Archery Drills - Release and Follow Through Drill

During your release and follow through you don’t want outwards movement of the draw hand, this drill can help you learn the correct feeling to achieve this. When you shoot, your draw hand should be tight to your neck at the start of your release. During your follow through your draw hand does not need to be extremely tight to your neck, as long as you have the correct direction and movement in the rest of your shot.

However, in this drill we keep the hand very close to the neck to teach how this feels and what back and elbow movement needs to be done to make this happen.

To read more about proper release technique, see our section: Recurve Technique – Release & Follow Through.

Key Points

1. Pretend you are at full draw, with no bow or band, just your draw hand. Place your draw hand against your neck as if you are at anchor.

2. Imitate your expansion and release. As you release, keep your draw hand against your neck and your fingers curled. Try to “scratch” your neck with your draw fingers and continue moving your draw hand and elbow backwards.

Notes:

Make sure to avoid using your upper traps when you do this drill. It should feel as if there is space around the shoulder joint during this drill, just as it does when you shoot.

This drill should help your follow through and release, but you need to repeat it often to start learning the correct feeling. Try adding this in to your training session as a warm up or before shooting each end to remind yourself of the right feeling.