Over the past 7 months I’ve gleaned a lot of great information from the Shooter’s Forum and I‘d really like to say thanks to everyone who has been so gracious to share their time and expertise here to help a whole lot of us to shoot better. I’ve been shooting trad bows instinctively off/on for 42 years but only since discovering this site have I been able to see how far I had yet to go, and to use the info and experts here to make tremendous improvement through the selfless sharing of knowledge.
Here’s where I started when I picked my bows back up in November:
I emailed this link to Terry Green who I then had a phonecon with regarding everything from alignment to back tension to bow arm stability and who set me on the quest to better form and shooting. Thanks Terry!
Over the next several months I tried a mix of Terry’s advice, rereading the form clock thread, reading tips, reading/watching the advice and critiques given here, completely changing my shooting form over the course of all this. By June I was here:
Several folks helped me get to this point…..
Killdeer – who gave me a tip about a high elbow causing ring finger pain. Thanks Killy!
USAFDad – who wrote a tip in a thread to cover my pinky with my thumb in my draw hand and eliminate one of the causes of plucking the string. Thanks Jeff!
DBishop – who I shoot with regularly and who helped me with my bow arm stability among other things. David it’s always great to shoot with you and Thanks!
Raging Water – who I shoot with several times a month and who shot this video. Matt advised me to hold my shot for two seconds after release to check my finish position. It was this advice that made me realize I needed some very serious critiquing and coaching. Matt – you’re always a hoot to shoot with and just be around…Thanks!
Magnus – Over the last 7 months Matt and I have become close friends and arrow building buddies via Trad Gang. Though we live 1100 miles apart Matt has become one of my closest friends and has helped me with a ton of stuff Trad related. He also has a great eye to see what is and isn’t happening form-wise in a video clip of my shooting. Can’t say Thanks enough buddy!
Dan Toelke - who taught me how much more accurate you can be by spining/cutting your arrows at least 1.5" past your draw length.
Bisch - who spent time on the phone with me trying to explain proper back tension after having gone through Rod Jenkins class this summer. Also Kudo's to Rod for his videos and frequent postings in this forum.
At this point I was basically struggling with the same root problems I had always had, but with the help of these folks and many other things I’ve read in the Shooter’s forum, my shooting was getting better. However, I was still just not understanding what good, consistent form felt like on my own.
The time came when I realized if I was going to truly get the form/accuracy I wanted to instill the confidence necessary to return to bowhunting, I needed a coach. Rod Jenkins came to mind, but he’d already made this years trip through Texas. Well, for months I had been watching and trying to learn from Moebow’s youtube videos and his numerous postings here helping others. I had learned a ton, but I realized that there were some basics in my form missing that really needed to be corrected. There’s only so much you can learn by reading and trying……and not getting it right.
I contacted Arne by PM and we began a friendship and mentorship that put me into the proper form finally. Arne is a really detail oriented coach who knows the physiology, and just how to sequence your corrections and improvements. We exchanged videos and emails intensively for 5 days and I can honestly say I never would have thought about the things he taught me, nor the way he taught them to me, but the end result is a much cleaner, more accurate, pain free, and easily repeatable form that really stepped up my accuracy. Here is where he had me at the end of the first day:
What you can’t see in these videos is the rotational draw he was teaching me as a starting point to obtain the proper alignment and back tension. His words describe this accurately….but more on that at the end. Even though I didn’t have everything well in hand at this point, but I could really feel/see improvement and we continued to correspond about all sorts of cause/effect relationships with my shooting results. On day 4 I attended a 3D event and David Bishop took this video:
As you can see my form fell apart somewhat once I stepped off the practice range. I’m not getting proper alignment nor full back tension as once I reached anchor instead of my elbow/shoulder continuing around towards my lower blade muscles, it was moving upwards. I emailed these videos later in the day to Arne and he immediately knew the advice to give me to get the rotational draw to finish in the proper spot, with proper back tension and alignment.
With a few more days work and advice, I have been able to reach what for me is repeatable, accurate form:
Even though things look very mechanical at this point, and I’ve still got quite a ways to go with the “relax the ring finger” release he’s teaching me, I know as I groove this in over the next few weeks doing everything from close target work to 30 yard shooting to adapting to different positions and angles, Arne’s teaching and form will stay with me. He has given me not only the tools to achieve very good accuracy, but to do what I was never able to do……feel and understand proper alignment and form, and diagnose what’s not right when things go astray. Arne – I can’t thank you enough!
In an effort to help others as Arne and others have helped me, I have reorganized the PM’s and emails between Arne and myself into one chronological document for reference. Arne has permitted me to share this coaching exchange with others. If you’re a glutton for punishment, and you’d like to read how Arne walked me down this path to better form, and the understanding of it over the course of approximately a week please email me at
[email protected]
Topic: Acknowledging the help of folks in the Shooter's Forum (Read 1173 times)
