for the fellas who have been practicing the first lesson in Hillstyle form are are waiting for lesson 2, here goes....(I decided not to make diagrams, I figured I can spell it out good enough)
If you have been practicing the level shooting form at a backstop around 9 or 10 yards and have been observant of your arrow flight (the oldtimers back in the day really knew their arrow flight inside and out, even to how many feet it took for an arrow to make a complete revolution, but I digress...) If you have been observant, you might have noticed that as your form gets repetitive, and you start shooting without conscious aiming (yet the arrows group in the middle) your arrows are probably grouping higher than your level form would dictate. That is because arrow flight isn't flat. Due to the bending of the arrow shaft sideways and up/down, it recoils from the forces of the string and this recoil launches the arrow upward into a parabolic shaped flight.
if you shoot perfectly level form, at close range you would think that the arrow will hit a point exactly level with your arrow shelf. Not so. ( If you shoot paper tune while shooting level, the tear will show tail high when it is actually the arrow rising in it flight path. If you shoot paper tune while shooting down, you can trick the paper by shooting down at the proper angle so that the arrow tear shows a straight arrow flight....that's why I don't fully believe all paper tuning stuff...but I digress again...)
Anyway, this parabolic arrow flight rises as the arrow leaves the bow, and for most bows shooting matched arrows of around 9 - 10 gpi around 170 to 180 fps, this parabolic flight is extremely consistent. The arrow passes a horizontal point (so many inches off the ground) at around 10 yards, then rises to it's apex around 20 yards, then back down to the same point at 30 yards that it passed at 10 yards before continuing on a descending arc to the ground at somewhere around 50 yards. All this is on flat level ground of course.
So, taking into consideration that most of the bows in Hill's day were shooting arrows in the 170 - 180 fps range, most bows shot a similar trajectory, give or take a few yards. My bows actually shoot about 5 inches higher at 10 yards than level, and pass this same point at around 32 yards, and hit the ground around 55 yards. I'm 6'2" tall. John Turner (of American Leathers) is about 5'8" tall, with level shooting his arrows group at about 47 yards. Each person is different, each bow and arrow setup is different, you have to have fun figuring out your trajectory.
How does this all translate into making you a better shot? Hill said...."what's your arrow doing at 30 yards?" in other words, if you practice good LEVEL form at 10 yards "until it's repetitive and subconsciously done", then you have also subconsciously ingrained the proper form to shoot the same spot at 30 yards without altering anything in your form. Even in his 60's, Hill would go out and shoot anywhere from 50 to 100 arrows just for form. I wonder at what distance he shot form? HHMMM.... What's neat about this, is that if your level form shooting at 10 yards produces an arrow impact point of 60" from the ground, then your arrow will pass through a 'window' approximately 60" off the ground at 30 yards, and then travel on to pass through a 'window' approximately 30 - 40" off the ground at 40 yards, and then hit the ground at 50 yards. So in essence, your "level form shooting" at ten yards becomes so ingrained that you can do it without thinking, it's automatic, and now you automatically are shooting deer height targets at 40 yards without altering anything in your form, and you are shooting rabbit sized targets at 50 yards on the ground without altering anything in your form.
Shazam! Wow!
Now hear Hill..." if your form is right, you won't be too far off at 50 yards".... Did he know what he was talking about or what! Those two quotes from him are gems, mostly lost on the ears of those who think his instructions are not valid today.
Topic: HH bug got me ... Part One! (Read 137744 times)
