540-Virginian
WKR
As I'm newer to archery and consuming a suffocating amount of information (bow tuning, arrow building, every piece of gear imaginable, etc), I felt other new archers (or any archer) may benefit from what I'm about to share. I decided to have my physical therapist watch me shoot and give me feedback on my form.
I specifically wanted a PT to review and coach me. Although she's never shot a bow, she understands the proper form and mechanics just as well - if not better - than any archery pro. I found online personalities were not great at the physiological portion of proper form (at least not being able to pick it the minute details so easily in others).
So, a PT's feedback was a critical step (I felt) I had been missing.
I recorded some slow motion videos of me shooting from different angles to watch with her. She also watched me draw my bow and shoot a few times, instructing me what to do different. Here's how it went...
Right off the bat while I was at full draw, she immediately called out, "Oh god your back is arched way too much!" Instead of keeping my core (abs) activated, I was doing the equivalent of a reverse slouch. This contributed to a number of issues, but it especially impacted my bow arm being able extend properly.
In the videos you could see my bow arm hyper extend after a shot. You could see in slowmo my bow twist/torque left after I shot. This was likely the cause of those GD right nock tears!
I also couldn't get my nock to sit just below the corner of my mouth; in the videos I saw it would sit back further on my jaw causing a lot of contact (and guessing pressure) with my face. I had never noticed it before, and seeing this at first made me second guess my draw length.
So, I had my PT watch a John Dudley video and then measure my draw length accordingly; she was able to make sure my form was perfect while she measured. She got 29.25". My bow is set at 29.5", so clearly my draw length is not off by as much as it looked in video. This again was due to me arching my back and not using my core.
I also kept dropping my bow arm down after a few seconds of drawing back. She instructed me to activate my bow arm's should blade muscle more, especially when I raised it.
We went to work walking through my shots and her coaching me on how to better activate my core and back and shoulder muscles. And let me tell you, I couldn't believe how weak I was...
A decade as a desk jockey really takes its toll on you. She had me align my hips and shoulders correctly that essentially required sucking in my gut (she said to pretend I was sucking a milkshake out of a straw to activate my core - it worked).
Then I had to keep all of my muscles flexed while breathing correctly (you should breath out when you draw back apparently) so as to keep them all flexed. After 10 seconds (what felt like 3 mins) my whole body would shake, or I'd hold my breath unknowingly, only to have her yell at me to breath.
To me it was insane how much I felt like I was actually hunching forward, when in reality I was doing it correctly. After 3 years of doing things wrong it all felt foriegn. I wasn't sure I'd ever get a proper shot having to flex everything and focus on breathing and what have you. But somehow I did...
I was able to pull off two close to perfect shots; all the right muscles were activated, my form was good, and my breathing, well.... I was breathing. We filmed those two shots and when watching. I could see my nock sitting below the corner of my mouth like it should, and I watched my bow arm and bow stay steady after I released my arrow; no jumping or twisting.
I could only do two shots because I was fatigued. She said that's not surprising because I was pretty weak with the key muscle groups I needed to use. Her script was to do rows, planks with rows, and flys to strengthen.
I share all this as it was an eye opener for me. I thought I had decent form (had an archery coach even tell me my form was good). But after really starting to grind with shooting almost daily, and learning everything I could, I started to notice things...
Nagging thoughts about a poor paper tune, poor broadhead tune, etc. consumed me the last few months. It was clear after this session with my PT that my piece in the accuracy equation was bigger than I realized. I finally found my peace: I'm just not that good (yet).
It's amazing I could ever shoot out to 40 yards, let alone get broadheads to tune with how not good my form actually was. I think we discredit how forgiving compounds are, or how well they perform compared to a long bow.
As ever tempting as it is to pull out an Allen wrench, or swear your bow is off, but you may just be off... at least I was.
Cheers!
Updated with some edits for easier reading.
I specifically wanted a PT to review and coach me. Although she's never shot a bow, she understands the proper form and mechanics just as well - if not better - than any archery pro. I found online personalities were not great at the physiological portion of proper form (at least not being able to pick it the minute details so easily in others).
So, a PT's feedback was a critical step (I felt) I had been missing.
I recorded some slow motion videos of me shooting from different angles to watch with her. She also watched me draw my bow and shoot a few times, instructing me what to do different. Here's how it went...
Right off the bat while I was at full draw, she immediately called out, "Oh god your back is arched way too much!" Instead of keeping my core (abs) activated, I was doing the equivalent of a reverse slouch. This contributed to a number of issues, but it especially impacted my bow arm being able extend properly.
In the videos you could see my bow arm hyper extend after a shot. You could see in slowmo my bow twist/torque left after I shot. This was likely the cause of those GD right nock tears!
I also couldn't get my nock to sit just below the corner of my mouth; in the videos I saw it would sit back further on my jaw causing a lot of contact (and guessing pressure) with my face. I had never noticed it before, and seeing this at first made me second guess my draw length.
So, I had my PT watch a John Dudley video and then measure my draw length accordingly; she was able to make sure my form was perfect while she measured. She got 29.25". My bow is set at 29.5", so clearly my draw length is not off by as much as it looked in video. This again was due to me arching my back and not using my core.
I also kept dropping my bow arm down after a few seconds of drawing back. She instructed me to activate my bow arm's should blade muscle more, especially when I raised it.
We went to work walking through my shots and her coaching me on how to better activate my core and back and shoulder muscles. And let me tell you, I couldn't believe how weak I was...
A decade as a desk jockey really takes its toll on you. She had me align my hips and shoulders correctly that essentially required sucking in my gut (she said to pretend I was sucking a milkshake out of a straw to activate my core - it worked).
Then I had to keep all of my muscles flexed while breathing correctly (you should breath out when you draw back apparently) so as to keep them all flexed. After 10 seconds (what felt like 3 mins) my whole body would shake, or I'd hold my breath unknowingly, only to have her yell at me to breath.
To me it was insane how much I felt like I was actually hunching forward, when in reality I was doing it correctly. After 3 years of doing things wrong it all felt foriegn. I wasn't sure I'd ever get a proper shot having to flex everything and focus on breathing and what have you. But somehow I did...
I was able to pull off two close to perfect shots; all the right muscles were activated, my form was good, and my breathing, well.... I was breathing. We filmed those two shots and when watching. I could see my nock sitting below the corner of my mouth like it should, and I watched my bow arm and bow stay steady after I released my arrow; no jumping or twisting.
I could only do two shots because I was fatigued. She said that's not surprising because I was pretty weak with the key muscle groups I needed to use. Her script was to do rows, planks with rows, and flys to strengthen.
I share all this as it was an eye opener for me. I thought I had decent form (had an archery coach even tell me my form was good). But after really starting to grind with shooting almost daily, and learning everything I could, I started to notice things...
Nagging thoughts about a poor paper tune, poor broadhead tune, etc. consumed me the last few months. It was clear after this session with my PT that my piece in the accuracy equation was bigger than I realized. I finally found my peace: I'm just not that good (yet).
It's amazing I could ever shoot out to 40 yards, let alone get broadheads to tune with how not good my form actually was. I think we discredit how forgiving compounds are, or how well they perform compared to a long bow.
As ever tempting as it is to pull out an Allen wrench, or swear your bow is off, but you may just be off... at least I was.
Cheers!
Updated with some edits for easier reading.
Last edited: