Bow arm shoulder alignment

[jonsimoneau]

I think I'm having an alignment problem.  I have heard from many to be sure that your bow arm shoulder is low and back.  Maybe I took this too literally, because a couple years ago I started making sure this was the case, and my shooting has suffered.  I hit to the left all the time.  When I was shooting better, it was almost as if I shifted my bow arm shoulder somewhat to the right (right handed shooter) to get that arm in a straight line.  Tonight I was fighting the shooting left thing again all night.  I went back to doing it the way I used to, and my shooting was better. It also felt better to me.  What is the proper way to position your bow arm shoulder?  I mean, i'm going to do what works best for me, but I wonder why so many people say to keep it down and back.  To me that seems like you are pointing your shoulder left of where you are trying to hig (right hand shooter) and for me that is where my arrow normally goes!  I will try to post some video next week.  I took lessons from Rick Welch in 2006 and was shooting better than I ever had.  Seems like the more I read about how others shoot, I end up trying new things that are not always beneficial to my shooting.

[moebow]

I'd suggest that the "down and back" idea is correct but that is in relation to your body (rib cage).  It should point at the target and not off to the left for a right hander.  What you don't want to do is to "roll" it up and forward.  

You may even want to try an alignment where the string shoulder, bow shoulder and bow wrist form a line that actually crosses the arrow line to the right ( again for a right hander).

[manfromthepast]

I'll be interested to see what the really good shooters say about this. I was experiencing the same thing when I was trying to really get my shoulder down and back just like you are saying  What I found by looking in a mirror is that when my left shoulder is a little too far back, with good back tension and an "explosive" release, my string elbow was coming back like it should and my string hand was ending up brushing my shoulder like it should, but the natural reaction in my bow arm was to pull to the left.  It seems for me there is a fine line between having the bow shoulder properly down and back, and being too far back.

[moebow]

manfromthepast

Sounds like you have it correct.  Ideally, your follow through is a reaction to correct form, not an action you do.  Your bow hand will recoil to the left if your back tension is maintained thought the entire shot.  That left motion is good and happens well after the arrow is out of the bow.

[manfromthepast]

Moebow, I didn't mean to insinuate you are not one of the good shooters whose opinion I'm interested in hearing from on this topic.  We were posting at the same time

[moebow]

Man... Didn't take it that way at all.  I too would like to see some others weigh in on this.

[Ranger B]

Really need to see you shooting to make an honest judgement.  Ideally, yes the shoulder is low.  You can't shrug and shoot.  When I put my bow up into the predraw position one of the things I do is ensure that my shoulder is down and extended.  If I don't, and shrug, my arrows begin falling short because I'm short drawing.  I really make sure I do this on field rounds because that is where I see it most - late in a field round where you have to shoot 112 arrows per round.  As you get tired it begins to come up.  

I don't focus on "back" but rather down and extended.
So what I have seen is guys that are overbowed have a difficult time keeping it down.  The bow is hard to handle and they tire easily.