Shooting Traditional...

[stilllearning]

Laptop I still see a laptop with a direct link to this or........ wait a minuite. I have Eastern. HEHEHEHEHE

Great job explaining things guys. A+++

[arwin]

Good read! My advice is to start close and stay patient. Shoot with the same form and anchor to stay consistant

[smj]

Some find keeping ones toes along an imaginary line can be a cause of issues in itself by placing one off balance. If this is the case for you, by all means move one foot or the other a bit off the line, but keep track of where that foot moves to, how far off the line you place it. Just be certain that the feet are solidly placed the same every time. Keep in mind that what you want to accomplish is the consistent orientation of the torso relative to the target. If a twist is required in the waist, or a slight adjustment of the feet – no problems! Just make this a solid base from which you shoot. By the way, the waist is where all adjustment comes from. Whether you are modifying to shoot from a tree-stand, or to shoot from an off-camber hill side, or brush, from the belly button up everything remains the same, you will twist or bend at the waist. For learning to shoot – keep in mind we are trying to eliminate variables rather than add them! A nice solid base to shoot from, leaving the permutations for a later date!

Now that our feet and hips are in proper alignment on a personal level, let’s look at the shoulders and bow hand. There are different postures that the archer might assume, depending on the type of bow they shoot. With a compound, the posture is very upright and the bow, too, is held straight up and down. When target shooting a traditional bow, much like an Olympic shooter might, the bow is again held upright with the erect posture. Sights are usually used as well, along with stabilizers, clickers, a center shot rest, maybe a peep sight in the string, and so on. When we go to shoot a bare bow, one with no sights or attachments other than the string and a nocking point on it, few archers use this upright posture. Most lean slightly forward and cant the bow to one side, allowing the arrow to sit more dependably on the rest or top of the bow hand if no rest has been cut or formed on the bow – and also placing the eye more directly over the arrow. Note that as you lean forward and cant the bow, there is a tendency to pull the shoulders out of line and turn the chest more towards the target. To tip the bow over, rotate your wrist. Do not rotate the bow at your shoulder! When I hear of archers who shoot a shorter draw length with a longbow than they do with a compound, this is where the issue lay. (Assuming that the draw weight of the longbow is not to much for the archer to draw!) A slight leaning of the bow to get your eye over the arrow should not affect your draw length! (If you use a sight to help with accuracy, you will be limited on how much you can lean the bow over for the obvious reasons.) Some archers tend to bend over very far and lean the bow a lot. This is not required. All you really want to do is assure that the arrow is secure on the rest, and more importantly, that your eye is over the arrow as it sits at full draw. Again, the point is to keep every body movement the same for every shot – most important to develop a baseline for learning and later reference. Hence, taking note of feet, hips, waist, and shoulders is a must. Fortunately, these are very quickly learned! Still, when the arrows start to fly off the mark, it is good to review the foundational basics. Once the position of the hips and shoulders are understood, the rest of ones form can be determined. Also, the feet can move around and the lower waist can twist or bend up and down to accommodate weird angle shots on uneven ground. The important part of all of this is the understanding of the shoulder position relative to the intended target and the draw length based on how far you have opened up your when you lean the bow over.

The bow hand is simple. The elbow should never point down, rather, it should point out and away from the bow. This opens up the gap between your arm and the path of the string during a shot. You want this! When the string smacks hard into the armguard it takes a little energy away from the arrow and typically allows for a low shot. The hand grasp the bow loosely, rather like picking up a very light luggage bag. The centerline of the bow, as it passes through the belly side of the grip, should engage the hand between the base knuckle of the thumb and the base knuckle of the index finger. Preference for a high grip, low grip, or balanced grip, is really user preference. Although, I have noticed over time that those who proclaim a high grip is best, usually grip the bow way to tightly and the high grip disengages the hand from the bow enough to reduce twisting. Low grip seems to me to be very inaccurate. I don’t see how you can shoot a bow from the heal of your hand. I think you need the added stability gained by securing the bow between the knuckles of the thumb and index finger. With a balanced grip, finger pressure is critical. To much finger pressure on the bow will tend to torque the grip and create inaccuracies. While an open hand won’t torque the bow, I find it feels a bit unstable to me. I like my fingers resting lightly on the grip of the bow. If you elect to shoot open-handed, you will have to have a strap to go around your hand. Otherwise, you end up making a grab for the bow each time you take a shot, or you will have to go retrieve your bow after every shot! One obviously fraught with inaccuracies, the later hard on the bow! Again, to tip the bow to one side, rotate at the wrist – not the shoulder!

