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Eye Dominance

Before learning how to shoot a bow it is important to decide which hand will hold the bow and which will pull the bowstring.
As there are right-handed and left-handed people, so there are right-handed and left-handed bows. But what decides if you are a right-handed or left-handed archer?

Well the initial answer is your eye dominance.
A person who is right eye dominant should hold the bow in their left hand and pull the bowstring with their right hand. The opposite applies for a person who is left eye dominant.
The reason behind this is to align the dominant eye over the arrow for aiming.
It can become difficult when a person is right-handed, but with a left eye dominance or vice versa. What hand to use then ?
I would have that person use a right-handed bow, based on their right hand shoulder being naturally stronger than their left.
The only problem then is to control the aiming with the right eye, rather than the left. The person will probably have to keep their left eye shut, until learning to use their right eye for aiming.

How to test your eye dominance.

As shown in the picture, hold your hands out at arms length and with both eyes open, look through the hole formed by your hands at a distant object. Keeping that object in view, slowly move your hands towards your face until they touch your face. The hole formed by your hands should be over one of your eyes. This eye is your dominant eye and will control your aiming. Another quick way to test your eye dominance is to point your index finger at a distant object with both eyes open, then close one eye and see if your finger appears to move away from what you are pointing at. If your finger does appear to move, then the eye that you closed is your dominant eye. Try again with your other eye and your finger should not appear to move.

In some cases, a person may be right-handed, but left-eye dominant or vice versa. In these cases, the Coach will assess that persons co-ordination and strength to decide whether they should shoot right-handed or left-handed.

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The 10 Steps

(Under Review. The Steps will be revised soon to comply with Archery Australia's Level 1 Coaching Manual ).
(The new methods have been incorporated into our current Beginners Courses).

The 10 basic steps to shoot a bow are:

1. Stance

The archer stands upright in a comfortable, relaxed position with one foot each side of the shooting line. The feet should be about shoulder width apart with an even amount of weight taken on each foot and an even amount of weight between the ball and heel of each foot. This will maintain balance and help keep the body steady.
During the shooting sequence, the body position must remain as steady as possible with no shifting of weight or leaning of the body.
If there is a problem with bowstring clearance to the arm, then a open stance may be required.
Once the stance position has been established, then it must be consistent from shot to shot. Using foot markers can help maintain a consistent stance.

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2. Nocking the Arrow

Nock the arrow by placing the nock of the arrow onto the bowstring under the nocking point locator.
Make sure that the Index Fletch on the arrow is facing towards you and the nock is pushed firmly onto the bowstring.
The arrow shaft is placed onto the arrow rest.

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3. Drawing Hand and Bow Hand

dwg-hand.GIF (3470 bytes)

For Target Archery style the index, second and third fingers are used.
The index finger is placed above the arrow nock and the second and third fingers are placed below the arrow nock.
Curl the fingers around the bowstring so that the first joint of all three fingers are aligned on the bowstring.
Keep a space clear between the index and second fingers and the arrow nock, so the fingers do not touch the nock. (This will prevent 'pinching' of the arrow.)
Keep the back of the hand as flat as possible. (Relaxed.)
The thumb is tucked into the palm so it can be placed against the neck at full draw.
Place a slight pull on the bowstring to set the fingers in position ready for the draw. During the draw and anchor maintain an even amount of pressure on all three fingers.

bow-hand.GIF (3702 bytes)

Place the bow hand into the grip of the bow with the centreline of the vee between thumb and index finger in line with the centre of the bow as shown in the top view.
The base of the thumb muscle should rest on the centreline of the grip.
During the draw, the pressure should be taken on the thumb muscle and directly into the wrist. (Low wrist position.)
The thumb and fingers should remain relaxed. If a finger sling or bow sling is not used, then the tips of the fingers are curled around until lightly touching the bow. This will stop the bow falling out of the hand on release.
A consistent hand position on the bow grip is necessary.

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4. Bow Arm and PreDraw

pre-draw.GIF (3892 bytes)

Push out with the bow arm to set the hand position into the bow grip,
then raise the bow arm and drawing arm together, up to the position shown in the picture on the left.
Keep the front shoulder in its normal low position.
(The shoulder must not be allowed to rotate up or back as this shortens the draw length.)
Keep the elbow of the drawing arm high, as this will help bring into action the back muscles needed to draw the bow to full draw.

