Tips on holding steady
07-31-2005, 01:25 PM
#12
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Dover, PA USA
Posts: 5,497
RE: Tips on holding steady
Great info again Arthur and stuff alot of guys just flat don't know about.
One other thing to concentrate on that will lower the amount of sway in your aiming is to learn proper body position and form through the shot.
There are very specific planes that your body should be in as you go from draw to release that allows your muscles the most mechanical advantage as well as the least amount of effort to keep them in that position......everything from hand, to elbow, to shoulder, to foot position all play a very vital role in how steady we can hold on target.
NOBODY can hold absolutely rock steady, but addressing form and proper bow balance will reduce the motion at full draw. Each doing it's own small part to create a whole.
Oh and Camo12......if you research shot breathing, I think you will find that a shooter is most "steady" at the point where you have just about exhaled the last of a full breath. Don't hold it........that causes TENSION, and tension is bad. I follow this breathing pattern........
Blow out a full breath as I draw hitting full exhale at anchor/ Take another full breath as I settle fully into the anchor and begin aiming / Start releasing that breath as the aiming process finally hits the point of release. The shot for meshould go off somewhere just beyond the middle of exhale to the last bit of air left.
If you run out of air before the release goes off, let down regroup and start over.
Or if you run out of air just do what the majority of hunters do and mash the release!
But that's a whole other problem and topic for another time.
Aiming is only a portion of what can go wrong when you are after your true accuracy potential.
Oh and skip the Mt. Dew and Coffee.
One other thing to concentrate on that will lower the amount of sway in your aiming is to learn proper body position and form through the shot.
There are very specific planes that your body should be in as you go from draw to release that allows your muscles the most mechanical advantage as well as the least amount of effort to keep them in that position......everything from hand, to elbow, to shoulder, to foot position all play a very vital role in how steady we can hold on target.
NOBODY can hold absolutely rock steady, but addressing form and proper bow balance will reduce the motion at full draw. Each doing it's own small part to create a whole.
Oh and Camo12......if you research shot breathing, I think you will find that a shooter is most "steady" at the point where you have just about exhaled the last of a full breath. Don't hold it........that causes TENSION, and tension is bad. I follow this breathing pattern........
Blow out a full breath as I draw hitting full exhale at anchor/ Take another full breath as I settle fully into the anchor and begin aiming / Start releasing that breath as the aiming process finally hits the point of release. The shot for meshould go off somewhere just beyond the middle of exhale to the last bit of air left.
If you run out of air before the release goes off, let down regroup and start over.
Or if you run out of air just do what the majority of hunters do and mash the release!
But that's a whole other problem and topic for another time.Aiming is only a portion of what can go wrong when you are after your true accuracy potential.
Oh and skip the Mt. Dew and Coffee.
07-31-2005, 03:26 PM
#13
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: San Diego, Ca.
Posts: 1,148
RE: Tips on holding steady
ORIGINAL: DOPVFT
80 yards. What kind of course was this?That isa pretty good distance to shoot. What kind of animal was it? How did you do on it?
80 yards. What kind of course was this?That isa pretty good distance to shoot. What kind of animal was it? How did you do on it?
That was where I broke my first arrow, honestly though I would have done better had I known it was 80. When we stepped up to it one of the guys said it was 70 yards, the gal that was with us who was far to my left corrected him and said it was 80, I did not hear that. I sighted my 40 yard pin over the targetto what I thought would be 70 yards and I hit the bottom of the angle iron frame that holds the hay bails. TINK!! And the arrow bounces back 8 feet. When I got to it it looked like there had beena small firecarcker in the tip and the field tip was long gone.
08-01-2005, 08:11 AM
#14
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Columbia, Md.
Posts: 1,211
RE: Tips on holding steady
There are some good tips here about this. Here's my tip. I find it almost impossible to hold steady on target, expecially at longer ranges. When competing in High Power, my sights usually swing left to right with my breathing. For my bow, I can almost eliminate the left-right movement but then I get up and down. I set my pins under the bullseye and then as I let my breath out, I slowly raise my sights. When I have let out about 90% of my breath, the pin is on the bull and I release. I find it easier to slowly move my sights onto the bull than to try to hold them on it. I know no one that can hold any weapon rock steady from the offhand position. With practice you can be more steady but more importantly, your brain gets conditioned when to release the arrow/pull the trigger in relation to the small movements of the sight.
Arthur P, that is pretty interesting information. I have always been told that you want the tiller measurement to be equal. I'm guessing since you have been doing this for 25 years that this causes ill-affects? Just curious before I try it out. Thanks.
Arthur P, that is pretty interesting information. I have always been told that you want the tiller measurement to be equal. I'm guessing since you have been doing this for 25 years that this causes ill-affects? Just curious before I try it out. Thanks.
08-01-2005, 08:18 AM
#15
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Flowery Branch Ga. 30542
Posts: 823
RE: Tips on holding steady
holding steady isn't something you do, it's something that happens when you get the bow to fit you. you get the right combination of axel to axel, braceheight, draw weight and length and you to will hold steady. 
08-01-2005, 07:28 PM
#16
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location:
Posts: 2,981
RE: Tips on holding steady
arthur, you're a genius and thanks for the tip. my pins were going up when i drew, and when i began back tension that's the direction they wanted to go sometimes. i took 1/8 turn out of the top and bingo presto it was steady as a rock. i took out 1/8 more and it started wanting to go down a bit so i put the 1/8 back in. i really appreciate the pearls my man, i really do. the draw seems much smoother also. amazing what 1/8 of a turn will do.