One last note on the bow hand – it must remain stable! There is a tendency to drop the bow to watch the arrow fly. This will always result in a low shot. A hand that flinches at the time of the shot will tend to deflect the bow to the right or left, depending on the flinch you suffer from. An elbow that is overly bent can spring forward at the time of the shot. This can make for a high shot. Anything but a stable bow hand results in accuracy issues!

[smj]

You really want to have a relaxed form while learning. Anywhere you have undo pressure or stress pent up, at the moment of release you are releasing this stress as well as the energy stored in the bow limbs. Hence, create as relaxed a shooting posture as you can. This will also help with your ability to repeat the stance from shot to shot…

Lets talk about the shooting hand. Typically there is a nock point marked on the string. The arrow engages the string underneath the nock point. This nock point can be adjusted up or down the string for best flight, and is part of “tuning” your traditional setup. (More later…) There are several ways of grasping the string to draw back, two are very popular today. Native Americans had several different means of grasping the string – the primary, secondary, and tertiary release. They also had a release used during a children’s game – the game of the arrow release. Add to this the Mediterranean release, use of the thumb ring, or three-fingers all under the arrow. I am sure there are others, but this gives you an idea of what is out there to choose from! I am going to focus on the Mediterranean and three-fingers under releases. The Mediterranean has one finger over the arrow nock, and two underneath the arrows nock when the arrow is on the string and being drawn. The three-fingers under is just as it sounds, all three fingers below the arrow nock when the arrow is on the string and ready to be drawn. (Native Americans also anchored across the chest, or off the tip of the chin while choosing one of the above releases. A bit different from what we do today… Shorter horse-bows evolved out on the plains that were less than 50 inches in length, 20 to 25 inch draw lengths, light draw weight of ~45 pounds.) Of the two methods, I don’t think it matters so much which one you use. With a longbow, either works fine. With a short recurve, you may find yourself suffering from to much finger pinch and select one over the other. (Finger pinch happens when the string angle between string and arrow shaft gets to tight to allow your finger to fit between them!) Once your method of drawing the arrow is determined, you will need to find an anchor point. Target shooters, using sights, tend to hold the bow very upright and anchor underneath the chin, considered a low anchor. If you tilt the bow and shoot your bow without added sights, I suggest a high anchor. The angle between the arrow path and your eye is rather great when you anchor under the chin. This can be cut in half by moving your anchor point half way to the eye and anchoring at the cheek bone. With a slight tilt of the head, you can get your eye pretty much right over the arrow, just a cheekbone away. I have found that by moving the anchor point up a bit, it is much easier to gage the arrows path. Either anchor point will work well enough, but my finding is that the larger the angle the harder it is to repeat shots, the longer it takes to do so! To take this to the extreme – use the three-fingers under grip from the cheekbone – you can literally look right down the shaft! This is not “string-walking.” This is just anchor point and means of grasping the string. There are more considerations for the release hand, I’ll get in to them as we go over aiming!

By now, you should have a solid base, understand the meaning and worth of having a quiet bow hand, know how to grasp the string to draw the bow, and be able to find an anchor point. All we have to do now is release the arrow…

By the way, if you are thinking that maybe you want to have different releases for different shots trying to mimic Native American philosophy – keep in mind that these guys had unlimited opportunity to shoot! Also, as kids they probably had some of the best archery instructors a person could ever want, with the added motivation that a good shot might save your family in a raid or war situation, or that a good shot was the difference between feast and famine. Last, a lot of the tribes were shooting bows a lot shorter than the one you will be using, and lighter draw weight. Things change when you go there!

[smj]

Releasing the arrow requires that the body remain quiet. Any movement of the body translates into movement of the arrow. This generally results in lowered accuracy. If you move to the right, the arrow will follow right. Same deal for movement to the left, the arrow follows to the left. Drop or raise the bow at the time of the shot, again, the arrow will follow the movement. Torque the bow at the shot and arrow flight can be messed up. Depending on the torque, the arrows path can be deflected right or left. All of this seems straight forward and most folks get it right away. My observation over the years has been that the more subtle culprit in inconsistent shooting tends to be the release hand. More bad things can happen at the release of the arrow than you might think!

