I figured I'd post this to get some feedback and see what you guys think about this topic. I've been shooting my recurve a lot and wanted to address some of my consistency problems.
Last week I did a one on one training session with an olympic style coach. I told him that I was strictly a hunter and wanted a better foundation to build off of in my shooting, and really be able to utilize back tension. He told me that was great and we scheduled a session. I don't believe the guy was a hunter, but I figured if Olympic archers can experience good accuracy at their long ranges, there's probably something I can learn from them.
First thing that happens is he wants to watch me shoot a 5 arrow group. I do that like I do in typical practice and it was a solid group, actually the only actual arrow group I managed the entire evening. He explains to me I'm all screwed up but I've done a good job of managing those flaws, I assumed that's what I would be told, so the first thing he works on is my bow hand, he tells me to curl my wrist in like I'm making a forearm muscle, I have an oak tree for a wrist and very little flexibility so it actually was a very uncomfortable way to shoot. He then had me do a rotational draw(I've seen it explained by Rod Jenkins, but I've never heard him talk about the curled wrist) I had a big problem knocking my arrow off the rest doing a draw like that, especially with the curled wrist.
From there he asked me why I anchor so far up? I anchor middle finger corner of the mouth, so I told him to get the arrow closer to my eye for gapping purposes. He tells me I should be anchoring below my chin, using my jaw line and neck as anchor points. He explained that the string should be centered almost all the way to the tip of the arrow. With my face anchor, the string wasn't really even in my sight. He told me to shoot a group that way... and well I literally had to aim 5 feet below the dot at 20 yards to come anywhere near it.
He told me stringwalking would be the best way for me to hunt. I told him I would try it but it was not something I originally intended to do. At 20 yards I had to hold my drawing hand roughly 5 inches under the arrow nock and my arrows flew wildly. I asked him if there was a way to get my face anchor to work, and he said as long as I couldn't line up the string on the arrow, I wouldn't achieve consistent accuracy.
He said my grip on the bow was good, but wanted me to try a push pull method, I did and hated it, I felt I had an inconsistent bowhand/ release.
By the end of the night, I hadn't shot a group smaller than the size of my chair with the exception of the first group with my method. I spent the next couple days trying to use his advice, and after putting 3 arrows into the wall and breaking them, I switched back to my old way. My drawing wrist is still in pain almost a week later.
My question here is does the string really have to line up down the arrow? I've seen some dang good hunters at full draw and I don't believe their string is lined up. Also wrist position, is it important to have it curled in for back tension or is straight wrist fine? The session left me with more questions than answers, so of course I know there's better shooters here than I am... Is there something to what I learned, or should I go back to the drawing board. My goal is to eliminate the occasional arrow I throw left, and develop better consistency at farther ranges
Last week I did a one on one training session with an olympic style coach. I told him that I was strictly a hunter and wanted a better foundation to build off of in my shooting, and really be able to utilize back tension. He told me that was great and we scheduled a session. I don't believe the guy was a hunter, but I figured if Olympic archers can experience good accuracy at their long ranges, there's probably something I can learn from them.
First thing that happens is he wants to watch me shoot a 5 arrow group. I do that like I do in typical practice and it was a solid group, actually the only actual arrow group I managed the entire evening. He explains to me I'm all screwed up but I've done a good job of managing those flaws, I assumed that's what I would be told, so the first thing he works on is my bow hand, he tells me to curl my wrist in like I'm making a forearm muscle, I have an oak tree for a wrist and very little flexibility so it actually was a very uncomfortable way to shoot. He then had me do a rotational draw(I've seen it explained by Rod Jenkins, but I've never heard him talk about the curled wrist) I had a big problem knocking my arrow off the rest doing a draw like that, especially with the curled wrist.
From there he asked me why I anchor so far up? I anchor middle finger corner of the mouth, so I told him to get the arrow closer to my eye for gapping purposes. He tells me I should be anchoring below my chin, using my jaw line and neck as anchor points. He explained that the string should be centered almost all the way to the tip of the arrow. With my face anchor, the string wasn't really even in my sight. He told me to shoot a group that way... and well I literally had to aim 5 feet below the dot at 20 yards to come anywhere near it.
He told me stringwalking would be the best way for me to hunt. I told him I would try it but it was not something I originally intended to do. At 20 yards I had to hold my drawing hand roughly 5 inches under the arrow nock and my arrows flew wildly. I asked him if there was a way to get my face anchor to work, and he said as long as I couldn't line up the string on the arrow, I wouldn't achieve consistent accuracy.
He said my grip on the bow was good, but wanted me to try a push pull method, I did and hated it, I felt I had an inconsistent bowhand/ release.
By the end of the night, I hadn't shot a group smaller than the size of my chair with the exception of the first group with my method. I spent the next couple days trying to use his advice, and after putting 3 arrows into the wall and breaking them, I switched back to my old way. My drawing wrist is still in pain almost a week later.
My question here is does the string really have to line up down the arrow? I've seen some dang good hunters at full draw and I don't believe their string is lined up. Also wrist position, is it important to have it curled in for back tension or is straight wrist fine? The session left me with more questions than answers, so of course I know there's better shooters here than I am... Is there something to what I learned, or should I go back to the drawing board. My goal is to eliminate the occasional arrow I throw left, and develop better consistency at farther ranges
