Hi All,

Welcome to this weeks quick tips email, as always, please do forward this message to any of your archery friends who might find it helpful.

🛠️ Equipment recommendation

This week I’d like to talk about stabilisers, and specifically set-ups where you angle down the side rods or have them mounted lower on the bow.

So what are the benefits of this? Essentially, putting weight lower down on your bow will make your bow feel more ‘stable’ but it will make your bow react less powerfully towards the target.

Some archers like a very snappy, quick bow roll and this gives them important feedback on the shot. So these archers typically will go for ‘classic’ stabiliser setups which encourage this type of snappy bow roll. A classic example of this would be many of the Korean Women’s team archers.

However, some archers prefer a more gentle jump of the bow to the target, and find they need a more stable, slower moving sight during their aiming process. These archers might benefit from a slightly lower centre of gravity with their stabiliser setup. They might do this by lowering the stabilisers, angling them down, or having more weight further back on their bow. Having weight lower down can also help prevent canting your bow, which is why you often see this in field archery.

Overall, there’s no ‘correct’ answer and much of stabiliser setup is based on feel. I’d suggest trying different arrangements and keeping a record of how you feel with them and how they score. Just remember that your tuning can also change when you change your stabilisers.

🧠 Mindset tip

A couple of weeks ago Bryony Pitman posted a video about her mental shot routine in my OAA Members Telegram group (you should join 😜). And this week someone asked a great question about this which is below:

Can you expand a little on the latest update Bryony posted, in particular relating to the mental shot cycle. Is this a process of having keywords to say or feelings to achieve during the shot process? What is a good way of creating, developing and ingraining this mental side of the shot?

This is a really important topic and I’ve posted a full reply video explaining this in detail in the group. I’d also like to give some key points here:

• There’s no ‘correct’ shot routine to have. Some archers use keywords, some focus on creating feelings, and some even sing songs in their head during the shot
• Remember what the goal of your shot routine is: to allow your subconscious learned technique to take over.
• Think back to times you shot your best and try and remember what you were focussing on. Are there any patterns?
• Try different keywords, feelings or routines at close blank bale first, but you must try them out while practicing scored rounds.
• It’s ok for you to change your shot routine over time.

💪 Try this in training

Someone emailed me recently as they noticed many top archers have started to put a kisser or nose button on their string over the last few years. They wondered if I recommend doing that and if so are there are specific brands I would recommend?

Some archers might find a kisser helpful, but for most it’s not necessary.

• The benefit of a kisser is it can make it clear if you’ve changed your head position.
• However, many archers end up ‘faking’ this, by pouting their lips towards the kisser button, or tilting their head around.
• Secondly, a kisser makes it very tempting to over-prioritise your anchor position and placement, while neglecting the most important part of the recurve shot: movement.
• Thirdly, it’s quite common for kissers to move without you realising, which can cause obvious issues.
• So, most archers would be better off focussing more on movement and creating good balance and rhythm, rather than worrying about the anchor too much.

That’s it for today, have a wonderful weekend!

Happy shooting,

Ashe

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