When grasping the arrow, some archers like to catch the string on the tips of the fingers, or at the bend of the last knuckle on the three fingers used. I recommend against this. Use of the finger tips tends to result in plucking the string, rather like plucking the string of base guitar. This is bad with a result of inconsistencies in shot placement. The use of the last knuckle is bad as well. But for a different reason… When you put the stress and strain of drawing the bow directly upon the knuckles, you run the risk of damage to the knuckles. What I like to do is have the string cross the finger bone just below the last knuckle, between the middle and last knuckle. A lot of new shooters seem to think that to engage the string to this depth on the finger makes for sloppy releases. This is not correct, placement of the string thusly will not only shoot smoothly, but will allow the release hand to shoot until the rest of the body is to tired to draw the bow – without damage to the fingers. (Please note that you may have to strengthen the middle knuckle some when you start shooting fingers, and this can result in some soreness in that middle knuckle while strength is being built up in the fingers.) To release the arrow from this hold, the middle knuckle pivots forward extending the fingers. The hand must remain at the anchor point, although the physics of releasing so much energy will result in a follow through movement of the hand, arm, and shoulder that will end up repositioning the hand at your ear. Any interruption of this movement results in shot placement inconsistencies and poor arrow flight. This “movement” is known as follow through. The archer must focus on keeping everything in the exact same position. The physics of this release of energy will take care of the follow through motions. The archers job is to see that these motions are not interrupted!

[smj]

The term “anchor point” is well named. When you draw the bow back, the release hand has to not only go to the same point each shot, but must not move during the release process. The fingers open, but the hand remains anchored to the cheek, or jaw, or where ever you pull back to. Often, what the release hand does can affect what the bow hand does. For example, if the bow arm jumps to the left, it can be the result of plucking the string to the right during the release. (Expect the reverse for a lefty.) The release hand will end up to the right of the face, away from the head. Some shooters will try to recover from this by quickly pulling the hand back in under the ear, but this will not change the effect! To move the bow the opposite way, to the right, it could be that you are trying to hard to keep the anchor point glued solid rather than move through the normal follow through post shot. It is simple physics – the force has to go somewhere and it will. By the way, a tight grip on the bow can also cause the bow to twist and move to one side. You have to make sure both are taken care of! (This was also covered in much greater detail in the Dec/Jan issue of Traditional Bowhunter by Dennis Kamstra.) Fixing a release problem can be tough. It is a repetitive motion that once learned happens of its own accord, if you will. The use of a video camera, or having someone watch with great care can be a big help. However, events happen very quickly! With a video camera you go back to slow motion to observe the details – a person might not catch it all!

This should give some form basics, things to watch out for. The question of how to aim these things remains! There are a lot of different ways of aiming, if you will. BT presented his method in the thread “Getting on target quick” which you can find right here:
btreviews.proboards57.com/index.c.cgi?board=traditional&action=display&thread=1142186746&page=1

This is a great way to get on target quickly with a traditional bow. However, it is still using sights. Yet, in the final analysis you will find that no matter what you do, you will be using something for reference. Just the way it is! The question is, what do you wish to use? Some use the tip of the arrow at full draw. Some use the angle of the arrow. Even if you state that you are a purest, and only focus on the target and never look at the arrow at all, purely instinctive, I hold that you are referencing your shot on something more than draw length and anchor point – although this is obviously basis of it all! Let me explain…

[smj]

It may not seem as though I am being brief here, but keep in mind that folks write big thick books about this subject! Also, would photos help? I would have posted some, but I’ve nobody to take the photos right now, nobody to use as a model to take photos of right now, either! Hence, no photos… Still, if photos would be good let me know and I’ll come back and modify my entries later to insert some pictures.

Shooting traditional bows instinctively is really about finding the natural alignment of your body, the arrow, and the bow relative to the intended target. It is the automatic, intuitive, use of the arrow position for the bow being shot. Not everyone will agree with this statement. However, think about the Native American who was on horse back, galloping across the prairie at break-neck speeds to shoot a buffalo. Or the hunter that shoots a pheasant on the wing as it jumps up in front of them. I call this instinctive shooting, and there are those who not only make it work, but make it work well.

I don’t think it matters a lot where your anchor point is, or the angle of your bow arm. What matters is that you can repeat the form, every time, and have absolute confidence in the position of the arrow relative to the target. You must know how your bow shoots the arrow that is nocked, and every arrow in your quiver! The idea here is to facilitate this learning process so that we can start hitting targets as quickly as possible. To explain this process, I use a combination of Howard Hills method of shooting, and Jay Kidwells method of estimating the path of the arrow.

