Ask The Experts
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I am right-handed and right eye dominant. So I should naturally prefer shooting a right-handed bow, right? But I have always felt more comfortable shooting left-handed and squinting my dominant right eye.
Can’t explain why – just feels like the right way to shoot for me. I know this absolutely goes against what I should be doing which is to shoot right-handed. My form and accuracy are reasonably good though and I feel uncoordinated shooting a right-handed bow. But should I instead try to “unlearn” my left-handed style and train myself to be a right-handed shooter?"
QAssuming you shoot recurve target or barebow, eye dominance affects people in different ways and the solution will depend on how strong your eye dominance is. It may be the case that you can continue to shoot your bow as you are and when shooting with both eyes open (preferable to squinting) you just need to remember which sight pin image/arrow point and string picture to use on the field.
The ideal situation is to shoot with your eye dominance, so if you are right eye dominant then shoot right handed (drawing the string back with your right hand). The benefits being that you can shoot with both eyes open which helps with spatial awareness and you have more visual reference points to stay in line.
The first question you need to ask yourself is how seriously you take your archery – and do you have the time and patience to re-train your body? If the answer is not really and you only shoot once or twice a week, maybe entering local and the odd national competition then go with what feels more comfortable. There are many workarounds to help you enjoy your
AUsing an eyepatch is a common solution to cross eye dominance
archery, such as closing the dominant eye, eye patches and even using an overlong sight pin thread to allow you to easily aim with your dominant eye.
Using an eye patch is the most common solution for cross eye dominance, which will allow you to shoot to a very good standard; it is best to opt for an opaque eye patch rather than a black pirate type which blocks out all the light, making it easier to shoot with both eyes open to reduce eye strain.
If you want to get very serious and you have the time, then the ideal option although not guaranteed, is to learn to shoot with your eye dominance. This gives you the opportunity to start with a blank piece of paper and follow one of the many shooting styles championed by coaches around the world.
There are examples of top archers that have successfully changed handedness due to injury and or medical conditions. The hardest part to come to terms with will be that your progress compared to your club members is likely to be slower and you will need to keep in focus the bigger picture to keep motivated.
So there are no hard and fast rules, after trying some of the options mentioned above it’s a case of do what works best for you and your circumstances.
ANDREW SMITH
Is it OK to leave recurve bows strung?
The materials in modern bows are (usually) well away from their yield points. That is, they are well inside their elastic range, in engineering terms.
Consequently it is ok to leave them strung for long periods. In fact, when I am practicing at home I generally do leave my recurve bow strung for a week at a time, only disassembling it when I drive to my archery club.
By far the greatest stress on the bow string is at the end of the bow’s power stroke, just before the arrow separates from the string. The greatest stress on the limbs is at full draw, and for most bows the point of highest stress is right at the end of the fadeout on the limbs. I take an interest in limbs that fail, which helpfully is quite rare. Usually those I have inspected have failed on the compression side at the end of the fadeout.
This should be the same for any materials working in their elastic range, however, wood can be a funny material and so I would not leave a wooden self-bow strung.
There are no particular advantages apart from saving time from leaving the bow strung, although I do believe that leaving it strung would be likely to help the string stay in good condition for longer.
JAMES PARK
However well I shoot in practice, whenever I try to compete - or even just score a round – it always goes to pieces. It seems to be that whenever I'm paying attention to my shooting, it gets worse.
QWe hear repeatedly that our sport is as much mental as it is physical, perhaps more so. Our shot process must be a calculated, premeditated process demanding patience and discipline as we proceed calmly step by step to the final execution.
In short, the distance we always shoot is simply between our ears. So unless you have the capacity to put yourself in that controlled state, shot after shot, your chances of reproducing your practice scoring level in a competitive environment, will be hugely impacted. This is not to suggest that elite archers function without nerves. We are all human. Upper echelon shooters certainly admit to nerves, and on occasions that is usually evident, but the ability to set aside the occasion and get the job done to a superlative level is what makes them elite. This efficiency is empowered by the familiarity of constant competition at the highest level.
The reality is that a majority of sports function at speed, where the athlete reacts physically with split second precision, and the mind operates in a catch-up mode to that reflex. Our sport is not like that. It is among the very simplest of sporting endeavours, in that all it demands is duplication of a series of actions, which only run for a few seconds. That is the sole pre-requisite. Perform that series of actions precisely, over and over, and you will shoot with superb accuracy.
It is the mental task of keeping that series of actions which constitute our form and execution, a patient step by step pathway, which determines the level of accuracy achievable. Rebellion of the mind, which interferes with calm and patient process, is where a crosssection of anticipation and target panic issues materialise.
