hyperextending

[nhbuck1]

recently i got in the habit of letting my bow arm lock out before the draw, how do i stop myself from doing this? is there any exercises to do or videos?

[slowbowjoe]

A little bit hard to explain. for me, it was finding the best point of tension in my bow arm (which I reach before locking out my arm) balanced with my string hand/arm (which I reach before over rating my string arm elbow). Balance and tension combined.

This gives me that bit of room for expansion at release, without going BEYOND my correct alignment.

it's a feel thing. Effectiveness is seen in my growing and/or accuracy (I often shoot one arrow at a time),

[nhbuck1]

what do you mean point of tension in bow arm? and balanced ? like when you can feel the tension of it going to the bad and taking the draw back tension? what can locking the bow arm do? can this cause string slap?

[McDave]

Hyperextending means that the elbow joint is bent beyond 180*, in other words, bent a little bit past straight in the wrong direction.  This is fairly common in women and girls.  Although I have yet to see it in a man, I suppose it is possible, and yes, it can cause string slap.  The best cure is to use an arm guard, as it is difficult to hold the arm at exactly 180* if it wants to bend farther.

More likely is that you are rotating the elbow joint such that the inside of the elbow is facing up.  The inside of the elbow should be facing more or less towards you, with the point of the elbow facing away from you.  If you have this problem, try consciously holding your elbow in the correct position until it becomes natural for you.

[nhbuck1]

Every time I lock the elbow I get string slap and torque issues, how can I keep the arm straight but not locked?

[McDave]

As long as you are not actually hyperextending your arm, you need to learn how to keep your fingers relaxed at the same time your arm is straight, whether locked or unlocked.  If your hand is relaxed, you won't torque the bow.

Some people can also learn to shoot successfully with their bow arms slightly bent.  I have tried to get several people who are actually hyperextending their arms to do this, but so far none of them have wanted to and have opted to use an arm guard instead.

Either straight or bent, you have to learn to relax your fingers and hand, both on the bow arm and string arm, to avoid torquing the bow.

[nhbuck1]

if i lock out my bow arm this equals string slap for me

[Draven]

Originally posted by nhbuck1:
Every time I lock the elbow I get string slap and torque issues, how can I keep the arm straight but not locked?

I tried to lock my elbow and I couldn't. To lock a 3 hinges system in place (wrist, elbow joint, shoulder) you must put something off-line, otherwise you can't lock it. Verify if your wrist is not actually pushing your elbow "inside", on the string line. The wrist is the usual culprit for string slapping, not the elbow. Elbow was just pushed in front of the string.

[forestdweller]

The best thing that has worked for me is to deliberately shoot with a strong bend in your bow arm for about a week and gradually let it naturally come back to it's natural position.

I shot hyper extended for a while and switched over to having a lot of bend in my bow arm to get rid of wrist slap.

Naturally my arm would bend less and less each shooting session getting used to not shooting hyper extended and also getting used to zero wrist slap.

It seems like for me at least now my arm naturally goes into a position just short of being hyper extended or "locked out".

Try shooting with a bent arm for a while and see if it works for you, you can do what I did and gradually reduce the amount of bend in your bow arm until you find your natural position.

Sometime's it takes going to the opposite extreme to get rid of these problems.

You never want to lock out your bow arm or even your draw arm since locking out (in particular the elbow) is very bad for your joints as any weight lifter would tell you.