First off, in order to be accurate, you must first be consistent. In other words, you must be able to group your arrows. If you can not get a grouping going, then you have form issues, and these must be corrected first. Note that even a bow that is not well tuned will still group arrows to some degree. At the very least, all of the arrows will do the same thing, which will allow you to tune your rig. With form issues, each arrow tends to seem unique, as if each one has its own mind! Once you can establish a grouping of arrows, now we can begin to correct the shooting and work on gaining accuracy – which is different from consistency. The best way to get going is to start with close shots, perhaps at 5 or 10 yards. Once form issues have been addressed, the next item to pick off is to correct any offset to the right or left. This is where we pick our first reference point.

At 10 yards, draw a line up and down on the target, from 12:00 to 6:00. This will divide the target in to a right half and a left half. You can just run masking tape right down the center to make this mark. At the dead center of the target, the middle of the tape line, place a small bright mark. Something you can see very well. If you are purely instinctive, then assume your stance, draw the bow and release an arrow while focusing on the center of the target. The arrow will go somewhere! Repeat the shot, your second arrow should go to the same place – providing you are doing everything, form wise, exactly the same. Do not try to compensate for anything until you have established a grouping. This type of shooting is based purely on form and draw length. Everything is relative to the target. This is why foot placement, twist in your waist, how you hold the bow, where you anchor, everything and probably more that was listed above is absolutely critical! To correct right and left, you will probably want to move your lead foot off the imaginary line that extends to the target. To move left, pull the lead foot back to open a gap between your toes and the line. To move to the right, move the lead foot forward so the line runs underneath this foot. To correct for up and down, you will bend at the waist either up or down to correct height issues. Now you are shooting purely instinctive! Change anything and your arrow will not go where you want it to go. The only reference you have is your form relative to the target. Do you think it would take a while to learn how to do this well, and use it in different situations? I do! Still, this is why I took some time to explain foot position, hips, shoulders, waist, and so forth in the above entries. I hope it makes sense now!

Let’s try a different reference use and see if we can speed up the process! Yet, let’s not put any sight pins on the bow!!!

[BT]

This is real good SMJ
Great points and tips

[hopesman]

Yah got me anxiously waiting for "the rest of the story"

[smj]

Thanks guys! I must admit that writting this up has turned out to be much more of a challenge than I'd originally thought it might be...


Let's talk through the premis of split-vision and the right/left adjustment... We'll save up/down for last.

If we elect to anchor at the corner of the eye, cheekbone, under the jaw, or at the chest even, with enough arrows shot we will figure out where to hold ourselves in order to hit an intended target – providing we do everything the same and keep consistent form! However, this takes time. What we want to do, is reduce the amount of time required and increase the apparent ease with which we can hit the target. Short of adding a sight pin, or using some mark upon the bow as a sight pin, or a sight pin itself, there are three noteworthy components we need to be aware of: the relationship of the eye to arrow, anchor point, and arrow position. Obviously, the rest of the form is also just as important, but we want to draw particular attention to these three. These will become the basis of our means of aiming the bow. Anchor point keeps us at the same draw length, allowing for the same energy from shot to shot which maintains a known cast for the given setup. Reducing the eye to arrow distance helps most folks understand the arrows path more quickly. If your eye is far from the arrow, and you look at the line of sight verses the path of the arrow, you are trying to compensate for distances measured at the target in yards! By getting the eye closer to the arrow, that same difference is measured in feet, or inches, depending on the length of the shot. This reduces the initial offset that we have to compensate for, making it easier to adjust for. Note that I am a fan of the Mediterranean grasp on the string rather than the 3 under. I like the finger on either side of the shaft, from the standpoint of symmetry. Also, the type of bow I make does not allow for string walking. Walking down the string changes the compression on the lower limb, which for a non-glass laminated bow is bad news! Also, the difference from one style to the other so far as closeness to the eye, if the 3 under is kept at the arrows nocking point on the string, is very small - only one finger wide. Arrow position is something we see in our peripheral view. There is an angle that the arrow will appear to us, an orientation, that we can key in on for targeting and adjusting for distances. Another often used point of reference is the tip of the arrow. To be sure, one needs in either case to establish a consistent draw length and release to have a consistent arrow trajectory. If you don’t draw to the same point, you end up with more or less energy to propel the arrow. If you creep forward, relax your grip on the string right before release or as a part of your release, you can loose up to an inch of draw length at the time the arrow leaves your hand. This is energy off the arrow, probably a low shot for sure! Draw to the same point, release in the same manor every shot! Have I said that enough?

