These are the basics (others may chime in if I missed anything).
1. Stance - perpendicular to target, recommends bow be held with lower tip between legs rather than to the side to facilitate initial shoulder allignment. Stance is upright with knees not noticeably bent. Turn your head toward the target without moving shoulders.
2. Controlled breathing until distractions are eliminated from your mind, then draw in a breath as you draw the arrow. Hold the breath until the arrow impacts the target.
3. Absolute focus on target until arrow impacts
4. Draw to double anchor, maintaining shoulders perpendicular to target, string on tips of fingers, especially with lightweight target bows.
5. Keep slight bend in bow arm.
6. Hold for at least two seconds
7. Release spontaneously, not planned
8. He feels that followthrough will be automatic if 1-7 are done right.
Rick sets your double anchor such that you reach full draw (your drawing forearm alligns with the arrow). For me, that meant the first anchor is my outer thumb knuckle cocked up a little and touching the bottom of my earlobe and the second is my nose touching the back of the cock feather. For this to work, my fletches had to be re-positioned forward so they are just in front of my nose at full draw. Most people find that their draw length is up to an inch or more longer than it was before the class. Since you are drawing further, and holding longer, this could be a problem if you are near your limits with your heavy weight hunting bow.
Rick recommends 3 under, but will teach split fingers if the student insists.
Rick is not big on arrow tuning in the traditional sense. He watches arrow flight and corrects for obvious wobbles, but he primarily uses nock point and shelf material to fine-tune the point of arrow impact. This can be intimidating if you don't feel your shooting is good enough to be fine-tuned yet, but by the end of his class it generally is.
Because he uses the cock feather as an anchor, the position of the cock feather is critical. He recommends left-wing feathers in order to achieve the optimal cock feather position while still allowing the quills to clear the shelf. For the same reason, he generally uses 4" feathers rather than 5" feathers, even for hunting.
He recommends shooting only one arrow at a time. Never shooting groups except for a brief warmup. Shoot from a different position each time you shoot.
He is only concerned in his class with developing left-right accuracy; vertical accuracy will come from shooting many shots from many different positions.
Rick is a wonderful teacher. One can summarize his method in a few words, but there is no way to duplicate being there as a student.
While there are some things they do differently, I don't believe there is any basic incompatibility between what Rick teaches and what Terry Green teaches. Rick teaches good, basic allingment and form, and Terry sort of takes it to the next level, maintaining that good allignment while rotating the torso to accomodate different hunting situations.
Topic: Cliff Notes on Rick Welch Style? (Read 3849 times)
