Should the bow arm push out?

MGH_PA · 03-31-2008, 03:53 PM

I was working a bit on my form this evening and was playing with a few things. I tried putting pressure through the bow arm outwards toward the targe while bringing my right shoulder back slowly squeezing. I noticed a couple of things:

I can keep the pin a bit more steady this way.
My release seems to go off quicker (which is good and bad)
I think by putting pressure on the grip (even though I'm now very anal about having a 45 degree grip) I may be slightly torquing again.

So I'm not sure if this is a good technique or one I should stray from...advice? I am in the stages of switching to left handed, so I'm starting to analyize form/technique flaws I have.

Rick James · 03-31-2008, 04:15 PM

Boy there are lots of differing opinions on this when asking top level shooters. Two of the better shooters I know of though including my coach say that the front bow arm should be completely static. My coach basically said that the amount of time it would take to make that front bow arm movement repeatable is not worth any gains you may see. Lots of top level shooters that push though......so I guess it's really going to depend on what works for you. I know that when I am doing what I need to on the back end, I don't need to push with the front end. Just MHO.

MGH_PA · 03-31-2008, 04:33 PM

Thanks, Matt. I really can't say whether or not my shooting would improve with this technique or not. I was just talking with Matt/Pa via a PM the other day that two of my biggest hurdles right now that are driving me insane are:

Still getting a consistant anchor (I really don't know why this is so hard for me, but I know it's inconsistant, because I'm getting high/low hits but they're not straying horizontally)

Keeping my pin steady. I know plenty of people say that you should just float the pin, but I have the tendancy (especially at longer ranges) to fight to keep my bow arm from dropping, and when I do this, the pin moves more, and as it moves more, I seem to fight it more, and then I begin losing consistancy. I CANNOT for the life of me get the pin to stay somewhat steady. I told Matt I'm shooting at least .5" too long on my DL, and he thinks that may have something to do with it, but is there anything else that jumps out at being an issue here?