Archery Form Advice

[bowsage1999]

Below I have attached several videos of me shooting my bow. Looking for any and all advice regarding my form. I don't have anyone who can coach me up on it. All of my form has been based off research and from experience shooting compound. In case audio has problems. I am shooting a Samick Sage 50# 62" recurve. I got it on December 19th. I shoot left handed. I am shooting gold tip hunter arrows at 400 grains with 125 grain tips. Standard fletching. Any advice and tips would be appreciated. I have several different views. Side view, behind, and raised in slow motion. I hope you all can watch the videos. Thank you!

[bowsage1999]

[Bowguy67]

Buddy if you’d like pm me. I’ll give you my number.

[Terry Green]

Not too bad Sir.... Check out the form clock thread stickied at the top of this forum. There's a lot of info on there about proper alignment.

Stay after it!

[McDave]

The biggest thing I see that you need to work on is your followthrough.  On release, keep your bow up, your head in place, and follow the path of the arrow by observing it through your sight window until the arrow hits the target.  This should help avoid some of your low misses.

I see a slight torquing of the string.  Pull straight back on the string without any twisting force.  If necessary, start your draw with a slight counter-clockwise twist of your wrist to offset the natural inclination a left handed shooter has to put a clockwise twisting force on the string.  You don't have much left-right deviation in your arrow group, so this is probably not much of a problem, but you could improve this even more if you become more aware of it.

As Terry noted, work on your alignment until it is perfect. 

[bowsage1999]

Thank you for the advice! As I said I am just learning and all of this is very beneficial information

[Lehtis]

Your bow hand seems to drop too fast, the movement starts almost the same time you release the string. Try to keep your hand up; some say: as long as the arrow hits the target. That might be too long but try to hold long enough to allow the arrow pass the bow w/o fear that the movement down affects the arrow leaving the string and bow.

[Bowguy67]

Let’s start at the beginning. It looks like your stance is too closed. The ball of your rear foot should line up with your toes on the front  foot. A slight forward direction your front foot should also point fwd.  We start all shooting with stance. It’s important and shouldn’t be overlooked.
Next thing you need to know is shooting should be done skeletally. You’re shooting off muscle it seems. You’re bow arm appears isn’t locked into your socket. Muscle gets tired and changes things.  T up we say. Also not using back tension, that leads into other issues, If you were applying back tension your fingers would automatically move rearward towards your shoulder. That goes for compound with release as well. In fact compound and trad guys shoot almost the same. There’s very little difference.
Upon release you’re throwing your hand out as noted plucking/torquing string. I see you’re using an arm guard, hitting your arm may be part of your result. Not the only reason but I’d bet a good part of yours.  Back tension shooting would help that throwing hand out thing. With the follow through you also need to remain in your shooting stance as the arrow hits target not collapse, drop your arm, move or fall apart. There’s more but realize none is very far off. Easily fixed. Best not to practice mistakes and develop muscle memory for them. Remember too the difference in compounds is everything they do tries to remove you from the equation. With styks everything you do changes something. Hold an arrow without a bow at full draw aiming at target. Move nock end just 1/4” up, down, left, right. You can see how it’d be really tough even with that slight deviation to put the arrows together. Now add multiple issues all at once, just intensifies things. Let’s help you get all that right so you can enjoy your shooting and be consistent and accurate. We’re glad you’re here and it’s important we help everyone we can.  I left my number on your pm if you’d like some help. 

[F. Dobbs]

Yes, if you study the form clock thread and get properly aligned, all the other issues mentioned will go by the wayside.  Once you learn proper alignment, your stance is of no concern.

[Todd Cook]

I don't see too much wrong except you don't have much of a follow through. And forgive me if I'm wrong but the bow looks a bit heavy for you. But overall not bad at all.

[JC Jr]

I don't shoot well enough to give you much advice; I will mention a couple things.

At 50# @ 28" and a 30" draw, you're shooting closer to 60#.  Way too heavy to learn form and a bad habit creator, IMO.  I'd suggest stop shooting that bow until you can get pair of 25# limbs for it. I know you're a big, strong, young guy, but I've seen too many beginning archers give up on single-string bows because they tried to learn on heavy bows.

If you don't have a coach close by, good video's can be most helpful.  Unfortunately, "good" ones are far and few between.  I think the following one is a good one.

[eagle feather]

Looking good! In my humble opinion, you would benefit from a second anchor point. It's part of having good followthrough. You want your string hand to come straight back and touch your neck or in my case I touch my shoulder. This will help eliminate plucking and help you keep good form through the shot. Also, a second anchor point will help you develop good back tension. 

[Blacktail42]

I think we mean anchor point

[eagle feather]

Ah yes! thank you Blacktail42, Anchor point!