Back Muscle Engagement

[rappstar]

Now that hunting season is over for me, I'm working on my form shortcomings.  I've been reading the posts about the clock and using your back muscles.  Up until today, my elbow is at 5:00 or 5:30 on the clock.  I'm right handed and basically have been drawing my bow with my right shoulder and arm.

Without my bow in hand, I can feel how getting my elbow to 6:00 brings my shoulder alignment to be in line with the arrow.  It actually turns my torso into the arrow slightly as well.

So for purposes of feel while trying to train my muscle memory, should I puposely engage my back on the last inch or two of draw in order to get my elbow at or near 6:00 and to pull the shoulders into near 100% alignment with the arrow?

[BTH]

You should be concentrating on drawing with your back muscles all the way through the draw. It would be like having someone stand behind you with their fist between your shoulder blades and you trying to squeeze their fist with your shoulder blades throughout the draw.

[rappstar]

OK.  So I just shot for awhile and I feel like I'm doing it.  I'm going to talk my wife into video taping me.

I hunt primarily out of a treestand and I feel like I'm putting a lot of weight on my back foot.  Should it feel like that?  I'm curious how that would impact my ability to bend at the waist (i.e. forward) and put weight on my back foot?

[rappstar]

Couldn't get good footage due to ceiling height in my basement range.  I had my wife tell me when my elbow was at 6:00 before I followed thru with a release.  I'll work on this for awhile.  

I am working on squeezing my shoulder blades together throughout the draw.  With the video my wife was able to get, you can see my shoulder blades coming together under my shirt...I guess I am doing that without knowing.  Pulling my draw elbow to 6:00 is foreign; but I will get the hang of it.

Thanks for your help BTH!

[McDave]

Some of us have found that we need to move our anchor point a little further back than the corner of the mouth in order to get our forearms in line with the arrow.

[BTH]

Ohhh, must be cold in MO! Like McDave said, different anchors for different people. I have a friend I was coaching today and when he is at full draw, back tension fully engaged, his front anchor point is the tip of his middle finger in a molar tooth on the side of his cheek and his secondary anchor point is his thumb knuckle lodged at the point of his jaw. Conversely I get my double anchor with middle finger in the corner of my mouth and thumb joint at the point of my jaw. I'm shorter than he by far and his face/head is bigger than mine.
Keep at it and you'll train the muscles to do the work.