Unfortunately, there is a considerable percentage of archers across the board, from the elite down to the recreational club shooter who have either left the sport, or who continue to struggle with inevitable mental hurdles of anticipation, composure, and target panic. Under those stresses it is hard to achieve any level of accuracy, and any real joy in shooting a bow and arrow.
Can we upgrade our mental status to a point where archery is fun again, where we can shoot with an elevated degree of mind control? The answer is yes, but (unfortunately) it does involve
Adrills to put in place a step-by-step disciplined transition.
The answer to the effectiveness of this approach lies in the phrase “step-by-step”. The drills underline the concept of giving each step of the form and execution journey its full measure of importance, and creating a chain of sequential functioning, by gradually adding one step after another until the final execution happens naturally.
Step one is to come to full draw on a blank bale, up close, and anchoring, without any concern to aim. You are just attaining the feeling of drawing the bow, whether recurve or compound, and holding at anchor for many of seconds and then letting down.
Step two is a repetition of step one again up close, four or five metres this time setting your sight on a large gold without trepidation, holding and releasing, then finally letting down.
"CAN WE UPGRADE OUR MENTAL STATUS TO A POINT WHERE ARCHERY IS FUN AGAIN?"
I have personally found, that removing the pin or dot, and having a clear lens or aperture, and simply staring at that large gold is much more relaxing. Often, for many archers the dancing dot can be one of the main triggers to target panic. Obviously this step is designed to acclimatise your mind to putting your sight on a target without any impulse to leap ahead to subsequent steps in the shot process.
One now very accomplished compounder is famously reported to have gone to field tournaments with one arrow in his quiver. He would then draw up and aim on every target without making the shot, as part of his transition through this stage of his composure rehabilitation. He is now one of the most composed professionals, with a quite long execution phase, an obvious hangover from his reinforcement of a step by step training program.
Step three consists of drawing on a blank bale, again up close, with no target to complicate your thinking, this time executing either past the clicker for recurves, or the unanticipated break of the shot for a compound.
Step four sees the marrying of the previous drills with the complete shot and execution program. Drawing and anchoring, and aiming up close on that big gold and then executing the shot, with each step given its due time worth, and no urge to rush or bypass any part of the sequence.
Each of these drills needs to be performed one at a time for an extended period. The logical question at this point naturally is “If I’m reconditioning my mental aspect to this step by step sequence, how long should I dwell on each step, before advancing to the next?” For acute panic situations I’d suggest at least a fortnight of daily sessions of at least 30 to 45 minutes.
If at any move up to the next drill a hiccup occurs, then go back and redrill the previous step before advancing once again.
This is, of course, boring and time consuming. But it is positive training in the two attributes you most need, duplication and patience. You are eliminating anxiety from your shooting, one step at a time.
The big plus in all this, is that as each step is accomplished successfully, that genuine feeling of achievement will spur you on and keep you motivated.
Logically our next task is to gradually retreat from the target and test that adding a few metres to be shot does not in any way upset your state of composure.
Quite often target panic can be very much allied to distance panic. The process now is make a very gradual retreat in distance, at the same time changing the size of the gold to more conventional diameters, until you reach a short competition distance with an appropriate gold size.
If your issues have been severe, you may well be in for another quite long siege, perhaps even months for some, before you arrive at competitive distances on a conventional target face. It is imperative to hang in there, because as each bridge is crossed your inner positive satisfaction response level, does carry you on to the next phase. Nothing succeeds like success.
The attributes you are seeking to install in your mental approach are encompassed in the process, patience, composure, mind discipline and that final exhilaration that you are shooting the bow, it is not shooting you.
Another very compelling incentive to work this strategy through, is the reality that many of the great archers past and present we all admire so much, have themselves experienced the same issues you are dealing with and have emerged as icons of our sport. Personally, I have worked with a number of shooters who have had anxiety issues, negative composure, right through to aggressive target panic, and results have varied as to the time issue. In some instances, just a week or so on each drill with daily thirty-minute sessions was sufficient to restore excellent shooting composure, and each step was negotiated without the need to rehearse any steps.
For some really bad situations, the whole process took close to five months with some retracing of drills, and long focused sessions, by archers determined to see it through and to finally recover their competitive best. It does get down to a test of patience and discipline. However the jubilation and achievement of winning through is a terrific reward, maybe the best in archery.
Finally I have retained the use of a clear lens because to me aiming is just looking. It you stare at the X, and run your program, your eyes self-centering facility does not negatively impact your accuracy level. If the movement of a dot or pin is not an impediment to your mental state, terrific, but if it is, a clear lens really is a viable alternative. Nothing in archery is more rewarding than emerging from the clutches of composure dramas, and being able to once again shoot your bow with all your faculties in harmony.
ROY ROSE