Hi All,
Welcome to this week’s quick tips email. As always, please forward this message to any of your archery friends who might find it helpful.
‘Balance’ is probably something you’ve heard talked about millions of times when it comes to the recurve shot. And most archers already know it’s really important. But how can you work on improving the balance in your shot?
Believe it or not, one of the best ways to train this is to close your eyes.
Obviously, you must only do this at a distance where you can comfortably hit the target with your eyes closed. And it’s always your responsibility to make sure you do this safely.
Personally, I do this 2-3 metres away from the target.
When you’re shooting like this, you’ll be able to feel much more closely what’s happening in your shoulders.
In particular, you can use this enhanced feeling to really feel the balance between the front side of your shot (bow shoulder side) and the back side (the draw side).
Once you begin to feel what’s going on more clearly, you can improve your balance by using a mental cue, such as ensuring you feel like your hands are moving apart at all times during the shot.
A lot of archers have asked me for stabiliser recommendations recently, and it seems to be quite a common point of frustration.
Even choosing a riser is hard enough, but with stabilisers there are so many manufacturers it’s crazy.
Every brand claims to have the stiffest, thinnest or most advanced new carbon stabiliser ever made, but does all this actually matter?
No.
The fact is most archers would be better off going for a cheaper, lighter stabiliser setup. Many of the more premium stabilisers are heavier and super stiff, which means they make good technique harder, and only work best if you shoot with even more weight on them.
So what do I recommend?
For beginners, Cartel entry-level stabilisers are good enough. They’re not the best, but they’re light which is the most important thing.
For anyone else, a trusty set of Win and Win (WIAWIS), HMC+ stabilisers is often a perfect choice!
Again, they’re light, which allows you to put the weight where you need. And they’re straight and high quality.
Instead of spending thousands on crazy stabilisers, buy a simple HMC+ setup and if you really must spend the remaining money, use it for arrows or coaching.
When training, archers will often spend time working on a technique area or certain skill, and then score a round.
However, for skill acquisition, sometimes it’s best to reverse this order.
For example, if you’re working on your timing, you can do your normal warm up and score a round first. While you’re doing this you would obviously work on your timing through the round.
Then, after you’ve finished you have the chance to review your round and get real feedback on how you performed technically, and outcome wise.
Following this is then the perfect opportunity to work on some timing drills to work on what you learned from the scoring.
Both approaches can work well, but the key thing is to try and see what works for you.
That’s it for today, have a great weekend!
Happy shooting,
Ashe
