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Barebow vs. Olympic Recurve Form

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6.8K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  j.conner  
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#1 ·
I'm new to archery but am absolutely loving barebow and string walking. My current setup is a Gillo G2 riser with SF Elite Carbon limbs. I've been mostly just shooting at short distances 9-10m at home and decided to take my setup to the local archery range where nearly everyone shoots Olympic recurve. I was obviously the first person that many of them had seen string walking. It wasn't 5 minutes after shooting off a few arrows that the questions, comments and advice began to fly. I was told that my anchor point should be at the jaw line (not closer to my cheek bone), that my form was all wrong (probably is!), that my hand shouldn't move away from the nock, etc.

None of the comments were negative and archers there genuinely were curious and wanted to help me to improve and not injure myself in the process.

My question is this though. How much overlap in terms of technique is transferable between Oly Recurve and barebow? I ask because I want to take the experience of these seasoned Olympic-style archers and improve my shot but only if that knowledge makes sense in shooting barebow. Is it simply a matter of a difference in anchor point? Is everything else about the shot process exactly the same?

For the time being, I'm trying to watch as many videos on YouTube from competitions and Push Archery's excellent "IBO Masters" documentary to learn the techniques of top-level barebow archers and glean what I can from those. It's too bad that barebow doesn't have more of a following here. It's just so much fun.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
You're getting the typical advice one would get in that situation. People explain what they know. In this case, it sounds like they don't know barebow. So take it with a grain of salt. Fortunately today there are great barebow resources to draw from both in books and online.

There is a lot of overlap in technique aside from the anchor (and you could anchor at your jawline like an Olympic style archer but it would only be effective for very long distances, which is why that anchor was created in the first place). Good archery form is good archery form. Proper alignment in both planes, proper use of your back muscles, even aiming (letting the "pin" - which in this case is the point of your arrow - float). All the same as OR.

You're on the right track. And if you continue to shoot barebow and shoot it well, you will have company. Not everyone wants all that crap hanging off their bow if they can still hit the target without it. ;)
 
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R
#3 ·
Barebow: the more points of contact the more consistent you’ll be. Typically Barebow shooters will have a 1. hard point of contact on a tooth with their middle or pointer, 2. possibly nock near or on nose, and 3. the side of your hand/thumb muscle in the cheek/mandible. I’d recommend checking out the Lancaster classic 2017 video on YouTube and pay close attention to where shooters are anchoring. Many of resources online to utilize for free, picture and video references are best. Good luck and find what is comfortable and repeatable for you.
 
G
#4 ·
Are you in Vancouver WA or BC?

Mental focus in the shot isn't quite the same due to not having the clicker. Anchor is definitely different, although in general US BB shooters anchor higher than European do.
 
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G
#7 ·
If you want local-ish help feel free to drop me a PM.
 
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