for the guys interested in shooting a longbow better, here goes....for the old timers who are shooting good as always (Mssrs. Lamb, LeClair, Cameron, etc.)you can skip all this stuff....
This will be a multi-part series, here's part 1:
one of the banes of modern target shooting is the small, portable, foam target/backstop. They are designed for compound shooters mostly. Back in the day, most everyone shot targets at round mat targets, or stacked haybales. Mostly the round targets are set up on stands around 48" to the center of the bull. When people learned to shoot the Hillstyle swing draw back then, they shot at a target that was almost or truely on plane with their shoulders. The 'swing' was a long swing to get the bow up to a level position.
Nowadays, people go buy a foam cube target and shoot at it on the ground. The 'swing' is a much shorter swing to get the bowarm on target. Watching many fellas shoot, I've noticed that the old timers used to shooting level have great follow through and a nice, level bowarm/drawing arm form. Olympic target archers have this same nice form. Backyard shooters tend to have a quicker shot form, sloppier bowarm and dropping arm form, due to the fact they are shooting down at the ground.
This shorter swing time of the bowarm at the lower target position will lead to short drawing and premature release because of the speed at which the shooter is on target and the brain yelling to let go of the string. Also, I've noticed it is difficult to keep a nice level/straight drawing arm in line with the arrow (straight line form) when always shooting down.
We are creatures of habit, so when we practice shooting down at a ground level target all the time, we ingrain that swing draw timing, and it is difficult to shoot at a target that's 3 or 4 feet off the ground where a deer/elk's chest would be because that takes a longer swing, or longer draw timing to get on target.
Lesson 1: get a target set up so that you can shoot absolutely level with your anchor...I'm 74" tall, my anchor point is 64" off the ground, I shoot at a target 64" off the ground also... That's key point number 1. If you are 5'7", your anchor point on your face will be somewhere around 56-57" off the ground. Set up your backstop and target so that the center is that high off the ground.
Start shooting the swing draw while focusing at a spot level with your anchor and shoot over and over at about 10 yards or less. Shoot lots of arrows, lots of arrows until that swing motion is absolutely repetitious and your bowarm, drawing arm/elbow and arrow straight line will be beautiful. One week of shooting 40-50 arrows per day will be a good start.
and have someone photo you or video you and you will notice a nice form like Schulz has in his video, or Hill has in his photos and movies.
Lesson 2 and the reasons why this level shooting is important will be discussed next week.
Topic: HH bug got me ... Part One! (Read 137997 times)
