Bow Hand for Medium Sized Bow.
If you are not thinking about what your bow hand is doing, you will never be accurate.
The bow hand controls the string, the string pushes the nock, and the nock pushes the shaft into the correct trajectory.
So subtle is the difference between a strike and inches away.
Pay attention to the trajectory developed by the draw hand acting on the bow hand.
Be aware of, during the draw cycle, the weight of the shaft, the immediate trajectory of the shaft, the power being drawn from the bow limbs, and the speed of their cast, and focus and practice to control the bow in just the right way when the string is let go.
If your shafts aren't flying true, address these before reading and understanding what follows: Make sure that your shafts are not underspined, that there is not a crook in your shaft, and that your fletch is not too asymmetrically damaged. Is the wind strong that day, as that will exacerbate poor flight from the previous points mentioned?
More feathering will make up for poor bow hand control, at the cost of arrow impact energy.
Slow down, and think about every shot and how your bow hand affects the arrow flight. Think about what your bow hand must feel like, your arm position movement, and the pressures in your fingers, palm, wrist, shoulder, and bent arm to fire an arrow, true and STRAIGHT to the mark. Think about the power of resistance to affect the arrow.
Think about the front of the shaft and how it touches your bow hand and how this is determining the current trajectory of the shaft.
The shorter the string brace height, the more side torque you need to apply to the bow, keeping in mind too much is just as detrimental as too little.
During the shot you must accomplish two things: hit the mark while making sure neither the stave nor your hand will touch the arrow after the loose.
Your bow hand should be controlled, deliberate, and firm on the stave, depending on the brace height and type of bow. The whole arm must adapt to the unique requirements of the accurate dynamic shot.
At the draw, my bow hand complies, through feel, with the trajectory being chosen by my mind and draw hand.
Think about the draw power and pushing the arrow straight and true from the nock into a power flight to your target.
AFTER releasing the string, a subtle, measured forward rotation force is added to the PUSH forward to augment the power placed into the shaft; this is to say that as the arrow is exiting the bow, the bow hand can be moved down and put out of the way of the retreating fletching, whereas if no rotation was added, the bow hand would tend to follow the immediate vector of force and thus want to move up and into the precise center of the exiting shaft, catching your bow hand thumb on the fletch; this torque force will save your fletching from shearing on your shots. This force must balance with the horizontal movement of the exiting shaft and your arm movement down. Think about powering the knock and maintaining the arrow trajectory into the target. Remember, this is a SUBTLE, MEASURED rotation.
I shoot a Slavic draw; if you do the same, you add a SUBTLE, MEASURED pre-torque. However, you run the risk of unstringing your bow and warping the brace position of the tips to string in a laminated horse bow, from my experience. An excess twist will put a stress on the laminations of the bow and be even more risky while the temperatures are as warm as they are increasingly becoming. Be aware, pretouque will tend to put you on the path of fighting draw power, trying to use your wrist to move the arrow, when it is the limbs and arm push that must propel the arrow. Remember, THE LIMBS power the shaft, not your wrist or a twist torque! The string is not a stick; they are loose ropes that only resist tension, not bending. Only add enough torque to move the stave out of the way, which is not much at all. Always aim to keep the moving nock of the arrow through the cast cycle, true and straight.
The absolute key words are to feel-the-arrow—slow down. You have only a loose brace to control the arrow; do this by feeling the weight of the wood shaft shot after shot to know how much and when to add a power flight into the stave.
Feel the required PUSH of the shaft—the small spear—into the desired target. Ask yourself: How much power will it take to throw this arrow so-and-so distance at whatever angle?
Reduce arm swing after the shot to minimize the time it takes to be ready to nock another arrow; the more time and energy, however slight it seems, will be wasted.
Your bow arm will always slightly push, with the aim of adaptation to a particular shot, the bow forward and control a straight arrow trajectory.
Keep your bow arm well bent when pulling the string to draw. There is far more adaptive control you will learn and then apply when the bow arm is bent.
Remember, however, the PUSH is somewhat subtle and efficiency-focused. You want to transfer the power had from the fully drawn limbs to the nock with a deliberate push of the stave. If you feel you need to actually push your arrow, however, your bow is not strong enough. Push the power of the limbs into the well-aimed shaft to reach the target.
There is always an all-important push; this push will be your feedback to know how much force is appropriate for the shot given the distance and current determined arrow trajectory.
Make sure the shaft stays straight while the string is touching it.
Your stave guard should have minimal wear. If your feathers are chewing through it every practice, your shot produces a slap, smack, or crack sound, and you are not moving the stave out of the way as the arrow leaves the bow. You are neither holding the stave firmly enough, rotating it well enough away for the type of brace height, nor moving your arm away in synchronicity with the previous point.
The only time the arrow should make contact at two points on the shaft is when knocking until the moment of release. After that, while the arrow is being cast from the bow, it should only be in contact with the string's power point—no shelf, hand, or finger.
USE hand protection, but don't need it or depend on it. Injury to the bow hand, as a beginner, is inevitable—find out where the shaft tends to strike your hand and cover it; however, the shafts should not be repeatedly touching your bow hand such that they will injure it; this indicates inefficiency in the cast, and your technique is wrong. When starting in dynamic adaptive archery, injury can subconsciously send you down a path of exaggeration and poor technique in attempting to avoid repeat injury (like swings and short draws); avoid this and use protection.
The paramount goal to maintain regarding your bow hand is to make sure it casts the power point in perfect follow to the line of your arrow.
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