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5. Drawing the Bow

full-draw.GIF (3979 bytes)

From the Pre-Draw position, use the back muscles to pull the elbow of the drawing arm backwards in one smooth motion until the drawing hand is placed against the jaw.
The position of the head and body should not move.
(Pull the bowstring to the face, not move the face to meet the bowstring.)
An equal amount of push on the bow hand and pull on the drawing hand will keep the body balanced.

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6. The Anchor

anchor.GIF (2599 bytes)

The Anchor is where the hand is positioned on the jaw and the bowstring touches the face.
It is vitally important that the index finger is firmly placed against the jaw, the thumb is tucked into the palm of the hand so it can be placed firmly against the neck and the bowstring is firmly touching the chin (and nose, if possible.)
The relationship between all these positions is important as it acts as the rear sight, so it is vital that it be as consistent as possible.
It also acts as a consistent draw length position. Any variation in the position will effect the amount of force the bow will impart to the arrow.

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7. Holding and Aiming

aiming.GIF (2880 bytes)

Holding is where the tension is maintained in the back muscles and then the bow arm is moved to align the sight pin into the centre of the target.
As the sight pin is moved into the centre of the target, the string alignment should be checked. String alignment, as shown in the picture on the left, is the alignment of the bowstring with the vertical alignment of the bow and the alignment with the sight pin. (As the bowstring is just in front of the eye, it will appear blurred.)
When the bow is held in the correct vertical position, then the bowstring and edge of the bow will be parallel. If it is not, then the bow is tilted away from vertical.
Just before full concentration is made on aiming, all the previous steps should be checked to make sure that everything is in the correct position.
If any part of body feels out of place, then it is best to stop now, let the bowstring down and re-start again, rather than make a bad shot.
When aiming into the centre of the target, it is natural for sight pin to move around, as the muscles try to hold it steady. With practise, aiming will become more steady.
Move the sight pin up if the arrow lands high, move down if the arrow lands low, move left if the arrow lands left and move right if the arrow lands right.

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8. The Release

release.GIF (4456 bytes)

The Release of the bowstring is the most critical step in the sequence.
If it is not done correctly, then all the effort in the previous steps is cancelled out.
To release the arrow correctly, the fingers holding the bowstring must allow the string to slip off the fingers.
All three fingers must release at the same time.
This will let the bowstring pull away from the fingers with the least amount of deflection.
When the release is done correctly, the hand should move backwards, as the back muscles will pull the arm backwards and the fingers should come to rest beside the neck.
If the finger muscles are flexed open to release the bowstring, then the hand will usually come to rest about 5cm backwards from anchor position.
Flexing the finger muscles will deflect the bowstring sideways and the arrows will have a horizontal spread across the target.

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9. Follow Through

follow-thru.GIF (3765 bytes)

The Follow Through is maintaining the position of the bow arm on release until the arrow hits the target. As the arrow slides along the arrow rest any movement of the bow will move the arrow.
The position of the head and body should remain steady, while the drawing hand moves backwards after the release.
It is important to not let the bow arm fall after the release, as this can become a problem when the bow arm actually starts to fall on the release, making some arrows land low on the target. Also moving the head to see where the arrow went too soon after the release can make the bow arm move sideways.

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10. Relaxing

The archer must relax after each shot to allow the muscles to recover from their effort.
About 20 to 30 seconds should be enough time for the muscles to recharge, ready for the next shot.
If not enough time is allowed between shots, then the muscles will tire rapidly and may even become sore. Tired muscles will not be able to perform consistently.

While the body is relaxing, it is also time for the mind to consider the previous shot and its result, and check where possible improvements can be made.
The mind has control of all the muscles required to shoot the arrow correctly, so the '10 steps' act as a mental checklist to be ticked off for each step.
If one step in the sequence fails the mental check, then the sequence must be restarted.
This is the method required in shooting practise to improve performance.

As with all new skills, it is best to learn correctly under the guidance of a qualified Archery Coach.
The coach can help you learn the correct body positions and actions required, and provide advice when modifications are required to suit the individual.
As every person is not exactly the same in body shape, the body positions as shown above, may have to be modified to suit. This is where the Coach is best able to help the individual.

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This page last revised : 21 March 2006