As you sit reading this, look around and find a clear section of wall and then go place a small dot of masking tape in the middle of that section. Then get an arrow and sit down again. Grasp the arrow in your right hand making a fist so that your thumb is on the nock and your little finger is towards the middle of the fletching. Put the arrow up by your eye, as if you were drawing back a bow, place the thumbnail on your cheekbone under your right eye. The arrow is pointing away from your face, I hope! Now rotate your right hand until the arrow is pointing straight off the end of your nose. Turn your head and focus 100% on the dot of tape you placed on the wall. KEEP BOTH EYES WIDE OPEN! As with shooting a rifle, the dominate eye will rule. Now expand your view of things… You will find that you can still see the arrow without looking at it. What’s more, you can now point the arrow at different items within your periphery vision. You will find that you can do this without taking your focus away from the spot on the wall. Pick multiple spots to both sides, above and below, the marked spot. Move the arrow tip from target to target while keeping your focus on the spot. Always focus on the spot, never look at the arrow directly! The arrow is never your focus point! Merely note where it is at and what its orientation is. This is the basis of “split vision” or “secondary-aiming” or “indirect aiming.” This was a big part of Howard Hills method of aiming. It is also a big part of Jay Kidwell’s methodology in his book Instinctive Archery Insights. The short answer here is that Hill basically used the tip of the arrow as a sight pin, but never ever let his focus fall from the chosen spot he wished to shoot. In other words, he never ever actually looked at the shaft. Kidwell believes that you must see the arrow in your periphery vision, too, and then learn the path that your arrow will take, or arc it will make in the air. You then project the point of impact based on this arc that the arrow will make while in flight, adjusting the initial launch angle to accommodate the distance of the shot.(Adjusting at the waist, not the bow hand!) Kidwell further suggests that once you understand the path your arrow will scribe through the air, you can go practice any time you’d like using visualization techniques. Sound goofy? Howard’s record speaks for itself! Kidwell’s ideas are solid, but I am not sure they are for everyone! Still, the technique will come to you much easier than you think.

So how does this work? Lets start by correcting right and left on the target. Mark the target as we did before, in to a right and left half. Place the dot at the middle of the target, let’s start at 10 yards distance. Now, draw and loose an arrow. Do it again, we should see that the arrows are at the least going to one half or the other of the target. Now, as you focus on the small dot in the center of the target, take note through the use of your peripheral vision, where the tip of the arrow is. What the orientation of the shaft is with respect to the target. To correct right/left shooting, simply move the tip of the arrow, or the line of the shaft, right or left as required until your shots are hitting on the vertical line on the target – DO NOT FOCUS ON THE ARROW! Just use it... Focus on the spot on the vertical line. Done. Once you’ve corrected your shots, learned how to adjust for right and left at 10 yards, you will find this is corrected at 20 or 30 or whatever distance you want to shoot. There is a bonus, too. Once your brain learns the orientation of your arrow required to make this correction – foot placement or weird shot angles will no longer matter. Your brain will understand that the arrow has to be thusly oriented and will strive to help make those required adjustments as you draw back the bow. Form issues aside, you now understand what you need to do to center your shot, right and left wise, on the target. I hold that, and there are those who will cry fowl here, with instinctive shooting you end up at the same place so far as seeing the shaft in your periphery and then using that information. The brain does process the information gathered by your peripheral vision. I mean, have you ever just up and stopped while stalking through the woods to avoid poking your eye out with a low hanging branch? At first, you miss a few of those branches! But it don’t take many of them until you start avoiding them!!! This is the same deal, folks. Personally, I like to take note of where the tip of my arrow is at full draw and move the tip of the arrow to make these right/left corrections. Please note, again, that the rest of your form, at least through the shoulder, arms, release hand and so forth has to be the same for every shot! These form points are critical. Another interesting tidbit here… Do you really have to be right over the arrow for this??? Of course not! You could hold the bow anywhere you’d like and as long as you can see the arrow in your periphery you could then adjust for it! However, by reducing the gap between the eye and the arrow we can reduce the initial error suffered. This allows us to make smaller adjustments which are then much easier to reproduce time after time reliably.