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
When it comes to arrows, there are so many choices to make. You have to decide what shaft to shoot, what spine, what point, what point weight, what fletch and what nock!
Today I want to focus on the nock. Here’s my recommendation for nocks:
- If you want the best nock, shoot the Beiter Over Nock. Unfortunately there aren’t any studies on this, but my opinion is that the extra length and flexibility of this nock makes your arrow more forgiving. The X10 is tapered at the back to absorb any inconsistencies in your release, and adding a Beiter Over Nock adds even more flexibility.
- If you want a pin nock to protect your arrows. I’d recommend the Beiter Pin Nock first, or the Easton Pin as the alternative.
- Why? The Easton Pin nocks are quite tricky to get the nock fit correct, and it can feel like you’re centre serving is too small or too big. Getting the perfect clip on is quite difficult and they can be harder to tune as a result.
- Lastly, whatever nock you choose, number your arrows and check that they’re all grouping as they should. It’s very common to have an arrow that groups off centre because of a faulty nock, no matter what brand you choose and how consistent they are. They can get easily get bent, warped or squashed in transit or as you put them on to the arrow. So spend the time to check your arrow grouping before competing.
🏹 Technique tip
I had a question this week which I wanted to address today. It might not seem that important at first, but actually it really is!
“Hi Ashe, do you have any tips on how to quickly check ones alignment to the target? Is there a “best” way to know or check that I’m centred on the target when there is no reference mark on the shooting line? Sometimes I swear I’m aligned to the target, but end up adjusting myself left (or right) a couple of arrows later because it doesn’t feel right anymore once the shooting starts”
There are a few key points I’d suggest for this. These are written for a right handed archer, so reverse them if you’re left handed.
- Essentially, it is hard to tell without line markings. However, the most important thing is your shoulder alignment to the target.
- Whether you’re A or B on the shooting line, or even if you’re shooting at the club and you’re not in line to the target, you can always rotate your stance on the line so your shoulders are aligned to the target.
- For a RH archer, you want to imagine you’re shooting the right edge of the target. I.e. don’t set your stance imagining you’re aiming at the gold, pretend you’re aiming at the 1 on the right side.
- This is because you must position yourself to help you get good shoulder alignment. If you angle yourself to the left of the target it will make achieving good alignment much harder. Most archers end up doing this in competition and end up not being able to get through the clicker because of their alignment.
I’ve covered this fully in more detail in an in-depth video in my OAA Members Telegram group that you can check out here too.
💪 Try this in training
It’s very common to feel like there’s a lot going on in the recurve shot. And it can feel overwhelming at times when you’re trying to improve. I also see many archers who appear to be trying too hard to ‘get into the right position’ sometimes.
So I’d like to invite you to try and simplify something in your shot routine this week.
I’d suggest recording a video of you shooting and observing if there are any unnecessary movements which don’t help your shot, or possibly even hurt it. Examples could be:
- You notice you lean away from the target when you lift the bow off your foot rather than keeping your spine straight.
- You notice you move your head during your shot
- You notice there’s lots of body movement as you draw the bow
- You notice you spend lots of time aligning your shoulders before you raise the bow, or setting your hook really tightly, but then it changes through your shot
That’s it for today, have a wonderful weekend!
Happy shooting,
Ashe
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