Arm Slap?

[basket-rack'89]

While shooting my longbow, I notice that I am forced to wear an armguard to protect my forearm from being slapped.   I was just curious if this was a form issue, too low of a brace height, or if this is just the case with the broken wrist method of shooting longbow?   I haven't had the problem of sting slap with my recurve.  

Thanks a bunch guys!

[McDave]

There are a lot of good shooters that have to wear an arm guard.  More with the longbow than with the recurve because of the lower brace height on the longbow.  Some of it has to do with the way you're built, and some it has to do with form.

There are a couple of things that might help.  Hold the longbow as if you're picking up a suitcase, so that your hand is more to the side of the grip rather than turned into it.  Bend your elbow slightly, which will pull your forearm away from the string.  Use good back tension, so that your forearm doesn't move toward the string on release.  There are other things you could do to avoid arm slap, but the things I listed should be good for your shooting form and accuracy as well.

[Scott J. Williams]

McDave is correct, however there is another issued that is often overlook, that is the design of the bow as it relates to proformance.  

Some bows will shoot at it's peak proficiency at a specific brace height for instance.  You surely can raise the brace a little more to give you a little less string travel, but of course you will be saddled with the trade off of less proformance for a given bow.

While form, is always important, and something to be desired.  It can not be something that can be blamed for everything in traditional archery.

[O.L. Adcock]

"however there is another issued that is often overlook, that is the design of the bow as it relates to proformance."

Yep, all "longbows" are not created equal, some prefer a high wrist just like a recurve. Many are very low in mass making it easier to torque it into your arm also. String types, you'll hit your arm more with Dacron then a modern string....O.L.