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.
I got a question this week asking if having heavier stabilisers can make your draw weight feel lighter. The short answer to this is yes.
In essence, you need to balance your bow between the draw weight (the poundage you pull) and the mass weight (the physical weight of your bow + stabilisers). If this balance is a bit off, your bow can feel odd and not react in the way you want.
In general, the higher your draw weight, the higher mass weight you can have. However, I’d like to note a caveat to this. For the vast majority of archers, having a lighter weight stabiliser setup is better. It’s ok to have light stabilisers even if your draw weight is high, but having a low draw weight and heavy stabilisers isn’t recommended.
Having a heavier stabiliser setup is tempting, because it might make your draw weight feel lighter and it will probably reduce aiming wobble. But adding stabiliser weight just masks the problem rather than fixing it. If your aim is too wobbly and you feel your bow is shaking, it’s better to find out what is causing this and fix that!
Last week I talked about the set position and how you need to direct your bow shoulder at this point, balancing it against the tension of the string.
To add some more detail to this, you shouldn’t just feel like you’re trying to push from your shoulder joint. The feeling you want is that your pressure point of your grip hand should be solid and secure on the bow grip, and you want to feel this pressure point connect under the arm, all the way into your bow shoulder. There’s a great diagram showing this connection you want to create at the end of my set position technique guide on my website.
This means that when you direct your bow shoulder, you actually do so by feeling your pressure point solidly in the grip and directing forwards through this pressure point. This is why some archers like to visualise the ‘hands moving apart’ to help them create and maintain balance in their shot.
This was my favourite question this week: “Are there exercises that one can do at home that help develop the individual to keep consistent form?”.
Yes, yes there definitely are! I made a full video about this going through 4 of my favourite drills and how to do them which you can access in my OAA Members Telegram group.
I’ll outline them briefly here, all are best to start with a light bow (0.5x your draw weight or less).
Drill 1: Set Position Repeats
What You Do: Practice setting your hooking hand and bow hand at your set position, and repeat MANY times. Amazing for improving consistency with no fatigue.
Drill 2: Setup Repeats
What You Do: Similar to the above, but now you go from the set to the setup position and repeat.
Drill 3: Release Follow Through
What You Do: Practice the path of your release by scratching your finger nails along your neck as you move your hand around your body.
Drill 4: Clicker Conditioning
What You Do: Draw up your normal bow with an arrow, aim and expand as normal. When the clicker clicks, maintain your movement and don’t allow any collapse or flinch to happen!
That’s it for today, have a wonderful weekend!
Happy shooting,
Ashe
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