Bow Hand

 To shoot a true flying arrow from a bow, knocked on outside of the stave, at distance, accurately, consistently, from random arm poistions is a difficult skill to gain, requiring dedication and discipline, and even more if you are not focused while practicing, or your arrows are in need of special attention. The goal is to find the right balance in forces created with your bow hand. Too little or too much once the string is loose wilI spoil the shot. The bow hand must learn.

Olympic and compound bow shooters use almost none of their bow hand and arm muscles while they shoot. However, dynamic archery, done without a center cut or otherwise a shelfed bow, knocked in anywhere, is more challenging. I am aware of the weight of my shaft, the immediate trajectory it is in, the power of the bow limbs, the speed of their cast, and I focus and practice to handle my bow in just the right way when the string is let go. To hit the target, I must put a set pressure into the arrow which comes from both the the bow limbs and my body.

It is important to avoid bows that have a design which tend to hand shock; these are usually have long limbs. Long bows are also no realy conducive to dynamic archery as you can't easily manipuate the large object adaptivlely with your arm muscles; generally, the bow feels best aimed and then to let the limbs do what they do. Traditionally, the long bow design is not a preferred one in most environments except in damp ones.

Regardless the bow, you must aim the arrow shaft into the trajectory that will reach the target and then make the bow cast it direct. 

If your shafts can't fly get these features one point : make sure that your shafts are not under spined, that there is not a crook in your shaft, that your flech is not too a-symmetrical damaged (though this of least importance); but above all, get a keen control and awareness of your bow hand and what that it is doing. More feathering will make up for poor bow hand control. Slow down, think about every shot and how your bow hand effects the arrow flight. Think about, investigate, experiment, practice to learn, what you bow hand must feel like, your arm postion movement, the pressures in your fingers, pam, wrist, shoulder and bent arm to fire an arrow to the mark. Think about what causes the shaft to wobble after it flies true some distance, or nose dive, or curve up, &c. 

But aim to accomplish two things: hit the mark, while making sure not the stave nore your hand will touch the arrow after the loose.

Your bow hand should be controlled and deliberate on.

The bow needs to be firm set into the nook of your hand for support at full draw. Don't limp wrist a traditional bow.

When loose, a forward rotation should be added to augment the power placed into the shaft and counter the balance of the limbs; this is to say that as the arrow is exiting the bow, the bow hand can be moved down and put of the way of the retreating fletching, whereas if it no rotation was added the bow hand would want to move up and into the precise center of the immediate power dynamic (the horizontal shaft).

Hold the bow at about 45 degrees with the limbs. DO NOT PRE LOAD OR PRE TORQUE the bow, but rather add a slight retraction of the rear of your hand - after loose - with a slight arm movement away from the exiting stave; this vector of force ensures your shaft clears the side of the stave; too little and you will strip feathers and your shaft will shoot untrue; too much, and too soon and your shaft will also fly untrue. Much pre torque and you run the risk of unstringing your bow and warping the brace position of the tips to string. Pretouque will also put you on the path of using your wrist to move the arrow, where it is the limbs, and the forward rotation during the shot cycle which must propell the arrow.

The absolute key words are to feel-the-arrow - slow down. You have only between loose to brace to control the bow; do this by feeling the weight of the wood shaft shot after shot to know how much and when to power to the stave; eventually, after years practice, once you best realize this force, you may want to add an additional force of the deliberate "arrow spur", a forced forward rotation.

Push the shaft into the desired target. 

Focus less and less on your hands and more and more on the arrow - guide the launch like a rocket by using this thing called a bow - whatever the design may be.

Think about minimizing unnecessary movement as with any activity. The further away from ready your bow hand, arm and bow, swing from a position where they are ready to nock another arrow, the more time and energy, however slight it seems, will be wasted; this is a bad habit. Your bow hand push should be so efficient there is NO will to swing your bow arm after a shot.

What you DO NOT want to do is to add a special bow hand technique, before you know the force of required thrust intimately; as this will develope into a bow arm swing - altogether often the result of developing a short wimp draw habit, with a extended bow arm draw for long distance attemted shots; maintain control of you bow hand during practice and be aware of a loose arm swing end. 

Regardless of any technique you engage in your archery, YOU MUST always push the bow and force a straight arrow trajectory. It does not matter how you add a spur, or anything else, YOU MUST make sure the string will always push the arrow into the propper trajectory of the target. 

Train to throw the shaft, using the bow. Feel the power of limbs through the handle to propell the shaft to the target, at whatever distance it may be - just like throwing something.

The single most important lesson is keep your bow arm well bent when pulling the string to full draw. There is far more adaptive control you will learn and then apply when the bow arm is bent. Push the shaft to fly straight into the target. 

Focus on making 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, you are not moving the stave out of the way as the arrow leaves the bow. You are nether holding the stave firmly enough, nore doing the rotations described above well enough. You are likely not holding 45 degrees and only pushing the arrow like you were when you shot your center cut. Feel the arrow, use the limbs to cast, don't pre tourqu.

USE hand protection, but don't need it or depend on it. Injury to the bow hand is inevitable - find out where the shaft tend to strike your hand and cover it; however, the shafts should not be repeatedly touching you bow hand such that they will injure it; this indicates inefficiency in cast and your technique is wrong. When starting in dynamic adaptive archery, injury can send you down a path of exageration and poor technique in attempting to avoid repeat injury; avoid this and use protection.

You may ask, why not just shoot traditional modern style (knocked on the inside of the bow)? My answer, is because then there will be and have been better archers than you, and so attempting to take the easy rout will be a waste of life energy and time so you should try a different sport - choose to take your life energy to make you reach the pinnacle of skill in that activity.