95% of people 98 or whatever shoot with their front arm straight when they lift up most people shoot like that and Florian super clever and this is why I like that so much when I did that video he said you know what why does everyone shoot like that it doesn't work for me it's really important to my draw shoulder in order to not get an injury and the bicep tendon that he was mentioning about as well but maybe I can draw a different way and this is what I want to encourage you to look at today so that's all I've got for you today to leave you with that there is no such thing as different shot cycles they're all made up anyway all of it is made up try and learn from principles not from following blindly some sort of system that is supposedly magic and then finally listen to your body and test things out with a band and light bow to see what works for you before you then migrate onto your normal weight bow and heavier stuff so I hope that makes sense I hope you enjoyed this video and I'd be fascinated to know in the comments below what do you think of these kind of different names of shot cycles all these different kind of frameworks of teaching and all that kind of stuff I think it might be interesting I'll have a read through the comments as well I'd be fascinated to know what you guys but yeah that's it for today and I'll see you in the next video