Critique my photos Form and or Draw length.

[TG78]

I finally had the wife take a few pics of me last night and wanted to know if you all thought my draw length looks ok or if you have any other critique to offer.



NOTICE HOW DRY MY FIELDS ARE BEHIND MY HOUSE, COLORADO NEEDS A LITTLE RAIN ON THE PLAINS

[Germ]

Never draw a bow without an arrow

Second I have no idea, but do they have good sunflower seeds at the market?

[robbcayman]

ORIGINAL: Germ

Second I have no idea, but do they have good sunflower seeds at the market?

LOL!!

[TexasBowHunter]

Germ beat me to it.....Form looks good but NEVER draw your bow without an arrow!!!!

[wis_bow_huntr]

Dl looks to be a bit long not much though, you shoudl have your bow arm slightly bent at the elbow. When your arm is locked that way you have a tendancy to torque the bow or cock it. Also NEVER DRAW A BOW WITHOUT AN ARROW

[Matt / PA]

#1 don't draw your bow without an arrow knocked with your release.........you lose major style points for that one.

Your draw length looks to me eyes a touch long, 1/2" to an 1" by your body position,anchor, and the slight bow to your draw arm from elbow torelease.(Leaning and too far back)
You are heeling the grip too much....get your knuckles at a 45 degree angle to the riser and relax your fingers. Let the pressure sit against the meaty part of your thumb not all the way down your palm like you are showing. (All of your fingers in the pic areon the same vertical plane)
If you curl in your fingers you shouldn't be able to touch the riser with your ring and pinky because they will be off the side.

Don't grip the release that tight......relax your both hands, tension starts in your hands and winds up in the rest of the shot sequence.

Also get your back shoulder and elbow up slightly and allow your front one to drop down into a better bone on bone position.

It is hard for me to get a full assessment of what is going on with a single plane photo but that's my best guess..........check out the shooting form thread in the Target archery forum to get a better idea of good form and what it should look like and compare.

[TG78]

It is hard to tell from the pic but my elbow is bent a little (maybe not enough). The reason I drew with no arrow is I have neighbors all around, is it still an absolutely never never though.

The best seeds out there by far are SPITZ and they do not carry them at the farmers market. In fact I would not even shop there because their seed selection is soo poor.

[Saxman1819]

ORIGINAL: TG78

It is hard to tell from the pic but my elbow is bent a little (maybe not enough).Â* The reason I drew with no arrow is I have neighbors all around, is it still an absolutely never never though.Â*

The best seeds out there by far are SPITZ and they do not carry them at the farmers market.Â* In fact I would not even shop there because their seed selection is soo poor.

I was told by Len in MD (Macrotech Archery) that if you ever accidentally let that string go without an arrow knocked you'll destroy your bow. I think as long as you apply the rules of safe firearm handling to a "loaded" bow you'll be fine. My $.02.

[CIDEERHUNTER]

your draw looks about 1/2 inch to an inch to long and yah bad idea to draw your bow wo an arrow,form is good

[Arthur P]

I agree with Matt on the draw length. Looks like you're leaning your head back slightly and your upper body doesn't look square over your hips.

I'm gonna beat up your bow arm. Starting at the bow hand and working back.

Looks like you've got your hand too far into the grip. The lifeline in your palm should always be slightly outboard of the center of the grip.

Wrist position is okay but there is a rotation problem I'll tell you how to correct in a bit.

Elbow: The inside bend of your elbow should be vertical to the ground.

If your elbow is relaxed and not locked out, with it's natural bend that's bent enough. A lot of people got used to seeing exaggerated elbow bend a few years ago when they were making bows with ultra low brace heights. Had to bend your arm a bunch to get the wrist out of the string's way with those nasty things.

Shoulder: Should be relaxed and held low. Yours looks tense and is obviously high. You wind up trying to hold the bow in position by muscle power, instead of solid bone-to-bone contact.

The way I like to describe good bow arm position:

Hold your arm straight out to the side, palm flat, fingers straight and your thumb pointing straight out to the side.

Keeping the arm straight to the side, relax your shoulder and allow it to drop straight down to where it stops by itself.

From the shoulder, rotate your upper arm so that the inside bend of your elbow is vertical.

At the wrist, rotate the hand so that your thumb is pointing up at a 45 degree angle.

Relax the elbow and allow it to take a natural bend.

Relax your hand and let your fingers and thumb assume their natural curl.

And there it is.

It might take some getting used to at first but, when you get accustomed to it, you'll shoot a lot better with less fatigue.